that are contingent, neither bodies nor accidents subsisting in bodies—such as intellect, soul, prime matter, and form, which they claim are intelligible substances existing outside the mind, neither bodies nor accidents of bodies—the leading “speculative thinkers” maintain that the falsity of this is self-evident. This has been stated by Abū al-Ma‘ālī al-Juwaynī and other leading figures in speculative reasoning and theology.
Those who failed to recognize this, such as al-Shahrastānī, al-Rāzī, al-Āmidī, and others like them, disputed weakly with the philosophers. They did not establish the unsoundness of their fundamental principles as did the leading speculative thinkers who were greater than they. These men yielded to the philosophers, disputing weakly and failing to expose the unsoundness of their fundamental principles, accepting false premises by which the philosophers led them away from certain truths. This contrasts with leading speculative thinkers such as al-Qādī Abū Bakr, Abū al-Ma‘ālī al-Juwaynī, Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī, Abū al-Husayn al-Basrī, Abū ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Haysam al-Karrāmī, and Abū al-Wafā’ ‘Alī ibn ‘Aqīl.
Before these were figures such as Abū ‘Alī al-Jubbā’ī, his son Abū Hāshim, Abū al-Hasan al-Ash‘arī, and al-Hasan ibn Yahyā al-Nawbakhtī.
Before these were figures such as Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muhammad ibn Karrām, Ibn Kullāb, Ja‘far ibn Mubashshir, Ja‘far ibn Harb, Abū Ishāq al-Nazzām, Abū al-Hudhayl al-‘Allāf, ‘Amr ibn Bahr al-Jāhiz, Hishām al-Jawālīqī, Hishām ibn al-Hakam, Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Najjār, Dirār ibn ‘Amr al-Kūfī, and Abū ‘Īsā Muhammad ibn ‘Īsā