For this reason, the pure philosophers—those who adhere strictly to the teachings of the Peripatetics—believe that Ibn Sīnā was pandering to adherents of religion, because of the rapprochement he achieved. But they spoke in ignorance and lied. He was not pandering; rather, whatever truth he acknowledged, he stated because truth required it and because it accorded with their rational principles.

Likewise, the metaphysical philosophers, both Peripatetic and otherwise, agree in affirming the Necessary Existent, the survival of the soul after death, and the benefit of righteous deeds after death. Many natural philosophers and others disagree with them on these matters. Indeed, even the metaphysical philosophers disagree among themselves on some of them. It is even said that al-Fārābī—whom they regard as the Second Teacher—made conflicting statements on this subject. At one time he affirmed the survival of all souls; at another, the survival of knowledgeable souls but not ignorant ones, as he stated in Ārā’ al-Madīna al-Fādila (The Opinions of the Virtuous City); and at yet another, he denied both views. This misguided unbeliever claimed that the distinctive quality of prophethood was skill in imaginatively representing spiritual realities. Their contradictory statements on this subject are numerous, but recounting them is not the purpose here.

The point is simply that, in their view, the highest science and first philosophy are metaphysics: the study of absolute existence and its concomitants. Indeed, even Muslim speculative theologians with a philosophical background—such as Ibn al-Khatīb and others—discuss the principles of Islamic jurisprudence, a purely Islamic discipline, yet base it on those philosophical principles.

For example, Ibn al-Khatīb and others, following Ibn Sīnā and his predecessors, state at the outset of their treatment of the principles of Islamic jurisprudence: the first principles of the particular sciences are not established within those sciences, lest this entail circular reasoning, for the starting point of a science is its foundational principles