an animal here is subject to generation and corruption at the individual level, but not at the level of the species, owing to the eternal bond. Since it could not be free of generation and corruption at the individual level, as the world is, the Creator—glory be to Him—remedied this deficiency with the only kind of perfection available to it, as Aristotle says in the Book of Animals.”

He said:

“We have seen many followers of Ibn Sīnā in our own time who, because of this difficulty, have interpreted Ibn Sīnā as holding this view. They say that he does not hold that there is any separate existent, and that this is apparent from what he says about the Necessary Existent in various passages. They also say that this is the meaning he incorporated into his Eastern Philosophy.

“They say that he called it Eastern Philosophy only because it represents the doctrine of the people of the East. They hold that the gods of those people are the celestial bodies, in accordance with the view he espoused. Yet they also regard Aristotle’s method of establishing the First Principle through motion as weak.”

He said:

“We have discussed this method more than once,