This is the condition of the people of misguidance who have failed to benefit from the Quran. They do not study it as they study the writings of their predecessors, because they imagine that it will not yield what they seek. They are the ones who have averted their gaze from it, so devils have been appointed to them: they accompany them and bar them from the path, while they suppose themselves to be rightly guided.

Thus, in the words of anyone who does not follow the Book and the sunnah, you will never find the truth clearly explained, whether in knowledge or in practice, because his words contain so many satanic whisperings (1).

On more than one occasion, a man of virtue, intelligence, knowledge, and religion told me that he had studied lessons from Ibn al-Khatīb’s al-Muhassal (The Summa) and portions of Ibn Sīnā’s al-Ishārāt (Pointers) under a person whom he named to me—one of the foremost authorities in speculative theology and rational inquiry.

He said, “I found that my condition had changed.” He possessed light and guidance, yet ominous dreams were seen concerning him. The owner of the copy saw him in a wretched state and related the dream to him, whereupon he said, “It is from your book.”

Most Muslims who understand the religion of Islam know that Ibn Sīnā’s al-Ishārāt contains a great deal of heresy. This is unlike al-Muhassal, which many people imagine contains inquiries that attain the desired objective.

He said, “So I wrote upon it:

Al-Muhassal on the foundations of religion—its sum,
once one has mastered it—is a foundation without religion:
the root of errors and of manifest doubt.
Most of what it contains is inspiration from devils.”

I said, “I have been asked to write on al-Muhassal something by which the truth may be known concerning what