The splitting of the moon was something widely acknowledged among them; the sheer amount of talk, objection, and questioning that would have met any denial of it is proof enough. The dispute and argument that would have ensued are matters even the simplest of men could not overlook.

The same is true of the Qur’an itself. It contains reports about former nations—the story of Adam and Iblis, of Noah and his people and how he addressed them, of ‘Ād, Thamūd, Pharaoh, and others—together with the detailed exchanges that took place among those peoples on specific issues. Such particulars can never be known through conjecture or through the soul’s faculties, which reach knowledge by means of a middle term. The Qur’an also relates precise, itemized news of future events. By their very nature these matters cannot be known except through a messenger who conveys them to mankind; for the human soul, unaided, is incapable of attaining such knowledge. Hence the Almighty says:

“You were not by the side of the Mount when We called out” (28:46);
“Nor were you on the western side [of the Mount]” (28:44);
“Nor were you with them when they resolved their affair together” (12:102);
“Nor were you with them when they cast their lots to see which of them would be the guardian of Mary” (3:44).

In short, these people adopt what Ibn Sīnā states in his al-Ishārāt: that occurrences which break the normal order fall into three categories. Either they arise from celestial causes—by blending the active heavenly forces with the passive earthly ones, and this is what is called talismans; or they arise from lower natural causes, such as the special properties of bodies, and this is what he terms nīrangiyāt; or they arise from psychic causes. On that basis they allege that the miracles of the prophets, the karāmāt granted to the awliyāʾ (saints), and certain kinds of sorcery all come under these three kinds.