which Satan casts into his mind against his will and uses to torment him, to the point that he may wish for death, or even prefer to be burned rather than experience them. These are the whisperings about which the Companions asked him, saying:

“O Messenger of Allah, one of us finds within himself thoughts such that being burned until he is reduced to charcoal, or falling from the sky to the earth, would be better for him than speaking of them.”

He replied, “That is manifest faith.”

In another narration, they said:

“Thoughts that one of us considers too dreadful to utter.”

He replied, “All praise is due to Allah, who has reduced his scheming to mere whispering.”

He meant that hating and rejecting these whisperings is pure, manifest faith.

[Section]

Know that a person’s knowledge that every originated thing requires an originator, every contingent being requires a necessarily existent being, every needy being requires one who is self-sufficient, every created thing requires a creator, everything known requires someone who knows it, and every effect requires a causal agent—and other such universal propositions and general statements—is universal knowledge of a universal proposition, which is true in itself. Yet he also knows that this particular originated thing requires an originator, and that this particular contingent being requires a necessarily existent being, even though the proposition is particular, specific, and singular. And his knowledge of these particular, specific propositions is not