Their “comprehensive” syllogism may, on occasion, even be the easier route, for knowledge of particulars can sometimes be clearer than knowledge of universals—a point discussed at length elsewhere.

In truth, their logic offers nothing more than the outward form of an argument, without demonstrating whether that argument is sound or unsound.

The issue before us is that what we seek is knowledge, and the avenue to knowledge is proof. Whoever understands the proof that leads to his desired conclusion has reached that conclusion, whether or not he casts it in their syllogistic mold. Whoever does not grasp the proof will gain nothing from their syllogism. Nor should anyone claim that their system enables one to distinguish sound proofs from unsound ones; only someone ignorant of its reality would say so. Their logic provides only the skeletal pattern of an argument. Whether a particular proof truly entails its conclusion is something their method neither negates nor affirms; that depends entirely on one’s grasp of the premises contained in the argument. Their logic offers no verification of the truth or falsehood of those premises. They address this only when speaking of the “matter” of the syllogism—that is, the premises themselves and whether they correspond to reality—but their treatment there is riddled with errors, as has been pointed out elsewhere.

The decisive element in every proof is entailment.

What we mean is that the essence of every demonstration and proof in existence is the necessary connection between two things. Once a person knows that one thing necessarily follows from another, he may reason from the antecedent to the consequent—even if he never utters the word “entailment” or ponders its technical definition. Anyone who understands, for example, that such-and-such cannot exist without such-and-such, or that whenever such-and-such exists such-and-such must also exist, has grasped entailment. In the same way, one recognizes that everything in existence is a sign of Allah, for every created thing depends upon Him and cannot dispense with Him; therefore the existence of the world entails the existence of its Maker.

Likewise, one knows that whatever is originated must have an originator, as the Most High says:

“Were they created out of nothing, or are they themselves the creators?” (Qur’an 52:35).

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs it is narrated from Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim (may Allah be pleased with him) that when he came to ransom the prisoners of Badr, he heard the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—reciting Sūrat al-Ṭūr during the Maghrib prayer. He said, “When I heard him recite: ‘Were they created out of nothing, or are they themselves the creators?’ …”