slipping in its judgments. Thus we had to consider this so-called instrument and determine whether it really is as they claim or whether matters stand otherwise.

Refutation of the statement: “These are sciences that have been refined by the intellects,” and the like:

Some of their senior teachers—when the unsoundness of their doctrines is laid bare, their misguidance becomes evident, and they find themselves unable to rebut the proof—retort: “These are disciplines polished by human reason for more than a thousand years, and the eminent have accepted them.” Such an assertion is answered in several ways.

First: The matter is not as they allege, for thinkers far superior to them have constantly censured them and exposed their errors and deviations. Among the ancient philosophers themselves there were many well-known disputes; their histories and collected sayings contain material too extensive to cite here.

As for the age of Islam, the writings of Muslim dialecticians that demonstrate the corruption of what these philosophers have ruined—whether in logic and metaphysics, or even in natural philosophy and mathematics—are abundant; every school of Muslim theologians, including the Rāfiḍah, has produced works to this effect.

Moreover, the testimony of the rest of the scholars and the various communities of the faithful to their misguidance and unbelief is universal, denied only by a stubborn antagonist; and the believers are God’s witnesses upon the earth. Therefore, when the leading intelligent and virtuous figures of every group, together with the people of knowledge and faith at large, openly pronounce them mistaken and astray—whether in general or in detail—it becomes impossible to claim that all rational people have embraced their words.

Second: Such longevity is no proof. The philosophy that preceded Aristotle and had been received approvingly before him was criticized by Aristotle himself, who pointed out many of its errors. Ibn Sīnā and his followers likewise disagreed with the ancients on a range of logical and other propositions and demonstrated their mistakes. Philosophers have refuted one another more than any other group has done. Abū al-Barakāt and the like have rebutted Aristotle extensively, saying, “Our aim is the truth, not blind partisanship for any particular person or opinion.”