matters, with a member of the People of the Scripture being the respondent; and just as, in our own times, if certain people were to question a Muslim about those very issues—or about any other reports of the unseen that only a prophet could know—his answer would not prove that he himself is a prophet, for he might simply have learnt it from the prophets of old.

This shows that what they meant by the words, “No one knows it except a prophet,” is that no one knows it in the first place, without being taught by any human being, save a prophet. It also demonstrates that both the idolaters and the People of the Scripture were unanimously agreed that he had not taken such knowledge from anyone, despite how widely news of him had spread, how familiar his own people were with his private affairs, and the certainty that—had such learning existed—it would have come to light. Furthermore, had they considered it even remotely possible that he might have acquired the information secretly from someone, they could never have used it as evidence of his prophethood. This proves that they were absolutely certain he had not learnt it from any human being, whether in secret or openly. Such clear reasoning confirms, along with the other arguments mentioned here, that he did not receive this knowledge from any human source.