while abandoning following it, even for following something better than it, is difficult due to attachment and addiction to it, as well as the fear of becoming part of the minority, which generates political and social pressures. In this way, the statements and actions prevalent in society, like a coercive and imperceptible factor, influence its individuals and shape their statements and actions, in such a manner that they perceive these statements and actions as their own. However, these statements and actions do not, in fact, belong to them but to society, and they have played the smallest part in their creation.

[The Invalidity of Consensus]

From here, it is understood that the Jama‘ah, in the sense of the dominant majority of Muslims, cannot serve as a criterion for the truth, and adherence to it is not justified, and its people are not necessarily people of the truth. Therefore, it has been said that the Jama‘ah are the people of the truth, even if they are few. Likewise, consensus, when understood as popularity and not knowing of any opposition, has no basis in Islam and does not establish the truth; because not knowing of any opposition does not mean that there is no opposition, and popularity does not indicate truthfulness. Yes, the definitive agreement of Muslims, based on the impossibility of their settling on falsehood, reveals the truth. However, it is clear that its complete induction is not possible, and its incomplete induction does not lead to certainty. Therefore, justifying the validity of that agreement by relying on its inclusion of the opinion of the Prophet or his rightly guided caliphs—based on the view that their opinion is proof—is also meaningless; because its inclusion of their opinion is certain if its existence itself is certain, while its existence rests on incomplete induction, which is conjectural and, therefore, has no validity in Islam; as Allah Almighty has said: ﴿إِنَّ الظَّنَّ لَا يُغْنِي مِنَ الْحَقِّ شَيْئًا﴾[1]; “Indeed, conjecture is not sufficient for (proving) the truth.”

[The Invalidity of Republicanism]

Similarly, republicanism, in the sense of governance based on the opinion of the majority of people, is unreasonable;