interpretation of some of the apparent meanings of the Quran and the transmitted reports. For he has cited no report of consensus on any of the points he mentioned. This, by contrast, is reported as a matter of agreement and denied by no one. Indeed, everyone rejects many interpretations of the apparent meanings of the Quran and the transmitted reports that some people advance, declaring them false, either self-evidently or upon examination. Each of these disputants maintains that reason requires him to adopt the very interpretation that another claims is false.

At this point, those who reject these distortions state the truth, which offers a better explanation than the statements of those speculative theologians. They say: If it is established, by agreement among the various groups, that many of these interpretations are false, and it is also established that whatever someone claims to be true among them is not agreed to be true, but is disputed as either true or false; and if they maintain that reason alone can adjudicate between them, while each claims that reason is on his side, yet reason is not a visible speaker who can adjudicate between them—then settling their dispute is impossible. Their disagreement must likewise persist as an inevitable consequence of the absence of any resolution.

If they certainly hold falsehood, while it is not known whether they hold any truth—or whatever truth one of them holds cannot be distinguished—then their doctrines are of the same kind as those of the Jews and Christians after their alteration. Indeed, what the latter uphold is better than the interpretations advanced by these people, even if they are not