they were perfectly aware of his circumstances and were keen to discredit him. Now, whenever both motive and ability are present, the intended act must ensue; therefore, since their motive was complete yet they still voiced no such censure, it is clear that they were simply powerless to do so. Their inability to criticize him, despite knowing his condition inside and out, is proof that they understood he had not acquired this knowledge from any human being.

Another line of evidence is this: had anything of the sort actually occurred, it would have been one of the most eagerly circulated reports imaginable. Indeed, if his own followers—the believers devoted to him—had discovered it, they would inevitably have spread it and made it public; how much more so his opponents and deniers! People who are scattered and who have not colluded cannot, just as they cannot all agree to invent a deliberate lie, all conspire to conceal something of that magnitude. Even kings and rulers, though they exert themselves to hide the secrets upon which their dominion rests—placing their confidants under oath to keep silent and employing both inducement and intimidation—find that those secrets eventually come to light, just as happened with the Bāṭinite Qarmaṭians, a faction from among