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

Everything he says here about the philosophers is a philosophical
doctrine, or its consequence, or can be regarded as a philosophical
doctrine, with one exception, when he says that heaven seeks by its
movement the particular positions which are infinite; however, what is
infinite cannot be sought, since it cannot be attained. Nobody has held this
doctrine but Avicenna, and Ghazali’s objection to it, which we will mention
later, is sufficient, and according to the philosophers it is the movement
itself in so far as it is movement which is aimed at by heavens For the
perfection of an animal, in so far as it is an animal, is movement; in this
sublunary world rest occurs to the transitory animal only by accident, that
is through the necessity of matter, for lassitude and fatigue touch the
animal only because it is in matter. b The whole life and perfection of
those animals which are not affected by tiredness and languor must of
necessity lie in their movement; and their assimilation to their Creator
consists in this, that by their movement they impart life to what exists in
this sublunary world.
This movement, however, does not occur according to the philosophers
in first intention for the sake of this sublunary world; that is, the heavenly
body is not in first intention created for the sake of this sublunary world.
For indeed this movement is the special act for the sake of which heaven
is created, and if this movement occurred in first intention for the sake of
the sublunary world, the body of the heavens would be created only for
the sake of this sublunary world, and it is impossible, according to the
philosophers, that the superior should be created for the sake of the
inferior; on the contrary, out of the superior there follows the existence of
the inferior, just as the perfection of the ruler in relation to his subject does
not lie in his being a ruler, but his being a ruler is only the consequence of
his perfection. In the same way the providence which prevails in this world
is like the care of the ruler for his subjects, who have no salvation and no
existence except in him, and especially in the ruler who for his most
perfect and noble existence does not need to be a ruler, let alone that he
should need his subjects’ existence. ‘
Ghazali says:
The objection to this is that in the premisses of this
argument there are controversial points. We shall not,
however, pay any attention to them, but shall revert at once
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