As for attaining certain knowledge that a particular cause is decisive, the Sacred Law provides routes to it just as the natural order does—one of them being knowledge that comes of sheer necessity. When, during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), people were afflicted with extreme thirst and hunger, he on more than one occasion took a small amount of water, placed his noble hand in it, whereupon water gushed forth between his fingers; he also put his blessed hand into food, invoked blessing upon it, and it increased far beyond what custom allows. Observing this specific conjunction yields self-evident knowledge that the abundance of water and food was brought about through him, just as one knows—without reflection—that when a man is struck a severe blow with a sword, falls, and dies, his death resulted from that blow. Indeed, the former is even more certain, for knowing that no customary cause could have produced such an increase, together with witnessing the correlation itself, produces indisputable knowledge of the fact.

Likewise, when he prayed for Anas ibn Mālik, “O Allah, increase his wealth and his children,” Anas’s date-palms bore fruit twice in a single year—contrary to the practice of that land—and he lived to see more than one hundred of his children and grandchildren. An event of this kind is therefore known to have occurred by virtue of that supplication.