Nor does any one of them identify the Preserved Tablet with the so-called planetary soul.

Nor does any of them claim that something other than Allah brought the rest of creation into being, as these philosophers do when they assert that the First Intellect produced every other contingent entity. Some of those who profess to be Muslims among them even call that Intellect “the Pen,” and they imagine that the narration,

“The first thing Allah created was the intellect; He said to it, ‘Advance,’ so it advanced; then He said to it, ‘Recede,’ and it receded,”

refers to this Intellect. Yet the very wording of that report is proof against them, not for them. Moreover, even if it were in their favor, it would still be impermissible to cite it, for it is a fabricated tradition by the unanimous verdict of the hadith masters, as stated by al-Darāquṭnī, Ibn Ḥibbān, Abū’l-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī, and others.

The falsity of treating prophethood as a branch of philosophy

When the practitioners of kalām restrict the avenues of knowledge, they are merely restricting the avenues available to themselves and their likes. They list sensory awareness and rational knowledge—both self-evident and inferential—whether or not that list is complete. They never intended to describe the path by which a prophet comes to know the revelation sent to him; that path lies wholly outside the methods accessible to them and those like them, and is of an entirely different order in their estimation. The philosophers, on the other hand, regard the prophet as being of the same type as other intelligent ascetics, albeit superior, and in their view prophethood is simply one component of philosophy. This is a grave misguidance, for the whole of philosophy cannot raise its adherent to the rank of the Jews and Christians after their scriptures were abrogated and altered—much less to their rank before that—let alone to the station of the believers, the people of the Quran such as the Companions and their Followers; still less to the rank of any single prophet, let alone the messengers, let alone the most resolute of them. Indeed, even the most brilliant and ascetic individuals among people at large fall short of resembling the Followers who excelled in righteousness, much less the earliest forerunners.

As for the rank of the foremost pioneers, like Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, that is beyond anyone’s reach. It is authentically reported in the two Sahihs that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said, “Among the communities before you there were men who were divinely inspired; so—”