The Foreword (Mahdi Lock)

This is like if a king were to announce—after it had become widely known among the people that his son was ill and that physicians had been summoned—that his son had died. If the king were to appear one day in a distressed state and inform the people of his death, some legal theorists (uṣūlīs) have held that such a report yields certainty (ʿilm). I used to incline toward this view and defend it.

However, the realities of life that we now witness have made a person skeptical about many such appearances. Indeed, it has become commonly acknowledged among rational people today that most of what the rulers of the world publicly declare is falsehood and deception, despite all the surrounding corroborating indicators. In fact, many wars that occur in the world, claiming the lives of thousands of people, are nothing more than staged productions directed politically for interests and objectives other than those announced by leaders and rulers.

I do not wish to deny the possibility that such a report may yield certainty; the possibility remains. However, its scope is extremely narrow and rare, and the default assumption is that it does not yield certainty.