they attained those ends. Nor did they hesitate to teach this to people and exalt it for the authority or wealth they might gain, even though they knew it to be disbelief and associating partners with Allah, and called others to it. Indeed, they came to harbour doubts and misgivings about what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) brought, and to believe that, for a beneficial purpose, he addressed the masses with claims that had no underlying reality—as some heretical esotericists maintain. Some from both groups adopted this view. This is one way in which they resembled the Persians and Romans. The Persians venerated lights and prostrated themselves before the sun and fire, while the Romans, before Christianity, were polytheists who worshipped heavenly bodies and idols. These people are worse than those who resembled the Jews and Christians;

[for those imitated the People of the Book in matters that had been altered or abrogated, whereas these imitated people who had no scripture.

He—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—also said: Souls are naturally endowed with immediate knowledge of the Creator who created the heavens] (*), and that He created the heavens and the earth, none of which mankind created. Thus Moses said to Pharaoh, when Pharaoh asked him:

“What is the Lord of all worlds?”

He replied: “The Lord of the heavens and the earth and everything between them, if you would be certain.”

And Pharaoh said:

“Who, then, is the Lord of you both, O Moses?”

He replied: “Our Lord is He who gave everything its form, then guided it.”