that is invalid, for those things are not efficient causes, but merely conditions. Moreover, what proceeds in those cases does not come from a single source, but from two sources; and what proceeds is an accident, not a self-subsisting substance.

It thus becomes clear that the supposed intellectual generation described by these people is among the things furthest removed from generation and emanation. It is even further removed than the claims of the Christians and the Arab polytheists. They have placed His effects on the same footing as an eternal attribute inseparable from His essence, whereas we have already explained that such a thing cannot be said to be generated from Him. Thus, in claiming divinity for the intellects, souls, and stars, they are more deeply steeped in disbelief than either of those groups.

If any among them who profess adherence to revealed religions identify these as al-Malakiyya, their claim that the angels are generated from Allah is worse than the claim of the Arabs and ordinary Christians. The latter affirmed physical generation, which His being al-Samad (the Self-Sufficient) rules out; nevertheless, what they affirmed is conceivable. These others, however, have alleged an intellectual generation that is false in every respect—even more untenable than the Christians’ claim that the Word is generated from the Essence. Rejecting what these people allege therefore takes precedence over rejecting what the others allege.

For something known to be impossible in external reality cannot be conceived as actually existing there, since its existence there is impossible. Rather, one mentally supposes its existence in external reality. This is possible only if it has something analogous to it in some respect, so that one posits something resembling it in external existence. Thus, if one supposes another god alongside Allah, or supposes that He has a child, one likens Him to a servant who has a child, or someone who has a partner among