the theorists’ inquiry leads, and pointed to proofs beyond what they can deduce. What he prescribed for repelling this whispering is seeking refuge alone; rather, he prescribed faith, seeking refuge, and desisting. There is no way to attain the desired deliverance and happiness except through what he prescribed; there is no other way.

[An Explanation of This in Several Respects: The First]

One may say:

Rational demonstration through which inquiry yields knowledge must ultimately rest on self-evident, innate premises. All knowledge that is not self-evident must ultimately rest on self-evident knowledge. For if inferential premises were always established through further inferential premises, this would entail a circular chain of prior dependencies, or an infinite regress of causes acting upon a subject that has a beginning.

Both are self-evidently invalid, as all rational people agree, for several reasons.

Acquired, inferential knowledge is obtained by examining premises known without such examination. If those premises were themselves inferential, they would depend on others, entailing an infinite regress of inferential knowledge within a human being. Yet a human being comes into existence after not having existed, and the knowledge arising in his heart likewise comes into being. If no knowledge could arise in his heart except after some preceding knowledge, no knowledge could ever arise in his heart in the first place. There must therefore be self-evident first principles of knowledge that Allah initially brings into being in his heart, and the furthest rational demonstration can go is to arrive at them.