The Authenticity of Transmitted Reports on the First Intellect

Most Muslim thinkers perceive the Prophet Muhammad -besides being a messenger- as a political leader with divine authority and saw his religion as the socio-political program for this worldly life. The theology behind this politics becomes a powerful tool for the heirs of the Prophet - the caliphs, kings, and jurists in later centuries- to sanctify their political authority and link it to a divine right. Muslim philosophers have had a central role in theorizing this theology. They made an effort to demonstrate the ontic superiority of the Prophet through the idea of al-‘aql al-awwal as the First Creation -- inherited from Aristotelian, the Neo-Platonic and Hellenistic prophetic philosophy -- which they associated with political authority in Islam. The Islamization of this idea was mainly accomplished by the numerous transmitted reports (sg.ḥadīth) that introduced the spirit of the Prophet (Muhammadan Reality)as the First Creation and apolitical agent of the sacred or the transcendent realm. After a discussion of the reasoning of the most prominent Muslim philosophers on this issue, this studyby way of isnād-cum-matn analysis - a textual and historical examination of the transmission chains and content of the hadiths –will critically examine the authenticity of these sources.