The twenty-fourth argument: It may be said that this act involves three things: the raising involved in the outward physical gesture; the intention and will within the heart, by which one turns toward the Self-Sufficient, the Most High; and the belief underlying that intention, which in turn underlies the act. Every voluntary act necessarily involves will and awareness. You claim that all three are unsound, and that the will underlying this act is caused by a mental image that does not correspond to reality.

The response to you is this: Were that the case, forbidding it would be among the greatest religious obligations, since it would be among the gravest wrongs, involving an unsound belief concerning Allah Most High, unsound supplication directed to Him, and improper worship of Him. Yet it is well known that Allah sent all the prophets, from the first to the last, as bearers of glad tidings and warnings, and none of the prophets and messengers ever forbade humanity any of these things: neither this raising, nor this intention, nor this belief. Rather, the prophets concurred with them in this practice.

It therefore follows, as a matter necessarily known from the religion of the prophets, that they regarded this not as wrong, but as right. This disproves the claim that it is founded upon an unsound belief concerning Allah Most High, entails such a belief, and points to it; for