This is a poor approach to reporting people’s views, but investigating this matter thoroughly is not our purpose here.

The philosophers comprise disparate groups, united by neither a common position nor a common doctrine. Indeed, their disagreements are greater than those among the sects of the Jews, Christians, and Magians.

The Peripatetics’ discussions of divine matters offer little benefit, and much of what they say is unsupported by any proof. The views reported above are found in the works of their followers, such as Ibn Sīnā and others like him.

I have examined the positions attributed to them concerning knowledge and found several distinct views. Some writers, however, attribute two or three positions to them, while others report only one. I have found four positions explicitly attributed to them in various books.

A number of writers, such as al-Shahrastānī and others, report three positions concerning knowledge. They say:

“The early philosophers held that He knows only Himself. Existent things then necessarily follow from Him as a consequence of His knowledge of Himself, though He does not know them—that is, He has no representation of them, either in detail or in general.

“Some of them held that He, exalted is He, knows universals but not particulars.

“Others held that He knows both universals and particulars, in a manner that admits no deficiency or limitation in His knowledge.”