would take too long to trace and survey exhaustively. Through these means, they established the reality and existence of the Maker. They then demonstrated His oneness, knowledge, and power through their observation that His acts accord with wisdom, follow regular courses, and proceed in an orderly manner. They then learned His remaining attributes through revelation: from the revealed Book, whose truth had become clear, and from the words of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, whose truthfulness had been established.

Their successors and followers then received from them the religion in its entirety, whole communities transmitting it to whole communities, generation after generation. Those matters conveyed through reports were received through mass transmission and widespread circulation, in a manner that established the proof and left no excuse. The same continued among those who followed them, age after age, down to the last person whom the message reaches and against whom it establishes the proof.

Thus, the reasoning upon which the Muslims relied in this regard was sounder and clearer, and offered a more direct route to its intended goal, since it rested chiefly on matters accessible to sensory perception and on premises of knowledge built