Deliverance from Error

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Praise be to Allah, with whose praise every epistle and discourse is opened, and blessings upon Muhammad al-Mustafa, the bearer of prophethood and messengership, and upon his family and his Companions, the guides from error. To proceed: You have asked me, O brother in religion, to disclose to you the ultimate aims of the sciences and their secrets, and the perils of the schools of thought and their depths, and to relate to you what I endured in extracting the truth from amid the confusion of sects, along with the divergence of paths and ways, and what I ventured in rising from the lowland of taqlid to the highland of insight, and what I benefited, firstly, from the science of kalam, and what I found repugnant, secondly, of the ways of the people of ta‘lim, who restrict the attainment of truth to taqlid of the Imam, and what I scorned, thirdly, of the ways of philosophizing, and what I inclined to, finally, of the way of Sufism, and what became clear to me in the course of my investigation into the sayings of mankind, of the kernel of truth, and what turned me away from spreading knowledge in Baghdad despite the multitude of students, and what brought me back to resuming in Nishapur after a long time. So I hastened to answer your request, after establishing the sincerity of your desire, and I said, seeking the help of Allah and relying upon Him, and seeking success from Him and taking refuge in Him: Know — may Allah Most High improve your guidance and render your rein pliant to the truth — that the disagreement of mankind concerning religions and creeds, and then the disagreement of the umma concerning schools of thought, with the multiplicity of sects and the divergence of paths, is a deep ocean in which most have drowned, and from which none but the few are saved. And every party claims that it is the saved one, "and every party rejoices in what it has." And this is what the master of the messengers, may Allah's blessings be upon him — and he is the truthful one, deemed truthful — promised us, when he said: "My umma will split into seventy-three sects, the saved among them being one." And what he promised would be has come to be. I have not ceased, in the prime of my youth — from the time I approached puberty, before reaching twenty, until now, when my age has advanced beyond fifty — plunging into the midst of this deep ocean, and wading into its expanse with the wading of one who is daring, not the wading of a fearful coward, and penetrating into every darkness, and assailing every difficulty, and plunging into every peril, and inquiring into the creed of every sect, and uncovering the secrets of the doctrine of every group, in order to distinguish between the upholder of truth and the upholder of falsehood, and between the follower of the Sunna and the innovator. I would leave no Batini without wishing to acquaint myself with his batiniyya, nor any Zahiri without wanting to know the outcome of his zahiriyya, nor any philosopher without intending to apprehend the essence of his philosophy, nor any mutakallim without striving to apprise myself of the ultimate aim of his kalam and his disputation, nor any Sufi without being eager to discover the secret of his purity, nor any worshipper without observing to what the outcome of his worship returns, nor any negating zindiq without prying after him in order to take heed of the causes of his audacity in his negation and his zandaqa.

Thirst for attaining the realities of matters was my constant practice and way, from the beginning of my life and the prime of my youth — an instinct and fitra from Allah placed in my inborn nature, not by my choice and contrivance — until the bond of taqlid was loosened from me and the inherited beliefs broke away from me, when I was still close to the age of boyhood, for I saw that Christian children grow up only as Christians, Jewish children grow up only as Jews, and Muslim children grow up only as Muslims. And I heard the hadith transmitted from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in which he said: "Every newborn is born upon the fitra; then his parents make him Jewish, make him Christian, and make him Magian." So my inner self was moved to seek the reality of the original fitra, and the reality of the incidental beliefs acquired through taqlid of parents and teachers, and to distinguish between these acts of taqlid, whose beginnings are mere inculcations, and in distinguishing the true among them from the false there are disagreements. So I said to myself: First, what I seek is knowledge of the realities of matters, so I must seek what the reality of knowledge is. Then it became clear to me that certain knowledge is that in which the object known is disclosed with a disclosure that leaves no doubt along with it, and that the possibility of error and illusion does not accompany, and that the heart has no capacity to suppose otherwise; rather, immunity from error must accompany certainty, with an accompaniment such that if, for example, one who turns stone into gold and a staff into a serpent were to challenge it by demonstrating its falsity, that would not bequeath any doubt or denial. For if I know that ten is more than three, and someone were to say to me, "No, rather three is more, as proved by my turning this staff into a serpent," and he turned it and I witnessed that from him, I would not doubt my knowledge because of it, and nothing would come to me from it except amazement at how he was able to do it; as for doubting what I knew because of it, never. Then I knew that everything I do not know in this manner and of which I am not certain with this kind of certainty is knowledge in which there is no trust and no security, and every knowledge in which there is no security is not certain knowledge.

The Entry into Sophistry and the Denial of the Sciences Then I examined my sciences, and I found myself devoid of a science described by this attribute, except in the case of sensibles and necessary truths. So I said: Now, after despair has occurred, there is no hope of acquiring obscure problems except from evident ones, namely sensibles and necessary truths. So they must first be made firm, so that I may ascertain whether my confidence in sensibles, and my security from error in necessary truths, is of the same kind as my previous security in matters taken on authority, and of the same kind as the security of most people in theoretical matters, or whether it is a verified security in which there is no treachery and no hidden harm. So I set out with intense earnestness to contemplate sensibles and necessary truths, and to consider whether I could make myself doubt them. Prolonged doubting brought me to the point where my soul no longer permitted me to concede security in sensibles either, and [this doubting] began to expand concerning them, saying: Whence comes confidence in the senses? The strongest of them is the sense of sight, which looks at the shadow and sees it standing, motionless, and judges the negation of motion, then through experience and observation — after an hour — it knows that it is moving, and that it did not move all at once, suddenly, but gradually, atom by atom, such that it never had a state of standing still. And it looks at the planet and sees it small, in the measure of a dinar, then geometrical proofs indicate that it is greater than the earth in magnitude. This, and its likes among sensibles: the judge of sense passes its judgments concerning them, and the judge of reason belies it and accuses it of treachery with a refutation that there is no way to repel. So I said: Confidence in sensibles has also been nullified, so perhaps there is no confidence except in rational matters that are among primary truths, such as our saying: ten is more than three, and negation and affirmation do not combine in a single thing, and a single thing cannot be eternal, existent and nonexistent, necessary and impossible. Then the senses said: How can you be secure that your confidence in rational matters is not like your confidence in sensibles, when you had been confident in me, then the judge of reason came and belied me, and were it not for the judge of reason you would have continued to assent to me, so perhaps beyond the perception of reason there is another judge which, when it manifests, will belie reason in its judgment, just as the judge of reason manifested and belied sense in its judgment, and the non-manifestation of that perception does not prove its impossibility!! The soul hesitated a little in answering that, and it supported its objection by [appeal to] dreaming, saying: Do you not see that in sleep you believe in things, and imagine states, and believe in their fixity and stability, and entertain no doubt about them in that state, and then you wake up and know that all your imaginings and beliefs had neither origin nor consequence. So how can you be secure that all that you believe in your waking, by sense or by reason, is true relative to the state you are in, yet it is possible that there may come upon you a state whose relation to your waking is like the relation of your waking to your dreaming, with your waking being sleep relative to it! And when that state arrives, you will be certain that all that you imagined by your reason are imaginations having no reality.

Perhaps that state is what the Sufis claim to be their state, for they allege that they witness, in the states they experience when they plunge into themselves and become absent from their senses, conditions that do not accord with these rational propositions. And perhaps that state is death, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “People are asleep, and when they die they awake.” So perhaps the life of this world is sleep in relation to the Hereafter, and when one dies things appear to him contrary to what he now witnesses, and it will be said to him then: “So We have removed from you your covering, and your sight today is keen.” When these thoughts occurred to me and were kindled in the soul, I sought a remedy for them but none was forthcoming, for repelling them could only be by a proof, and a proof could only be constructed by combining primary cognitions. And if those are not conceded, no proof can be constructed. So the malady became intractable, and it lasted for nearly two months, during which I was upon the doctrine of sophistry by virtue of my state, not by virtue of utterance and professed speech. Until Allah Most High healed me of that sickness, and the soul returned to health and equilibrium, and the necessary truths of reason returned accepted and trusted with security and certainty. And that was not by constructing a proof and ordering discourse, but by a light which Allah Most High cast into the breast, and that light is the key to most cognitions. So whoever thinks that kashf is dependent upon formal proofs has constricted the vast mercy of Allah Most High. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about “the expansion” and its meaning in His Most High’s saying: “So whomever Allah wills to guide, He expands his breast for Islam,” he said: “It is a light which Allah Most High casts into the heart.” It was said: And what is its sign? He said: “Keeping aloof from the abode of delusion, and turning in repentance toward the abode of eternity.” And it is this about which he ﷺ said: “Allah Most High created creation in darkness, then He sprinkled upon them some of His light.” So from that light kashf should be sought, and that light gushes forth from the divine generosity on certain rare instances, and one must lie in wait for it, as he ﷺ said: “Indeed your Lord has breaths of bounty in the days of your lifetime, so expose yourselves to them.” The point of these accounts is that one should exert utmost earnestness in seeking, until one ends up seeking what is not to be sought. For the primary truths are not to be sought, for they are present, and what is present, when sought, shies away and disappears. And whoever seeks what is not to be sought is not accused of negligence in seeking what is to be sought.

Classes of the Seekers When Allah healed me of this sickness, by His bounty and the vastness of His generosity, I brought before my mind the classes of the seekers in four groups: 1 - The mutakallimun: and they claim that they are the people of opinion and rational inquiry. 2 - The Batiniyya: and they assert that they are the adherents of taʿlim, and those singled out for deriving [knowledge] from the infallible Imam. 3 - The philosophers: and they assert that they are the people of logic and demonstration. 4 - The Sufis: and they claim that they are the elect of the Presence, and the people of witnessing and unveiling. So I said to myself: The truth does not go beyond these four classes, for these are the ones who traverse the paths of seeking the truth, and if the truth eludes them, no hope remains of attaining the truth, since there is no hope of returning to taqlid after departing from it, for it is part of the condition of the muqallid that he not know that he is a muqallid, and when he knows that, the glass of his taqlid is shattered, and it is a fracture that cannot be mended and a disarray that cannot be gathered by patching and piecing together, unless it is melted by fire and a fresh new fashioning is begun anew for it. So I hastened to tread these paths and to investigate exhaustively what these groups possess, beginning with the science of kalam, and seconding with the path of philosophy, and thirding with the learning of the Batiniyya, and fourthing with the path of Sufism.

The Science of Kalam: Its Aim and Its Outcome Then I began with the science of kalam: I acquired it, understood it rationally, studied the books of the verifiers among its adherents, and composed concerning it what I wished to compose. And I found it to be a science that fulfills its own aim but does not fulfill my aim. Its aim is only to preserve the creed of Ahl al-Sunna and to guard it against the confusion spread by the people of innovation. For Allah Almighty cast to His servants, upon the tongue of His Messenger, a creed which is the truth, concerning that in which lies the soundness of their religion and their worldly life, as the Qur’an and the reports proclaimed in making it known. Then Satan cast into the whisperings of the innovators matters contrary to the Sunna, so they grew devoted to them and nearly unsettled the true creed for its people. So Allah Almighty brought forth the group of the mutakallimun and moved their motives to aid the Sunna with an ordered discourse that uncovers the deceptions of the people of newly introduced innovations, contrary to the transmitted Sunna. From this arose the science of kalam and its people. Indeed, a group among them undertook what Allah Almighty had summoned them to, and they excelled in defending the Sunna, and in contending for the creed received with acceptance from prophethood, and in countering what was innovated of innovation. But in doing so they relied upon premises taken over from their opponents, to whose concession they were compelled either by taqlid, or by the consensus of the umma, or by mere acceptance from the Qur’an and the reports. And most of their disputation consisted in drawing out the contradictions of the opponents and holding them to the entailments of what they had conceded. And this is of little benefit for one who concedes nothing at all except necessary truths. So kalam was not sufficient in my case, nor healing for the ailment of which I complained. True, when the craft of kalam came into being, and disputation concerning it multiplied, and a long time passed, the mutakallimun aspired to attempt the defense of the Sunna by investigating the realities of things, and they engaged in investigation into substances and accidents and their properties. But that was not the aim of their science, and their discourse concerning it did not reach the utmost goal, so there did not result from it what would entirely efface the darknesses of perplexity arising from the disagreements of mankind. And I do not deem it far-fetched that that should have been attained by other than me; indeed, I do not doubt that it was attained by a group, but an attainment mixed with taqlid in some matters that are not among the self-evident first principles. And the purpose now is to recount my own state, not to deny one who has found healing through it, for the medicines of healing differ with the difference of the disease, and how many a medicine benefits one sick person while another is harmed by it.

Philosophy Its main outcomes: what of it is blameworthy and what is not blameworthy, in what of it its proponent is deemed an unbeliever and in what he is not deemed so, in what of it he is deemed an innovator and in what he is not deemed so; and an explanation of what they stole from the words of the people of truth, and what they mixed with their own words in order to promote their falsehood under cover of that; and how souls come to feel aversion toward that truth — and how the assayer of realities extracts the pure, unalloyed truth from the counterfeit and glitter within the totality of their words. Then I began — after finishing with the science of kalam — with the science of philosophy, and I knew with certainty that one who does not reach the utmost limit of a science cannot discern the corruption of a branch of the sciences, until he equals the most knowledgeable of them in the foundation of that science, then exceeds him and surpasses his rank, so as to come to know, of its depth and its hidden flaws, what the master of the science has not come to know; and only then can what he claims concerning its corruption be true. And I saw no one among the scholars of Islam who had devoted his care and concern to that, and there was nothing in the books of the mutakallimun concerning their discourse — where they busied themselves with refuting them — except convoluted, scattered phrases manifest in contradiction and corruption, by which no rational layman could be imagined to be deceived, let alone one who claims knowledge of the subtleties of science. So I knew that refuting a doctrine before understanding it and gaining insight into its essence is shooting in blindness. So I girded up the leg of earnestness in acquiring that science from books, by mere reading without the aid of a teacher, and I turned to that in my free time from authoring and teaching in the religious sciences, while I was charged with teaching and instructing three hundred persons among the students in Baghdad. So Allah, glorified and exalted is He, gave me insight, by mere reading during these snatched moments, into the utmost limit of their sciences in less than two years. Then I continued to persist in reflecting upon it after understanding it for nearly a year, revisiting it and repeating it and examining its hidden flaws and depths, until I gained insight into the deception, obfuscation, verification, and illusion contained in it, with an insight about which I had no doubt. So hear now its story, and the story of the sum of their sciences, for I found them to be various kinds, and I found their sciences to be various divisions; and they — despite the multitude of their kinds — are necessarily marked with the stigma of unbelief and heresy, even though between the ancients among them and the most ancient, and between the later among them and the earlier, there is a great disparity in distance from the truth and nearness to it.

The Categories of the Philosophers and the Encompassing of the Stigma of Unbelief Over All of Them Know that they — despite the multitude of their sects and the divergence of their doctrines — divide into three categories: The Dahriyyun, and The Naturalists, and The Ilahiyyun The First Category The Dahriyyun And they are a group among the ancients who denied the Making, Governing, Knowing, Powerful Maker, and claimed: that the world has never ceased to exist just so, by itself and without a maker, and animal has never ceased to come from seminal fluid, and seminal fluid from animal — so it was, and so it shall ever be. And these are the zindiqs. And the Second Category The Naturalists And they are a people who multiplied their inquiry into the world of nature and into the marvels of animals and plants, and delved deeply into the science of the anatomy of the organs of animals. Then they saw therein, among the marvels of Allah Most High’s artistry and the wonders of His wisdom, that which compelled them to acknowledge a Wise Originator, apprised of the ends of matters and their purposes, and no one studies anatomy and the marvels of the benefits of the organs with [attentive] study except that there occurs to him this necessary knowledge of the perfection of the planning of the Builder for the frame of the animal, especially the frame of man...! Yet these people, because of the abundance of their inquiry into nature, there became apparent to them — on account of the equilibrium of the temperament — a great influence in sustaining the faculties of the animal through it, so they supposed that the rational faculty in man is also dependent upon his temperament, and that it is nullified by the nullification of his temperament and thus ceases to exist, then when it has ceased to exist the restoration of what has ceased to exist is inconceivable, as they claimed, so they maintained that the soul dies and does not return, and thus they denied the Hereafter, and rejected Paradise and Hell, and the Gathering and the Resurrection, and the Rising and the Reckoning, so there remained with them no reward for obedience, nor any punishment for disobedience, so the bridle slipped from them, and they plunged as cattle plunge. And these too are zindiqs, for the foundation of faith is: faith in Allah and the Last Day, and these denied the Last Day, even though they believed in Allah and His attributes.

The Third Group The Theists They are the later ones among them, such as Socrates — and he is the teacher of Plato, and Plato is the teacher of Aristotle — and Aristotle is the one who arranged logic for them, and refined the sciences for them, and set down in precise form for them what had not been set down in precise form before, and ripened for them what was unripe among their sciences. And they, in their entirety, refuted the first two groups, the Dahriyya and the Naturalists, and they adduced, in exposing their disgraces, that by which they spared others [any need to do so] — "and Allah sufficed the believers in fighting" — through their fighting one another. Then Aristotle refuted Plato and Socrates and whoever was before them among the Theists, with a refutation in which he did not fall short, until he dissociated himself from all of them. Yet he retained, from the spray of their unbelief and their innovation, remnants from which he was not granted success in divesting himself. So they must be declared unbelievers, as must their followers among the Islamic philosophers, such as Ibn Sina and al-Farabi and their likes. Although none of the Islamic philosophers undertook the transmission of Aristotle's science like the undertaking of these two men. And what anyone other than these two transmitted is not free of blundering and confusion, in which the heart of the reader is bewildered, so that he does not understand. And that which he does not understand — how can he refute it or accept it? And the sum total of what is sound, in our view, of Aristotle's philosophy, according to the transmission of these two men, is confined to three divisions: 1 – a division concerning which thinking is required. 2 – and a division concerning which declaring innovation is required. 3 – and a division which must not be denied at all. So let us set it out in detail.

The Divisions of Their Sciences Know that their sciences — in relation to the purpose we seek — are of six divisions: mathematical, logical, natural, metaphysical, political, and ethical. As for mathematics: it concerns the science of arithmetic, geometry, and the science of the configuration of the world, and nothing of it relates to religious matters by way of denial or affirmation; rather, they are demonstrative matters to which there is no way to object once they have been understood and known. Two harms have arisen from it. The first: whoever examines it marvels at its subtleties and at the manifestness of its proofs, and on account of that his belief in the philosophers improves, so he supposes that all their sciences are like this science in clarity and in firmness of proof. Then he will have heard what tongues have spread concerning their unbelief, their denial, and their disregard for the Sharia, so he disbelieves through sheer imitation and says: If religion were true, it would not have remained hidden from these men despite their precision in this science! And when he knows by hearsay of their unbelief and their deviation, he infers that the truth is the denial and rejection of religion. How many have I seen who stray from the truth by this excuse, having no support other than it! And when it is said to him: one who is expert in a single art need not be expert in every art, so one expert in fiqh and kalam need not be expert in medicine, nor need one ignorant of the rational sciences be ignorant of grammar; rather, every art has its people who have attained in it the rank of mastery and precedence, even though folly and ignorance may cling to them in other than it; the discourse of the ancients concerning mathematics is demonstrative, while concerning metaphysics it is conjectural — that is not known to one who has tried it and engaged in it. When this is affirmed to this one who has fallen into unbelief through imitation, it meets with no acceptance from him; rather, the dominance of caprice, vain desire, and love of appearing clever carries him to persist in holding a good opinion of them in all the sciences. This is a great harm, on account of which everyone who delves into those sciences must be restrained, for although they do not relate to the matter of religion, yet since they are among the principles of their sciences, their evil and ill omen spreads to him, and few are those who delve into them without being stripped of religion and having the bridle of taqwa loosened from his head. The second harm: it has arisen from an ignorant friend of Islam, who supposed that religion ought to be aided by denying every science attributed to them. So he denied all their sciences and claimed their ignorance in them, even denying their doctrine concerning the solar eclipse and the lunar eclipse, and alleging that what they said is contrary to the Sharia. When that struck the hearing of one who knew that matter by decisive proof, he did not doubt his proof, but he believed that Islam is built upon ignorance and the denial of decisive proof, so his love for philosophy increased and his hatred for Islam. Great indeed is the crime against religion committed by one who supposes that Islam is aided by the denial of these sciences. There is in the Sharia no engagement with these sciences by way of denial or affirmation, nor in these sciences any engagement with religious matters. And his ﷺ saying: "The sun and the moon are two signs among the signs of Allah Almighty; they are not eclipsed

for the death of anyone nor for his life, so when you see [it], hasten to the remembrance of Allah Almighty and to prayer." And there is nothing in this that necessitates denying the science of calculation known by the course of the sun and the moon, and their conjunction or opposition in a particular manner. As for his saying, upon him be peace: "But when Allah manifests Himself to a thing, it submits to Him," this addition is not found in the Sahih at all. So this is the ruling of mathematics and its pitfall. As for logical matters: nothing among them relates to religion by way of negation or affirmation. Rather, they are examination of the methods of proofs and syllogisms, and the conditions of the premises of demonstration, and how they are composed, and the conditions of the sound definition and how it is arranged, and that knowledge is either tasawwur [conception], whose means of knowing it is the definition, or tasdiq [assent], whose means of knowing it is the demonstration. And there is nothing in this that ought to be denied. Rather, it is of the same kind as what the mutakallimun and those who investigate proofs have mentioned. They differ from them only in expressions and technical terms, with additional thoroughness in definitions and ramifications. An example of their discourse therein is their saying: if it is established that every ‘A’ is ‘B,’ it necessarily follows that some ‘B’ is ‘A’ — i.e., if it is established that every human is an animal, it necessarily follows that some animal is a human — and they express this as: the universal affirmative converts to a particular affirmative. And what connection does this have with the important matters of religion, such that it should be rejected and denied? If it is denied, nothing results from its denial, in the view of the logicians, except a poor opinion of the intellect of the denier, indeed of his religion, which he claims depends upon such denial. Yes, they commit a kind of injustice in this science, namely that they assemble for demonstration conditions which are known to yield certainty without fail, but when they proceed to religious aims they were unable to fulfil those conditions, but rather indulged in the utmost laxity. And perhaps one who looks into logic, admiring it and seeing it as clear, may think that the unbeliefs transmitted from them are supported by the like of those demonstrations, and so hasten to unbelief before reaching the divine sciences. So this pitfall also extends to it. 3 - As for the science of natural philosophy: it is investigation of the world of the heavens and their planets, and what is beneath them of simple bodies — such as water, air, earth, and fire — and of composite bodies, such as animals, plants, and minerals, and of the causes of their change and mixture. Likewise, the investigation of medicine resembles it, concerning the human body, and its principal and subordinate organs, and the causes of the transformation of its temperament. And just as denying the science of medicine is not a condition of religion, denying that science is not a condition of it either, except in certain particular questions, which we have mentioned in the book Tahafut al-Falasifa. And whatever else besides them in which opposition is obligatory, upon reflection it becomes clear that it is subsumed under them. The sum of it in principle is that you know that nature is subservient to Allah Almighty; it does not act by itself, but rather it is employed on the part of its Originator. And the sun, the moon, the stars, and the natures are subservient by His command; none of them has any act in itself from itself.

As for metaphysics: in it lie most of their errors, for they were unable to fulfil the demonstrations according to what they had stipulated in logic, and therefore disagreement among them concerning it multiplied. The doctrine of Aristotle concerning it, as transmitted by al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, indeed came close to the doctrines of the Muslims, but the sum of what they erred in goes back to twenty principles: they must be declared unbelievers for three of them, and declared innovators for seventeen. To refute their doctrine concerning these twenty questions we composed the book al-Tahafut. As for the three questions, in them they opposed all the Muslims, namely in their saying: 1. That bodies will not be resurrected, and that only the disembodied spirits are rewarded and punished, and that rewards and punishments are spiritual, not bodily. They spoke truly in affirming the spiritual, for it also exists, but they spoke falsely in denying the bodily, and they committed unbelief against the revealed Law in what they uttered. 2. Among that is their saying: "Allah Most High knows universals but not particulars." This too is explicit unbelief; rather the truth is: "Not the weight of an atom in the heavens nor on earth escapes Him." 3. Among that is their saying of the pre-eternity of the world and its eternity; none of the Muslims has ever adopted any of these positions. As for what is beyond that, such as their denial of the attributes, and their saying that He is knowing by His essence and knows not by something additional to the essence, and what follows the same course, their doctrine concerning it is close to the doctrine of the Muʿtazila, and the Muʿtazila must not be declared unbelievers for the like of that. We have mentioned in the book Faysal al-Tafriqa bayn al-Islam wa al-Zandaqa what makes clear the corruption of the opinion of whoever hastens to declare unbelief in everything that contradicts his own doctrine. As for politics: all their discourse concerning it goes back to judgments aimed at welfare relating to worldly affairs and sultanic governance. They took it only from the books of Allah sent down upon the prophets, and from the wise sayings transmitted from the forerunners of the prophets, upon them be peace. As for ethics: all their discourse concerning it goes back to encompassing the qualities of the soul and its character traits, and mentioning their genera and species and the manner of treating and disciplining them. They took it only from the discourse of the Sufis — those devoted to Allah who persist in remembrance of Allah Most High, in opposing caprice, and in travelling the path to Allah Most High by turning away from the pleasures of this world. There was unveiled to them in their spiritual striving concerning the character traits of the soul, its defects, and the ills of its works what they explicitly stated, so the philosophers took it and mixed it with their own discourse, seeking by adorning themselves with it a means to promote their falsehood. In their age — indeed in every age — there was a group of such devoted ones, of whom Allah, glory be to Him, never leaves the world empty, for they are the pegs of the earth; by their blessings mercy descends upon the people of the earth, as has come in the report in which he ﷺ said: "Through them you are given rain, and through them you are given provision." Among them were the Companions of the Cave, who lived in bygone times, as the Qur'an has stated.

From their mixing of the speech of prophethood and the speech of the Sufis into their books, two harms are born: a harm with respect to the one who accepts, and a harm with respect to the one who rejects. 1 - As for the harm with respect to the one who rejects, it is great: for a group of the weak-minded supposed that if that speech is recorded in their books and mixed with their falsehood, it ought to be abandoned and not mentioned; rather, censure is due upon everyone who mentions it, since they first heard it only from them. So it rushed into their weak minds that it is false because its sayer is given to falsehood — like one who hears the Christian say, "There is no deity but Allah; Jesus is the Messenger of Allah," and rejects it and says, "This is the speech of the Christians," and does not pause so that he might consider whether the Christian is an unbeliever by virtue of this statement or by virtue of his denial of the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ. For if he is an unbeliever only by virtue of his denial, he ought to be opposed in other than that by which he is an unbeliever, in what is true in itself, even if it is also true in his own view. This is the habit of weak minds: they know the truth by men, not men by the truth. The intelligent person follows the saying of the Commander of the Believers, Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, where he said: Do not know the truth by men; rather, know the truth and you will know its people. The knowing, intelligent person knows the truth, then looks at the statement itself: if it is true, he accepts it, whether its sayer is given to falsehood or is truthful. Indeed, he may be keen to extract the truth from within the speech of the people of misguidance, knowing that the mine of gold is in dust. There is no harm for the money-changer if he puts his hand into the purse of the counterfeiter and extracts pure gold from the counterfeit and the tinsel, so long as he is confident in his insight. The fool is kept back from the seashore, not the skillful swimmer; and the boy is turned away from touching the snake, not the expert charmer. By my life! Since most people are overcome by their assumption about themselves of cleverness and skill, perfection of intellect, and completeness of capacity to distinguish truth from falsehood and guidance from misguidance, the door must be firmly closed in deterring all people, as far as possible, from perusing the books of the people of misguidance, for they will by no means be safe from the second harm which we shall mention, even if they are safe from this harm which we have mentioned. A group of those whose inner hearts are not firmly grounded in the sciences, and whose insights have not opened to the farthest ends of the schools of thought, has objected to some of the words scattered in our works on the secrets of the sciences of religion, and claimed that those words are from the speech of the ancients, although some of them are products of my own reflections — and it is not unlikely that hoof should fall upon hoof — and some of them are found in the legal books, and most of them have their meaning present in the books of the Sufis. And suppose they were found only in their books: if that speech is intelligible in itself, supported by proof, and not in contradiction to the Book and the Sunna, why should it be abandoned and left?! For if we opened this door and proceeded to abandon every truth to which the thought of one given to falsehood had already attained, we would be obliged to abandon much truth, and we would be obliged to abandon a number of verses of the Qur'an and reports of the Messenger ﷺ and stories of the early predecessors, and words of the sages and the Sufis, because the author of Ikhwan al-Safa cited them in his book, adducing them as evidence and by means of them gradually luring the hearts of fools toward falsehood. And that would lead to the people of falsehood extracting the truth from our hands by depositing it in their books. And the least degree of the scholar is that he be distinguished from the ignorant commoner.

So he does not disdain honey, even if he finds it in the cupper's cupping-glass, and he is certain that the cupping-glass does not alter the very nature of honey. For the natural aversion to it is founded upon vulgar ignorance, whose origin is that the cupping-glass was made only for impure blood, so he supposes that blood is impure because it is in the cupping-glass, and does not know that it is impure on account of an attribute in its own essence. So when this attribute is lacking in honey, its being in its vessel does not confer that attribute upon it, and so ought not to make it impure to him. This is a false delusion, and it prevails over most of mankind. For when you relate a statement and ascribe it to a speaker in whom their opinion is good, they accept it even if it is false, and if you ascribe it to one in whom their opinion is bad, they reject it even if it is true. They always know the truth by men, and do not know men by the truth, and this is the utmost of error! This is the bane of rejection. 2 — And the second bane is the bane of acceptance: for whoever looks into their books, such as the Ikhwan al-Safa and others, and sees the prophetic wisdoms and Sufi sayings which they have blended with their discourse, may admire them and accept them, and his opinion of them becomes good, so he hastens to accept their falsehood mixed with it, because of his good opinion on account of what he saw and admired, and that is a kind of gradual enticement into falsehood. On account of this bane, rebuke against perusing their books is necessary, because of the treachery and danger they contain. And just as one who does not swim well must be protected from slippery riverbanks, mankind must be protected from perusing those books. And just as children must be protected from touching snakes, ears must be protected from mingled words. And just as the charmer must not handle a snake in the presence of his small child, when he knows that he will imitate him and suppose himself like him — rather he must warn him against it, by himself being wary and not handling it in his presence — so likewise must the firmly rooted scholar do the like. And just as the skillful charmer, when he takes the snake and distinguishes between the theriac and the poison, and extracts the theriac from it and nullifies the poison, must not withhold the theriac from one who needs it; likewise the discerning, perspicacious money-changer, when he puts his hand into the counterfeiter's purse and takes out pure gold from it and discards the counterfeit and the debased, must not withhold the good, acceptable coin from one who needs it — so likewise is the scholar. And just as one in need of the theriac, if his soul recoils from it when he learns that it is extracted from the snake which is the locus of poison, must be informed; and the poor man in dire need of money, if he shrinks from accepting gold extracted from the counterfeiter's purse, must be alerted that his aversion is sheer ignorance, which is the cause of his being deprived of the benefit which is his object; and he must needs be informed that close proximity between the counterfeit and the good does not make the good counterfeit, just as it does not make the counterfeit good — so likewise close proximity between truth and falsehood does not make truth falsehood, just as it does not make falsehood truth. This is the measure of what we wished to mention concerning the bane of philosophy and its peril.

The Doctrine of Ta‘lim and Its Bane Then, when I had finished with the science of philosophy — with acquiring it and understanding it and refuting what is to be refuted of it — I knew that it too falls short of the perfection of the purpose, and that reason is not independent in encompassing all objects of quest, nor a lifter of the veil from all obscurities. And the emergent sect of the Ta‘limiyya had appeared, and their talk of attaining knowledge of the meaning of matters by way of the infallible Imam who upholds the truth had spread among mankind, so it occurred to me to investigate their doctrines, that I might learn what is in their quiver. Then it happened that a decisive command came to me from the caliphal presence to compose a book uncovering the reality of their doctrine. So I could not ward it off, and that became an incitement from without, added to the motive from within, so I began by seeking their books and gathering their doctrines. And likewise there had reached me some of their newly originated statements, which the reflections of the people of the age had produced, not upon the familiar method of their predecessors. So I collected those statements, and arranged them in a firm arrangement joined to critical verification, and completed the answer to them, until some of the people of truth objected to my thoroughness in setting forth their proof, saying: This is striving on their behalf, for they were unable to support their doctrine with the like of these specious arguments had it not been for your verification of them and your arranging of them. And this objection is right from one point of view, for Ahmad ibn Hanbal — may Allah have mercy on them both — objected to al-Harith al-Muhasibi for his composition in refutation of the Mu‘tazila, whereupon al-Harith said: Refutation of innovation is obligatory, so Ahmad said: Yes, but you related their specious argument first and then answered it, so how can you be secure against one who reads the specious argument being someone whose understanding retains it, while he pays no heed to the answer, or looks at the answer without grasping its essence? What Ahmad ibn Hanbal mentioned is true, but it concerns a specious argument that has not spread and has not become notorious; as for when it has spread, then answering it is obligatory, and answering it is not possible except after relating it. Yes, one ought not to contrive for them a specious argument they have not contrived, and I did not contrive that; rather, I had heard that specious argument from one of my companions who used to visit me, after he had joined them and professed their doctrine, and he related that they laugh at the compositions of the authors who compose in refutation of them, on the ground that they have not yet understood their proof. Then he mentioned that proof and related it from them, so I was not content for myself that heedlessness of the root of their proof should be thought of me, and for that reason I cited it, nor that it should be thought of me that I — though I heard it — did not understand it, and for that reason I set it forth. The point is that I set forth their specious argument to the utmost extent, then I exposed its falsity with the utmost demonstration. The upshot is that there is no substance to these people and no profit in their speech, and were it not for the ill support of the ignorant friend, that innovation — despite its weakness — would not have reached this degree, but intensity of partisanship drove those who defend the truth to prolong the dispute with them over the premises of their discourse, and to obstinately oppose them in everything they uttered, so they opposed them

Concerning their claim: the need for instruction and a teacher, and concerning their claim that: not every teacher is suitable, but an infallible teacher is necessary — their proof became manifest in demonstrating the need for instruction and a teacher, and the weakness of the deniers’ statement in opposition to it. So a group was deceived by that and thought that that was due to the strength of their school and the weakness of the opponents’ school, and they did not understand that that was due to the weakness of the defender of the truth and his presenting it in his manner. Rather, what is correct is to acknowledge the need for a teacher, and that the teacher must be infallible, but our infallible teacher is Muhammad ﷺ. So if they say: He is dead, we say: And your teacher is absent. So if they say: Our teacher has taught the duʿat and dispersed them through the lands, and he awaits their referring back to him if they differ or a difficulty becomes obscure to them, we say: And our teacher has taught the duʿat and dispersed them through the lands and has completed the teaching, as Allah the Exalted said: "This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed upon you My blessing," and after the perfection of teaching, the death of the teacher does no harm, just as his absence does no harm. There remains their statement: How do you judge concerning what you have not heard? By the text, though you have not heard it, or by ijtihad and opinion, which is the locus of disagreement? We say: We do what Muʿadh did when the Messenger of Allah, upon him be prayer and peace, sent him to Yemen: that we judge by the text when the text exists, and by ijtihad when it does not. Rather, [it is] as their duʿat do when they are far from the Imam in the remotest lands, when he cannot judge by the text, for finite texts do not encompass infinite occurrences, and he cannot return in every occurrence to the Imam’s town, traversing the distance and returning, for then the questioner would have died, and benefit from returning would have passed. So whoever is confused about the qibla has no way except to pray by ijtihad, for if he were to travel to the Imam’s town to know the qibla, the time of prayer would elapse. Therefore, prayer toward other than the qibla is permitted on the basis of conjecture. And it is said: the one who errs in ijtihad has one reward, and the one who is correct has two rewards; so it is likewise in all matters subject to ijtihad. And likewise the matter of disbursing zakat to the poor person: he may think him poor by his ijtihad while he is inwardly rich through concealing his wealth, so he is not taken to task for it even if he errs, because he is taken to task only according to his conjecture. So if he says: The conjecture of his opponent is like his own conjecture, I say: He is commanded to follow his own conjecture, like the mujtahid concerning the qibla follows his own conjecture even if another disagrees with him. So if he says: Does the muqallid follow Abu Hanifa and al-Shafiʿi, may Allah have mercy on them, or others? I say: The muqallid concerning the qibla, when confused, [seeks] to know the most excellent, most knowledgeable by the indications of the qibla, then follows that ijtihad; so it is likewise concerning the madhhabs. So referring people to ijtihad — necessarily — the prophets and the imams, with the knowledge that they may err. Indeed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

"I judge by the outward, and Allah takes charge of the inward secrets." That is, I judge by the preponderant conjecture arising from the testimony of witnesses, and they may err therein. And there is no way for the prophets to be secure from error in such matters of ijtihad, so how can anyone aspire to that? They have here two questions: the first of them is their saying: This, even if it is sound in matters of ijtihad, is not sound in the foundations of creeds, since the one who errs therein is not excused, so how is the way to it? So I say: The Book and the Sunna encompass the foundations of creeds, and as for what is beyond that of detail, and what is disputed therein, the truth therein is known by the Straight Balance. And they are the balances which Allah Almighty mentioned in His Book, and they are five, which I mentioned in the book al-Qistas al-Mustaqim. If he says: Your opponents oppose you concerning that balance, then I say: It is inconceivable that that balance be understood and then opposed, for the people of ta'lim do not oppose it, because I derived it from the Qur'an and learned it from it, and the people of logic do not oppose it, because it agrees with what they stipulated in logic and does not contradict it, and the mutakallim does not oppose it, because it agrees with what he mentions concerning the proofs of theoretical matters, and by it the truth is known in theological questions. If he says: If in your hand there is such a balance, then why do you not remove the disagreement among mankind? Then I say: If they would listen to me, I would remove the disagreement among them, And I mentioned the way of removing disagreement in the book al-Qistas al-Mustaqim, so consider it, that you may know that it is true and that it removes disagreement decisively if they would listen, but they do not all listen to it! Rather, a group has listened to me, and I removed the disagreement among them. And your Imam wants to remove the disagreement among them despite their not listening, so why has he not removed it until now? And why did 'Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, though he is the head of the Imams, not remove it? Or does he claim that he is able to force all of them to listen by compulsion, then why has he not forced them until now? And for which day has he deferred it? And has there resulted among mankind by reason of his call anything except increase of disagreement and increase of opponents? Yes! There used to be feared from disagreement a kind of harm that did not extend to the shedding of blood, and the ruining of lands, and the orphaning of children, and highway robbery, and the raiding of properties. And there has occurred in the world, through the blessings of your removal of disagreement, such disagreement as has had no precedent. If he says: You claimed that you remove disagreement among mankind, but the one bewildered among the conflicting schools and the opposed differences is not bound to listen to you rather than your opponent, while most opponents oppose you, and there is no difference between you and them — and this is their second question — then I say: This first of all turns back against you, for when you invite this bewildered one to yourself, the bewildered one says: By what have you become worthier than your opponents, while most of the people of knowledge oppose you? Would that I knew! With what will you answer? Will you answer by saying: My Imam is designated by text, so who will believe you in the claim of the text, when he has not heard the text from the Messenger? He only hears your claim, along with the agreement of the people of knowledge upon your fabrication and upon calling you a liar. Then suppose he concedes the text to you, yet if he is bewildered about the very foundation of prophethood, and says: Suppose your Imam adduces the miracle of 'Isa, peace be upon him, and says: The proof of my truthfulness is that I bring your father to life, and he brings him to life, and he speaks to me that he is right, then by what would I know his truthfulness? And all mankind did not know the truthfulness of 'Isa, peace be upon him, by this miracle; rather, against it there are difficult questions that are repelled only by precise rational inquiry, and rational inquiry is not to be trusted according to you, and the indication of the miracle for truthfulness is not known unless sorcery is known and the distinction between it and the miracle, and unless it is known that Allah does not mislead His servants. And the question of misleading and the difficulty of formulating the answer to it are well known, so by what will you repel all that? And your Imam would not be worthier of being followed than his opponent! So he returns to the theoretical proofs which he denies, while his opponent adduces the like of those proofs and clearer than them. And this question has turned back against them with a mighty reversal: if their first and their last gathered to answer it with an answer, they would not be able. Corruption arose only from a group of weak ones who debated them, for they did not engage...

by reversal, but rather by the answer. That is among the matters over which discourse grows lengthy, and which does not swiftly lead to understanding, and so is not suitable for silencing an opponent. If someone says: This then is the reversal — so is there an answer to it? I say: Yes! Its answer is that if the perplexed man were to say, “I am perplexed,” without specifying the question about which he is perplexed, it would be said to him: You are like a sick man who says, “I am sick,” without specifying his sickness, and seeks its cure, to whom it is said: There is in existence no cure for sickness in the absolute, but only for a specified sickness — such as headache or diarrhea or other than these. Likewise the perplexed man must specify that about which he is perplexed; and if he specifies the question, I would make the truth concerning it known to him by weighing with the five balances, which no one understands without acknowledging that it is the true balance, and from it he also understands the correctness of the weighing, just as the student of arithmetic understands arithmetic itself, and [understands] that the teacher-accountant is knowledgeable in arithmetic and truthful in it. I have clarified that in the book al-Qistas al-Mustaqim, in about twenty leaves — so let it be examined. The aim now is not to explain the corruption of their doctrine, for I have mentioned that in the book al-Mustazhari first, and in the book Hujjat al-Haqq second — which is an answer to discourse of theirs presented to me in Baghdad, and in the book Mufassal al-Khilaf, which is in twelve chapters, third — which is an answer to discourse presented to me in Hamadan; and in the book al-Daraja al-Marqūma bi’l-Jadāwil fourth — which concerns some of their feeble discourse presented to me in Tus; and in the book al-Qistas al-Mustaqim fifth — which is an independent book whose purpose is [to show] that these people possess nothing of the healing cure that saves from the darknesses of [mere] opinions; rather, despite their inability to establish proof for the designation of the Imam, after we had long tested them we agreed with them about the need for instruction and for the infallible teacher, and we presented difficulties to them which they did not understand, let alone undertake to solve! When they proved incapable, they referred [the matter] to the hidden Imam, saying that one must journey to him. Yet it is wondrous that they wasted their lives in seeking the teacher and in boasting of having found him, while learning nothing at all from him — like one smeared with impurity who tires himself in seeking water, then when he finds it does not use it, and remains smeared with filth. Among them is one who claimed something of their knowledge, and the sum of what he mentioned was something of the feeble philosophy of Pythagoras — he being a man among the ancient predecessors, and his doctrine the feeblest of the doctrines of philosophy. Aristotle refuted him; indeed, he corrected his speech and deemed it contemptible. It is what is related in the book of the Ikhwan al-Safa, which in truth is the padding of philosophy. So wonder at one who wearies himself the length of his life in acquiring knowledge and then contents himself with the like of that feeble, destitute knowledge, and imagines that he has attained the utmost aims of the sciences! These people too we tested, and we probed their outward and their inward; the outcome of their affair comes back to luring the common people and the weak-minded by expounding the need for a teacher, and disputing with those who deny the need for instruction with strong, silencing speech, until, when someone agrees with them about the need for a teacher and says, “Bring forth his knowledge and benefit us from his instruction!” he halts and says, “Now, if you concede this to me, then seek him, for my purpose is only this much.” [He does so] because he knows that if he went beyond that he would be exposed, and would be incapable of solving the least difficulties — indeed, incapable of understanding them, let alone answering them. This is the reality of their condition, so put them to the test — you will find them of little worth; and when we had tested them, we washed our hands of them as well.

The Paths of the Sufis Then when I had finished with these sciences, I turned with my aspiration to the path of the Sufis, and I knew that their path is only completed through knowledge and action, and that the sum of their sciences is cutting through the obstacles of the soul, and freeing oneself from its blameworthy traits of character and its wicked qualities, until thereby one attains the emptying of the heart of everything other than Allah Almighty and its adornment with remembrance of Allah. Knowledge was easier for me than action, so I began to acquire their knowledge by studying their books, such as Qut al-Qulub by Abu Talib al-Makki, may Allah have mercy on him, and the books of al-Harith al-Muhasibi, and the scattered sayings transmitted from al-Junayd and al-Shibli and Abu Yazid al-Bistami, may Allah sanctify their spirits, and others among the shaykhs, until I came to know the innermost essence of their intellectual aims, and I obtained what can be obtained of their path through learning and listening. Then it became clear to me that the most particular of their distinguishing qualities is that which cannot be reached through learning, but through dhawq and hal and the transformation of attributes. How great is the difference between knowing the definition of health and the definition of satiety, and their causes and conditions, and being healthy and satiated? And between knowing the definition of drunkenness, and that it is an expression for a state resulting from vapors rising from the stomach taking hold of the seats of thought, and being drunk! Indeed, the drunkard does not know the definition of drunkenness, and his knowledge while he is drunk is such that nothing of his knowledge is with him. The physician in a state of sickness knows the definition of health and its causes and its medicines, while he is devoid of health. Likewise, there is a difference between knowing the reality of zuhd and its conditions and its causes, and your state being zuhd and the aversion of the soul from this world! So I knew with certainty that they are masters of states, not masters of words, and that what can be attained by way of knowledge I had attained, and nothing remained except what there is no way to attain by hearing and learning, but by dhawq and suluk. And there had already come to be in me — from the sciences I had practiced and the paths I had traversed, in searching into the two kinds of sciences, the revealed and the rational — a certain faith in Allah Almighty, and in prophethood, and in the Last Day. These three foundations of faith had become firmly rooted in my soul, not by a single isolated specific proof, but by causes and indications and experiences whose details cannot be encompassed by enumeration. And it had become clear to me that I have no hope for the felicity of the Hereafter except through taqwa, and restraining the soul from caprice, and that the head of all of that is severing the attachment of the heart to this world, by withdrawing from the abode of delusion, and turning to the abode of eternity, and turning with the fullness of aspiration to Allah Almighty. And that that is only completed by turning away from prestige and wealth, and fleeing from distractions and attachments. Then I examined my circumstances, and behold I was immersed in attachments, which had surrounded me on all sides, and I examined my works — the best of them teaching and instruction — and behold I was engaged therein in sciences that are unimportant and of no benefit on the path of the Hereafter.

Then I reflected upon my intention in teaching, and behold it was not sincere for the sake of Allah Most High; rather its inciting cause and its mover was the quest for status and the spread of renown. So I became certain that I was on the brink of a crumbling cliff, and that I had come to the verge of the Fire, if I did not busy myself with redressing the states. I ceased not reflecting upon it for a time, while I still remained at the station of choice: one day I would make firm the resolve to leave Baghdad and part from those circumstances, and another day I would undo the resolve, and I would put one foot forward toward it and hold the other back from it. No sincere desire to seek the Hereafter would arise in me in the morning except that the vigor of lust would launch an assault upon it and enfeeble it by evening, so the appetites of the world began tugging me with their chains toward staying, while the crier of faith cried out: “Departure, departure! Little remains of life, and before you lies the long journey, and all that you are engaged in of knowledge and deed is ostentation and delusion! If you do not prepare now for the Hereafter, when will you prepare? And if you do not sever these attachments now, when will you sever them?” At that, the inward call would stir, and the resolve to flee and escape would become decisive! Then Satan would return and say: “This is a transient state; beware of obeying it, for it is swift to vanish. For if you yield to it and abandon this extensive prestige, and the well-ordered standing free from disturbance and vexation, and the secure affair pure from the contention of rivals, perhaps your soul will turn back toward it, and return will no longer be feasible for you.” I kept wavering between the pull of worldly appetites and the summons of the Hereafter for nearly six months, the first of them Rajab of the year four hundred and eighty-eight. In this month the matter passed beyond the limit of choice to compulsion, for Allah locked my tongue until I was held back from teaching. I would force myself to teach for a single day to gratify the hearts of those who frequented me, but my tongue would not release a single word, nor could I manage it at all, until this knot in the tongue produced sorrow in the heart, with which the power of digestion and the appetite for food and drink ceased, so no tharid would go down easily for me, nor would a morsel be digested in me, and it progressed to weakness of the faculties, until the physicians abandoned hope of treatment and said: “This is a matter that has descended upon the heart, and from it has spread to the temperament, so there is no way to it by treatment, except that the inner self find relief from the besetting worry.” Then when I sensed my helplessness, and my choice had fallen away entirely, I took refuge in Allah Most High with the refuge of one in desperate need who has no stratagem, and He who answers the distressed when he calls upon Him answered me, and made it easy for my heart to turn away from prestige and wealth and family and child and companions. And I made open display of resolving to depart for Mecca, while inwardly I arranged travel to Syria, out of caution lest the Caliph and the whole body of companions learn of my resolve to reside in Syria. So I contrived with subtle devices to leave Baghdad with the resolve never to return to it. And I became a target for the imams of the people of Iraq, all of them, since there was none among them who deemed it possible that turning away from what I was engaged in could have a religious motive, since they supposed that that was the highest office in religion, and that was the sum of their knowledge,

Then people fell into confusion in conjectures, and whoever was far from Iraq thought that that was due to apprehension on the part of the rulers, and as for whoever was near the rulers, he witnessed their insistence in attaching themselves to me and pressing upon me, and my turning away from them and from paying heed to their words, so they say: This is a heavenly matter, and it has no cause except an evil eye that has struck the people of Islam and the company of the people of knowledge. So I left Baghdad, and I distributed what money was with me, and I stored up nothing except the measure of sufficiency and the sustenance of the children, taking as a dispensation that the wealth of Iraq is set aside for public interests, and because it is an endowment for the Muslims. For I did not see in the world any wealth that a scholar takes for his dependents more wholesome than it. Then I entered Syria, and I stayed there for nearly two years, the most preoccupying occupation for me being nothing but solitude and seclusion, and discipline and striving, occupied with purifying the soul, and refining character, and clearing the heart for the remembrance of Allah Almighty, as I had acquired it from the books of the Sufis. So I would seclude myself for a while in the mosque of Damascus, I would ascend the minaret of the mosque the length of the day, and I would lock its door upon myself, then I departed from it to Jerusalem, I would enter the Rock every day, and I would lock its door upon myself. Then there stirred in me the motive of the obligation of Hajj, and of seeking aid from the blessings of Mecca and Medina, and the visitation of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ after completing the visitation of al-Khalil, may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him, so I journeyed to the Hijaz, then aspirations and the supplications of the children drew me to the homeland, so I returned to it after I had been the furthest of people from returning to it, and I preferred seclusion there also, out of eagerness for solitude, and for clearing the heart for remembrance. The vicissitudes of time, and the important affairs of the family, and the necessities of livelihood would alter the direction of the aim, and would disturb the purity of solitude, and the state would become clear for me only in scattered intervals. But I, despite that, do not cut off my hope of it, so obstacles repel me from it, and I return to it. I remained upon that for the span of ten years, and there were disclosed to me during these seclusions matters that cannot be enumerated nor exhaustively treated, and the measure that I mention so that benefit may be derived from it. I knew with certainty that the Sufis are those who travel the path of Allah Almighty in particular, and that their conduct is the best of conduct, and their way is the most correct of ways, and their character is the purest of character, indeed, if the intellect of the intellectuals, and the wisdom of the wise, and the knowledge of those among the scholars who stand upon the secrets of the Law were gathered together to change anything of their conduct and character, and to replace it with what is better than it, they would find no way to it. For all their movements and moments of rest, in their outward and their inward, are derived from the light of the niche of prophethood, and there is no light upon the face of the earth beyond the light of prophethood by which light may be sought. In sum, what can those who speak say about a way whose purification—which is its first condition—is the cleansing of the heart entirely of all but Allah Almighty, and whose key, which runs in it the course of the consecration in prayer, is the total absorption of the heart in the remembrance of Allah, and whose end is total annihilation in Allah?!

This is its end in relation to what almost falls under choice and acquisition among its beginnings. In reality it is the beginning of the Path, and what precedes it is as it were the vestibule for the wayfarer to it. From the beginning of the Path begin the unveilings and witnessings, so that in their waking state they behold the angels and the spirits of the prophets, and hear voices and acquire benefits from them. Then the state ascends from witnessing forms and similitudes to degrees that speech is too straitened to contain, so no one attempting to express them attempts to express them without his wording embracing a plain error from which he cannot guard himself. In sum, the matter ends in a proximity at which one party almost imagines indwelling [hulul], another party unification [ittihad], and another party arrival [wusul], and all of that is error. We have explained the aspect of error in it in the book al-Maqsad al-Asna. Rather, he whom that state has enveloped should not add to saying: What was, was of that which I do not mention; think good and ask not of the tidings. In sum, whoever has not been granted anything of it by tasting perceives of the reality of prophethood nothing but the name, and the miraculous gifts [karamat] of the saints are in reality the beginnings of the prophets. That was the first state of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he betook himself to Mount Hira, where he would seclude himself with his Lord and worship, until the Arabs said: “Muhammad has fallen in love with his Lord.” This state is verified by tasting by whoever traverses its way. Whoever has not been granted tasting becomes certain of it by experience and by hearing reports, if he keeps much company, until he understands that with certainty by the circumstantial evidences of the states. Whoever sits with them acquires this faith from them, for they are the people whose companion does not suffer misery. Whoever has not been granted their companionship should know its possibility with certainty by the evidences of proof, as we have mentioned in the book of the Wonders of the Heart among the books of the Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din. Verification by proof is knowledge, direct engagement with that very state is tasting, and acceptance on the basis of forbearance and experience with good opinion is faith. These are three degrees: “Allah raises those of you who believe and those who have been given knowledge in degrees.” Beyond these there are ignorant folk, who deny the very root of that, marvel at this discourse, listen and mock, and say: “How strange! How they rave!” Concerning them Allah Most High said: “And among them are those who listen to you, until when they go out from before you they say to those who have been given knowledge, ‘What did he say just now? Those are they upon whose hearts Allah has set a seal and who have followed their desires, so He made them deaf and blinded their sight.’” Among what became clear to me by necessity through practising their way is the reality of prophethood and its characteristic property, and its principle must be pointed out because of the pressing need for it.

The Reality of Prophethood and the Utter Need of All Creation for It Know that the substance of man, in his original fitra, was created empty and simple, with no knowledge with it of the worlds of Allah Almighty. The worlds are many, which none enumerates but Allah Almighty, as He said: "And none knows the hosts of your Lord but He." His information concerning the worlds comes only by means of perception, and each perception among the perceptions was created so that man might come to know through it a world of existent things; and by “worlds” we mean the genera of existent things. The first thing created in man is the sense of touch, by which he perceives genera of existent things: such as heat and cold, moisture and dryness, softness and roughness, and other things. Touch is utterly incapable of colours and sounds; indeed, they are as though non-existent with respect to the sense of touch. Then there is created for him the sense of sight, by which he perceives colours and shapes, and it is the widest of the worlds of sensibles. Then hearing is opened for him, so he hears sounds and melodies; then taste is created for him. And so it continues until he passes beyond the world of sensibles, and then discernment is created in him, when he is close to seven years, and it is another stage among the stages of his existence. In it he apprehends matters additional to the world of sensibles, nothing of which exists in the world of sense. Then he ascends to another stage, and intellect is created for him, by which he apprehends necessary, possible, and impossible things, and matters that do not exist in the stages before it. And beyond intellect there is another stage in which another eye is opened, by which he beholds the unseen and what will be in the future, and other matters from which intellect is isolated, just as the power of discernment is isolated from apprehending intelligibles, and just as the power of sense is isolated from the apprehensions of discernment. And just as one possessed of mere discernment, if the apprehensions of intellect were presented to him, would reject them and deem them far-fetched, so likewise some intellectuals have rejected the apprehensions of prophethood and deemed them far-fetched, and that is sheer ignorance: for they have no support except that it is a stage they have not reached and which has not come to be in their case, so they suppose it is non-existent in itself. The blind man, had he not known colours and shapes by tawatur and hearsay, and had they been related to him for the first time, would not understand them nor admit them. Allah has made it near for His creation by giving them a sample of the property of prophethood, namely sleep, for the sleeper apprehends what is to be of the unseen, either explicitly or in the garb of an image which interpretation unveils. Had man not experienced this in himself — and it were said to him: among men is one who falls down swooning like the dead, and his sensation, hearing, and sight depart from him, yet he apprehends the unseen — he would deny it, and would set up proof of its impossibility, and say: The sensory faculties are the causes of perception, so one who does not apprehend things despite their existence and presence, it is more fitting and more right that he not apprehend when they are stilled. This is a kind of analogy belied by existence and witnessed observation. For just as intellect is a stage of the human being in which an eye comes to be by which he beholds kinds of intelligibles, while the senses are isolated from them, so prophethood also is an expression for a stage in which an eye comes to be that has a light, in whose light the unseen appears, along with matters which intellect does not apprehend.

And doubt concerning prophethood either occurs regarding its place, or regarding its existence and occurrence, or regarding its attainment by a particular person. And the proof of its possibility and its existence. And the proof of its existence is the existence in the world of kinds of knowledge that cannot be conceived to be attained by reason, such as the science of medicine and of the stars. For whoever investigates them knows necessarily that they are apprehended only by divine inspiration and enabling favor from Allah Most High, and there is no way to them by experience. For among astrological judgments is that which occurs only once in every thousand years, so how could that be attained by experience? And likewise the properties of medicines. So it has become clear by this proof that it is within possibility that there exists a way to apprehend these matters which reason does not apprehend, and it is what is meant by prophethood — not that prophethood is an expression for these alone, but rather that apprehension of this kind, which lies outside the apprehensions of reason, is one of the properties of prophethood, and it has many other properties besides it. And what we have mentioned is only a drop from its ocean. We mentioned it only because you have with you a sample of it, namely your perceptions in sleep, and you have with you sciences of its kind in medicine and astronomy, and they are among the miracles of the prophets, upon them be prayer and peace, and the rationalists have no way to them at all by the merchandise of reason. As for what is other than this among the properties of prophethood, it is apprehended only by tasting, through treading the path of Sufism. For this you understood only by means of a sample you were granted, namely sleep, and were it not for it you would not have assented to it. For if the prophet has a property of which you have no sample, and you do not understand it at all, then how will you assent to it? For assent comes only after understanding. And that sample is obtained in the beginnings of the path of Sufism, and by it there occurs a kind of tasting by means of the measure obtained and a kind of assent to what has not been obtained by analogy with it. So this single property suffices you for belief in the foundation of prophethood. So if doubt occurs to you regarding a particular person, whether he is a prophet or not, certainty is obtained only by knowledge of his states, either by witnessing, or by tawatur and hearsay. For if you know medicine and jurisprudence, you can know the jurists and physicians by witnessing their states and hearing their sayings, even if you do not witness them, and you are likewise not unable to know that al-Shafiʿi, may Allah have mercy on him, was a jurist, and that Galen was a physician, with a knowledge by way of reality, not by imitation of another. Rather, by learning something of jurisprudence and medicine and studying their books and compositions, there occurs for you a necessary knowledge of their condition. Likewise, if you understand the meaning of prophethood and devote much examination to the Qur’an and the reports, necessary knowledge will reach you that he ﷺ is upon the highest degrees of prophethood. And support that by testing what he said concerning acts of worship and their effect in purifying hearts, and how he ﷺ was truthful in his saying: "Whoever acts upon what he knows, Allah will cause him to inherit knowledge of what he did not know," and how he was truthful in his saying: "Whoever aids a wrongdoer, Allah will set him over him."

and how truthful he was in his saying: "Whoever wakes in the morning with his concerns as one single concern — Allah Almighty … the concerns of this world and the Hereafter." If you test that in a thousand and two thousand and thousands, necessary knowledge will arise for you, about which you will entertain no doubt. So seek certainty about prophethood by this path, and not from the turning of the staff into a serpent and the splitting of the moon, for that, if you consider it on its own, without the numerous circumstantial evidences beyond enumeration being joined to it, you may well suppose it to be sorcery and imagining, and that it is a leading astray from Allah Almighty, for He “leads astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills.” The objections concerning miracles will assail you, so if the basis of your faith is an ordered argument concerning the probative force of the miracle, your faith will be cut off by an ordered argument concerning the difficulties and the doubt raised against it. So let marvels such as these be one proof and circumstantial evidence among the sum total of your reflection, until there arises for you necessary knowledge whose basis you cannot state precisely, like one whom a group informs with a mutawatir report, who cannot state that the certainty is derived from the statement of one particular person, but rather from a source he does not know, inseparable from the totality of that and not by specifying the individuals. This is the strong, knowledge-based faith. As for dhawq, it is like witnessing and taking with the hand, and it is found only in the way of the Sufis. This much concerning the reality of prophethood suffices for the purpose I intend now, and I shall mention the aspect of the need for it.

The Reason for Spreading Knowledge After Turning Away from It Then, when I persisted in solitude and seclusion for nearly ten years, and it became clear to me of necessity in the course of that, through innumerable causes — at one time by dhawq, at another by demonstrative knowledge, and at another by acceptance out of faith — that the human being has a body and a heart, and by the heart I mean the reality of his spirit which is the locus of knowledge of Allah, not the flesh and blood in which corpse and beast share, and that the body has a health in which lies its felicity and a sickness in which lies its ruin, and that the heart likewise has a health and soundness — none shall be saved “except he who comes to Allah with a sound heart” — and it has a sickness in which lies its eternal ruin in the hereafter, just as He, the Exalted, said: “In their hearts is sickness,” and that ignorance of Allah is a deadly poison, and that disobedience to Allah by following caprice is its sickening disease, and that knowledge of Allah the Exalted is its life-giving antidote, and obedience to Him by opposing caprice is its healing medicine, and that there is no way to treat the body except through that. And just as the medicines of the body have effect in producing health by a property in them which rational men do not perceive by the merchandise of reason, but concerning which the physicians, who took them from the prophets who came to know the properties of things by the property of prophethood, must be followed, so too it became clear to me of necessity that the medicines of the acts of worship, with their limits and measures delimited and decreed on the part of the prophets, the aspect of their efficacy is not perceived by the merchandise of the reason of rational men, but concerning them the prophets, who perceived those properties by the light of prophethood, not by the merchandise of reason, must be followed. And just as medicines are compounded from mixtures differing in kind and measure, some of them double others in weight and measure, and the difference in their measures is not devoid of a secret belonging to the category of properties, so too the acts of worship, which are the medicines for the disease of hearts, are compounded from acts differing in kind and measure, such that prostration is double bowing, and the morning prayer is half the afternoon prayer in measure, and it is not devoid of a divine secret therein requiring it by way of property. And just as in medicines there are fundamentals which are their pillars and additions which are their completers, each of which has a particular effect upon the workings of its fundamentals, so too the nawafil and the sunan are completers to perfect the effects of the pillars of the acts of worship. In sum: the prophets, upon them be peace, are the physicians for the diseases of hearts, and the benefit of reason and its exercise is only that — once we know that, and it has borne witness to prophethood by assent and to itself by blindness to perceiving what is perceived by the eye of prophethood — it took us by our hands and delivered us to it with the surrender of the blind to guides and the surrender of the perplexed sick to the compassionate physicians. To this point extends the course of reason and its step, and it is cut off from what is beyond that, except for comprehending what the physician imparts to it.

These are matters we came to know by a necessity running the course of direct witnessing, during the period of seclusion and solitude. Then we saw a slackening of convictions concerning the foundation of prophethood, then concerning the reality of prophethood, then concerning acting upon what prophethood has expounded, and we verified the spread of that among people. So I considered the causes of the slackening of people and the weakness of their faith, and behold they are four: 1 - a cause from those who delve into the science of philosophy. 2 - and a cause from those who delve into the path of tasawwuf. 3 - and a cause from those affiliated with the claim of ta'lim. 4 - and a cause from the conduct of those reputed for knowledge among people. For I tracked for a time the individuals among people: I would ask whoever among them fell short in following the Sharia about his specious doubt, and I would inquire into his creed and his secret, and I said to him: What is the matter with you that you fall short in it? For if you believe in the Hereafter and do not prepare for it and sell it for this world, then this is folly, for you would not sell two for one, so how can you sell that which has no end for numbered days? And if you do not believe, then you are a disbeliever, so devise for yourself a plan in seeking faith, and consider the cause of your hidden disbelief, which is your doctrine inwardly, and which is the cause of your daring outwardly, even though you do not declare it openly, adorning yourself with faith and seeking honor through mention of the Sharia. Then one speaker says: This is a matter such that, had observance of it been obligatory, the scholars would have been most deserving of that, yet so-and-so among the famous distinguished men does not pray, and so-and-so drinks wine, and so-and-so consumes the funds of endowments and the wealth of orphans. And so-and-so consumes the stipends of the sultan and does not guard himself against the unlawful, and so-and-so takes bribes for judgment and testimony, and so on to others like him. And a second speaker claims the knowledge of tasawwuf, and alleges that he has reached a rank rising above the need for worship! And a third speaker offers as an excuse another specious argument from among the specious arguments of the people of ibaha! And these are they who have strayed from tasawwuf. And a fourth speaker has met the people of ta'lim and says: The truth is problematic, and the way is difficult and disagreement concerning it is abundant, and no school is worthier than another, and the proofs of intellects conflict, so there is no trust in the opinion of the people of opinion. And the caller to ta'lim is arbitrary, he has no proof, so how should I abandon certainty for doubt? And a fifth speaker says: I do not do this by way of imitation, but I have read the science of philosophy, and I have grasped the reality of prophethood, and that its outcome reduces to wisdom and benefit, and that the purpose of its acts of worship is to discipline the commonality of people and restrain them from mutual fighting and disputing and giving free rein to lusts, so I am not among the ignorant common folk that I should enter under the confinement of religious obligation; rather I am among the wise, I follow wisdom with insight, dispensing therein with imitation! This is the utmost of the faith of whoever among them has read the doctrine of the metaphysical philosophers, and learned that from the books of Ibn Sina and Abu Nasr al-Farabi. And these are they who adorn themselves with Islam.

And perhaps you see one of them reciting the Qur’an and attending the congregations and the prayers, and magnifying the Sharia with his tongue, yet along with that he does not abandon drinking wine, and kinds of fisq and fujur. And when it is said to him: If it is not sound, then why do you pray? he may say: For bodily exercise, and for the custom of the people of the land, and for safeguarding wealth and children. And he may say: The Sharia is sound, and prophethood is true. Then it is said to him: Then why do you drink wine? So he says: Wine was forbidden only because it bequeaths enmity and hatred, and I, through my wisdom, am guarded against that, and I intend by it the sharpening of my mind. To the extent that Ibn Sina mentioned in a testament of his which he wrote: that he covenanted with Allah, exalted is He, to such-and-such, and to magnify the ordinances of the Sharia, and not to fall short in the religious acts of worship, and not to drink for amusement but for treatment and seeking cure. So the utmost of his state with respect to purity of faith and adherence to acts of worship was that he made an exception for drinking wine for the purpose of seeking cure. Such is the faith of whoever among them claims faith. And a group has been deceived by them, and the weakness of the objection of those who objected to them increased them in deception, since they objected by attacking the science of geometry and logic, and other than that of what is necessary for them, according to what we have previously explained its cause. So when I saw that the faith of the classes of mankind had weakened to this extent due to these causes, and I saw myself suited to uncovering this specious argument — such that exposing these people was easier for me than a drink of water, due to my extensive engagement with their sciences and their ways — and I mean the ways of the Sufis, the philosophers, the Ta‘limiyya, and those among the scholars who claim discernment — and it occurred to my mind that that is specifically incumbent and decisively ordained at this time, [I asked:] Of what avail to you are solitude and isolation, when the disease has become general, the physicians have fallen ill, and mankind is on the verge of destruction! Then I said to myself: When will you occupy yourself with dispelling this distress and confronting this darkness, when the time is a time of fatra, and the age is an age of falsehood, and if you occupied yourself with calling mankind away from their ways to the truth, the people of the age in their entirety would show you enmity, and how would you resist them, so how would you live among them, and that is accomplished only with an assisting age and a religious, overpowering sultan. So I granted myself a concession, between me and Allah, exalted is He, to continue in isolation, on the pretext of inability to manifest the truth by proof. Then Allah, exalted is He, decreed that He stir the inner motive of the sultan of the time from within himself, not by a mover from outside. So he issued a binding order to set out for Nishapur, to remedy this fatra, and the binding order reached a point where, had I persisted in opposition, it would have ended at the point of estrangement. Then it occurred to me that the ground for the concession had weakened, and that laziness and rest should not be what prompts you to adhere to isolation, nor seeking the eminence of the soul and protecting it from the harm of people, and you have not excused yourself on the grounds of the hardship of enduring people — while Allah, glorified and exalted is He, says:

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate: “Alif Lam Mim. Did people think that they would be left to say, ‘We believe,’ while they will not be tried? And We certainly tried those before them.” And He, mighty and majestic, says to His Messenger — while he is the dearest of His creation: “And messengers before you were indeed denied, and they were patient over being denied, and there has indeed come to you some of the tidings of the messengers.” And He, mighty and majestic, says, In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate: “Ya Sin. By the wise Qur’an ... up to His saying, You only warn one who follows the Reminder and fears the Most Merciful in the unseen.” So I consulted concerning that a group of the masters of hearts and spiritual witnessings, and they agreed in advising the abandonment of seclusion and coming out of the corner of retreat, and to that were added many successive dreams from righteous men, testifying that this movement is the beginning of good and right guidance which Allah, glorified be He, decreed at the head of this century. So hope became firm, and good expectation prevailed because of these testimonies, and Allah, glorified be He, has promised the revival of His religion at the head of every hundred, and Allah facilitated the movement to Nishapur to undertake this important task in Dhu al-Qa‘da in the year 499, while the departure from Baghdad had been in the year 488, and the seclusion reached eleven years. And this is a movement which Allah, the Exalted, decreed, and it is among the wonders of His decrees, for there had been no spark for this in the heart during this seclusion, just as the departure from Baghdad and the withdrawal from those conditions had never at all occurred to the mind as even possible. And Allah, the Exalted, is the Turner of hearts and conditions, and “the heart of the believer is between two fingers of the fingers of the Merciful.” And I know that I — even if I have returned to spreading knowledge, I have not returned, for return is a going back to what was. And in that time I used to spread the knowledge by which prestige is acquired, and I called to it by my word and my deed, and that was my aim and my intention. As for now, I call to the knowledge by which prestige is abandoned, and by which the lowness of the rank of prestige is known. This is now my intention and my aim and my wish; Allah knows that of me. And I desire to reform myself and others, and I do not know whether I shall attain my aim or be cut off before my purpose. But I believe with the belief of certainty and witnessing that there is no might nor power except through Allah, the Most High, the Most Great, and that I did not move, but He moved me, and I did not act, but He employed me. So I ask Him to reform me first, then to reform through me, and to guide me then to guide through me, and to show me the truth as truth and grant me its following, and to show me falsehood as falsehood and grant me its avoidance. And we now return to what we mentioned of the causes of the weakness of faith; in that lies the way of guiding them and rescuing them from their mortal perils. As for those who claimed bewilderment among the people of ta‘lim, their remedy is what we mentioned in the book al-Qistas al-Mustaqim, and we shall not prolong by mentioning it in this epistle. As for what the people of ibaha imagined, we have confined their doubts to seven kinds and unveiled them in Kimiya al-Sa‘ada.

As for one whose faith has been corrupted by way of philosophy, so that he denied the very basis of prophethood, we have already mentioned the reality of prophethood and its necessary existence, by proof of the existence of the efficacy of the special properties of medicines and the stars and other than these. We put forward this introduction only for that purpose, and that we adduced the proof from the special properties of medicine and the stars because it is from their very own science. And we make clear to every knower of an art among the sciences—such as the stars, medicine, physics, magic, and talismans, for example—from his own science the proof of prophethood. As for one who affirms prophethood with his tongue, and equates the ordinances of the Law with wisdom, he is in reality a disbeliever in prophethood; he is rather a believer in a sage possessed of a particular ascendant, whose ascendant requires that he be followed, and this has nothing at all to do with prophethood. Rather, belief in prophethood is to affirm the establishment of a stage beyond reason, in which an eye is opened by which particular objects of perception are apprehended, from which reason is isolated, just as hearing is isolated from perceiving colors, and sight from perceiving sounds, and all the senses from perceiving intelligibles. If he does not deem this possible, we have already established the proof of its possibility, indeed of its existence. And if he does deem this possible, then he has affirmed that there are matters here called special properties, around which the operation of reason does not revolve at all; rather, reason almost denies them and judges them impossible. For the weight of a daniq of opium is a lethal poison because it congeals the blood in the veins due to its extreme coldness, while he who claims knowledge of physics maintains that whatever among compounds cools cools only by the two elements of water and earth, for they are the two cold elements. And it is known that ritls of water and earth do not attain in the interior this degree of cooling. So if a natural philosopher were informed of this and had not experienced it, he would say: This is impossible, and the proof of its impossibility is that in it there is fieriness and airiness, and airiness and fieriness do not increase its coldness; so let us suppose the whole to be water and earth, yet this would not necessitate this excess in cooling, and if two hot elements are joined to it, then all the more it should not necessitate that—and he would deem this a proof! And most of the proofs of the philosophers in physics and metaphysics are built upon this kind! For they conceived matters according to the measure of what they found and intellected, and whatever they were not familiar with they judged impossible. Had the true dream not been familiar, and had a claimant claimed that when the senses are at rest he knows the unseen, those characterized by such intellects would have denied him. And if it were said to someone: Is it possible that there be in the world a thing the size of a grain, placed in a town, which consumes that town in its entirety and then consumes itself, so that nothing remains of the town and what is in it, nor does it itself remain? He would say: This is impossible, and it is among fables! Yet this is the state of fire; he who has not seen fire would deny it when he hears of it. And most denial of the wonders of the Hereafter is of this kind. So we say to the natural philosopher: You have been compelled to say that in opium there is a special property in cooling, which is not according to the analogy of what is intellected by physics. So why should it not be possible that there be in the legal ordinances special properties, in treating hearts and purifying them,

What is not apprehended by rational wisdom, but is seen only with the eye of prophethood? They have acknowledged properties more marvellous than this in what they have adduced in their books, and they are among the marvellous tested properties for treating a pregnant woman for whom labour has become difficult, by means of this figure: it is written on two rags untouched by water, and the pregnant woman looks at them both with her own eyes, and she places it under her feet, so the child hastens at once to come out. They have affirmed the possibility of that and adduced it among the marvels of properties, and it is a figure containing nine cells, in which particular numbers are inscribed, such that the sum of what is in a single row is fifteen, whether you read it along the length of the figure or across its width or diagonally. B T D 2 9 4 Z H J 7 5 3 W A H 6 1 8 So would that I knew! Who believes in that and then his mind is not capacious enough to believe that the ordaining of the morning prayer as two rak'as, and the noon prayer as four, and the sunset prayer as three, is due to properties not known by the consideration of wisdom, and that its cause is the difference of these times. These properties are apprehended only by the light of prophethood. And the wonder is that if we changed the expression to the expression of the astrologers, they would comprehend the difference of these times, so we say: Does not the ruling concerning the ascendant differ according to whether the sun is in the middle of the sky, or in the ascendant, or in the descendant, such that they build upon this in their tasyirs the difference of treatment and the disparity of lifespans and appointed terms, while there is no difference between the decline of the sun and the sun's being in the middle of the sky, nor between sunset and the sun's being in the descendant, so is there any reason for believing that, except that he hears it in the expression of an astrologer, whose lying he has perhaps tested a hundred times, and he continues to return to believing him, to the point that if the astrologer says to him: When the sun is in the middle of the sky and such-and-such a planet aspects it, and the ascendant is such-and-such a zodiacal sign, and you wear a new garment at that time, you will be killed in that garment! then he will not wear the garment at that time, and perhaps he will endure severe cold therein, and perhaps he heard it from an astrologer whose lying he has tested many times! So would that I knew! One whose mind is capacious enough to accept these marvels and who is compelled to acknowledge that they are properties — the knowledge of which belongs to some of the prophets — how can he deny the like of that in what he hears from the word of a truthful prophet supported by miracles, who was never known for lying at all! And why is it not capacious enough for its possibility? For if a philosopher denies the possibility of these properties in the numbers of the rak'as, the stoning of the jamras, the number of the pillars of the Hajj, and the rest of the devotional observances of the Law, he will find no difference at all between them and the properties of medicines and stars. And if he says: I have tested something of the stars and something of medicine, and found some of it to be true, so belief in it dawned in my soul and its improbability and my aversion to it fell from my heart, but this I have not tested — so by what shall I know its existence and its realization, even if I concede its possibility? then I say: You do not confine yourself to believing what you have tested; rather you heard the reports of those who have tested and you followed them, so hear the words of the prophets, for they have tested and witnessed the truth in all that the Law has brought, and follow their path and you will apprehend some of that by direct witnessing.

Nevertheless, I say: even if you have not tried it, your intellect decisively judges that assent and following are obligatory. For if we were to suppose a man who reached maturity and became rational but had never experienced sickness, and then fell sick, and he has a compassionate father skilled in medicine, whose claim to knowledge of medicine he has heard since he became rational, and his father kneaded a medicine for him and said, ‘This is suitable for your sickness and will cure you of your ailment’ — what would his intellect require of him, even if the medicine were bitter and foul-tasting: that he take it or that he disbelieve him? And [if] he says, ‘I do not comprehend the suitability of this medicine for producing healing, and I have not tried it!’ — there is no doubt that you would deem him a fool if he did that! Likewise, the people of insight deem you a fool for your hesitation! If you say, ‘How am I to know the compassion of the Prophet ﷺ and his knowledge of this medicine?’ I say, ‘And how did you know your father’s compassion, when that is not a matter perceptible by the senses? Rather, you knew it, with necessary knowledge about which you entertain no doubt, through the circumstantial indications of his states and the evidential signs of his deeds in his comings and goings.’ Whoever considers the sayings of the Messenger ﷺ, and what has come in the reports concerning his concern for guiding creation, and his gentleness in drawing people with all kinds of kindness, softness, and graciousness toward improving character and mending relations between people, and in sum toward whatever rectifies their religion and their worldly life, attains necessary knowledge that his ﷺ compassion for his community is greater than a father’s compassion for his child. And when he considers the wonders manifested through him in deeds, and the wonders of the unseen about which the Qur’an informed upon his tongue, and in the reports, and what he mentioned about the end of time, and it appeared just as he mentioned it, he knows with necessary knowledge that he reached the stage beyond intellect, and that the eye was opened for him through which is unveiled the unseen that none but the elite perceive, and the matters that intellect does not perceive. So this is the method of acquiring necessary knowledge of the truthfulness of the Prophet ﷺ. So try, reflect upon the Qur’an, and study the reports; you will know that by direct observation. This much suffices to alert those given to philosophy; we have mentioned it due to the urgent need for it in this age. As for the fourth cause — namely, weakness of faith due to the conduct of scholars — this ailment is treated by three things. The first of them is that we say: The scholar whom you claim consumes the unlawful — his knowledge of the prohibition of that unlawful thing is like your knowledge of the prohibition of wine, pork, and usury, indeed like [your knowledge] of the prohibition of backbiting, lying, and talebearing, while you know that and [still] do it, not because you do not believe it is disobedience, but because your overpowering desire dominates you. So his desire is like your desire, and it has overcome him just as it has overcome you. His knowledge of matters beyond this, by which he is distinguished from you, does not entail additional deterrence from this particular prohibited thing. How many a believer in medicine cannot abstain from fruit and cold water, even though the physician has forbidden him from them! That does not indicate that it is harmful or that belief in medicine is unsound. This is how the lapses of scholars are to be construed. The second is that it should be said to the layman: You ought to believe that the scholar has taken his knowledge as a store for himself in the Hereafter, and he thinks that his knowledge will save him and will intercede for him

So that He deals leniently with him in his deeds, by virtue of his knowledge. And even if it is admissible that it be an increase of proof against him, it is admissible that it be an increase of rank for him, and that is possible. So he, even if he abandons practice, pleads his knowledge. As for you, O layman! If you look at him and abandon practice while you are devoid of knowledge, you will perish through your evil deed and you will have no intercessor. Third: it is the reality that the true scholar does not commit an act of disobedience except by way of a slip, and he is never persistent in acts of disobedience at all. For true knowledge is that through which one knows that disobedience is a deadly arrow, and that the Hereafter is better than this world. And whoever knows that does not sell what is good for what is inferior to it. And this knowledge is not obtained by means of the kinds of sciences with which most people occupy themselves. For that reason that knowledge only increases them in audacity toward disobedience of Allah Most High. As for true knowledge, it increases its possessor in awe, fear, and hope, and that stands between him and acts of disobedience, except for slips from which human beings are not free at intervals, and that does not indicate weakness of faith. For the believer is oft-tried, oft-returning in repentance, and he is far removed from persistence and headlong indulgence. This is what I wanted to mention concerning the censure of philosophy and ta‘lim, their defects, and the defects of those who objected to them both, not by its proper way. We ask Allah the Almighty to make us among those whom He has favored and chosen, and guided to the truth and led aright, and inspired with His remembrance so that he does not forget Him, and protected from the evil of his own soul so that he prefers nothing over Him, and set apart for Himself so that he worships none but Him. And may Allah bless our master Muhammad ﷺ and his family and Companions and grant them peace.