a proof is that which entails the judgment it establishes, as explained earlier. Since the first term entails the middle term, and the middle term entails the third, it follows that the first entails the third.

For an antecedent of an antecedent is itself an antecedent, and a consequence of a consequence is itself a consequence. The judgment is thus a necessary consequence of the proof, but this necessary connection is known only through a middle term between them. The middle term is what follows the words “because.” This is something the logicians themselves have mentioned. Ibn Sīnā and others discussed the inseparable attributes of a subject, explaining that some are self-evidently inseparable. On this basis, they refuted those among their own school who distinguished an essential attribute from a necessary concomitant of the essence by saying that the latter requires a middle term, whereas the former does not. They replied that many inseparable attributes require no middle term: namely, those whose necessary connection is self-evident. For these logicians, the middle term is the proof.

Some people, however, have supposed that the middle term is something that actually stands between an immediate consequence and a remote consequence. This is mistaken. Nevertheless, it becomes clear that the intended conclusion follows on either understanding. We say: if some necessary consequences are so self-evidently connected to their antecedents that no intervening proof is needed, then merely conceiving such a consequence and its antecedent suffices to know that it holds of that antecedent. If there is a middle term between them, and both its necessary connection to the first antecedent and the second term’s necessary connection to it are self-evident, no further middle term is required. If either of the two antecedents is not self-evident, a middle term is needed; if neither is self-evident, two middle terms are needed. This middle term is a term for which a single premise suffices. Thus, if someone asks for proof that intoxicating fermented drink is forbidden, he is told that it is because the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is authentically reported to have said: