And ⦗28⦘ ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ once stood before us and related the story of creation—from its very beginning until the people of Paradise took up their abodes and the people of Hell took up theirs. Whoever remembered it preserved it, and whoever forgot it, forgot it.” (1) Al-Bukhari narrated this report. (2)
Given this, and together with (3) the fact that he taught them every matter that could profit them in their religion—even the subtlest of things—it is impossible that he would neglect to teach them what they should proclaim with their tongues and affirm with their hearts (4) concerning their Lord and object of worship, the Lord of all worlds. Knowing Him is the pinnacle of all knowledge, worshipping Him the noblest of all aims, and drawing near to Him the ultimate pursuit; indeed, this is the very essence of the prophetic call and the quintessence of the divine message. How could anyone who possesses the slightest trace of faith and wisdom imagine that the Prophet’s clarification of this subject fell short of absolute perfection?
Furthermore, if such clarification did in fact come from him, it is inconceivable that the best of his community and the finest of its generations would then fall short in this matter, adding to it or taking away from it.
It is likewise impossible that the virtuous generations—the generation among whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sent, then those who followed them, and then those who followed them—could have been ignorant (5) of, or silent about, the manifest truth in this respect; for the opposite of that would mean either a total lack of knowledge and utterance, or