puts forward something based on his own opinion calls it “rational arguments,” while another exposes his errors, likewise claims to rely on reason, and presents other arguments that are also mistaken, as has been explained at length elsewhere. This is comparable to someone who argues from transmitted revelation using weak or fabricated hadiths, or authentic texts that do not establish what he seeks to prove.

Many speculative theologians treat the Quran and hadiths as evidence solely on the basis of their being reports. Yet it is well known that such reports yield knowledge only once the truthfulness of the one conveying them has been established. They therefore find themselves compelled to make rational knowledge the foundation, as do Abū al-Ma‘ālī, Abū Hāmid, al-Rāzī, and others.

The leading speculative theologians acknowledge that the Quran sets out rational proofs, as al-Ash‘arī and others mention, along with ‘Abd al-Jabbār ibn Ahmad and other Mu‘tazilites. Yet they sometimes present arguments that they identify as the Quran’s proofs when they are not actually the same. Al-Ash‘arī did this in al-Luma‘ and elsewhere, where he argued from the creation of the human being and cited Allah’s words:

“Have you considered the semen you emit? Is it you who create it, or are We the Creator?”

However, he assumes that the sperm-drop contains enduring substances, and that its transition through