their own treatment of it, there is a disparity apparent to every fair-minded person of reason? These men did not distinguish themselves in theology, nor has anyone attained distinction by following them in it. Indeed, all nations agree that they went astray in this field, except those who blindly followed them. What is transmitted from them concerning the natural and mathematical sciences, however, is what brought them fame. Were it not for that, they would have had no renown among the nations.

How can a Muslim deem it permissible to say that the scholars whom Allah praised in His Book are the logicians, knowing that the leading figures among the Companions, the Successors, and their followers were certainly intended by this address? Indeed, after the prophets, they are the best of those intended by it. Yet they died before Greek books were ever translated into Arabic. If, instead, he means rational demonstration that is not confined to Greek terminology, these men have no exclusive claim to it. Rather, the Companions and the Successors were incomparably more proficient than they were in rational matters beneficial to theology.

Furthermore, the scholars whom Allah praised are those who testified that there is no god but Him. Everyone familiar with the circumstances of nations knows that the adherents of religious traditions