statement. The remainder of the report reads:

“It remained speechless, so He anointed its eyes with the light of might, and it said, ‘You are Allah; there is no god but You.’”

Thus reason knew Allah only through Allah.

If Allah’s oneness is known through reason, how is it that Allah reports the following words of Quraysh, despite their possessing reason:

“Has he made the gods into one God? Indeed, this is an astonishing thing!”

If they possessed no reason, no proof could stand against them; but if they possessed reason, their reason did not avail them.

He, glorified is He, also said:

“And We gave them hearing, sight and hearts, but neither their hearing nor their sight availed them”—to the end of the verse.

He also tells us that they will say in the Fire:

“If only we had listened or reasoned, we would not be among the companions of the Blaze.”

There is no dispute that they possessed hearing but did not listen with it. Likewise, they possessed reason, but it did not avail them, and they did not use it. It therefore did not benefit them while they rejected the messengers. The coming of the messengers establishes religious accountability, while reason provides a conception of it once divine enabling has been granted. Reason has no part in the forms of knowledge mentioned earlier, although it does have a part here. The messengers are the foundation, and reason follows them.

Reason does, however, have a substantial role in attaining further knowledge, as does knowledge itself. Knowledge is Allah’s clarification, and reason is Allah’s proof, while the messengers are the outward proof: they convey from Allah what He intends, communicate His command, and call people to His path.

Since there is no means of reaching Him, glorified is He, no intellect can encompass Him, and we lack the capacity to hear His speech, messengers had to be sent so that through them we might learn what the Lord requires of us.