so each group came to deny what it did not fully understand. Matters reached the point where some speculative theologians opposed the philosophers concerning [the celestial spheres] with arguments for which they had no evidence, whether from revelation or reason. They imagined that these arguments defended the revealed Law, even though what they denied was also established by scriptural evidence.
As for the philosophizers and their followers, the most they can do is draw inferences from the sensory phenomena they have observed; they know nothing beyond that. They may know, for example, that rising vapour condenses into clouds, and that when clouds collide, a sound is produced, and similar things. Yet their knowledge of this is like their knowledge that semen enters the womb. What, however, causes semen, whose constituent parts are alike, to give rise to these different organs and their different functions, in this precise and masterful arrangement, whose wisdom and mercy astound the mind?
Likewise, what causes this air or vapour to condense into clouds of a particular measure, at a particular time, over a place specifically assigned to them? What causes rain to fall upon people when they need it, providing them with just as much water as they require—not so much that they perish, nor so little that they suffer want? And what causes water to be driven to barren land that receives no rain, or receives too little to meet its needs, such as the land of Egypt, where a little rain is insufficient, while abundant rain would destroy its buildings? Allah Most High says:
“Have they not seen that We drive water to barren land, bringing forth crops from which their livestock and they themselves eat? Will they not then see?” [al-Sajdah: 27]
The same applies to moving clouds. It is known that every motion is either forced, and thus dependent upon the force that compels it; natural, which occurs only when a natural body departs from its centre and tends to return to it; or volitional, which is the foundation of all motion. Thus, all motions depend upon the volitional motion that proceeds from