whom He approves, and they stand in awe of Him. Should any one of them declare, “I am a deity besides Him,” We would requite that one with Hell—such is Our recompense for the wrongdoers.

Thus the Exalted One makes clear that they are servants whom He has honored: they do not outstrip Him in speech—no word passes their lips until He has spoken—and they act only by His command—nothing is done until He commands it. They intercede solely for those whom He accepts, and they are ever fearful of Him.

This directly contradicts the doctrine of the philosophers, for in their view the Intellects—and indeed the entire universe—emanate from God by a necessary effusion that leaves no room for fear of Him, for new commands or speech from Him, or for any genuine intercession with Him. What they term “intercession” is not, as Muslims understand it, a plea to God and His Messenger; rather, it is the heart’s attachment to intermediate beings so that, through them, a beneficial overflow reaches it, just as sunlight reaches a wall only after reflecting off a mirror. This is the very kind of intercession affirmed by the idolaters and categorically denied by God in His Book.

When Abū Ḥāmid (al-Ghazālī), in Al-Maḍnūn bihi ʿalā Ghayri Ahlih and other writings, echoed similar notions about intercession, prophethood, and more—going so far as to reduce the Prophet’s unique distinctions to three, as mentioned earlier—the scholars of Islam vehemently objected. They censured such statements in strong terms and spoke critically of Abū Ḥāmid and those of his ilk in well-known writings.