those who supplicate intended, by raising their hands, their eyes, and so forth, merely to face some created thing, such as the Throne or the sky, rather than directing this upward gesture toward the Creator, Most High, they would do so only on the basis of revealed instruction and transmitted teaching. Yet it is well known that they do this through their innate nature and reason, without anyone instructing them to do so or their learning it from anyone.

The eighth argument, which is the seventeenth: People find within themselves no inclination that requires one particular qiblah to be designated, nor any distinction between one qiblah and another. Thus, when the Muslims were commanded to face al-Masjid al-Aqsā and were then commanded to face al-Masjid al-Harām, they regarded both as entirely acceptable. The believers felt no unease about this and made no distinction between the two. If raising their hands and turning toward the sky were merely because it was a qiblah, this would be no different for people, believers and unbelievers alike, from turning to the right or left, or toward what is below or behind. Yet it is well known that they find within themselves an inescapable impulse to seek what is above. This immediate knowledge and inescapable impulse they experience to seek what is above rather than what is below rules out its being a conventionally designated qiblah. Rather, it entails that the One sought and invoked is there, as they also inwardly recognize and verbally acknowledge.

The ninth argument, which is the eighteenth: He has acknowledged in