and Abū Ḥātim ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dāraqutnī, Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī, and many others. Moreover, even if its wording were sound, it would actually refute the very point they wish to prove, for it says, “When Allah first created the intellect,” with the word awwala in the accusative. In another recension it reads, “When Allah created the intellect, He said to it….” Thus the phrasing shows that He addressed it at the very moment He brought it into existence. They, however, tampered with the wording and said, “The first thing Allah created is the Intellect,” with awwalu in the nominative. That, though, is not what the report says; its authentic wording requires that He spoke to it at the first instant of its creation. For this reason it continues: “I have not created any creature more honored in My sight than you,” which necessarily implies that other things had been created before it.

Yet in their doctrine the intellect is the first of all originated beings, so that nothing could precede it—despite the fact that, in their view, it and the rest of the intellects and celestial spheres are eternal, without beginning and without end.