concerning the religion of God by conjecture speaks against God that which he does not know. And God, majestic is His praise, has forbidden that in His Book to His servants, saying: {Say, "My Lord has only forbidden immoralities, what is apparent of them and what is concealed, and sin, and oppression without right, and that you associate with God that for which He has not sent down authority, and that you say about God that which you do not know."} [Sūrat al-Aʿrāf: 33]. So he who speaks concerning the Interpretation of the Book of God—whose knowledge cannot be attained except through the clarification of the Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, to whom God entrusted its clarification—speaks without knowledge, even if his statement in its Interpretation happens to agree with what God intended by its meaning. For the one who speaks concerning it without knowledge is speaking against God that which he has no knowledge of. And this is the meaning of the report which:
80 - Al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-ʿAnbarī narrated to us, he said: Ḥabbān ibn Hilāl narrated to us, he said: Suhayl, brother of Ḥazm, narrated to us, he said: Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī narrated to us (1), from Jundub: That the Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, said: "Whoever speaks concerning the Qur'an according to his personal opinion and hits upon the truth, has nonetheless erred." (2)
He, peace and blessings of God be upon him, means that he erred in his action, by speaking concerning it according to his personal opinion, even if his statement happened to coincide with the exact truth according to God. Because his statement concerning it by his personal opinion is not the statement of a scholar who knows that what he said is true and correct. Thus, he is speaking against God that which he does not know, sinning by doing that which he was forbidden from and prohibited to do.
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