—and that report spread far and wide, becoming manifest and well-known through many channels.

The Book that was revealed to him is itself filled with earlier scriptures testifying in his favor; and in the extant scriptures there are numerous passages that bear witness to him from a variety of angles. Reports transmitted on the authority of those who embraced Islam for that very reason are mass-narrated, and this makes it certain that he is mentioned in those scriptures in a manner that proves the truth of his claim to prophethood. Nowhere do they state that he is a liar or warn people against him—and that is precisely the point at issue.

Taken as a whole, his affair is the most evident, the most celebrated, the most astonishing, the most dazzling, and the most extraordinary event ever witnessed among human beings. If a man of such stature were lying, his lie would necessarily entail countless consequences—before, during, and after his mission—that defy enumeration. Even someone who makes a far lesser claim, were he lying, would inevitably display signs that expose his falsehood; how much more so a man like this! Thus, when the necessary consequences of lying are absent, the lying itself is ruled out.

Conversely, his truthfulness is necessarily entailed by many things, all of which testify to his veracity; once the root is established, every branch—past, present, and future—must likewise be established. Anyone who claims prophethood must be either truthful or false, and each alternative has its own essential indicators and necessary consequences: the proofs of truth lead inevitably to truth, and the proofs of falsehood lead inevitably to falsehood; truth has its tell-tale signs, and falsehood has its tell-tale signs.

Accordingly, his truthfulness is recognized in two ways: (1) by the presence of evidences that necessarily entail his being truthful, and (2) by the absence of the concomitants of falsehood, whose disappearance implies the disappearance of falsehood—just as the liar’s deceit is recognized by the evidence that proves his deceit.