If someone were to say, “That comes from others, not from them,” the reply would be:

“Power and will single out events for one set of circumstances rather than another in accordance with His knowledge of the causes that require this determination. At most, this entails that causes connected with His will and power, and requiring such determination, subsist in His essence.”

Or it may be said, “This entails an infinite succession,” and other such familiar objections may be raised. Yet whoever raises them incurs, by refusing to accept these implications, greater contradictions than those he attributes to his opponent. His opponent, by contrast, can accept them without his position involving any contradiction, whether in reason or revelation.

Sound practice in debate and instruction, however, requires explaining to someone who rejects a position what he himself must accept if he rejects it. Likewise, someone who seeks to establish the truth through a false proposition should be shown that he can dispense with that proposition and establish the truth without it. If he establishes it by that route, the implications that contradict and invalidate his position are greater than those he would face if he abandoned it.

This and similar considerations make clear that no one has ever followed a path contrary to the Sunnah to establish any fundamental of faith without Allah having provided an alternative free of its defects. Even if the subtlety of that path’s flaws makes them difficult for most people to discern, they can still readily see that it is possible to dispense with it.

We often seek to explain that the methods whose adherents have thereby contradicted some of the scriptural texts are unnecessary and can be dispensed with, so that it becomes clear that knowledge of the truthfulness of