the lord of everything beneath this celestial sphere, while the First Intellect is the lord of the heavens, the earth, and all that lies between them. The heretics among the followers of Banū ‘Ubayd who joined these philosophers—such as the authors of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity and others—as well as the heretics among the Sufis, such as Ibn ‘Arabī, Ibn Sab‘īn, and others, support such claims by citing the fabricated hadith:

“The first thing Allah created was the intellect.”

The writings of Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī in “Books Withheld from Those Unqualified for Them” and elsewhere contain a substantial portion of these thinkers’ ideas. He expresses their doctrines using the terms mulk (dominion), malakūt (sovereignty), and jabarūt (might), by which he means body, soul, and intellect.

Thus, these people take Islamic expressions and invest them with these thinkers’ meanings. Those expressions are accepted among Muslims, so when Muslims hear them, they accept them. Then, when they learn the meanings these people intend, those who do not understand the true nature of Islam are led astray by them, not realizing that these are the meanings espoused by these heretics, not those intended by Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and his fellow messengers, such as Moses and Jesus—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon them all.

For this reason, many people of later generations have gone astray through this confusion and their failure to understand the true nature of what the Messenger brought and what these people say. These people thereby mislead many who are devoted to scholarship, worship, and Sufism, including those who have no desire to oppose Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—but rather wish to follow him unconditionally. Were such a person to know that this contradicted what he brought, he would not accept it. Yet, because he does not fully understand the meanings of what was conveyed