the corporeal form, distinct from the self-subsisting body itself. This is an error. Such a thing is merely conceived in the mind, just as one conceives extension abstracted from everything extended, number abstracted from everything numbered, and magnitude abstracted from everything possessing magnitude. All these are things posited in the mind, with no existence in external reality. Even speculative thinkers who habitually defend the philosophers have acknowledged this, as has been explained at length elsewhere.
Thus, once the intellectual substances posited by these philosophers are fully understood, clear reason establishes that they do not exist in external reality. As for the angels about whom Allah has informed us, these philosophers—the followers of Aristotle—know nothing of them and neither affirm nor deny their existence. Likewise, they know nothing of prophethood and neither affirm nor deny it. Only their later representatives, such as Ibn Sīnā and others like him, discussed these matters. They sought to reconcile prophethood with philosophy, engaging in obfuscation and deception.
Likewise, the “first cause” they posit for this world is merely a final cause: the celestial sphere moves in order to resemble it. Its moving the celestial sphere is akin to a leader’s moving a follower who wishes to resemble his leader and follow his example. In their terminology, the word “deity” means the leader who is followed and whom others seek to resemble. According to them, therefore, the celestial sphere moves in order to resemble the deity. Hence, they held that “the highest philosophy” and “the first wisdom” consist solely in resembling the deity to the extent of one’s ability. Aristotle’s discussion of metaphysics in “Book Lambda,” which is the culmination of his philosophy