an even more effective path of deception (1) and scheming than the methods of those misguided innovators (2), and were therefore given power over them as punishment for their departure from the religion.

Allah Most High said:

“Why, when a calamity struck you—although you had already inflicted twice as much—did you say, ‘How did this happen?’ Say, ‘It is from yourselves.’”

[Āl Imrān: 165]

He also said (3):

“Indeed, those of you who turned back on the day the two armies met were made to stumble by Satan because of some of what they had earned. Yet Allah has pardoned them. Indeed, Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Forbearing.”

[Āl Imrān: 155]

And He said:

“Whatever befell you on the day the two armies met was by Allah’s permission, and so that He might make evident the believers.”] (4)

[Āl Imrān: 166]

What the Messenger brought, then, is pure truth, corroborated alike by the plain dictates of reason and sound transmitted revelation. As for views contrary to it, although many who espouse them (5) have exercised independent judgment and are forgiven for their error, they have no means (6) of defending those views with proofs grounded in knowledge, nor of answering with knowledge-based responses the objections that undermine them. Sound rational (7) proofs point only to the true position, and sound answers that invalidate (8) an opponent’s argument can invalidate it only when it is false. No sound proof can establish what is false (9), and no sound argument can refute what is true.