the prophets and the earliest generations, were merely persuasive arguments? Rather, he meant persuasive arguments concerning the purposes underlying His actions.
He called them persuasive arguments because this is the extent of the knowledge attained by people like him, and the limit of their understanding in this matter.
As for the prophets, peace be upon them, and the earliest generations, may Allah be pleased with them, Allah Most High disclosed to them aspects of His wisdom in His creation and commands that He did not disclose to him or others like him. These people, however, lack sufficient familiarity with the true circumstances of the prophets and the Companions to know how far they attained in these lofty pursuits. Likewise, their own understanding of these great questions has not enabled them to reach their fullest depth. Yet they know that the prophets are the best of creation, and that the Companions are the best of creation after them. They therefore believe that they attained the utmost that created beings can attain in these matters.
Then, when their own investigations—despite their exceptional intelligence—took them no further than this, they supposed that nothing lay beyond their own attainment, and thus said what they said.
So it is with every group that follows a path and reaches what it considers the utmost limit attainable by created beings: it judges that everyone it venerates must have reached precisely that limit. We have observed this among a group of philosophers. Believing that the philosophers’ position represented the highest knowledge attainable by rational people, whenever they encountered someone whose conduct demonstrated the perfection of his intellect, the greatness of his knowledge and merit, and his true understanding of their positions, they would take his position to be …
“…from him, and we have seen statements of his that contradict the philosophers’ position.”
That learned philosopher says:
“By Allah, this man has understood the true nature of our position. Anyone who understands its true nature would not depart from it unless there were something higher than it.”
Then