and does not err.
(Gifted Knowledge and Its Proof)
People have differed concerning gifted knowledge of the kind a rational person can apprehend through his thought and reach through the proof of rational consideration.
Some have said: when God bestows knowledge of this kind upon someone, He bestows it together with its proof, so that he knows both the proof and what it proves. This is indispensable.
I saw Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Kattani in the city of Fez, an imam among the imams of the Muslims in the principles of religion and jurisprudence, affirm this position.
I said to him, ‘This is your tasting; this is how the Real gave it to you. Your tasting is sound, but your judgment is unsound.’ Rather, He may give someone knowledge attainable only through rational proof without giving him its proof.
He may also give him both the knowledge and its proof, as with Abraham the Intimate Friend. He said, exalted is He: ‘That was Our argument which We gave Abraham against his people’ [al-An‘am 6:83]. This is more complete than the case of one who is given knowledge attainable through proof but is not given the proof.
No one stipulates one particular proof rather than another; he is simply given a proof. The proofs of a single thing may be numerous: some are utterly clear, while others are obscure.
Such is the question raised by Abraham the Intimate Friend concerning bringing the dead to life and causing the living to die, and his turning to the bringing of the sun from the east, asking his opponent to bring it from the west. Both are proofs of the intended point.
(Calling and Presence)
This Pole is among those who call to God by the divine command. His dwelling is in the air, in the open atmosphere, in a house, sitting
