He said: “They said to me, ‘Shaykh, we have heard that you possess certain knowledge.’ I answered, ‘Yes.’ They asked, ‘How can you possess certain knowledge when we have been debating from such-and-such a time until such-and-such a time? Whenever he presents a proof—I believe he said, “of the truth of Islam”—I refute it, and whenever I present a proof, he refutes it. We rose without either of us being able to establish a proof against the other.’”

He continued: “I told them, ‘I do not know what you are talking about. I possess certain knowledge.’ They said, ‘Then describe certain knowledge to us.’ I replied, ‘It consists of inward experiences that come upon souls and which they are powerless to repel.’”

This answer accords with their understanding of the definition of necessary knowledge: knowledge that binds the soul of a created being so inescapably that it cannot free itself from it. He thus explained that the certainty we attain is something we experience necessarily: it comes upon our hearts, and we cannot repel it.

He related that they asked him, “What is the way to attain these inward experiences?” He directed them to a path: turning away from worldly distractions and devoting themselves to the prescribed acts of worship and to asceticism.

He said: “Al-Rāzī replied, ‘I cannot do this, for I have many attachments.’ As for the Muʿtazilite, he said, ‘I need these inward experiences, for I have been burned by