that agrees with their views, for much of what he says accords with their falsehoods, just as much of it refutes their falsehoods.

He has therefore become an intermediary between them and the Muslims: the Muslims reject the falsehoods in which he agrees with them, while they reproach him for opposing them on matters that Muslims regard as false.

One reason for this is that they have made the ultimate goal and perfection of the human being consist merely in knowing existence or knowing the truth, thereby becoming an intelligible world corresponding to the existing world. This is what they call resembling God to the extent of one’s ability. They regard acts of worship and moral conduct merely as conditions and aids for attaining this. They have not affirmed that the Lord, Exalted is He, is to be worshipped and adored, loved for His own sake, and that the soul’s perfection consists in loving Him, so that its perfection lies in knowing and loving Him. Rather, their leading authorities have made perfection consist merely in knowing existence, while those among them who are closer to Islam have made it consist merely in knowing Him.

This is one of the two ways in which they have gone astray.

The other is that, even if the soul’s perfection were assumed to consist merely in knowledge, what they possess is not knowledge; indeed, much of it is ignorance.