the Quran from the imams during prayer and from teachers in the schools. Religion thus takes firm hold in their hearts, and they believe in its goodness and truth on the authority of others, benefiting from this and contenting themselves with it. Since the religion of Islam is assuredly true and acknowledged to excel every other religion, every adherent must ground his belief in it in reflection and inference, so that his knowledge of it may be sounder and his confidence in it stronger. Allah Most High has established proofs, thereby removing all excuse; He has made them varied and numerous. Despite their differing degrees of clarity and obscurity, they are available for drawing inferences and adducing evidence. Every person endowed with reason can draw inferences from their plainest forms and find supporting evidence in their clearest manifestations, even if his understanding falls short of their subtler and finer aspects. Everyone must therefore exert himself to the utmost in this and strive as far as he can to comprehend it, for Allah Most High says:

“As for those who strive for Our sake, We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with those who do good. (69)” [al-ʿAnkabūt: 69].

Among the clearest proofs leading to knowledge of Allah, glorified and exalted is He, and showing that creation has a Maker and Director, is that when a person reflects upon himself, he sees that he is governed and made to pass through various states: he was a drop of fluid, then a clinging clot, then a lump of flesh, then bones and flesh. He thus knows that he does not bring himself from a state of deficiency to a state of completeness, for even in his superior condition—when his intellect is fully developed and he has attained his full strength—he cannot bring a single bodily organ into being, nor is he able to