bound to spread; and even had they conspired to keep it hidden—as the secrets of the covert Bāṭinī dynasties have nevertheless become public—his inner circle would have realised his falsehood, and their awareness of it would have clashed with the faith they secretly professed, as is well known in such situations.

How inconceivable, then, when his closest Companions—the ones who knew his circumstances best—were also the most devoted to him in love and loyalty. This stands in stark contrast to the case of one who secretly harbours the opposite of what he outwardly displays, for the intimates of such a person never hold him in genuine esteem.

People came to know that his own tribe—who opposed him with the utmost hostility and sought to undermine his prophethood by every possible means—were themselves certain that no human being among them was teaching him matters such as these, and that neither in his clan nor in his town was there anyone versed in this knowledge.

Thus mankind realised, just as his people had realised, that Allah alone had informed him of it. This was among his distinctive signs, proofs, and evidences—something Allah makes clear in the Quran as one of His signs. When he disclosed these matters to his people—despite their denial and intense enmity—not a single one of them could say to him: “On the contrary, someone among us already knew this; you knew it too, having learnt it from us or from someone else.” Their very admission of their own ignorance and of his ignorance