then his statement would be rejected as unacceptable, as all rational people agree in comparable cases. Establishing any self-evident premise does not depend on refuting objections to it, nor does reasoning from it depend on that. Indeed, they say that knowing what propositions known with certainty entail—whether self-evident or established through reasoning—does not depend on refuting counterarguments. If it did, no one would know anything, for there is no end to the opposing doubts that may occur to the mind. How, then, could self-evident knowledge require the refutation of counterarguments?

Thus, all rational people whose natural disposition is sound judge according to this self-evident proposition before they even know that anyone denies or disputes it. When told of the deniers’ position, most people of sound natural disposition immediately pronounce them ignorant and unbelievers. Some cannot believe that a rational person would say such a thing, so evident is this proposition to them and so firmly established within them. They therefore regard anyone who disputes it as insane, until they see it in their books or hear it from one of them.

This is why you find that someone who denies this proposition acknowledges it in moments of necessity, disregarding what they have accepted as counterarguments to it. When hardship befalls one of those who deny that Allah is above, he turns his heart upward, supplicating to Allah.

One of these deniers, who was among their shaykhs, once came to me seeking a favour. I was discussing this doctrine with him as though I did not reject it, and I delayed granting his request until he became distressed. He then raised his gaze and his head towards the sky and said:

“O Allah!”

I said to him:

“You are right. To whom are you raising your gaze