Thus, anyone who claims that establishing the Maker’s existence and affirming the truthfulness of His messengers depends on this method has been shown, by reason, to be mistaken—as anyone can recognize—just as his opposition to the religion of Islam is necessarily known.

For it is necessarily known that the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the Companions, and their followers never called anyone to acknowledge the Creator and His messengers through this method, nor did they present this argument to anyone. Indeed, they themselves did not follow this method in attaining their knowledge, nor did they acquire knowledge through this newly devised, innovated form of reasoning and argumentation, for which Allah has left no need, and whose dispensability has become evident to every rational person.

Recognizing the rational invalidity of this method, however, is subtler than knowing that it is unnecessary. Hence, many people recognize that it is unnecessary before its invalidity becomes apparent to them. Elsewhere, enough has been said about its premises and their invalidity, its proponents’ criticisms of one another, its undermining of its own premises, and the demonstration of its invalidity through clear reason to indicate the point intended.

The purpose here is to draw attention to the fact that knowing that whatever comes into being requires one who brings it into being, and that every effect requires an agent, is necessary, self-evident knowledge. It is clearer and stronger than the argument offered to establish it by al-Qādī and others: that something’s coming into being at one time rather than another must have a determining factor.