covered by a universal proposition entails the conclusion. Such is the nature of universal propositions.

For unless the particular instances of universal propositions are known by means other than analogical reasoning, they can be known only through analogical reasoning. One must therefore know that what is indicated follows necessarily from the evidence, which is the middle term. If this is universal, one must know that every instance of the universal conclusion sought follows necessarily from every instance of the evidence. For example, when it is said:

“Every A is B, and every B is C; therefore every C is A.”

One must know that every instance of C follows necessarily from every instance of B, and that every instance of B follows necessarily from every instance of A. Clearly, knowing that a particular C follows necessarily from a particular B, and that a particular B follows necessarily from a particular A, is closer to our innate disposition than this.

If it is said, “That universal proposition arises in the mind as necessary or self-evident knowledge from the giver of reason,” the reply is: “It is even more natural for that particular proposition to arise in the mind from the giver of reason.”

It is known that every contingent thing other than Allah necessarily entails the very being of the Lord Most High. It cannot exist without the existence of the Lord’s very being—exalted and holy is He. If it also entails universal notions shared between it and other things, that is because its existence entails the existence of its necessary concomitants.

Those shared universals are among the necessary concomitants of the particular. I mean that what belongs specifically to it within that general universal necessarily accompanies it. The shared universal necessarily accompanies it on condition that it exists and that there exists a knower who conceives the common element. He—glory be to Him—knows things as they truly are: He knows His own holy Self in its distinctive reality, and He knows universals as universals. Thus, the existence of the particular entails the existence of the unrestricted universal, just as the existence of this human being entails the existence of humanity and animality. Thus, everything