that when it comes, they will not believe?”

“And We will turn their hearts and eyes away, just as they did not believe in it the first time, and leave them wandering blindly in their transgression.”

That is: what will make you realize that when it comes, they will not believe in it, and We will turn their hearts away? In other words, they abandon faith, and We turn their hearts away because they did not believe the first time. That is, how do you know that both these things will not happen then?

Whoever understands the meaning of the verse will recognize the error of those who say that anna (“that”) means la‘alla (“perhaps”) and find the reading with an initial a-vowel problematic. Indeed, he will then recognize that it is better than the reading with an initial i-vowel. This is a broad subject.

People fall into three groups regarding this matter: two extremes and a middle course. One group claims that asceticism, purification of the heart, and discipline of the soul alone necessarily produce knowledge, without any other means.

Another group says that these have no effect; rather, knowledge is produced by knowing the scriptural or rational evidence.

The middle course is that these practices are among the greatest aids to attaining knowledge. Indeed, they are a prerequisite for acquiring much knowledge, but they are not sufficient on their own. Something else is indispensable: either knowledge of the evidence in matters that can only be known through it,