The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 3 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Religion
The Dabistán, or School of manners, Volume 3 (of 3): translated from the original Persian, with notes and illustrations
Iran -- Religion; Religions
To sum up precisely the creed of all these sects, it may be said, that
some do not agree upon beings perceived and beings probable, but all
acknowledge the existence of appearances. These are called
_Súfistáyah_, and in Persian _Samrádí_. All those who believe all
ought to be comprehended in what is perceived, and deny any reality to
things probable (or to the subjects of reason), are named _Tábíâyah_,
“physiologists,” in Persian, _Mansí_. The belief of the latter is,
that the world is composed of things perceived, and of individuals,
children of Adam, and that animals are like plants: the one dries, the
other shoots up afresh, and this occurrence will be repeated without
end. Enjoyment is comprehended in eating, drinking, women, vehicles,
and the like, and besides this world there is no other existence. Some
agree upon the existence of things perceived and things probable,
but differ upon the limits and laws. These are entitled
_Filásafa-i-dahriah_, “secular philosophers,” in Persian _Jáyákárí_,
“attached to temporariness.” This sect establishes a world of
probabilities (composed) of nothing but things perceived, but they
believe also the perfection proper to mankind is that, after a certain
knowledge of an Almighty Creator, they attain the future spiritual
existence in an exalted station of the rational world, and become
blessed with an abundance of every beatitude; they acknowledge a
powerful intrinsic virtue of the intellect in the acquisition of this
everlasting beatitude, which, with the essence of wisdom, has no want
of another gift of any sort whatever. Disgrace means the opposition to
the mode of laudable reason, and law is the mode in which the wise
have settled the common affairs of the individuals of mankind
conformably with rectitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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