and thus attained only the rank of an ordinary believer. Hujjat al-Islam al-Ghazzali did not accord them that rank, even.

Also, the foremost of the Mu’tazilites, who were among the most learned scholars of Islamic theology, being fascinated by the apparent glamour of the way of philosophy and being closely involved with it, assumed intellect to be self-sufficient. Because of this they could attain only the rank of deviating, novice believers. Moreover, because those famous literary figures of Islam, like Abu al-‘Ala al-Ma‘arri, who was renowned for his pessimism, and ‘Umar Khayyam, who was characterized by his pitiful weeping, took pleasure at the line of philosophy’s caressing their evil-commanding souls, they received contemptuous and condemnatory rebuffs and restraining and chastening slaps from the people of truth and perfection, who said: “You are being insolent, you are approaching heresy, and you are disseminating heresy.”

A further result of the rotten foundations of the line of philosophy is that although the ‘I’ has, in itself, an essence as insubstantial as air, because the inauspicious attitude of philosophy regards it as relating only to itself, it is as if that vapour-like ‘I’ becomes liquid; and then, because of its familiarity and preoccupation with materialism, it hardens.