in a universal manner,” amounts to saying that He knows neither Himself nor anything that exists.

Yet they say that He is their originator and the cause of their existence, and that knowledge of the cause entails knowledge of the effect. This assertion of theirs therefore entails that He knows Himself and every existing thing, which contradicts their other assertion. This is discussed at length elsewhere.

This man—I mean Ibn Rushd—sought to reconcile this position of theirs with His knowledge of particulars, but advanced a view whose confusion and contradictions are explained elsewhere.

The purpose here is to mention the arguments with which he refuted those theologians who claim that their rational arguments conflict with the Quran and Sunnah. He, too, has rational arguments which he claims contradict them at an underlying level, but these are likewise refuted by sound reason.

Anyone familiar with the arguments these thinkers direct against one another will recognize the invalidity of everything each group advances against the prophetic texts. No purported rational objection to those texts has gone unrefuted by rational thinkers in a manner that exposes its invalidity:

“Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Might, above what they ascribe to Him! And peace be upon the messengers. And all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.”
Al-Sāffāt, 180–182.

Ibn Rushd said:

“The best course is to say to any member of the general public who has reached this