permission to whomever He wills and approves.” (1)

And He said:

“On the Day when the Spirit and the angels stand in ranks, none shall speak except the one to whom the Most Compassionate has granted leave and who speaks what is right.” (2)

Thus the Almighty has informed us that they do not precede Him in speech, that they act only by His command, and that they will not utter a word of intercession except (3) after He has granted (4) them permission. Even then, they do not know what He has said

“until, when the dread is lifted from their hearts,” (5)

meaning: when He clears (6) their hearts and removes the terror—just as the Arabs say qaradtu al-baʿīr, “I removed its ticks.” In the same way they use the verbs taḥawwaba, (7) taḥarraja, taʾaththama, and taḥannatha for someone who has removed (8) from himself ḥawb (9) (sin), ithm, ḥaraj, and ḥinth.

Once the fear has been removed from their hearts, they will say:

“What did your Lord say? They reply, ‘The truth.’” (10)

All of this is a categorical refutation of the Sabian-inclined philosophers (11) and those like them, as well as of their followers among certain scholastic theologians, Sufis, and jurists (12) who have mixed pure monotheism with Sabianism (13) by claiming to venerate the “intellects” and “souls” which they allege are the angels themselves, eternally emanating from Allah and remaining inseparably linked