Do the texts of revelation yield certainty?

Among the "four idols" that Ibn al-Qayyim made the aim of his al-Sawa'iq al-Mursala is the theologians' claim that the words of God and His Messenger are verbal proofs yielding neither knowledge nor certainty; he answered it in seventy-three aspects. ^{1 2}

Ibn al-Qayyim opens the discussion of this idol by quoting "their theologian" – al-Razi, at the start of the Muhassal: verbal proof gives certainty only when ten things are certain – the reliability of the transmitters of the single words, their inflection and morphology, the absence of ambiguity, figurative use and transfer of meaning, specification by persons and times, the absence of ellipsis, transposition and abrogation, and the absence of a rational objection which, if it existed, would prevail; "if the premises are probable, what do you think of the conclusion?" ³ Muhammad Rashad Salim quotes the same passage from Muhassal Afkar al-Mutaqaddimin wa'l-Muta'akhkhirin in his introduction to Dar' Ta'arud al-'Aql wa'l-Naql. ⁴

Ibn al-Qayyim quotes Shaykh al-Islam that the answer has several aspects, the first: we do not concede that certainty depends on these ten premises, but on whatever makes the speaker's meaning known; whoever knows that the Messenger meant something and knows that he is truthful has certain knowledge – the second premise is a matter of faith, and the first is known to the scholars of his community, his heirs. ^{3 5}

Ibn al-Qayyim distinguishes two things: certainty about what the speaker meant, and certainty that what he meant is true. Whoever says "the words of God and His Messenger do not yield certainty" may mean to deny both, only the first, or only the second. If he denies the second, alone or with the first, this in Ibn al-Qayyim's view impugns faith in the Messenger and allows that he spoke falsely; if he denies only the first, it impugns taking him as judge, since appealing to one whose words give no knowledge achieves nothing; and if one adds to this putting reason before revelation, "the deposition of revelation is complete" in knowing God, His names and His attributes. ^{5 6}

He then argues that the speaker's meaning is known by mass transmission just as his wording is, giving as examples the verse on the duty of pilgrimage (Al Imran 97) and the verse on the month of Ramadan (al-Baqara 185): it is known by mass transmission that "the House" is the Ka'ba that people visit in Mecca, and that the month is the one between Sha'ban and Shawwal; and he says that for most of the Qur'an's words God's meaning is known with certainty, just as it is known with certainty that the Messenger conveyed them. ⁶

The remaining aspects of the seventy-three, al-Razi's words in their context in the Muhassal itself, and the positions of other theologians who hold that scriptural proofs can yield certainty with supporting indications have not yet been read.