their treatment of them that was fuller, more comprehensive, and clearer. Every rational and learned person recognizes this.

As for what cannot be known through reason alone, such as knowledge of divine matters and religious teachings, this belongs exclusively to the followers of revealed religions. Some of this knowledge can be established through rational proofs; the scriptural proofs are derived from the revealed message. The messengers guided people and showed them how reason points to these truths. These proofs are thus both rational and scriptural. An opponent of the Messenger therefore cannot say, “These truths are known only through their reports, so using them to establish the truth of those reports is circular reasoning.” Rather, the reply is that, through their integrity, their guidance, and their explanation of what reason can apprehend, these truths have become known through reason, illustrative examples, and rational analogies. Through this knowledge, the truth of what the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—brought, and the falsity of his opponents’ claims, become known.

(The second category: what can be known only through the reports of the messengers. This can be established in several ways:

One is that the messengers agree in reporting it without any collusion or prior agreement among them. A person giving a report is either truthful, with his report corresponding to what he reports, or he is not. If his report does not correspond to what he reports, he is either deliberately lying or mistaken. If both error and deliberate falsehood are ruled out, his report must necessarily be true.

It is well known that if one person reports an extensive body of knowledge containing numerous details concerning which error on their part is ordinarily impossible, and another had previously reported it, while it is known with certainty that the two did not collude, and it cannot be maintained that falsehood is possible in such a case, their reports yield certain knowledge, even if one does not know