they may even say that he receives something of the same kind as the prophets receive. Some of them claim to have received more than the prophets received. Abū Hāmid frequently praises this method in al-Ihyā and elsewhere, just as he praises asceticism to excess. This reflects the lingering influence of philosophy upon him. For philosophers such as Ibn Sīnā and others like him claim that all knowledge received in the hearts of prophets and others comes solely from the active intellect.

For this reason, they say that prophethood can be acquired: when a person frees himself from distractions, his heart—according to them—becomes pure, and something of the same kind as flowed into the hearts of the prophets flows into his heart. They hold that Moses son of ‘Imrān, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was spoken to from the heaven of his own intellect; he did not hear speech from outside himself. They therefore say that they receive the same as Moses received, or something even greater.

Abū Hāmid says that he heard the address just as Moses, peace be upon him, heard it, even though he himself was not its intended recipient. All this stems from their deficient faith in the messengers, and from their believing in some of what the messengers brought while disbelieving in other parts. What they have said is false on several grounds:

First: What they call the “active intellect” is false and has no reality, as has been explained at length elsewhere.

Second: What Allah places in hearts sometimes comes through the mediation of angels