and the irascible faculties, together with the faculties of knowledge and justice—topics that amount to little more than the polished etiquette of the intelligentsia. Yet they possess no meaningful awareness of Allah, His angels, His books, or His messengers, nor any true devotion in worshipping Him alone without partner. What they hold of the natural and mathematical sciences cannot profit a person after death except when it is pressed into the service of something that does profit after death, and the portion they have of metaphysics is exceedingly scant and riddled with error.

Every piece of beneficial knowledge or righteous deed they possess is but a fragment of what the prophets—peace be upon them—brought. It is therefore impossible that these people who style themselves “philosophers,” and those who follow them, should be upon truth in creed, honesty in speech, and excellence in action—the summit of their aspiration—while the prophets and their followers are not.

Consider the matter by examining both the elite and the common folk among those people, and the elite and the common folk among these; although the gulf between the two groups is like the gulf between the people of Paradise and the people of the Fire, such scrutiny is exactly what the Revelation instructs. The Exalted has said:
“Is Allah better, or what they associate with Him?” (Qur’an 27:59).

The point is that, through reflection, sound analogy, and balanced comparison, a thing may be properly weighed