Evidence from the fitrah, mentioning those who recanted from among the scholars of kalam to the methodology of the righteous Salaf.
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The Shaykh : As for the fitrah, the fitrah of the human being upon which Allah created the creation, it is clear. When anyone says, "O Lord," what happens? Where does his heart go? Where does his heart go? May Allah help us. Where does his heart go, O people? To the sky? I do not think anyone calls upon Allah and says, "O Lord," while keeping his hands toward the ground. No one says this, neither to the right nor to the left. Everyone says, "O Lord," and his heart feels a necessity to seek the height. This is innate. Therefore, the elderly and the common people, if no one is prepared to mislead them and say that Allah is everywhere, they can never believe that Allah is everywhere, absolutely not. For this reason, Abu al-Ma'ali al-Juwayni (may Allah have mercy on him), who was nicknamed the Imam of the Two Harams, used to affirm and say: "Indeed, Allah the Exalted was, and there was nothing with Him, and He is now upon what He was upon". He affirmed the denial of istiwaa', which is the height. So al-Isfara'ini (may Allah have mercy on him) said to him: "O Shaykh, leave us from mentioning the Throne and the istiwaa' of Allah upon the Throne. What do you say about this necessity? No one has ever known Allah but he found in his heart a necessity to seek the height". He argued against him with what? With the fitrah. So he began to strike his head and say: "Al-Hamdani has confused me, al-Hamdani has confused me, al-Hamdani has confused me". Why? Because he could not deny the fitrah. The fitrah cannot be denied. For this reason, the prominent scholars of kalam returned to the methodology of the people of the Sunnah and the methodology of the Salaf in affirming the attributes. And some of them said: "Here I am, I die upon the belief of my mother", who had not read the science of kalam and did not know the science of kalam.
And al-Razi says, and he is one of the great masters of kalam: he says about himself: "I looked into the sciences in the paths of kalam and the philosophical methodologies, and I did not find them to quench my thirst or cure my illness. And I found the closest path to be the path of the Qur'an. I read in affirmation[Taha 20:5] and I read in negation [Ash-Shuraa 42:11]". Meaning, I affirm what Allah has affirmed and I negate what Allah has negated. And I say that Allah truly istawa' upon the Throne, but there is nothing like Him. "And whoever has experienced what I have experienced". Look at the speech of the great masters, they are great. "Whoever has experienced what I have experienced knows what I know". Then he recited for himself or for another:
"The end of the advance of the intellects is a halt *** And most of the striving of the scholars is misguidance
And our souls are in loneliness from our bodies, *** And the end of our worldly life is harm and calamity.
And we did not benefit from our research throughout our lives *** except that we gathered therein "they say" and "they say"
The man now returned, he returned from the science of kalam and from the saying of those mutakallimun who judge Allah, who judge upon Allah with their minds. And if they had truly returned to the minds, they would have found that their reliance upon the mind is contrary to the mind. And if these people who claim to be intelligent had truly returned to the mind, they would have found that their path is contrary to the mind, because the mind necessitates that in matters of the unseen, we rely upon what? What? Upon the report, upon the hearing, and we do not go beyond them. And if we had returned to the minds, everyone would say, "The mind is with me." And for that reason, you find these people who return to the mind to be contradictory. Some of them obligates what another sees as impossible by the mind, or permissible by the mind. And one of them changes in his books; he obligates in some of his books what he used to deny in the beginning. Because they do not have a straight law. Their minds change, and they are not truly minds, because the mind necessitates that what Allah has informed about Himself, whether affirmation or negation, the obligatory is to believe in it and follow it, affirming what is affirmed and denying and negating what is negated. This is the mind.
And al-Razi says, and he is one of the great masters of kalam: he says about himself: "I looked into the sciences in the paths of kalam and the philosophical methodologies, and I did not find them to quench my thirst or cure my illness. And I found the closest path to be the path of the Qur'an. I read in affirmation
The Most Merciful [who is] above the Throne established.
الرحمن على العرش استوىThere is nothing like unto Him
ليس كمثله شيء"The end of the advance of the intellects is a halt *** And most of the striving of the scholars is misguidance
And our souls are in loneliness from our bodies, *** And the end of our worldly life is harm and calamity.
And we did not benefit from our research throughout our lives *** except that we gathered therein "they say" and "they say"
The man now returned, he returned from the science of kalam and from the saying of those mutakallimun who judge Allah, who judge upon Allah with their minds. And if they had truly returned to the minds, they would have found that their reliance upon the mind is contrary to the mind. And if these people who claim to be intelligent had truly returned to the mind, they would have found that their path is contrary to the mind, because the mind necessitates that in matters of the unseen, we rely upon what? What? Upon the report, upon the hearing, and we do not go beyond them. And if we had returned to the minds, everyone would say, "The mind is with me." And for that reason, you find these people who return to the mind to be contradictory. Some of them obligates what another sees as impossible by the mind, or permissible by the mind. And one of them changes in his books; he obligates in some of his books what he used to deny in the beginning. Because they do not have a straight law. Their minds change, and they are not truly minds, because the mind necessitates that what Allah has informed about Himself, whether affirmation or negation, the obligatory is to believe in it and follow it, affirming what is affirmed and denying and negating what is negated. This is the mind.