more than one meaning. Otherwise, what is there in a thing’s being created in its own earlier or later form that rules out its having been created over a period of time and from matter?

Moreover, although this author interprets the Prophet’s words (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) as denying the influence of the celestial spheres and the elements, in refutation of the philosophers, he maintains in other books of his that the Quran indicates the influence of the celestial spheres and the stars—sometimes practising the prognostication prescribed by astrologers, and sometimes enjoining the worship of those bodies prescribed by polytheistic sorcerers. He has thus made the words of Allah and His Messenger contradictory, affirming this influence in one place and denying it in another. In affirming it, he goes to extremes, even enjoining what is forbidden—indeed, what constitutes disbelief by the consensus of the Muslims. In denying it, he goes to extremes by refusing to acknowledge that they are causes like other causes. This is among the gravest contradictions, both with respect to what the Messenger brought and from the standpoint of reason.

As for the fourth interpretation, namely his statement, “The purpose is to explain that this human form came about solely through Allah’s act of creation, not through the influence of the formative faculty,” he should be told: If the wording indicates this,