Third Facet:
The Demonstrative Syllogism Fails to Establish the Maker

Universal, all-encompassing propositions do not exist outside the mind as universals; they are universal only in thought, not in external reality. What actually exists is a collection of particular entities, each possessing a distinctive reality that sets it apart from everything else and that no other shares. Consequently, one cannot use syllogistic reasoning to prove the existence of any given, concrete being. The logicians themselves acknowledge this, declaring that the syllogism does not indicate something particular; it only points to what is universal. By “particular” they mean that whose very conception precludes the possibility of anything else sharing in it. Every existent has such a distinctive essence, and the mere act of conceiving that essence rules out any partner in it.

Therefore, syllogism does not yield knowledge of any being in its own right. Yet every existent is, by definition, an individual being; so the syllogism provides no insight into the true realities of things. It merely offers abstract, universal notions that subsist in the mind, not concrete realities found in the external world.

I have discussed this and related matters elsewhere, showing that the so-called syllogistic “proofs” advanced by dialecticians to establish the existence of the Creator—exalted is He—do not, in fact, point to His very Self. At best they indicate some indeterminate, universal concept that, in principle, could apply to more than one entity.

When we say, for example, “This is originated, and every originated thing must have an originator,” or “This is contingent, and every contingent thing must have a necessary being,” the conclusion affirms only an unspecified Originator or an unspecified Necessary Being. Even if one goes on to describe that being as eternal, pre-existent, all-knowing, and so forth, the syllogism still refers merely to a universal entity whose conception does not rule out others sharing its description. The identity of the particular Being is known only through another type of knowledge that God places in the hearts. Logicians themselves concede this, for a conclusion can never exceed the force of its premises, and those premises inevitably include a universal proposition; the universal, by definition, does not single out a particular.

This contrasts sharply with the signs God sets forth in His Book, such as His words:

“Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of night and day … for people who reason.” (Qur’an 3:190)