Tahafut_al-Tahafut-transl-Engl-van-den-Bergh

there are principles which are the celestial bodies, and that the principles
of the celestial bodies, which are immaterial existents, are the movers of
those celestial bodies, and that the celestial bodies move towards them in
obedience to them and out of love for them, to comply with their order to
move and to understand them, and that they are only created with a view
to movement. For when it was found that the principles which move the
celestial bodies are immaterial and incorporeal, there was no way left to
them in which they might move the bodies other than by ordering them to
move. And from this the philosophers concluded that the celestial bodies
are rational animals, conscious of themselves and of their principles,
which move them by command. And since it was established-in the De
Anima-that there is no difference between knowledge and the object of
knowledge, except for the latter’s being in matter, of necessity the
substance of immaterial beings-if there are such -had to be knowledge or
intellect or whatever you wish to call it. And the philosophers knew that
these principles must be immaterial, because they confer on the celestial
bodies everlasting movement in which there is no fatigue or weariness,’
and that anything which bestows such an everlasting movement must be
immaterial, and cannot be a material power. And indeed the celestial body
acquires its permanence only through these immaterial principles. And the
philosophers understood that the existence of these immaterial principles
must be connected with a first principle amongst them; if not, there could
be no order in the world. You can find these theories in the books of the
philosophers and, if you want to make sure of the truth in these matters,
you will have to consult them. It also becomes clear from the fact that all
the spheres have the daily circular movement, although besides this
movement they have, as the philosophers had ascertained, their own
special movements, that He who commands this movement must be the
First Principle, i.e. God, and that He commands the other principles to
order the other movements to the other spheres. Through this heaven and
earth are ruled as a state is ruled by the commands of the supreme
monarch, which, however, are transmitted to all classes of the population
by the men he has appointed for this purpose in the different affairs of the
state. As it says in the Qur’an: ‘And He inspired every Heaven with its
bidding. This heavenly injunction and this obedience are the prototypes of
the injunction and obedience imposed on man because he is a rational
animal. What Avicenna says of the derivation of these principles from
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