that what moves may itself be the mover, as has been explained at length elsewhere. The discussion has established (1) [the invalidity of] what Aristotle set forth (2) in metaphysics from numerous perspectives, and that these people are among the most ignorant of mankind concerning Allah [Mighty and Majestic]. (3)

Those [among them] (4) who became affiliated with religious communities—such as those professing Islam, including al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, and others like them among the Muslim heretics (5); Moses ibn Maymūn and others like him among the Jewish heretics; and Mattā, Yahyā ibn Adī, and others like them among the Christian heretics—are, despite being heretics associated with religious communities, sounder in intellect (6) and judgment in metaphysics than the Peripatetics, such as Aristotle and his followers. This is so even though the Peripatetics preceded them in many detailed matters of the natural and mathematical sciences (7).

The point here is that the Peripatetics are more ignorant of divine matters and more misguided concerning them, (8) for the former acquired some measure of the light, intellectual insight (9), and guidance of the religious communities and thereby became less shrouded in darkness than the Peripatetics. For this reason, Ibn Sīnā departed from the method of his predecessors in establishing the First Cause and adopted the method for which he is known [of dividing existence into necessary and possible, and holding that the possible necessarily entails the Necessary.