or of water for purification being multiplied, and of drink as well; and likewise to demonstrate the tawātur of each specific category of these signs—such as the mass-transmitted accounts of water gushing from between his blessed fingers, or of a vast multitude being satisfied by a scant amount of food; or even the tawātur of one particular sign within a category—such as the well-known report of the palm-trunk’s moaning for him, and others like it. The more deeply a person reflects on this evidence, compares it with parallel cases, and gives it its due share of examination and proof, the more his knowledge and certainty will grow. He will realize that the clarity of this knowledge surpasses that of everything else people seek to establish through mass-transmitted reports. Indeed, there is no subject in this world whose truth rests on tawātur without the Prophet’s signs and the laws of his religion being manifestly clearer. Concerning any earlier prophet, king, scholar, or venerable shaykh—their states, sayings, deeds, and biographies—knowledge of Muḥammad’s circumstances, peace and blessings be upon him, is more evident than knowledge of theirs. Likewise, of every piece of tawātur-based knowledge available today—such as what the people of al-Shām know about Iraq, Khurasan, India, China, or al-Andalus; what the people of the Maghrib know about al-Shām, Iraq, Khurasan, and India; what the people of Khurasan know about al-Shām, Iraq, and Egypt; what the people of India know about Iraq and al-Shām; and all similar information whereby the inhabitants of one region know the condition of another—none is as clear as a person’s knowledge of the condition of the Muslims across the earth, of the religion they follow, and of what they transmit from their Prophet regarding his signs and his laws.
This makes plain that nothing known through mass-transmitted reports exists whose certainty surpasses the certainty with which the Prophet’s signs and his legal teachings are known through tawātur.