Likewise the inebriated person—and anyone else whose intellect is momentarily weakened—perceives certain things through either his inner or outer senses. Yet because his reason is impaired at the very moment those impressions arrive, he cannot grasp their true nature. When his rational faculty returns, he realizes that what he had witnessed existed only within himself and his imagination, not outside of him.

Therefore, anyone who reports something that contradicts sound transmitted evidence or clear rational proof is known to have erred. He may well be truthful about what he perceived with his inner or outward sense, yet the mistake lies in his faulty inference, which clashes with plain reason, not in the bare sensory perception itself—for the senses alone convey no judgment of affirmation or negation.

When someone sees a figure, all that the senses deliver is the act of seeing. Determining whether the figure is Zayd or ʿAmr requires an intellect capable of distinguishing one from the other. For this reason, a small child, a madman, an animal, a drunkard, a sleeper, and their like all possess sensation, but, lacking reason, they cannot discern whether the object perceived is this or that; indeed, they may form judgments that do not correspond to reality.

The Exalted said:
“As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are like a mirage in a desert lowland: the thirsty man thinks it to be water, until, when he comes to it—” (Quran 24:39)