among them from the true. When reason considers things that have been made, whose like no creature can produce and which every agent is powerless to make, and establishes—through the sound discernment implanted within it, if Allah wills to guide it—that originated things do not make themselves, it knows that they require a Maker. Yet it does not know who He is before revelation comes. When revelation declares that the Maker is Allah, reason accepts this, understands what revelation conveys, and establishes the truth of the report. It thus knows Allah through revelation, not through reason, for reason alone can never know who the Maker is. At most, it enables discernment, so the possibility remains that inanimate matter produces itself, and it draws conclusions about the unseen from what is observable. As for knowing who the Maker is, that is impossible except through revelation.”

He said:

“The evidence that our method of reflection is sound is that Allah addressed people of reason, commanding them to reflect. He said:

‘So take heed, O people of insight.’

This means those possessed of inner discernment.

He also said:

‘Indeed, in that is a reminder for whoever has a heart.’

That is, reason.

And He said:

‘So that those of understanding may take heed.’

Thus, He commanded them to reflect upon what He had given them the means to consider, and nothing beyond that.

The decisive evidence establishing the truth of what I have stated is that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has withheld from His creatures—the angels brought near to Him, the prophets and messengers, and all other creatures—knowledge of what He is. He has given them no means of knowing His essential nature and no way of comprehending how He is. He is too exalted to be comprehended or encompassed by knowledge, and supremely exalted is He:

‘They do not encompass Him in knowledge.’

He has thus precluded knowledge from encompassing Him, so no one has any means of doing so.