These people may claim—as does Ibn ‘Arabī, the author of “al-Fusūs”—that they draw from the same source as the angel through whom revelation is conveyed to the Messenger. This is because they adopted “the creed of the philosophers” and then presented it in the guise of “spiritual unveiling.”

These philosophers maintain that the celestial spheres are eternal, without beginning, and have a cause which they seek to resemble, as Aristotle and his followers say; or that they have a cause which necessitates their existence by its very essence, as their later followers, such as Ibn Sīnā and others, say. They do not affirm that these spheres belong to a Lord who created the heavens, the earth, and everything between them in six days, nor that He created things by His will and power. They also deny that He knows particulars: either they deny His knowledge altogether, as Aristotle does, or they say that, concerning changing things, He knows only their universals, as Ibn Sīnā does. In reality, this position amounts to denying His knowledge of those things.

For everything that exists in external reality is an individual particular. Each individual celestial sphere is a particular, as are all concrete entities, their attributes, and their actions. Whoever knows only universals knows none of the things that actually exist. Universals exist as universals only in the mind, not in concrete reality.

These people are discussed at length elsewhere, in “Radd ta‘ārud al-‘aql wa-l-naql” (Refuting the Conflict between Reason and Revelation) and other works. Their unbelief is greater than that of the Jews and Christians, and even that of the Arab polytheists. All these groups affirm that Allah created the heavens and the earth, and that He brought created beings into existence by His will and power. Aristotle and other philosophers like him