In the Name of GOD, the Merciful, the Compassionate: May GOD bless
our Lord Muhammad and his Kinsfolk, and give them peace. O my God
facilitate [this undertaking]; and make [it] end in good, O Thou
Bounteous Being!
Abu-´Aly, Ibn Sînâ, the chief elder, learnèd and erudite leader, the
precise and accurate researcher, Truth’s plea against mankind, the
physician of physicians, the philosopher of Islâm, may the Most High
GOD have mercy upon him, saith:--
The best of beginnings is that which is adorned with praise to the
Giver of strength for praising Him; and for invoking blessing and peace
upon our Lord Muhammad, His prophet and servant, and upon his good and
pure offspring after him. And after this beginning, he saith further:--
Had not custom given leave to the small and low to reach up to the
great and high, it would be most difficult for them ever to tread those
paths in going over which they need to lay hold of their upholding
arm[3] and seek the help of their superior strength; to attain to
a position in their service, and join themselves to their social
circle; to pride themselves on having become connected with them, and
openly declare their reliance upon them. Nay, the very bond which
joins the common man to the man of élite would be severed, and the
reliance of the flock upon its shepherd would cease; the frail would
no longer become powerful through the strength of the mighty, nor the
low-born rise through the protection and countenance of the high-born;
the foolish would not be able to correct his folly and ignorance by
intercourse with the prudent and wise; nor the wise draw nigh to the
ignorant and foolish.
And whereas I find that custom has trod along this highroad, and
prescribed this usage, I avail myself of such a precedent and excuse
to warrant my reaching up and aspiring to the Prince, GOD give him
long life, with an offering [an acceptable present]; and I have given
prevalence to the thought that my choice ought to fall upon an object
which will at once be most acceptable to him, and best calculated to
attain my aim of ingratiating myself into his favor; and this, after
coming to the certain conclusion that the chief virtues are two,
namely 1. Love of wisdom as to the Articles of Faith, (i.e., Love of
Philosophy in theoretical principles); and 2. Choice of the most honest
of deeds as to intention (i.e., the preference of pure purposes in
practical life).
And in this connection I find the Prince, God prolong his days, to have
given to his intrinsically worthy character so much of the polish and
lustre imparted by wisdom that he far outstrips his rivals among the
princes, and overtops all such as are of his kind. And hence I clearly
perceive that of all presents the one he will appreciate most is such
as conduces to the most precious of the virtues, to wit wisdom. I
had, however, so far profitted from a careful perusal of the books of
the learnèd as to find their researches into the spiritual faculties
among the most abstruse and refractory against the mind’s grasping
what they mean, and the most bewildering, obscure and misleading as to
their results. And yet I have seen it reported about a number of wise
men (philosophers) and pious[4] saints that they agree in this dictum
(motto), viz: “Whoso Knoweth himself, Knoweth his Lord”; and I have
also heard the Chief of the Philosophers say, in agreement with their
saying: “Whoso faileth to Know himself, is still more likely (apt) to
fail of Knowing his Creator”; and “How shall he, who is trusted as a
reliable authority in a science, be deemed to have any views at all,
when he is ignorant of himself?” I see further the Book of the Most
High GOD pointing to the measure of truth of this, where He says, when
mentioning the distance separating the Erring from His mercy: Surah 59,
al-Hashr, v. 19: “they forgot God, and He made them forget themselves”;
is not His making the forgetting of self to depend upon forgetting
Him done so as to awaken the attention to His closely binding the
remembrance of Him with the remembrance of self, and the knowledge
of Him with the knowledge of self, scilicet of one’s own soul?
Furthermore, I have read in the books of the ancients that the hard
task of going deeply into the knowledge of self had been enjoined upon
them by an oracle that had descended upon them at one of the temples
of the gods, which says: “Know thyself, O man, so shalt thou know thy
Lord.” I have also read that this saying was engraved in the façade
of the temple of Aesculapius, who is known among them as one of the
prophets, and whose most famous miracle is that he was wont to heal the
sick by mere loud supplication; and so did all priests who performed
sacerdotal functions in his temple. From him have philosophers got the
science of medicine.
Thus I have thought fit to make for the Prince[5] a book on the soul,
in the form of a compendium; and I ask the Most High God to prolong
his life, to keep intact from the evil eye his frail and mortal body,
to refresh through him wisdom after its fading, to revive it after
its languishing, to renew its might through his might, and to give
it length of days through length of days to him, in order that by
his prestige the advantages accruing from the prestige of its kin
shall become all-embracing, and that the number of the seekers after
its fullness shall abound. Nor shall I achieve this my ambition save
through God: He is my all-sufficient stay, and best helper. I have
arranged the Book in sections, ten in all:--
1. To Establish the Existence of the Faculties of the Soul, the
detailed analysis and explanation of which I have undertaken.
2. Division and Classification of the Primary (Primitive) Faculties of
the Soul, and Definition of the Soul at large (or as a whole).
3. That None of the Faculties of the Soul originates from the
Combination (Blending) of the Four Elements, but on the contrary comes
upon them from without.
4. Detailed Statement concerning the Vegetable Powers (faculties), and
Mentioning the Need for Each One of them.
5. Detailed Statement concerning the Animal Faculties (powers), and
Mentioning the Need for Each One of them.
6. Detailed Statement concerning the External (Apparent) Senses, and
How they perceive, mentioning the Disagreement [of researchers] as to
How Seeing is performed.
7. Detailed Statement concerning the Internal (Hidden) Senses, and the
Body Moving Power.
8. Memoir on the Human Soul from the Stage of its Beginning to the
Stage of its Perfection.
9. Establishing the Proofs necessary for affirming the Essentiality of
the Speaking (Rational) Soul, by the logical method.
10. Establishing the Argument for the Existence of an Intellectual
Essence, distinct from Bodies, standing to the Rational (speaking)
Faculties in the stead of a Fountain, and in the stead of Light to
Sight; and Showing that Rational (speaking) Souls remain united with
It after the death of the body, secure and safe from corruption and
change; and It is what is called Universal (generic) Intelligence.