a consensus of adherents of religious communities in many passages, is reported by them on the basis of what they believe their positions necessarily entail. Many of the consensuses reported by speculative theologians are of this kind. One of them may believe that the truth of Islam can be established only through that particular proof. Knowing that Muslims agree on the truth of Islam, they then report a consensus on what they suppose to be its necessary implications. Likewise, they report a consensus on premises whose truth they believe is necessarily entailed by the truth of Islam, and is a necessary consequence of it. Or they may know of only two or three positions among Muslims and thus report a consensus excluding all others. For many of these purported consensuses, they have no transmitted statement from any Companion or Successor, any imam of the Muslims, or even any renowned scholar held in high esteem within the Muslim community. Nor is there any verse in Allah’s Book or any hadith from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, supporting them. Nevertheless, they believe these matters to be among the foundations of religion, without which a person cannot be a believer, or the religion of Islam cannot be complete, and so forth.

This man and other speculative theologians like him, believing that knowledge of the Creator’s existence and the Messenger’s truthfulness depends on this proof, began attributing it to all religious communities and all followers of the prophets. Yet he cannot transmit it from a single scholar—not from the Companions, nor from the Successors, nor