temporally originated event inheres ن—has been acknowledged by their most discerning thinkers to be difficult and far removed from what reason can accept, as Ibn Rushd, al-Rāzī, and others have mentioned. These philosophers say that conceptions and volitions arise in the soul that moves the celestial spheres and constitute the principle of motion. They say that its mover is the intellect it seeks to resemble, or the Necessary Existent, whom the celestial sphere seeks to resemble by actualizing its possible spatial locations and orientations. The Necessary Existent or the intellect moves the sphere, or the sphere’s soul, as a beloved moves a lover, an object of desire moves the one who desires it, and the adored moves the adorer. The mover performs no act whatsoever; rather, the other loves it and therefore moves in order to resemble it.

On this basis, Aristotle and his followers established the first cause and maintained that above the celestial spheres there is something that necessitates their motion.

This can be examined from several angles, which this is not the place to discuss at length. Nevertheless, it may be said that the claim that the celestial sphere moves in order to resemble the Necessary Existent, or to actualize its possible spatial locations and orientations, has no evidence to support it. Indeed, there are many proofs of its falsity, but this is not the place to present them.