of their necessary consequences remain unknown. Muslims may know that the Lord has power over all things and does whatever He wills, while remaining unaware of many necessary consequences of His power and will. Yet those who adhere to the right path do not deny these consequences simply because they do not know them, for denying them is an error. Not knowing them all, however, is inevitable for everyone. Glory be to Him whose knowledge encompasses all things and who has numbered everything precisely. As for all besides Him:

“They encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills.”

And He, glorified be He,

“knows what is before them and what is behind them, but they cannot encompass Him in knowledge.”

The point, however, is to explain that those who oppose the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—even in a single word must have a corresponding measure of error in what they say. It is also to explain that the rational and revealed proofs transmitted from all the prophets agree with what the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—brought, and contradict the claims of the people of innovation who oppose the Book and the Sunnah.

When they say that reason conflicts with revelation, they err on five fundamental points:

First: sound reason does not contradict revelation.

Second: it agrees with revelation.

Third: what they claim to be a rational argument opposing revelation is not sound.

Fourth: the purported rational argument they put forward against revelation is itself contrary to sound reason.

Fifth: the arguments by which they seek to establish the foundations, such as knowledge of the Creator and His attributes, do not establish them; rather, they contradict their establishment.