= They also spoke about the angels in ways that do not correspond to reality: they addressed the masses so that these would picture and imagine God as an enormous corporeal being, that human bodies will be re-created, and that people will enjoy—or suffer—tangible, sensory bliss and punishment. In truth, matters are not so, but, they claim, it is in the public’s interest to be addressed in terms that evoke such imaginings. Even if this is a lie, it is, they say, a lie told for the common good, because inviting the people to religion and securing their welfare can supposedly be achieved only through this approach. On this basis Ibn Sina and the like constructed their own “regulations,” such as the rule set out in his al-Risala al-adhawiyya, pp. 44-51. According to these thinkers, the prophets intended their words to be taken at face value and wanted the masses to understand them literally, even though the literal meaning is, in fact, false and contrary to the truth. They therefore deliberately conveyed falsehoods to the populace for the sake of expediency. Within this group some maintain that the prophet knew the truth but disclosed its opposite for the public good. Others claim that he did not know the truth in the way philosophical investigators do; consequently they place the “perfect philosopher” above the prophet, and they exalt the “perfect saint” who attains this vision above the prophet—as Ibn Arabi al-Taʾi exalts the “Seal of the Saints” over the prophets, and as al-Farabi, Mubashshir ibn Fatik, and others prefer the philosopher to the prophet. Those who concede that the prophet knew the true reality may still argue that he surpasses the philosopher only because he possessed the philosopher’s knowledge plus more, and because he was able to address the masses in a manner beyond the philosopher’s capacity; Ibn Sina and his peers belong to this camp. In sum, this is the doctrine of the “philosophers” and the Batinis: the Ismaʿili unbelievers, the authors of the Epistles of the Ikhwan al-Safa, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, the executed Suhrawardi, Ibn Rushd the grandson, and of certain Sufi atheists who strayed from the path of the early masters of the people of the Book and the Sunnah, such as Ibn Arabi, Ibn Sabʿin, and Ibn Tufayl, author of Hayy ibn Yaqzan—along with many others. Shaykh al-Islam devoted a substantial portion of this great work to tracing Ibn Sina’s slips and deviations, exposing their falsity and distortion with rigorous proof in the method of the pious predecessors—from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and those who followed them in excellence among the imams and scholars renowned for knowledge, faith, uprightness, and genuine understanding.