I say:

There is no doubt that this account is closer to what people have transmitted from Aristotle and his followers concerning the establishment of the Necessary Existent than are the accounts of Ibn Sīnā and others like him.

Indeed, it is better in several respects than what is transmitted from Aristotle. For Aristotle’s reported account merely makes the First a mover of the heavenly bodies insofar as He is an object of their love and longing whom they seek to resemble. He moves them as a beloved moves his lover—or, more precisely, as a model moves those who imitate him, just as an imam moves those following him in prayer. This is weaker than the movement imparted by a beloved to his lover, as food impels someone to eat, or a woman impels someone to intercourse.

The present author, however, portrays Him as commanding them to move, subjecting them to this, and charging them with it.

Aristotle, however, supported his position by arguing that voluntary motion arising from longing necessarily requires an intellect that the celestial sphere imitates, just as someone following an imam imitates him.

[Aristotle’s Discussion of Motion Arising from Longing and the First Mover]

He said:

“The object of longing is a cause of the motion of that which moves toward it out of longing,