The Intentions of the Philosophers, and it is against this work that al-Ghazālī composed his Incoherence. The same doctrine is cited by Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī in al-Mulakhkhaṣ and in the Eastern Investigations, and by al-Āmidī in The Subtleties of Realities, The Symbols of Treasures, and other writings.

Abū al-Barakāt, author of al-Muʿtabar, proceeded along their road, yet he did not imitate them blindly; rather, he evaluated what they said according to his own insight and reasoning. In a similar vein, al-Rāzī and al-Āmidī object to many of their claims whenever they see fit. Even Ibn Sīnā departs from the earliest Peripatetics on certain issues, which is why he states in his book al-Shifāʾ that the truths he had verified are set forth in al-Ḥikma al-Mashriqiyya. Al-Suhrawardī likewise recorded what he deemed established in The Wisdom of Illumination, and al-Rāzī did so in his Eastern Investigations.

Among the earliest followers of Aristotle, the three most renowned are Proclus, Alexander of Aphrodisias, and Themistius, famed for his commentaries and translations. Accordingly, when al-Rāzī writes in his works, “The philosophers are unanimously agreed,” he is referring to these men. Otherwise, the philosophers form numerous sects, differing widely in natural philosophy, metaphysics, and even astronomy. They themselves report that the first to assert the eternity of the universe among them was Aristotle.