and forbidden the use of rational proofs. On what, then, do you rely to establish the truth of the fundamental principles of your religion, and by what means do you come to know their truth? You know that the truth of the Scripture has been known, and the truthfulness of the Messenger established, only through rational proofs—yet you have rejected them?’”

Abū Sulaymān said:
“Our reply is that we do not reject rational proofs or their use in attaining knowledge. However, in employing them, we do not follow your method of arguing from accidents, their inherence in substances, and their changes within them to establish that the world had a beginning and that its Maker exists. We turn away from this method toward what is clearer in its exposition and sounder in its proof. Yours is merely something you took from the philosophers and followed them in adopting.

The philosophers pursued this method only because they do not affirm prophethood or regard it as real. Thus, what they considered the strongest evidence for establishing these matters was the argument they relied upon, based on these things. As for those who affirm prophethood, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has rendered them free of any need for this and spared them the burden of embarking on this tortuous path, on which no traveler can be sure of avoiding hardship,