As for action, it consists in subordinating the soul’s faculty that urges evil to its tranquil faculty. This is agreed upon. Yet adherents of religious faiths regard it as a means of perfecting the worship of Allah and obedience to Him, whereas the heretics regard it merely as a refinement of the soul, preparing it for what they themselves consider perfection.

The purpose here is not to discuss the truth and falsehood contained in this statement; that belongs elsewhere. Rather, the purpose is to discuss what pertains to their account of the estimative and imaginative faculties. He said:

“So that the imaginative and estimative faculties are drawn toward estimative conceptions suited to the holy realm, turning away from estimative conceptions suited to the lower realm.”

He thus states that the aim is to draw the imaginative and estimative faculties toward estimative conceptions suited to the holy realm. He did not say, “toward estimative and imaginative conceptions,” although he spoke of drawing both the imaginative and estimative faculties, because he intends to draw both faculties.

Imagination concerns the forms of sensible things, while estimation concerns the meanings within them. The faculties are drawn toward estimative conceptions suited to the holy realm, not toward imaginative representation. The aim is not to draw them toward an imagined form, but toward something apprehended by the estimative faculty: the meanings that the soul loves. For estimation, as explained earlier, is the conception of beloved meanings in particular things, and it is on account of these meanings that amity and enmity arise.