الفصل الثاني: في منشأ إنزال الكتب واختلاف الناس وانقسامهمBab 02 Fasl 02 — Revealed Books Human Difference and Division

Chapter Two: On the Origin of the Revelation of the Books, and the Difference and Division of Humanity

It contains: disclosures

The First Disclosure: On the Wisdom in the Revelation of the Books

Know that, since human beings need to join with another of their kind in securing their livelihood and preparing for their return to God, that association must take a form through which mutual restraint and cooperation are achieved: through restraint, each person preserves what belongs to him; through cooperation, he obtains what he does not possess, in both worldly and eschatological matters.

Since many of these matters lie beyond the reach of reason—and even where reason can reach them, they do so through subtle reflections available only to one person after another—divine wisdom required the sending of messengers and the revelation of books, so that people might be given glad tidings and warnings and guided to what they need in religious and worldly affairs.

The form of association established in this manner is the religious community, and the particular path by which one reaches this form is the way and the revealed law. The revealed law began with Noah—peace be upon him—while legal limits and rulings began with Adam, Seth, and Enoch—peace be upon them—and it was brought to its most complete and perfect form. Some people believed in them and were guided; others chose error over guidance. Thus disagreement over opinions and schools emerged among the unbelievers and the Islamic sects: “Each party rejoices in what it has.”

The Second Disclosure: On the Categories of People According to Schools and Religions

Know that the governing classification may be stated as follows. Some people accept neither sensory perception nor rational apprehension; these are the Sophists, for they denied the realities of things. Others accept the sensory but not the rational; these are the Naturalists. Each of them is intellectually disabled: his thought does not return him to a conclusion, his reason and reflection do not guide him to a conviction, and his mind does not direct him to a return after death. He is accustomed to the sensory, relies upon it, and supposes that there is no world beyond the sensory world. They are also called the Dahrees, since they affirm a rational principle.

Others accept both the sensory and the rational but accept neither revealed limits nor rulings; these are the philosophers. Each of them has risen above the sensory and affirmed the rational, but does not accept revealed limits, rulings, a revealed law, or Islam. He supposes that, once he has attained rational knowledge and established for the world an origin and a return, he has reached the perfection sought by his kind. His happiness is therefore proportionate to the scope of his knowledge and his misery to his ignorance, folly, and intellect; his own reason is exclusively responsible for attaining this happiness. These were the Dahrees, Naturalists, and Theists of antiquity—not those who received their sciences from the niche of prophecy.

Others accept the sensory, the rational, and revealed limits and rulings, but not revealed law and Islam; these are the Saabi'ans. They are close to the philosophers and affirm rational limits and rulings, perhaps having taken their principles and rules from one supported by revelation, but they confined themselves to the first of the prophets and did not proceed to the last. These are the early Saabi'ans who affirmed Gaazeemoon and Hermes—namely Seth and Enoch—peace be upon them, and did not affirm any other prophets. Others affirm all of these things as a law and Islam, but do not affirm the law of Muhammad—God bless him and grant him peace; these are the Magians, Christians, and Jews.

Others affirm all of these things; these are the Muslims. At the death of the Prophet—God bless him and grant him peace—they held a single creed, apart from those who concealed hypocrisy. Disagreement first arose among them over matters of independent judgment, their aim being to uphold the ordinances of religion: disagreement over remaining behind Usaama's army, his death—God bless him and grant him peace—and the place of his burial; over the imamate and whether inheritance from him—God bless him and grant him peace—was established; over fighting those who refused to pay zakaat; over the caliphate of 'Alee and Mu'aawiya; and over some subsidiary legal rulings. Then it gradually developed and intensified toward the end of the Companions' period—may God be pleased with them. A group emerged that disagreed over predestination, and disagreement continued to branch out until the people of Islam divided into seventy-three sects, as the Messenger of God indicated—one of his miracles. The principal Islamic sects, however, are eight: the Mu'tazilites, Shi'ites, Khaarijites, Murji'ites, Najjaarites, Jabrites, Anthropomorphists, and Saved Sect, who are called the People of the Sunnah and the Community. This is what is related in the books on sects.

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The Third Disclosure: On the Categories of People According to the Sciences

Know that, with respect to knowledge and craft, people are of two divisions. One division concerned itself with knowledge, and various forms of learning appeared among them; they are the elect of God's creation. The other division did not attend to knowledge with the attention that would entitle it to the name. The first consists of nations including the Egyptians, Romans, Indians, Persians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Arabs, and Hebrews.

The second consists of the remaining nations, although the most notable among them are the Chinese and Turks. In The Book of Religions and Sects it is stated that the great nations are four: the Arabs, Persians, Romans, and Indians. The Arabs and Indians resemble one another in a single approach: they incline chiefly to establishing the properties of things, judging according to essences and realities, and employing spiritual matters. The Persians and Romans likewise resemble one another: they incline chiefly to establishing the natures of things, judging according to qualities and quantities, and employing corporeal matters. End.

In explaining these nations there are illuminations.

The First Illumination: On the Indians

Know that, although the Indian complexion belongs to the first degree of the black peoples and thereby shares their nature, God Most High spared them the bad character, lowly disposition, and foolish judgment of the black peoples. He favored them over many brown and white peoples. Some astrologers explain this by saying that Saturn and Mercury jointly govern the nature of India: Saturn made their complexions dark, while Mercury purified their intellects and refined their minds. They are therefore people of excellent opinions and sound judgment, distinguished in arithmetic, geometry, medicine, astronomy, natural science, and metaphysics. Among them are the Brahmins, a small group whose doctrine rejects prophecy and prohibits the slaughter of animals. There are also the Saabi'ans, who constitute the majority of India; they have doctrines and opinions concerning the veneration of the stars and their cycles. The best-known doctrines in their books are the Sindhind—that is, the eternity of time—the Arjbhadh, and the Arkand. They have works on arithmetic, ethics, and music.

The Second Illumination: On the Persians

They are the most balanced of nations and inhabit the central region. At the beginning of their history they were monotheists following the religion of Noah—peace be upon him—until Tahmoorath adopted the doctrine of the Saabi'ans and compelled the Persians to follow it. They held it for approximately a thousand years, until they all became Magians through Zoroaster. They remained upon his religion for nearly a thousand years, until they disappeared. Their elite devoted themselves to medicine and astrological judgments, and they possessed observations and doctrines concerning the motions of the stars. They agreed that the soundest doctrine concerning cosmic cycles was the Persian doctrine, called the Persian years. According to it, the duration of the world is one part of twelve thousand of the duration of the Sindhind: the planets, their apogees, and the nodes of their orbits all come together in the sign of Aries once every thirty-six thousand solar years. They have distinguished books on this subject.

In The Fihrist it is said that the first to speak Persian was Kayoomarth, whom the Persians call Kal Shaah, meaning “king of clay”; for them he is Adam, the father of humanity—peace be upon him. The first to write in Persian was Beewaraasb, known as al-Dhahhaak; it is also said to have been Afreedoon.

[Edition footnote 1] See The Fihrist, p. 12, European edition.

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Ibn 'Abdoos says in The Book of Ministers: “Before the reign of Kishtaasp, books and letters were few, and they lacked the ability to expand speech and bring meanings out from the souls. When Zoroaster, the possessor of the Magian law, appeared and displayed his wondrous book in all languages, people began learning writing and script; they increased and became proficient.” Ibn al-Muqaffa' said: “The languages of Persia are Pahlavi, Dari, Persian, Khuzee, and Syriac.”

Pahlavi is attributed to Pahla, a name applied to five lands: Isfahan, Rayy, Hamadan, Nihawand, and Azerbaijan.

Dari is the language of the cities, spoken by those at the royal court. It is attributed to the gate because “gate” in Persian is dar; the predominant element in it is the language of Khurasan and the East, the language of Balkh.

Persian is spoken by the Zoroastrian priests and scholars and is the language of Persia. Khuzee was spoken by kings and nobles in private with their retinues.

Syriac was spoken by the people of the Sawaad and used in correspondence in a form of language combining Syriac and Persian.

The Persians have six types of script, and their letters are composed of: abjad, hawwaz, huttee, kalaman, sa'fas, qarashat, thakhadhagh. The doubled taa', unpointed haa', saad, dhaad, taa', dhaa', 'ayn, and qaaf are omitted.

The Third Illumination: On the Chaldeans

They are an ancient nation whose dwelling was the land of Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. Among them were the Nimrods, kings of the earth after the Flood, and Nebuchadnezzar was one of them. Their language was Syriac. They remained there until the Persians appeared over them and conquered their kingdom. They included scholars and sages who were broadly versed in the arts. They devoted themselves to observing the stars, establishing their judgments and properties, and possessing temples and methods for attracting the powers of the stars and manifesting their natures through various forms of ritual. Extraordinary effects, including the making of talismans, emerged from them. They had doctrines from which Ptolemy drew in the Almagest.

[Edition footnote 2] A Greek word meaning “arrangement.” It is a book composed by Ptolemy the wise philosopher, in which he gives the rules used to establish astronomical and terrestrial configurations with their detailed proofs. Hunayn ibn Ishaaq translated it into Arabic.

Among their most famous scholars were Hipparchus and Astaphan. In The Fihrist it is stated that Nabataean is more eloquent than Syriac and was spoken by the people of Babylon. The Nabataean spoken by villagers, however, is inarticulate Syriac. It is also said that the language used in eloquent books is the language of the people of Syria and Harran.

[Edition footnote 3] The well-known al-Nadeem.

The Syrians have three scripts, the oldest scripts. They differ from Arabic in orthography only in that the letters thaa', khaa', dhaal, dhaad, dhaa', and ghayn are all unpointed, as is the laam-alif. Their letters are arranged from right to left.

The Fourth Illumination: On the Greeks

They are a nation of great stature; their lands are Rumelia, Anatolia, and Karaman.

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Most of them were Saabi'ans and idol worshippers. Alexander was one of them, and the kings of the earth unanimously submitted to his authority. After him came the Ptolemies, until the Romans overcame them. Their scholars were called divine philosophers. The five greatest were Empedocles, who lived in the time of David—peace be upon him—then Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

They composed works in the various arts and were among the highest-ranking peoples and most eminent of scholars because of their sound concern with the arts of wisdom: the mathematical and logical sciences, the natural and metaphysical sciences, and household and civic politics. All the rational sciences are derived from them. The language of their earlier people is called Greek and is among the broadest of languages; the language of their later people is called Latin, for they were two groups, the Greeks and the Latins. The Greek nation appeared around the year 568 after the death of Moses—peace be upon him—and 845 years before the appearance of Alexander.

The Fifth Illumination: On the Romans

They too were Saabi'ans until Constantine adopted the religion of Christ and compelled them to follow it. They obeyed him, and Christianity continued to grow until most peoples neighboring the Romans and all the people of Egypt entered it. They had sages learned in the various branches of philosophy. Many people say that the famous philosophers were Romans, but the correct view is that they were Greeks. Because the two nations were neighbors, some entered into the other and their histories became confused. Both nations are famous for their concern with philosophy, although the Greeks possess an undeniable distinction and superiority. The center of their kingdom was Greater Rome.

Their language differs from Greek. It is said that the language of the Greeks was Greek and that of the Romans Latin. The Greek and Roman scripts run from left to right, arranged according to the order of the abjad. Their letters are: ayj, waztee, kalaman, sa'fas, qarashat, thakh, dhagh. The daal, haa', haa', dhaal, dhaad, and laam-alif are omitted. They have a script known as samia, for which we have no equivalent: a single letter encompasses many meanings and combines several words.

Galen said in one of his books: “I was once in a public assembly and spoke generally about anatomy. Several days later, a friend met me and said, 'So-and-so remembers that, in your assembly, you said such-and-such.' He repeated my words to me, and I asked, 'How did you learn this?' He replied, 'I met a scribe skilled in samia. He would precede you in writing down your speech.' This art is learned by kings and eminent scribes and is withheld from all other people because of its dignity.” Thus al-Nadeem relates in The Fihrist.

[Edition footnote 1] See it, p. 16.

It is also mentioned that a medical practitioner came to him from Baalbek in the year 48 and claimed that he could write in samia. He says: “We tested him and found that, when we spoke ten words, he listened to them and then wrote one word. We repeated that word, and he reproduced it in our own wording.” End.

Pause: The reason given for the Romans' writing from left to right, without joining the letters, is that they believe a seated person should face east in every circumstance. When he faces east, the north is on his left; since the left then gives to the right, the writer should begin from north toward south. Others explain it by saying that drawing ink follows the movement of the liver toward the heart.

The Sixth Illumination: On the Egyptians

They are a mixture of nations, although their majority are Copts. They became mixed because many peoples—such as the Amalekites, Greeks, and Romans—successively ruled Egypt, so their genealogies became obscure and they attributed themselves to their place. In antiquity they were Saabi'ans, then became Christians until the Islamic conquest. Their ancient people devoted themselves to various sciences. Among them was Hermes of the Hermeses before the Flood, and after it there were scholars of various branches of philosophy, especially talismans, magic, burning mirrors, and alchemy. Their seat of learning was the city of Memphis. When Alexander built his city, people desired to populate it, and it became a seat of learning and wisdom until the Islamic conquest. Among them were the Alexandrians who abridged Galen's books. It is said that the Copts acquired mathematical knowledge from the Chaldeans.

The Seventh Illumination: On the Hebrews

They are the Children of Israel. Their concern was with the sciences of revealed law and the biographies of the prophets. Their rabbis were therefore the most knowledgeable of people concerning the reports of the prophets and the beginning of creation, and Muslim scholars took this knowledge from them. They were not, however, known for philosophy. Their language is attributed to Eber ibn Shelah. Hebrew script runs from right to left and proceeds from abjad through the end of qarashat; what follows is omitted. It is derived from Syriac.

[Edition footnote 1] That is, the letters “thakhadh dhadhagh.”

The Eighth Illumination: On the Arabs

They are two groups: extinct and surviving. The extinct were peoples such as 'Aad and Thamood; they perished, and their reports were cut off from us.

The surviving descend from Qahtaan and 'Adnaan. They have a pre-Islamic and an Islamic period. In the former were the Tubba's and the mighty kings. They possessed a doctrine concerning astrological judgments, but they did not concern themselves with observing the stars or investigating any branch of philosophy. As for the rest of the Arabs after the kings, they were people of settled dwellings and tents. There was no notable scholar or recognized sage among them. Their religions differed: some worshipped the sun and stars, some became Jews, and some worshipped idols, until Islam came.

Their language was the most eloquent of languages. The knowledge in which they took pride was knowledge of their language, the composition of poetry and sermons, knowledge of reports, and familiarity with biographies and eras. al-Hamdaanee said: “No report about the Arabs or non-Arabs can be reached except through the Arabs. Those who lived in Mecca encompassed knowledge of the ancient Arabs and the reports of the People of the Book; they entered various lands for trade and learned the reports of their peoples. Likewise, those who lived in al-Heera and neighbored the foreigners knew their reports, the days of Himyar, and its migrations through the lands. Those who lived in Syria knew the reports of the Romans, the Children of Israel, and the Greeks. Those who settled in Bahrain and Oman transmitted the reports of Sind, India, and Persia. Those who lived in Yemen knew the reports of all nations, for they lived under the shadow of traveling kings.”

The Arabs were people of memorization and transmission. They knew the times of risings and settings, and the stellar asterisms and their rains, because they needed this for their livelihood, not as a means of learning realities and training in the sciences. As for philosophy, God Most High granted them none of it and did not prepare their natures to concern themselves with it, except rarely.

We have mentioned the conditions of the ancient nations briefly in Luqtat al-'Ajlaan. If you wish, consult it.

[Edition footnote 1] The author's work Luqtat al-'Ajlaan.

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