The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn YokdhanIbn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic
The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan
Ibn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic philosophy -- Early works to 1800
Sec. 84. But he found that his own Being was not excluded by his Thoughts,
no not at such times when he was most deeply immers'd in the
Contemplation of the _first, true, necessarily self-existent Being_.
Which concern'd him very much, for he knew that even this was a Mixture
in this simple Vision, and the Admission of an extraneous Object in that
Contemplation. Upon which he endeavour'd to disappear from himself, and
be wholly taken up in the Vision of that _true Being_; till at last he
attain'd it; and then both the Heavens and the Earth, and whatsoever is
between them, and all Spiritual Forms, and Corporeal Faculties; and all
those Powers which are separate from Matter, and are those Beings which
know the _necessarily self-existent Being_, all disappear'd and
vanish'd, and were as if they had never been, and amongst these his own
Being disappear'd too, and there remain'd nothing but this ONE, TRUE,
Perpetually Self-existent Being, who spoke thus in that Saying of his
(which is not a Notion superadded to his Essence.) _To whom now belongs
the Kingdom? To this One, Almighty God_.[22] Which Words of his _Hai Ebn
Yokdhan_ understood, and heard his Voice; nor was his being unacquainted
with Words, and not being able to speak, any Hindrance at all to the
understanding him. Wherefore he deeply immers'd himself into this State,
and witness'd that which neither Eye hath seen, nor Ear heard; nor hath
it ever enter'd into the Heart of Man to conceive.
Sec. 85. And now, don't expect that I should give thee a Description of
that, which the Heart of Man cannot conceive. For if a great many of
thole things which we do conceive are nevertheless hard to be explain'd,
how much more difficult must those be which cannot be conceiv'd by the
Heart, nor are circumscrib'd in the Limits of that World in which it
converses. Now, when I say the Heart, I don't mean the Substance of it,
nor that Spirit which is contain'd in the Cavity of it; but I mean by
it, the Form of that Spirit which is diffus'd by its Faculties through
the whole Body of Man. Now every one of these three is sometimes call'd
the Heart, but 'tis impossible that this thing which I mean should be
comprehended by any of these three, neither can we express any thing by
Words, which is not first conceiv'd in the Heart. And whosoever asks to
have it explain'd, asks an Impossibility; for 'tis just as if a Man
should have a mind to taste Colours, _quatenas_ Colours, and desire,
that _black_ should be either _sweet_ or _sowre._ However, I shall not
dismiss you without some Limits, whereby I shall point out to you in
some Measure, what wonderful things he saw when in this Condition, but
all figuratively, and by way of Parable; not pretending to give a
literal Description of that, which is impossible to be known, but by
coming thither. Attend therefore with the Ears of thy Heart, and look
sharply with the Eyes of thy Understanding, upon that which I shall shew
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