the Qur’an, and they even magnify Aristotle, claiming that he had been Alexander’s vizier—an assertion repeated by Ibn Sina and others who are altogether ignorant of the histories of nations.

Ludicrous pronouncements of would-be philosophers and Sufis concerning the divinely sent prophets:

Some of the atheistic Sufis maintain that Aristotle was in fact al-Khidr, the companion of Moses. From among them are those who give precedence to philosophers over prophets in matters of knowledge. They allege that Aaron was more learned than Moses, that ʿAli was more learned than the Prophet—may God’s blessings and peace be upon him—and that al-Khidr surpassed Moses in knowledge. They claim that ʿAli, Aaron, and al-Khidr were philosophers who grasped intellectual realities more profoundly than Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, while these latter possessed a fuller intellectual power and therefore laid down the doctrinal laws.

They even prefer Pharaoh to Moses, styling him “Plato the Copt,” and some of them say that the man of Midian whose daughter Moses married was the Greek Plato, Aristotle’s teacher. They further contend that Moses excelled everyone else in sorcery and learned it from his father-in-law, for in their view miracles are nothing but psychic, natural, or astral forces akin to magic—Moses simply outshone others in that craft.

Such are the like absurdities propounded by the godless pseudo-philosophers who outwardly profess Islam, whether Shiʿite or Sufi—figures such as Ibn Sabʿin, Ibn ʿArabi, and their followers.