they knew of no meaning intended by Allah other than those two interpretations. It cannot, therefore, be that someone who comes after them knows what Allah Most High intended while they did not.

Thus, regarding many or most of the meanings through which they explain and reinterpret the speech of Allah Most High and His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), it is more self-evidently certain that Allah and His Messenger did not intend those meanings than that what he mentioned as contrary to certain apparent meanings must be ruled out.

His own proof is thereby turned most decisively against him. The sixth argument may therefore be stated as follows: all groups agree that many or most of these reinterpretations are false. Indeed, the invalidity of many such interpretations is self-evident to reason. For every group among the various Jahmī groups and others like them—those who distort words from their proper places and deviate concerning Allah’s names and verses, calling this “interpretation”—rejects many of the other groups’ interpretations and declares them false. Thus, the author in question and others like him reject the Mu‘tazilah’s interpretations of the verses and reports describing Allah Most High as possessing knowledge, power, and life