except in accordance with the truth, and that it is guidance, clarification, and healing. If any of them failed to understand some part of it, he recognized that this arose from a deficiency in his own understanding and knowledge, not from any deficiency in what the Quran conveys. They did not make their faith in what the Quran conveys conditional upon disproving opposing arguments. Rather, they were certain that no truth contradicts it and that whatever contradicts it is false—like the specious arguments with which the Sophists and the Qarmatians challenge rational and revealed proofs.

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade them to set parts of the Quran against one another. It is therefore impermissible to oppose one verse to another, affirming the meaning of one but not the other. Rather, one must believe in it all. What, then, of someone who opposes it with another book? And what of someone who opposes all the prophets and the Books sent down from heaven with something that no revealed Book has ever taught? Such a person resembles those who dispute Allah’s signs without authority, and those who argue with falsehood to refute the truth. These people are akin to the polytheists who deny the messengers and who, in this respect, are more deeply steeped in disbelief than the Jews and Christians.