and “the accursed tree in the Quran” as referring to the Umayyads.

As for the Sufi esotericists, they say that Pharaoh in the Most High’s words, “Go to Pharaoh,” is the heart, and that the cow in “Allah commands you to slaughter a cow” is the soul. Those other esotericists say that it is ‘Ā’ishah. They and the philosophers interpret Allah’s speaking to Moses as what emanates to him from the Active Intellect or some other source. They take “removing the two sandals” to mean abandoning this world and the Hereafter. They interpret “the tree from which Moses was addressed,” “the sacred valley,” and similar expressions as states experienced by the heart when it acquires knowledge.

Among those who followed this course were the author of The Niche of Lights and others like him. This was among the things for which Muslims most strongly censured him. They said, “The Healing made him ill,” and, “He plunged into the depths of the philosophers’ thought, then sought to emerge but could not.” Some people challenge the authenticity of these books, saying that they were falsely attributed to him. Others say that he later renounced them. This is the most plausible view, for he explicitly declared the philosophers unbelievers on certain issues and misguided on an even greater number of issues. He also explicitly stated that their method does not lead to the desired goal.

The esotericist philosophers interpret angels and devils as faculties of the soul. They interpret what people are promised in the Hereafter as parables intended to explain the pleasure and pain experienced by the soul after death, rather than as affirming independently existing realities through which it experiences bliss or suffering.

On this subject, the writings of many later Sufis contain statements the like of which are not found among their leading authorities and predecessors, just as the writings of many later adherents of