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

Ghazali says:
It may be said, `This difficulty applies only to Avicenna in
so far as he says that the First knows other things, but the
acknowledged philosophers are in agreement that it does
not know anything besides itself, and this difficulty is
therefore set aside. ‘
But we answer, `What a terrible blasphemy is this
doctrine! Verily, had it not had this extreme weakness, later
philosophers would not have scorned it, but we shall draw
attention to its reprehensible character, for this theory rates
God’s effects higher than Himself, since angel and man and
every rational being knows himself and his principle and
knows also of other beings, but the First knows only its own
self and is therefore inferior to individual men, not to speak
of the angels; indeed, the animals besides their awareness
of themselves know other things, and without doubt
knowledge is something noble and the lack of it is an
imperfection. And what becomes of their statement that God,
because He is the most perfect splendour and the utmost
beauty, is the lover and the beloved? But what beauty can
there be in mere existence which has no quiddity, no
essence, which i observes neither what occurs in the world
nor what is a consequence or proceeds from its own
essence? And what deficiency in God’s whole world could
be greater? And an intelligent man may well marvel at a
group of men who according to their statement speculate
deeply about the intelligibles, but whose inquiry culminates
in a Lord of Lords and Cause of causes who does not
possess any knowledge about anything that happens in the
world. What difference is there then between Him and the
dead, except that He has self-consciousness? And what
perfection is there in His self-knowledge, if He is ignorant of
everything else? And the blasphemy of this doctrine releases
us from the use of many words and explanations.
Further, there may be said to them: `Although you plunge
yourselves in these shameful doctrines, you cannot free
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