Another faction maintains that the temporal origination of the universe is one of these fundamentals, arguing that knowledge of the Maker is impossible unless His origination is first established. They further claim that His origination cannot be proven except by demonstrating that bodies themselves are originated, and that the origination of bodies is known either from the emergence of their attributes or from the actions that inhere in them. Consequently, they turn the denial of the Lord’s actions and attributes into foundational principles without which, they say, prophethood cannot be validated.

These people then refuse to accept arguments from the Quran or the Sunnah that contradict their view, imagining that reason clashes with transmitted revelation—its very source—and therefore must take priority. The textual evidence, they say, must either be re-interpreted or consigned to deferment. Yet, upon closer examination, they do not even accept proof from the Quran and Sunnah when it seems to support their own position, for the reasons already mentioned.

They go astray in several ways:

• First, they suppose that revelation conveys knowledge only through reportage, which is not the case. The Quran itself sets forth rational demonstrations for religious truths with a clarity unmatched by the leading dialecticians; these truths are therefore both scriptural and rational.

• Second, they imagine that the Messenger’s veracity can be known only through the particular path they have laid out. They are certainly mistaken in restricting the verification of his truthfulness to that single route,