Abstract Muslim philosophers who spoke of love identified it with the Necessary Existence. They considered it the motive force both for creation and for the return of all things to the origin. The Necessary Existence, they said, loves the sheer good and the absolutely beautiful, which is itself. By loving itself, it loves all possible things, which are nothing but its own radiance. Human beings for their part innately love the good and the beautiful and strive to achieve it. Sufi teachers who employed the same language agreed with the philosophical conclusions but insisted that people needed to follow in the footsteps of the prophets in order to actualize the goal of love, which is union with the Real Beloved.