true. These are poetic propositions. Others are false but resemble the truth. This counterfeit wisdom is what these people call sophistry. We have discussed this elsewhere.

Thus, the position of these Sumaniyya would be that whatever cannot be perceived by the senses has no reality. A person may know something through his own senses, or through a report from someone who knows it through his senses. This is shown by the fact that these people actually exist: each of them must acknowledge the existence of his parents and grandfather, his own birth, events in his town before his time, and whatever information he needs about people and lands. None of them knows any of these things except through reports, for he does not perceive through his own senses his birth, his father’s having impregnated his mother, or similar things. Those who report them, however, know them through sensory perception.

It is inconceivable that a community could live in this world while denying everything its members do not perceive through their own senses. Indeed, this would mean that they would continually disbelieve one another in their dealings and gatherings. And man