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They went so far as to attribute it to the action of the stars, saying: when two people have the same ascendant and stand in trine or sextile to each other, and the lot governing their love falls under one star — love and affinity necessarily arise between them.
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They went further still, attributing it to the action of the Creator — claiming that God created souls spherically, like globes, then split each in half and placed each half within a person.
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And therefore, when a soul finds its other half, it becomes attached to it. They pushed further still and made passion into a kind of religious obligation, saying: people are tested with this so they may learn submission in love, and thereby submit to their Creator and worship Him.
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These people in all they say are heedless and irrational. I will first give them a clear refutation of their opening claims, then show them the harms of what they embraced.
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I say: as for what you claim about our Lord, it is not permissible that He test people with what He has forbidden — as it says: 'And God does not impute folly' (Job 24:12), and also: 'For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil cannot dwell with you' (Ps. 5:5).
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As for the claim about spherical halves — since we have already refuted those who hold that souls are pre-existent and made clear that each person's soul is created together with the completion of his form, this claim collapses entirely.
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As for their claim about the stars and the matching of lots and ascendants: if it were as they say, whenever Zayd loves ʿAmr, ʿAmr must also love Zayd — since they are matched; but we do not find it to be so.
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As for their claim that passion begins with a glance and then desire in the heart — I say: precisely for this reason our Lord commanded us to turn both eye and heart toward His service, as it says: 'My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways' (Prov. 23:26).
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And He forbade us from turning them toward transgression, saying: 'Do not follow your heart and your eyes, after which you go astray' (Num. 15:39).
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It is only that when this state becomes entrenched in the heart and seizes upon it, mastering it — then that person becomes incapable of eating, drinking, and attending to his other affairs.
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Until his body wastes away, his frame grows thin, diseases assail him at their most acute, and feverishness, swooning, palpitations, distress, nausea, and agitation come upon him.
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As it says: 'They have drawn near; their heart is hot as an oven in their ambush' (Hos. 7:6). It may rise to the brain and weaken imagination, thought, and memory — and may abolish sensation and motion.
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Sometimes at the sight of his beloved his senses leave him and he faints for a time, his spirit gone; sometimes at a glance or the mere mention of the beloved he gasps and literally dies — and the proverb becomes literally true.
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As it says: 'For many are the slain she has brought down, and mighty are all her killed' (Prov. 7:26).
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How can a person be a prisoner — he and his reason both — knowing nothing but that person: no Creator, no power, no this world, no next world? As it says: 'The godless in heart cherish anger; they do not cry for help even when bound' (Job 36:13).
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And submission and servitude come only toward the beloved and their entourage — sitting at the doors and lurking in every quarter, as it says: 'Lift your eyes to the heights and see — where have you not been ravished? On the roads you sat for them' (Jer. 3:2).
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And sleeplessness at night, rising before dawn, hiding from anyone who might encounter him, dying deaths of embarrassment at every blush — as it says: 'and the adulterer's eye'
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'watches for the twilight, saying: no eye will see me, and disguises his face' (Job 24:15).
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And killing comes — of the pursuer or the pursued, of one of their entourages, or of both parties and their entourages, and of many others along with them — as it says: 'For she has committed adultery; blood is on their hands' (Ezek. 23:37).
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And if one day he obtains what he pursued and nature gets its due — proportionate to the effort he expended on himself — it returns in disgust and regret, for his attachment to her was greater than her attachment to him.
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As it says: 'And Amnon hated her with very great hatred, for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her; and Amnon said to her: Get up and go!' (2 Sam. 13:15).
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A person should understand that he has sold his soul, his religion, all his senses, and his reason — after the arrow strikes that he cannot evade — as it says: 'until an arrow pierces his liver, as a bird hastens to the snare' (Prov. 7:23).
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This state is beautiful only when a man is fond of his wife and she is fond of him, for the building up of the world — as it says: 'A loving hind, a graceful doe — let her breasts satisfy you at all times' (Prov. 5:19).
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Let the husband extend from his desire toward his wife with reason and religion, to the measure that brings their harmony; and let him restrain it from anything else with all his strength and power.
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Section VIII. Chapter Five: On Accumulating Wealth.
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Others held that the finest thing a person can pursue in the abode of this world is dedication to accumulating wealth. They were drawn to this for various reasons — among them: they said that food, drink, and intercourse — through which the body is sustained — are only possible with it.
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And likewise buying, selling, marriage, and everything that circulates between people is completed through it; even a king cannot secure his rule or make alliances except through it.
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Armies are mustered and fortresses opened only to gain it; mines and pits are dug only to extract it; visits, meetings, and calls are only at the doors of the wealthy; and generosity, piety, charity, supplication, and thanksgiving