and he (al-Fārābī) went on to divide existence into what is necessary and what is contingent, holding the celestial spheres to be contingent in themselves yet necessary by virtue of Him. The corruption and confusion inherent in that view have been examined at length elsewhere. Avicenna then grounded his whole argument for denying the divine attributes on the claim that God is the “Necessary Existent.”

As for al-Fārābī, in his work Ārāʾ al-Madīnah al-Fāḍilah (The Opinions of the Virtuous City) and elsewhere, he based his reasoning on God’s being the First. Aristotle, too, in the treatise known in Arabic as Athūlūjiyā (The Theology), proceeded from the premise that He alone is the First, even likening Him to the first number; on that foundation they constructed the denial of