Premium
IBN SINA: TREATISE ON THE SECRET OF DESTINY 1
Author(s) -
Hourani George F.
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
the muslim world
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.106
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1478-1913
pISSN - 0027-4909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-1913.1963.tb01147.x
Subject(s) - george (robot) , destiny (iss module) , classics , acknowledgement , philosophy , theology , art history , history , computer science , physics , computer security , astronomy
Someone asked the Eminent Shayklz Abii ‘Ali ibn Sin5 the meaning of the Sufi saying, “IVhoever makes known the secret of destiny is a heretic.” In reply he stated that this question is extremely recondite, being one of those questions that can only be put down in cipher and taught in private, on account of the harmful effects its open explanation would haye on the general public. The basic principle concerning it is contained in a Tradition of the Prophet, God bless him and his family, “Destiny is the secret of God; do not reveal the secret of God,” and in another Tradition of the Prince of Believers =Ali, peace on him: that when questioned about it he replied, “Destiny is a deep sea; do not sail out on it.” Being asked again he replied, “It is a stony road; do not walk on it.” Being asked once more he said, “It is a hard ascent: do not undertake it.” Know that the secret of des;iny is based on certain premises, such as ( I ) the world order, (2) the report that there is Reward and Punishment, and (3) the affirmation of the resurrection of souls. ( I ) The first premise is that you should know that there is nothing in the world as a whole or in its parts, upper and lower, which is excluded from the statements that God is the cause of its being and its origination, and that God has knowledge of it, controls it and wills its existence: on the contrary, the whole of it exists by His control, determination, knowledge and will. This is a general and superficial account, although in describing the situation thus we intend a true description. not as the theologians explain it; and of this proofs and demonstrations could be given. And if this world were not composed of elements which would give rise to good and evil in it, and produce both righteousness and corruption in its inhabitants, there would have been no completion of an order for the world; for if it contained nothing but unmixed righteousness, it would not have been this world, 2 but another one. And it was necessary that the world should be composed in this fashion and order, for it does contain both righteousness and corruption. (2) The second premise is that the ancient philosophers held that Reward is the occurrence of pleasure in the soul according to the extent of its perfection, while Punishment is the occurrence of pain in the soul according to the extent of its deficiency. So the soul’s abiding in deficiency is its “alienation from God,” and this is “the curse,” “Punishment,” (God’s) “wrath” and “anger”; and pain comes to it