The point here is that the inferential force of a proof lies in knowing that what it establishes follows necessarily from it, whether this is called bringing it to mind, becoming aware of it, or something else. Whenever a person brings this necessary connection to mind, he knows that the proof establishes its conclusion. If this connection is evident to him, that suffices; otherwise, explaining it may require one, two, three, or more premises.

Middle terms vary from person to person. The middle term that entails a judgment for one person need not be the middle term for another; the latter may arrive at a different middle term. The middle term is the proof: it mediates, in knowledge, between what is entailed and what entails it, namely the predicate and the subject. For the predicate necessarily belongs to the subject so long as it is predicated of it. These middle terms—which are proofs—vary and multiply according to the guidance Allah opens up to people. When the middle term is a truthful report, for example, the report received by one person may differ from that received by another.

When the crescent moon is sighted and its sighting confirmed at the ruler’s court, and people disperse and spread the news throughout the town, each group acquires knowledge through reports from informants other than those who informed the other groups. Likewise, the Quran and Sunnah transmitted to people from the Messenger reached each group through intermediaries different from those through whom they reached others, especially in the second and third centuries. One group had its Quran instructors and teachers, and another had its own Quran instructors and teachers. All these were intermediaries: they were the middle terms between those people and knowledge of what the Messenger said and did. They were the ones who directed them to that knowledge through their reports and teaching.

The same applies to things known through reason or sensory perception when someone draws attention to them or guides others to them. As for those who take the middle term concerning necessary attributes to be the intermediary in their actual inherence