does not depend upon the rational claims that conflict with revelation. Many—including Abū Hāmid, al-Shahrastānī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Rāghib, and others—maintain:

“Knowledge of the Creator is innate and immediate.”

Al-Rāzī, al-Āmidī, and other speculative thinkers concede that knowledge of the Creator may arise without inference. In that case, knowledge that the Creator has power is likewise immediate, as is knowledge of the Messenger’s truthfulness upon the appearance of the miracles that he challenged people to match, but which they were unable to match.

It is well known that the revealed texts abound in affirmations of the Creator’s existence and power and of His Messenger’s truthfulness. They contain nothing that contradicts these rational foundations through which revelation is known to be true. Rather, what revelation contains