These heretical mystics have walked the very path trodden by the philosophers who lapsed into unbelief, exalting the “grand philosopher” above the Prophet. Hence Ibn ʿArabī declared that the Seal of the Saints draws from the same source as the angel who conveys revelation to the Prophet. This is exactly what certain members of the Kalābiyyah claim when they say that Gabriel received the Qur’an from God by mere inspiration and then expressed it in his own words—a position that contradicts the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the unanimous consensus of the Muslims, as has been demonstrated elsewhere at length.

One could say that this view is built upon the philosophical unbelievers’ basic premise: the “source” from which, in their estimation, the Prophet receives is the Active Intellect and the rational faculty they term the “sacred faculty.” The soul, they allege, subsequently imagines what a person has grasped intellectually—just as a sleeper imagines in his dream—so he beholds within himself luminous forms and hears voices; all of this, in their account, takes place inside him, not outside. A sound version of such inner perception may occur to ordinary believers, while its corrupt form befalls those afflicted with melancholia and similar disorders. For them, the imaginal forms in the soul of the Prophet—indeed, in any soul—are none other than the angels.

That is why Ibn ʿArabī said that he draws from the very mine from which the angel charged with revelation draws. Faithful to his underlying heresy, he maintains that he takes directly from the Intellect, the so-called sacred faculty, whereas the Prophet receives from imaginal forms that in turn draw from the Intellect; and whoever takes from the Intellect, he claims, is more perfect than one who takes from imagination that draws from the Intellect.

Accordingly, some of them boast that they are superior to Moses son of ʿImrān, insisting that the divine address granted to them surpasses that granted to Moses—because, in their view, that speech did not come from outside Moses but was merely an emanation that overflowed upon him as it does upon others. Thus some of them say, “He spoke to Moses from the heaven of his intellect,” and the companion—