the gravest forms of sophistry and unsound reasoning.

Third: Among those who agree on this are the prophets—may Allah’s blessings be upon them all—for it is established through mass transmission that they raised their hands in supplication. If this were based on a corrupt habit rooted in a false belief, the prophets would have endorsed people’s corrupt religion and false belief concerning Allah Most High. This is among the gravest forms of disbelief.

Fourth: Challenging this necessarily entails challenging all knowledge and understanding. For if it is possible that all people are mistaken concerning this knowledge and intent that arise necessarily in their hearts, then other necessary knowledge is even more open to challenge. This would invalidate everything the speculative theologians say in challenging this and defending its opposite, since the most they can do is base their arguments on self-evident premises.

The twenty-second argument: We do not concede that the reason people point upwards is what he has mentioned. He has offered no proof for this, but merely made an unsupported assertion, saying: “The reason for this is familiarity and habit. For they have never observed a knowing, powerful, living being except as a body. Thus the imagination readily conceives of the knowing, powerful, living being one invokes on the model of the living beings one observes