because when the Islamic world mixed with the world of disbelief and made interaction with it an alternative to confrontation with it, a group of Muslims who had less knowledge of Islam and lacked commitment to it, consciously or unconsciously, got a passive position and, astonished by worldly deceptive appearances of the world of disbelief, took the color, smell, and taste of disbelievers. However, this approach cannot be entirely considered a contribution from the world of disbelief; because its roots can be traced among Muslims themselves in the first Islamic centuries, and the similarity between them does not necessarily mean that they are related; as God Almighty has said: ﴿يُضَاهِئُونَ قَوْلَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ قَبْلُ﴾[1]; “Their words are similar to the words of those who disbelieved before them,” and said: ﴿كَذَلِكَ قَالَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ مِثْلَ قَوْلِهِمْ ۘ تَشَابَهَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ ۗ﴾[2]; “Those who were before them said like their sayings, their hearts are alike.”

Anyway, it is certain that the truth is a single and specific existence and cannot become plural nor multiplied, and therefore, it requires a single cognition and demands a single criterion.

3. The criterion of cognition is self-evident

The criterion of cognition means a thing which is known by itself and causes other things to be known; in the sense that there is no need for anything else in order to know it, and other things are known by it; like the light that is seen by itself and causes other things to be seen. This means that the criterion of cognition itself does not need to be known; because if it itself needs to be known, then knowing it also requires a criterion, and this means an infinite regress, which is impossible. The human being’s cognitions must inevitably end in a self-evident cognition that is the origin of all cognitions and is not originated from any cognition itself; because what needs to be known cannot be a criterion of cognition; because it needs a criterion of cognition itself. Based on this, those who take such a thing as their criterion of cognition should not be confident of their cognition; because their cognition is weak and baseless;