and Mubashshir ibn Fātik, Abū ‘Alī ibn al-Haytham, al-Suhrawardī, who was put to death, Ibn Rushd, and others like them. Yet their claims are not entirely true. Rather, demonstrative syllogisms in metaphysics are more numerous and superior in the writings of the theologians than in theirs. Although the theologians’ writings may contain dialectical, rhetorical, and even sophistical syllogisms, these kinds of reasoning in metaphysics are more numerous and weaker in the philosophers’ writings than in those of the theologians, when their respective discussions of metaphysics are compared. Indeed, they employ a substantial amount of this kind of reasoning even in physics—and even in mathematics.

[Ibn Rushd’s discussion of Allah’s being above and direction in Manāhij al-adilla (Methods of Proof)]

The purpose here is to report what Ibn Rushd said about them. These are his words in his book Manāhij al-adilla, in refutation of the theologians. He said:

“Discussion of direction.

As for this attribute, the adherents of the revealed Law, from the earliest times, have continued to