—and may fail to hold—the evidence is probabilistic. An example of the first kind is the way created things indicate their Creator—glorified and exalted is He—and His knowledge, power, will, mercy, and wisdom. Their existence necessarily entails His existence and these attributes; their existence without these is impossible. Thus, they cannot exist without indicating them. Another example is the way the Messenger’s report establishes the truth of what he reports from Allah. He speaks only the truth concerning Him, for he is divinely safeguarded in what he reports from Allah: no error whatsoever is allowed to stand in his reports from Him. Such evidence necessarily entails what it indicates, with an entailment that cannot be severed under any circumstances.

This holds whether the evidence that entails the conclusion consists in existence or nonexistence. Evidence may consist in either existence or nonexistence, and either may be used to infer existence or nonexistence. The presence of something is used to infer the absence of its contradictory and its contrary; the absence of its contradictory is used to infer its presence. The presence of that which entails something is used to infer the presence of what it entails, while the absence of what is entailed is used to infer the absence of that which entails it. Indeed, anything used as evidence entails what it indicates. This encompasses everything they have mentioned, as well as what they have not mentioned.

What they call a connected conditional amounts to inferring the presence of the consequent from the presence of the antecedent, and the absence of the antecedent from the absence of the consequent, whether this is expressed in conditional or categorical form. Differences in the wording of evidence do not change its essential nature when its meaning remains the same. The discussion concerns intelligible meanings, not words.

Thus, someone might say:

“If the prayer is valid, then the person praying is in a state of ritual purity”; “If the sun is up, then it is daytime”; “If an agent possesses knowledge and power, then he is alive”; and similar statements.