And another said to the shaykh:

“They said, ‘Bring us proofs,’ and I replied to them …
‘How can any proof establish the Proof?’”

The shaykh versed in spiritual knowledge said to the speculative theologian:

“For us, certainty consists of inward impressions that come upon souls and that souls are powerless to repel.”

The theologian replied that this was immediate, non-inferential knowledge.

Shaykh Ismāʿīl al-Kūrānī said to the shaykh who was a speculative theologian:

“You say that Allah is known through evidence. We say that He made Himself known to us, and so we came to know Him.”

That is, He made Himself known through Himself and through His grace. Nevertheless, the words of these two shaykhs allude to the devotional method, which I have discussed elsewhere.

Thus, if the Truth, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining—who is the Lord and Sovereign of everything, who establishes every foundation and brings about every cause and causal factor—is the Guide and the Proof, the First and the foundation through whom the servant draws inferences, to whom he turns for refuge, and to whom he refers everything that follows in matters of knowledge, then this is the way and path of guidance. Likewise, since Allah is the source of deeds and movements, and to Him they return, whoever relies upon Him in his deeds and declares that there is no might or power except through Allah is strengthened and granted help.

The essence of the matter is that Allah is the Guide and the Helper:

“And sufficient is your Lord as a guide and a helper.”

All knowledge requires guidance, and all action requires strength. Therefore, what is required is