luminous images constitute the angels of Allah; therefore, in their view, the speech of Allah has no existence outside the Prophet’s own soul—may Allah bless him and grant him peace— (1).
Likewise, the angels—apart from the Ten Intellects and the Nine Souls about which they (2) dispute (3) whether they are substances or accidents—are, in their estimation, nothing but the wholesome faculties found in [souls and] (4) bodies, together with sound forms of knowledge, righteous volitions, and the like.
The upshot of all this is that the Qurʾan, they claim, is merely the Prophet’s own composition and speech, exactly as was asserted by the philosopher (5) of Quraysh and its solitary tyrant, al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah (6),
about whom Allah says:
{Leave Me alone with the one I created all by Myself (11) and granted abundant wealth (12) and sons ever at his side (13), for whom I smoothed everything (14); yet he still desires that I should give him more (15). No! He has been obstinate toward Our signs (16); I shall soon burden him—}
(1) “— ṣalla llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam —”: omitted in manuscripts S, T. Shaykh al-Islām (may God have mercy on him) states: “The philosophers regard prophethood as an overflow emanating from the Active Intellect onto the Prophet’s soul. They hold that the images formed in his soul are the angels of God, and that the voices he hears inwardly are the speech of God. Hence, they view prophethood as acquired: if one prepares oneself through rigorous discipline and spiritual purification, what flowed into the souls of the Prophets will flow into him.” See: Darʾ taʿarruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql by Ibn Taymiyyah, vol. 5, p. 353.
(2) In manuscripts S, T: “aktharuhum” (most of them).
(3) “mutanāzaʿūn” is duplicated in the original.
(4) The text enclosed in quotation marks is an addition in manuscripts S and T.
(5) The original reads “fī al-sawf.” The reading adopted here follows manuscripts S, T.
(6) He is Abū ʿAbd Shams al-Walīd b. al-Mughīrah b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr b. Makhzūm—one of the judges of the Arabs in the pre-Islamic period, a leader of Quraysh, and counted among the zindiqs. He was the father of Sayf Allāh Khālid b. al-Walīd. He embraced Islam in advanced age and died three months after the Hijra. His birth date was 95 AH. See: Al-Kāmil by Ibn al-Athīr, vol. 2, pp. 71–72; Al-A‘lām by al-Zirkilī, vol. 9, p. 144.