on, because it was obscure to many of those whom they were commanded to call and upon whom they—peace be upon them—were charged with making that obligation binding.

Thus our predecessors—may Allah have mercy on them—and the righteous later generations who followed them led us to hold fast to the Book and the Sunnah, to seek in them the truth concerning all the matters they were called upon to know, and to turn away from everything that contradicted them. This was after they had recognized the truthfulness of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, concerning the knowledge to which he called them: their coming into existence and the existence of the One who brought them into being, as shown by the evidence to which he directed their attention. His prophethood, peace be upon him, had been established for them, and they trusted the truthfulness of what he told them about their Lord, because the evidence had firmly established this for them and reflection had made it clear.

They turned away from the reasoning adopted by the philosophers—and their followers among the Qadariyyah and other adherents of innovation—to establish what they were required to know, since the clear evidence concerning these matters made such reasoning unnecessary for them. Those philosophers who affirmed the temporal origination of the world and the existence of its Originator resorted to reasoning from accidents and substances only because they rejected the messengers and denied the possibility of their coming. And if we have come to know the possibility of