[The Invalidity of the Philosophers’ Argument Based on the Verses of Surah al-Anām]
This is mistaken for several reasons:
First, no rational person has ever held this view—not Abraham’s people or anyone else—and none of them (1) ever imagined that a star, the moon, or the sun had created this universe. Abraham’s people were merely polytheists who worshipped these heavenly bodies, claiming that this would secure some benefit or ward off some harm, in accordance with the practices of the Chaldeans (2), the Kushdānians (3), [and other polytheists, including the people of India and others] (4). It was also in accordance with their practices that Abū Abd Allāh ibn al-Khatīb al-Rāzī (5) composed his book on magic, talismans (6), and the invocation of heavenly bodies (7). This is the religion of the polytheists from among
(1) N and M read: “one.”
(2) N and M read: “the liars,” which is a corruption.
(3) I found nothing about them in the sources available to me except a brief statement in al-Zabīdī’s Tāj al-Arūs, under the entry k-sh-d: “The Kushdānians—with a damma (u-vowel) on the kāf—are a group of star-worshippers.”
(4) The passage in square brackets is omitted from N and M.
(5) N reads: “Abū Abd Allāh al-Tabarī,” which is a corruption; M reads: “Abū Abd Allāh al-Rāzī.”
(6) Al-Shihāb al-Khafājī said in Shifā al-Ghalīl fīmā fī Kalām al-Arab min al-Dakhīl, under the entry t-l-s-m: “It is a Greek term whose Arabicization is not attested from any reliable authority. The claim that it is the reverse of musallat (‘empowered’) is an error unworthy of consideration. In al-Sirr al-Maktūm, it is defined as knowledge of how to combine the active celestial forces with the receptive terrestrial forces in order to produce phenomena contrary to the customary course and prevent those that accord with it.”
(7) The work in question is al-Sirr al-Maktūm fī Mukhātabat al-Nujūm. See: Wafayāt al-Ayān, 3/318; Lisān al-Mīzān, 4/426; and al-Ziriklī’s al-Alām, 7/203.