—as He, exalted is He, says:

“And none knows the hosts of your Lord except Him.” ⦗Q 74:31⦘

Those hosts are not limited to ten, nor are they mere immaterial accidents. Yet these people insist that the first entity to emanate is the First Intellect, from which everything else proceeds, and that the tenth, the Active Intellect, is the lord of all that lies beneath the lunar sphere.

[The spurious ḥadith they cite about the Intellect and its refutation, linguistically and religiously]

The falsity of all this is a matter of certainty in the religion brought by the messengers, for no angel is the creator of everything other than God.

Nevertheless, they claim that the Intellect referred to in a report that circulates reads:

“The first thing God created was the intellect.
He said to it, ‘Advance,’ so it advanced.
Then He said to it, ‘Recede,’ so it receded.
Then He proclaimed, ‘By My might, I have created no creature more noble to Me than you.
Through you I take, through you I give; for you is reward and upon you is punishment.’”

They further call it “the Pen” on the strength of the report, “The first thing God created was the Pen,” a ḥadith transmitted by al-Tirmidhī.

The report they cite about the Intellect is a forged fabrication, according to the experts in ḥadith—such as Abū Ḥātim al-Bustī, al-Dāraqutnī, Ibn al-Jawzī, and others—and is found in none of the dependable ḥadith compilations.

Even so, its very wording—had it been authentic—would testify against them, for the phrase, “The first thing God created was the intellect …”