Al-Suhrawardī, who was executed—the author of al-Talwīhāt (Intimations), Hikmat al-Ishrāq (The Wisdom of Illumination), and other works—also discussed this, despite his practice of devotion according to their way. In Hikmat al-Ishrāq, however, he followed an approach in which he did not imitate the Peripatetics; rather, he exposed the falsity of their positions in several places. In numerous passages, his discussion was better than theirs, although the designation of heresy applies to them all.

The purpose is to make the truth clear. When some of them dispute with and refute others, and one is closer to the truth than the other on a particular point, explaining how they refute one another’s false assertions is among the means by which Allah supports the truth.

Thus, he refuted their claim that the intellects are ten in number. These later philosophers say that they are the angels in the terminology of the adherents of religions, while the author of Hikmat al-Ishrāq calls them lights. He says that the ancient philosophers and the philosophers of Persia and India maintain that they are numerous—more numerous than those affirmed by the Peripatetics. Yet we have explained elsewhere that the intellects affirmed by the Peripatetics have absolutely no existence in external reality. Rather, the truth is what Allah and His Messenger have affirmed concerning the angels, of whom the prophets have told and whose existence is established by rational proofs.

Our concern here is the question of knowledge.

[Al-Suhrawardī’s Discussion in Hikmat al-Ishrāq]

Al-Suhrawardī said:

“Section: Since it has become clear that vision