Please pay attention to the following points:

Firstly, it is not Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani who does not consider conjecture as proof, rather it is God who does not consider conjecture as proof and explicitly says: ﴿إِنَّ الظَّنَّ لَا يُغْنِي مِنَ الْحَقِّ شَيْئًا﴾[2]; “Indeed, conjecture does not make anything needless from the truth”. Although non-authority of conjecture is one of the rational theorems and God has only reminded it.

Secondly, it is not only Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani who considers the Book of God from the sources of Islam, rather, Thanks be to God, all Muslims consider the Book of God from sources of Islam without any problem and disagreement, to the extent that it is deemed essential and certain for it to be from the sources of Islam, and this is based on the definitive implication of intellect on its issuance from God and its authority on the basis of its miraculous aspects, not that it is based on the consensus of the Muslims.

Thirdly, believing that the Book of God is conjectural and the Sunnah is definite in an absolute way, is nothing but an illusion and such illusion has no basis in intellect and religion; because according to the sense and conscience, implication of many verses of the Quran is more certain than implication of many of the narrations, and this is an objective and visual fact; as an example, implication of the verse ﴿إِنَّ الظَّنَّ لَا يُغْنِي مِنَ الْحَقِّ شَيْئًا﴾[3]; “Indeed, conjecture does not make anything needless from the truth” on non-authority of conjecture, is not conjectural, rather is definite; because regardless of sense and conscience, believing that God’s command about conjecture is conjectural itself, is senseless, rather is unlikely and impossible.

Fourthly, consensus of Muslims on the Book of God being conjectural and the Sunnah being definite in an absolute way, is not provable; since, given the existence of the wise and true scholars among them, it is impossible for all of them to agree on such an illusion which is contrary to conscious and sense; as for example, his honor Allamah Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani may God protect him, is one of these wise men and scholars himself and does not believe in such baseless and unreasonable illusion. Moreover, as he has explained in the book “Return to Islam”[4], consensus is not authoritative and is not achievable except for basic necessities, and assuming that it is proof, it does not work in such principled theorems and only works in subordinate theorems.

As the result, conjecture is not proof, but the decisive verses of the Book of God are not conjectural and holding on to them, contrary to holding on to its ambiguous verses, is not considered following conjecture, rather is following the certainty; as God has strongly and definitively said: ﴿هُوَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ مِنْهُ آيَاتٌ مُحْكَمَاتٌ هُنَّ أُمُّ الْكِتَابِ وَأُخَرُ مُتَشَابِهَاتٌ فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ زَيْغٌ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَابَهَ مِنْهُ ابْتِغَاءَ الْفِتْنَةِ وَابْتِغَاءَ تَأْوِيلِهِ﴾[5]; “It is He Who has sent down to you this Book, some of its verses are absolutely clear which are the core of the Book and other verses are ambiguous, but those in whose hearts is deviation pursue the verses having indistinct meanings, in order to cause turmoil and seeking its wrongful interpretation”; regarding that the ambiguous verses of the Book of God, contrary to its decisive verses, are conjectural and for this reason, it is not permissible to follow them, unlike its decisive verses, except after referring to God and those who are decisively rooted in knowledge to be certain of their interpretation; as God has said: ﴿وَمَا يَعْلَمُ تَأْوِيلَهُ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَالرَّاسِخُونَ فِي الْعِلْمِ﴾[6]; “No one knows their interpretation except God and those who are decisively rooted in knowledge” and it is clear that referring to God is possible through referring to the decisive verses of His book and therefore, it is possible to interpret some of the ambiguous verses of His Book by referring to some of its decisive verses, and referring to those who are decisively rooted in knowledge is possible by referring to themselves or referring to their mutawatir[7] narrations, not by referring to a Wahid[8] narration from them; because their Wahid narration is not enough to become certain about interpretation of the ambiguous verses, rather is enough for conjecture about their interpretation, which is considered conjecture over conjecture and darkness over darkness.

Therefore, the original Book of God, which is the decisive verses, is definite and following it is permissible, rather is obligatory, and some part of the Book of God which is the ambiguous verses, is conjectural and following it is not permissible and is considered due to the illness of the heart, and one should refer to the decisive verses of the Book of God and those who are decisively rooted in knowledge in order to be certain about their interpretation, and this is a rule that also applies to the Sunnah; because some part of the Sunnah is definite, and whenever its issuance from the Prophet is also definite, then following it is permissible, rather is obligatory, and some other part of it is conjectural and following it, even if its issuance from the Prophet is definite, is not permissible and is considered due to the illness of the heart, and one should refer to the decisive part of the Sunnah and those who are decisively rooted in knowledge in order to be certain about its interpretation. This is the religion that God has perfected for His servants and is pleased with it, and Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani calls it “the pure and complete Islam” and invites to it. Is it not really a good thing?! May God grant all Muslims the success to be fair.