of having the Lord’s intended meaning understood with certainty than the speech of anyone else. The meanings of this speech are established through mass transmission and known with immediate certainty to an even greater degree than its wording.

All Muslims know with immediate certainty that Allah Most High has commanded washing the face and hands and wiping the head in ablution, bathing after major ritual impurity, and performing dry ablution. They likewise know that Allah Most High has commanded praying toward the Kaaba, making pilgrimage to the House in Mecca, circumambulating it, standing at Arafāt, fasting during Ramadan, and abstaining from food, drink, and sexual intercourse while fasting. They know other meanings conveyed by the Quran in the same way, although most of them have not memorized its wording. Thus, the meanings conveyed by its words are known to them with immediate certainty through mass transmission, more firmly than they know the wording that expresses those meanings.

For this, they need neither transmitted accounts of linguistic usage nor to rule out countervailing evidence. Rather, the matter depends on a single premise: knowing the speaker’s intended meaning. This may be known with immediate certainty, or through conclusive evidence, or it may be conjectural. Likewise, much or most of what the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has reported concerning the Lord’s names and attributes and the Last Day is known to the Muslim community with immediate certainty through mass transmission