abandoning the use of the words of Allah and His Messenger as evidence concerning matters of knowledge, the pursuit of good, and knowledge of the Divine.

[The Fortieth Argument]

It may be said:

Every rational person knows necessarily that if someone addresses people on medicine, arithmetic, grammar, politics and ethics, astronomy, or any other subject, using words whose importance and significance he greatly magnifies, and claims that through them he has explained, taught, guided and imparted understanding—yet those words neither explain the matters in question nor convey knowledge of what is sought, but instead point more clearly to the opposite of the truth and indicate something other than knowledge—then such a person must be either profoundly ignorant and misguided, or profoundly deceitful, devilish and base.

How much more so if he speaks about divine matters and realities pertaining to the Lord—the loftiest objects of inquiry and the highest aims—in words that he exalts above all other speech and attributes to the Creator of all beings; if he likens those who disagree with him to cattle and counts them among the worst of the ignorant, misguided, unbelieving rabble; yet those words do not indicate the truth concerning divine matters or impart knowledge in such a question, but instead plainly indicate the opposite of truth, knowledge and understanding, conveying the contrary of the monotheism and true understanding favoured by those possessed of certainty? Could such a speaker be anything but utterly ignorant and misguided, or utterly given to falsehood, fabrication and leading others astray?