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

be a knowledge in act and that there should be in the divine world no
universal at all and no plurality which arises out of potency, like the
plurality of the species which results from the genus. And for this reason
alone we are unable to perceive the actually infinite, that the things known
to us are separated from each other, and if there exists a knowledge in
which the things known are unified, then with respect to it the finite and the
infinite are equivalent.
The philosophers assert that there are definite proofs for all these
statements, and if we understand by `plurality in knowledge’ only this
plurality and this plurality is denied of the Divine, then the knowledge of
God is a unity in act, but the nature of this unity and the representation of
its reality are impossible for the human understanding, for if man could
perceive the unity, his intellect would be identical with the intellect of the
Creator, and this is impossible. And since knowledge of the individual is
for us knowledge in act, we know that God’s knowledge is more like
knowledge of the individual than knowledge of the universal, although it is
neither the one nor the other. And he who has understood this
understands the Divine Words: `Nor shall there escape from it the weight
of an atom, either in the heavens or in the earth’, and other similar verses
which refer to this idea.
Ghazali says:
Avicenna, however, has put himself in opposition to all
the other philosophers who, in order not to commit
themselves to the consequence of plurality, took the view
that the First only knows itself; how, then, can he share with
them the denial of plurality’ Still he distinguished himself
from them by admitting its knowledge of other things, since
he was ashamed to say that God is absolutely ignorant of
this world and the next and knows only His own self-whereas
all others know Him, and know also their own selves and
other things, and are therefore superior to Him in knowledgeand
he abandoned that blasphemous philosophical theory,
refusing to accept it. Still he was not ashamed of persisting
in the denial of this plurality in every respect, and he affirmed
that God’s knowledge of Himself and of other things, yes, of
the totality of things, is identical with His essence without this
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