Book I (The Book of Knowledge)
Translated into English from the original Arabic by
Nabih Amin Faris
Sh. Muhamamd Ashraf Lahore (Pakistan)
First it is the quality which distinguishes man from the other animals and prepare him to understand and grasp the theoretical sciences (nazariyah ), and master the abstract (fikriyah ) disciplines. This is exactly what Al-Harith ibn-Asad al-Muhasibi meant when he said in defining the intellect ('aql ) as an instinct (gharizah ) through which the theoretical sciences are grasped and understood. It is as though it were a light cast into the heart preparing it thereby to grasp things and and understand them. Hence he who denies this and limits the intellect to daruriyah knowledge only, is wrong because he who is unaware of the existance of these facts as well as he is fast asleep, in so far as they possess that instinct, are called intelligent, although they lack the knowledge of these facts. And just as life is an instinct whereby the body is disposed to carry out the voluntary (ikhtiyariyah ) movements and respond to sense perception (idrakat hissiyah ), so is the intellect an instinct whereby some of the animals are disposed to grasp the theoretical sciences. Furthermore if it were conceivable to regard the donkey equal to man in instincts and sense perception and say that there was no difference between them except that God, just as a matter of course, imbued man with sciences with which He did not bless the donkey and the animals, it would also be conceivable to regard the inanimate objects equal to the donkey in life and say that there was no difference between them except that God, just as a matter of course, endowed the donkey with some particular movements. But if the donkey were inanimate and lifeless, it would have been necessary to say that every movement which the donkey might perform must have been originated in it by God in that particular sequence. And just as it has been necessary to say that the donkey would not differ from inanimate objects in movement except for an instinct characteristic of it which is expressed by the word life; so would it be in the case of man in relation to the animal, he differs from it in his grasp of the theoretical sciences through an instinct which is expressed by the word intellect. This is just like the mirror which is distinguished from other objects by its ability to reflect images and colours through a particular quality peculiar of it, namely its polish. The same is true of the eye which is distinguished from the forehead in several qualities and characteristics which enable it to see. Hence the relation of that instinct, (namely, the intellect), to the sciences is similar to that of the eye to vision; while the relation of the Qur'an and the law to that instinct in so far as it leads to the unfolding of the sciences is like that of the light of the sun to seeing. In this manner, therefore, should this instinct be defined and understood.
Secondly the word 'aql is applied to that knowledge which makes its appearance even in the infant who discerns the possibility of possible things (ja'izat ) and the impossibility of impossible things (mustahilat ), such as the knowledge that the two are greater than the one and that the one individual cannot be in two different places at the same time. It is what one of the scholastics meant when he defined the word 'aql as some axiomatic (daruriyah ) knowledge, such as the possibility of possible things and the impossibility of impossible things. This definition is right, as it stands, because this knowledge is existent and the application of the word 'aql to it is clear. What is wrong, however, is to deny that instinct, and to hold that only this kind of knowledge exists.
In the third place the word 'aql has been applied to that knowledge which is acquired through experience (empirical knowledge), in the course of events. Thus he who has been taught by experience and schooled by time is generally called intelligent ('aqil ), while he who lacks these qualifications is called unintelligent, stupid and ignorant. Here, therefore, is another type of knowledge which is called 'aql .
In the fourth place the word 'aql is used when the power of the instinct develops to such an extent that its owner will be able to tell what the end will be, and consequently be will conquer and subdue his appetite which hankers for immediate pleasure. Whenever such a power obtains, its owner, in view of the fact that he embarks on an undertaking, or refrains from it only after a thorough consideration of its end rather than in answer to the urge of a carnal appetite, is called intelligent. This, too, is among the peculiarities which distinguish man from the other animals.
As to these four usages of the word 'aql it should be pointed out that the first is the foundation of the other three, their origin and fountain-head. The second is the branch nearest to the first while the third is an offshoot of both the first and the second combined, since through the power of the instinct and axiomatic knowledge, are the empirical sciences acquired. The fourth is the final fruit and ultimate aim. The first two are native (bi-al-tab' ), while the last two are acquired (bi-al-iktisab ). For this reason Hadrat 'Ali said:
Knowledge is of two kinds: native and acquired,
But no acquired knowledge is of any use,
If there is no native knowledge,
Just as the light of the sun is useless
When the light of the eyes is shut off.
The first, namely the native (matbu' ), was intended by the Prophet when he said, "Allah has not created a more honored thing than the intellect ('aql )". The second, namely the acquired (masmu' ), was intended by the Prophet when he said, "When men draw near unto Allah through righteousness and good works, draw thou near unto Him through thy learning." The same is meant by the words of the Apostle of Allah when he said to Abu-al-Darda', "Increase in learning and thou wilt draw nearer unto God". Abu-al-Darda' exclaimed, "May my father and mother be thy ransom! How can I do that?" The Apostle replied, "Avoid the prohibitions of Allah and fulfil His commandments and thou wilt be wise; do the works and thou wilt receive a place of favour and exaltation from thy Lord in the world to come".
It was also related on the authority of Hadrat Sa'id ibn-al-Musayyab that 'Umar, Ubayy ibn Ka'b, and Abu-Hurayrah called one day on the Apostle of Allah and said, "O Apostle of Allah! Who is the most learned of men?" He said, "The wise". "Who is the most worshipful of men?" they asked, "The wise", replied the Apostle. Again they said, "And who is the most excellent of men?" And again He replied, "The wise." Thereupon they said, "Is not the wise man he whose manliness is complete, whose eloquence is manifest, whose generosity is active, and whose rank is exalted?" The Apostle replied, "All these are of the things of this world while the hereafter is reserved by God for pious who fear Him. Verily the wise man is he who is pious, although he may be abject and despised in this world." According to another tradition the Prophet said, "Verily the wise man is he who believes in Allah, accepts His Apostles, and obeys His commandments".
It is very likely that the basic use of the word 'aql has been for that instinct, [native intellect], and the same is true of its technical use. It was, however, applied to knowledge because the latter is, as it were, its fruit, And just as a thing is known by its fruit so that, as a result, it is said, "The fear of Allah is knowledge", and "He who fears Allah is learned", because the fear of God is the fruit of knowledge, so has the word 'aql been used metaphorically for other than that instinct, [native intellect]. It is not, however, our purpose to discuss language. All we mean is that these four parts exist and that the term 'aql is applied to all of them alike. Furthermore there is no dispute regarding the existence of all but the first part, namely the instinct. There is no doubt, however, that it exists; in fact it is the origin of the other three while all the forms of knowledge, are as it were, inherent in it by nature and come to light when some cause which will bring them out takes place. Such is the case with knowledge that it would seem as though there was no external influence whatever in its appearance: it merely was latent in that instinct and later appeared. This can be illustrated by the waters in the bowels of the earth: it appears on digging and collects at the bottom of the well and can be distinguished by the senses; yet throughout the whole operation no new element was introduced. The same is true of the oil in almond nuts and the attar in rose petals. For this reason Allah said, "And when thy Lord brought forth their descendants from the reins of the sons of Adam and took them to witness against themselves, 'Am I not', said He, 'your Lord?' They said, 'Yes, we witness it'". [7: 171] What is meant here is confession in their souls, not verbal profession, because men are divided in the case of verbal profession into two groups, believers and unbelievers. Consequently Allah said, "If you ask them who created them, they will be sure to say, 'Allah'". This means that if they would only consider their condition, their souls and hearts would subscribe to the fact that God had created them (in accordance with) "the nature (fitrah ) which God has given them". [43 : 87] In other words every human being is created and born a believer; still more every human being is born with an inherent knowledge of reality; inherent since it is readily disposed to perceive reality. With belief installed by nature in the human soul, men have split, into two groups; the one has turned away from that belief and has forgotten all about it - it comprises the unbelievers; the other has pondered and remembered, resembling theirin one who has a witness, and, in his oversight, for a while has forgotten all about it, but finally has remembered it. For this reason Allah said, "Haply they may remember"; [cf. 30 : 29] and "those that endued with understanding may recall and remember"; [2:321, 14 : 30] and again, "And remember the favuor of God upon you, and His covenant which He had covenated with you"; [38 : 28] and again, "And we have rendered the Qur'an available as a sign to be remembered - but is there anyone who will remember?" [5: 10] It is not, therefore, far-fetched to call this kinds, remembrance (tadhakkur ). This remembrance is of two kinds: the one is to recall a picture which once existed in ones mind but has since disappeared, while the other is to recall a picture which is inherent in ones mind by nature (fitrah).
These facts are evident to him who exercises his insight, but are abstruse to him who is given to blind imitation and simple acceptance of things on authority (taqlid ) rather than to investigation and personal observation. Consequently you find such man entangled in these and similar verses, hopelessly lost in the interpretation of remembrance (tadhakkur ) and the confession of the souls, and continually imagining that the traditions of the Prophet and the Qur'an are full of contradictions. [56:17] Such an attitude may take hold of him so that he will regard them with contempt, believing that they are utterly incoherent. He is like a blind man who enters a house and, stumbling over some vessels says, "Why were not these vessels removed from the way and returned to their places?" He is then told that they are in their right places and what is wrong is his sight. The same is true of the disorder of the insight; in fact it is worse because the soul is like the horseman while the body represents the horse, and the blindness of the horseman is more serious and disastrous than that of the horse. The relation between insight and sight is evident. Thus Allah said, "His heart falsified not what he saw", [53:11] and again "And thus did We show Abraham the kingdoms of the Heavens and of the Earth". [6:75] The opposite of both insight and sight has been called blindness. Thus Allah said, "For surely it is not the eyes that are blind, but blind are the hearts which are in the breasts". [22:45] As to those things which were revealed to the prophets, some were revealed through the sight and some through the insight, but both were called seeing (ru'ayh ). In short he whose insight is not keen will grasp nothing of religion except its husks and outward forms rather than its pith and truth. These, then are the things to which the word 'aql is applied.
have disagreed concerning the disparity which exists among their intellects (`aql).
But there is no use in repeating the arguments of those of little knowledge. It
is more important to proceed immediately tothe declaration ofthe truth. The
obvious truth in this case is that this disparity pervades all the four parts of
the intellect except the second, namely axiomatic (daruri) knowledge, such as the possibility of possible things and
the impossibility of impossible things. Thus he who comprehends tha: iwro are
greater than one will also comprehend the impossibility for one object being in
two different places at the same time, or for a thing being both eternal (qadim)
and originated (hadith). The same
is true of all other similar facts and whatever is comprehended with certain
comprehension free of any doubt. The three other parts, however, are subject to
to the fourth, namely, the ability of the power ofthe instinct to conquer the
appetite, the disparity in it among men is evident and clear; in fact it is
evident and clear that, at times, even the individual betrays a certain degree
of disparity therein. This is sometimes the result of variation in the intensity
of different appetites. A wisemen may be able to overcome one appetite more
readily than another; but the problem is not restricted to this only. The young
man may fail to overcome the appetite of sex and desist from fornication, but
when he advances in age and his understanding becomes mature he will be able to
subdue his lust. On the other hand hypocrisy and pride increase and grow
stronger with age.
disparity may also be the result of difference in the mastery of the knowledge
which reveals the evil of the other appetites. Thus a physician may be able to
abstain from some of the harmful foods, while another man may fail simply
because he lacks medical knowledge, although he may be the physicians peer in
intellect and of the same belief in the harmful effects of those foods. Again
the more mature the physicians intellect, the stronger will his fear be.
Hence fear is an aid in the service of intellect, an instrument with which to
overcome and break appetites. Similarly, the learned man is more capable of
renouncing sin than the ignorant, because his knowledge of the evils of sin is
greater. I mean the true learned men and not those of the flowing robes who dote
and rave and prate of things they know little about.
this disparity is due to appetite it will have nothing to do with the disparity
of intellect, but if it is due to knowledge, then we shall call this kind of
knowledge, intellect, because it strengthens the native intellect and hence the
disparity will be that of the particular knowledge then involved, after which it
will also be named. It may also be caused by disparities in the native
intelellect the ability of which to stamp out appetite becomes inevitably
stronger as it grows more powerful.
to the third part, namely, empirical knowledge (ulum
al-tajarib),ithe disparity of men
in it cannot be denied. They differ therein in the number of times they are
right in their quickness to comprehend. This may be the result of either
disparity in the instinct, (i.e. native intellect), or disparity in practice and
experience. In the case of the first, i.e. the instinct, which is the origin,
the disparity cannot be denied. It is like a luminary which shines upon the
soul, whose dawning and first rays begin to illuminate the soul at the age of
discrimination and continues to grow and increase very gradually until it
reaches its fullness around the age of forty. Or like the light of the morning,
the beginnings of which are hard to discern but it increases little by little
until it attains its fullness at the rising of the sun. The disparity of insight
is like that of eye sight where the difference between the weak-sighted man and
the keen-sighted is quite evident.
law of Allah operates universally among all His creatures and follows the
principles of gradual development. Thus the sex instinct does not appear at
puberty all at one time suddenly; rather it appears little by little gradually.
The same is true of all the other forces and facilities. In fact he who denies
the disparity of men in this instinct is loose outside the confines of sanity,
and he who thinks that the intellect of the Prophet is the same as that of any
of the outlandish peasants and desert ruffians is himself filthier than any of
how could the disparity of instinct (i.e. the native intellect) be denied when
without it men would not have varied in their ability to understand knowledge,
nor would they have been divided into the stupid who fail to understand anything
except after long and tedious explanation byateacher, the brilliant who respond
to the least sign, and the perfect from whose soul truth emanates without any
previous instruction. Thus Allah said, Whose oil would well nigh shine out,
even though fire touched it not! It is light upon light. (24:35) Such are the
Prophets to whom recondite things are clarified in their inward thoughts without
having learnt or heard anything of the sort. This is expressed by the word
inspiration (ilham). The Prophet expressed the same thing when he said,
Verily the holy spirit whispered into my heart and said, `Love anyone,, thou
shalt part from him; live anyway thou desirest, thou shalt verily die; do
anything thou wilt - thou shalt be accordingly rewarded. This kind of
imparting information by the angels to the Prophets is different from explicit
revelation which involves hearing a definite voice with the ear and seeing the
angel with the eye. Consequently the stage (of revelation) has been described as
whispering into the heart (al nafth fi al-ruh). As to the stages of
revelation (wahi), they are many, but to embark on a discussion of them
under practical religion (ilm al-mukashafah) is not fitting, because
they fall under the science of revelation (ilm al-mukashafah). Do not
think, however, that the knowledge of the stages of revelation requires that a
person be himself a receiver of revelation, because it is not unlikely for a
sick physician to know the different stages of health or for the trespassing
learned man to know the various stages of justice despite the fact that he lacks
justice. For knowledge is one thing and the existence of what is known is
another. Consequently not everyone who knows what prophethood and sainthood are
will be a Prophet or a saint, and not everyone who knows what piety and
godliness are will be pious or godly.
men are divided into those who take notice by themselves and understand those
who do not understand except through warning and
instruction, and those who benefit from neither, is like the division of the
bosom of the earth into parts where water collects and increases until it brusts
out by itself into springs of living water, parts where water collects but
cannot be reached without digging, and and parts where not even digging will
avail. This is true of the disparity of men in native intellect. Attesting to
the disparity of the intellect is a tradition narrated by `Abdullah ibn-Salam to
the effect that the Prophet at the end of a long conversation, described the
throne and stated that the angels once asked Allah saying, O our Lord! Hast
thou created aught greater than the throne? Allah replied, Yes, the
intellect. The angels said, How great is it? Allah answered and said,
Verily no one can grasp its greatness. Can you number the sand of the sea?
They said, No. Allah then replied, Verily I have created the intellect
in different kinds as numerous as the sand of the sea. Some men were given one
grain, others two, three and four grains, still others received a good portion,
others a portion equalling a camel-load, and others even greater.
may say, Why then do some groups among the Sufi disparage the intellect and
reason as well as the rational and the reasonable?You should know, then, that
the reason for it is that men have transferred the term intellect or reason (`aql)
and the term rational or reasonable (maqui) from their real and original
meaning to another and false meaning, namely argumentation and debate over
contradictions and requisites, which is scholastic theology. Consequently the
Sufis could not tell that men have erred in this terminology, especially since
it has not been possible to remove that from their minds in view of its current
and well established usage. As a result they disparaged reason and rationalism.
Could it be imagined, however, that the light of the insight, through which
Allah is known and the truthfulness of His Apostle is recognized, will ever be
disparaged or belittled when Allah Himself praised it? And if it were ever
disparaged what other thing could be praised? But if the praiseworthy knowledge
be the law, by what is its truth known? If it were known through the blameworthy
and unreliable intellect, that the law itself is blameworthy. No attention,
however, is paid to him who says that the law is known through certainty itself (ayn
al--yaqin) and the light of belief rather than through intellect, because we
mean by intellect what he means by certain sight and the light of belief, namely
the inner characteristics by which man is distinguished from the animal and
through which he comprehends reality. Most of these wild errors have arisen from
the ignorance of some who sought realities in words and erred wildly therein,
because of the confusion which exists in the technical terminologies of men.
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