posing there to be points of similarity and agreement between philosophy and matters of the Qur'an which demand the use of reason (akliyat), externalist scholars explained these verses in terms of the philosophy and adapted them to it. Bediuzzaman then said:

God forbid! For the criterion of the Book of Miraculous Exposition is its miraculousness, Its expounder and commentator are its parts. Its meaning is within it. Its shell, too, is of pearl, not clods. [^329]

[^329]:Ibid., 16-18.

To return to Sünûhat, published in 1919-20, and a piece concerned with the Qur'an and the decline of Islam: entitled, "The Absolute Sovereignty of the Qur'an," it describes what Bediuzzaman considered to be "the most important cause of the Islamic community displaying carelessness and negligence in the precepts of religion."

The gist of his argument is that while it is the sacredness (kudsiyet) of the Qur'an, rather than reasoning, that drives the mass of ordinary believers to conform to the precepts of religion, the way Qur'anic commentaries and books on the Shari'a have developed in the course of time is such that they have come to act as a veil to the Qur'an's sacredness.

Firstly in his argument, Bediuzzaman states that although the fundamentals of belief and pillars of Islam, which are the "personal" property of the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH), which expounds the Qur'an, form ninety per cent of the religion, and controversial matters which are open to interpretation (ijtihad) form only ten per cent, in the course of time the former have been "placed under the patronage" of the latter, have been combined with them, and become subordinate to them.

Then, while "the books of those qualified to interpret the law (mujtahid) should be like means and display the Qur'an as though they were glass; they should neither act on its behalf nor obscure it",  it is on these books that the attention of the mass of believers became focused. They have only thought of the Qur'an in a hazy sort of way. They have read these books in order to understand not what the Qur'an says, but what the authors say. As a result the ordinary believer's conscience "has become accustomed to being indifferent, and has become lifeless and unresponsive." However, he continues:

If the Qur'an had been shown directly in the fundamentals of religion, the mind would have naturally perceived its sacredness, which urges conformity [to the precepts of religion], is the rouser of the conscience, and is [the Qur'an's] inherent property. In this way the heart would have become sen-