that can collude in lying can also collude in such denial. It is also possible for such a group to confuse truth with falsehood and thus deny what is true in itself because it is unclear to them, even though it is self-evident to others. For if they are capable of deliberately lying, they are all the more capable of making mistakes.

It is well known that the senses can err and reason can err; thus, a particular group’s senses or reason may be mistaken. When the meanings are subtle and the terms ambiguous, and some have told others that this view is false and constitutes disbelief, they may fail to conceive it correctly, even though others can do so because they are free of desire and of the belief that prevents such understanding.

[Responses to the sixth point in al-Rāzī’s discussion: the first response]

The answer given by one of their adherents, who said:

“This objection does not apply to them, because numbers are mental entities, whereas the discussion concerns external entities.”

[The second response]

It may be said:

The relation of number to what is counted, and of estimation to what is estimated,