Every existent outside the mind is a definite, particular entity, whereas universals exist as such only in the intellect, not in concrete reality. The Maker Himself is a specific, necessary being, not a universal; the same is true of everything that issues from Him—whether the celestial spheres, the intellects, or the souls they posit. If, then, He were to know only universals, He would not know Himself, nor what proceeds from Him, nor the spheres. Indeed, since nothing exists but particulars, a deity who knew only universals would know nothing of existing things at all.

They go on to claim that He is a “complete cause” that necessarily entails the existence of the world, the world flowing from Him by unavoidable emanation so that it can never be separated from Him, for a complete cause and its effect are inseparable. Their assertion that souls and intellects are His effects, generated from Him, is a form of unbelief graver than the saying of certain Arab polytheists who declared the angels to be the daughters of God. Allah, Exalted is He, says:

“And they attribute to Allah partners—the jinn—though He created them, and they invent for Him sons and daughters without knowledge. Glorified and Exalted is He above what they ascribe to Him.” (Qur’an 6:100)

These philosophers further contend that the intellect is like the male and the soul like the female, and that both are begotten of Allah, exalted be He. The earlier pagans at least affirmed that He created the angels by His will and power and that He alone is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, whereas these people claim that the intellects—which those of them who pose as Muslims call “angels”—are merely effects, generated from God