his thought and expression would resemble theirs. They find their readiest acceptance among those who do not understand what they say and esteem them out of ignorance and delusion, or who understand some, most, or all of what they say, yet at that point have no conception of the true nature of what the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, brought, of what sound reason recognizes, or of what other rational thinkers have said in contradiction to their claims. Such a person has reached the culmination of their teachings only through toil and hardship, coupled with a favorable opinion of them, and has consequently become embroiled in their errors to an extent known only to Allah. Thereafter, unless Allah comes to his rescue—as happened to many learned men who initially thought well of them, but then discovered enough of their error to turn away from them, disavow them, and even refute them—he remains among the misguided.
Their error in matters of divinity is apparent to most people. Hence Muslim scholars versed in rational inquiry have, without exception, declared them unbelievers on that account. It is only in logic that some people have become confused, having failed to grasp its realities and implications or to learn what other rational thinkers have said about their contradictions in it. Moreover, it happens to contain some self-evident matters, such as the first figure of the syllogism. These people do not realize that whatever truth it contains can be known without recourse to the logicians. Rather, the logicians have lengthened the path, taken a rugged and narrow route, and failed to find their way to what yields a sound understanding.
The purpose here is not to explain their errors in what they affirm, but their errors in what they deny: they claim that inferential knowledge can be attained only through their demonstration, which is a form of syllogism.
They divided arguments into “three” kinds: syllogism, induction, and analogy. They claimed that analogy does not yield certainty, and that certainty is yielded only by a syllogism whose premises consist