It thus becomes evident that these people—by affirming for God a partner or an offspring—utter one of the most reprehensible claims ever made in that regard. Every Qurʾānic passage that invalidates such notions through rational and transmitted proofs also invalidates their position. Grasping this, however, requires that we understand the real nature of the various communities’ doctrines, their gradations, and the way the Qurʾān addresses, refutes, and distinguishes truth from falsehood through demonstrative rational arguments, as has been explained elsewhere.

All of this clarifies that the messengers informed us about the angels: they are servants of God, neither begotten of Him nor the product of some impersonal, necessitating cause; they act only by His permission and do not precede Him in word; they convey the unseen to the prophets; and they perform extraordinary acts—and other deeds—that support the prophets and serve as proof on their behalf.

This shows that those philosophers contradict the messengers concerning the oneness of God, the angels, and the miracles of the prophets. It also demonstrates that miracles lie beyond the powers of human souls, and that what these philosophers say about miracles is an assertion without evidence—false in itself and built upon a false foundation.

To be sure, we do not deny that the forces residing in souls and in other bodies produce effects in the world in proportion to their capacities, as mentioned earlier. Yet attributing supernatural phenomena to such forces is baseless, just as it would be to ascribe them to purely physical powers and claim that they belong to the realm of trick devices—merely natural forces like the attraction found in a lodestone.

For it is clear in many ways that the miracles of the prophets lie outside this category, and even if someone were to assert that the miracles of the prophets are powers