and the ultimate goal being for one to love another with the love of servitude and humble submission.

For this reason, they said:

“Philosophy is to become like God as far as one is able.”

Thus, these people seek only a kind of knowledge and power through which they attain distinction. Their aim is of the same kind as Pharaoh’s, unlike those devoted to pure monotheism, who worship Allah out of love for Him and humble submission to Him.

Nor do they affirm knowledge through which salvation and happiness are attained after death. Rather, what is known, according to them, is an absolute existence, or an existence qualified by negations. They do not affirm any renewed looking upon Him after death, since, in their view, immaterial entities admit no movement whatsoever, whether on the part of the beholder or of the One beheld. This contradicts what both scriptural and rational evidence establish.

[Section: Continuation of Ibn Sīnā’s discussion in al-Ishārāt (The Pointers) concerning the stations of those who know Allah]

He then said:

“Pointer: The al-mustahīl who takes the True One as an intermediary is, in one respect, to be pitied. If he has not tasted the pleasure of delight in Him so that he might seek to taste it, his familiarity is only with pleasures