he brought. He said: “By denial, we mean either denial itself or something necessarily known in the religion to imply denial.”

He then raised the following objection: “Either someone who resorts to interpretation is not counted among those who deny the Messenger’s truthfulness, and only someone who rejects his words—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—without interpretation is counted among them, or someone who resorts to interpretation is also counted among them.

“If the former, it follows that we cannot regard the philosophers as unbelievers for asserting the eternity of the world, denying His—exalted is He—knowledge of particulars, and denying the gathering and resurrection. For they offer interpretations of the texts concerning these matters that are no more far-fetched than your interpretations of the texts concerning anthropomorphism. They interpret the texts concerning His knowledge of particulars to mean that He, exalted is He, knows all particulars in a universal manner, and interpret the texts concerning the gathering and resurrection as referring to the states of the rational soul in its felicity