religion as they understand it. Thus, they have no means of knowing that the Messenger taught what they regard as the foundation of religion—the religion of the messengers—nor is there any rational evidence for it. Rather, both reason and revelation indicate the contrary. Anyone who does not know whether the Messenger brought the very foundation of his religion, which he regards as the religion of Allah and His Messenger, is among the most misguided people in religious matters.

The twelfth point is that, once they believed this to be the religion of Islam, they began defending it with the rational arguments familiar to them. Their principal and strongest argument rests on the impossibility of a beginningless succession of events. Through it, they sought to establish that everything possessing an attribute originated in time, calling this a proof of the temporal origination of bodies. This committed them to denying the attributes of the Lord, Mighty and Majestic: that He has no knowledge, power, or speech subsisting in Him; rather, His speech is created and separate from Him, as are His pleasure and anger. They also accepted the consequences that Allah will not be seen in the Hereafter and that He is not above the Throne, along with other implications through which they denied what Allah and His Messenger affirmed. In reality, their position amounted to denying the truth of what the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—brought. People of reason then attacked their arguments and exposed their invalidity. This was among the things that empowered the eternalists who maintained that the world is eternal, once they understood the true nature of these people’s position and arguments and forgot its invalidity.

Then, supposing that this was the position of the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and believing it to be false, they said:

“The Messenger did not explain