any argument after the messengers.” He also informed us that He would not punish them before sending His messengers. They knew that they had a Lord and a God, but they denied God’s oneness, the sending of His messengers, and the ordinances of His religion. It was through this that they fell into disbelief.

Their doing so deprives them of knowledge of tawhīd, but does not remove the knowledge they necessarily possess. This knowledge became obligatory through revelation: it is what the messengers made known to us, what He, glorified is He, guided us to and enabled us to attain. Possessing it entails abiding eternally in Paradise, while lacking it entails abiding eternally in the Fire. It is acquired, and its obligation is not established by reason, as the Muʿtazila claim. Their position resembles that of the Brahmins, who claim that reason’s capacity makes the sending of messengers unnecessary. The True One did not say that He would refrain from punishing them until He endowed them with reason. Although reason is a proof, it is an inward one, whereas the messengers are Allah’s outward proof.

One of those who know Allah was asked, “Through what did you know Allah?”

He replied, “Through Allah.”

He was asked, “Then where does reason stand?”

He replied, “Reason is powerless and points to what is powerless.”

It is related in a report that when Allah, glorified is He, created reason and set it before Him—this being the proof cited by those who say, “He is known through reason”—He said to it, “Come forward,” and it came forward. Then He said to it, “Go back,” and it went back. He then said, “By My might and majesty, I have created nothing more honourable to Me than you. Through you I take, through you I give, and through you I am known.”

The opponent seized upon this