in argument against them. This was an error in judgment, a defect in their reasoning, and a deception of Satan. Allah is the One whose help is sought.

If these people say, “You have rejected speculative theology and forbidden the use of rational proofs. On what, then, do you rely to establish the soundness of the foundations of your religion? By what means do you come to know their realities? You know that the truth of the Book and the truthfulness of the Prophet can be established only through rational proofs, yet you have rejected them!”

We reply: “We do not reject rational proofs or their use in attaining knowledge. However, in employing them, we do not follow your method of arguing from accidents, their inherence in substances, and their transformations within them to establish that the world came into existence and that the Maker exists. We turn away from that method in favour of one that is clearer in its exposition and more evident in its proof. Yours is merely something you have borrowed from