(BY AVERROES)
The first to preach the resurrection were the prophets of Israel
after Moses, then the Evangelical Christians, then the Sabians, whose
religion has been called by Ibn-Hazm the oldest in the world. The
reason so many founders of religion established this dogma was because
they supposed this belief would moralize men and induce them to be
virtuous in their own interests. I do not quarrel with Al Ghazali or
Motecallemin for saying that the soul is immortal, but I object to the
idea that the soul is a mere accident, and that a man can take again
the body which has fallen into decay. No, he may take another, similar
to the first, but that which has been dead can not return to life.
These two bodies are only one, viewed as a species, but they are two
in number. Aristotle has said in the last lines of his "Generation and
Corruption": "A body once corrupted can never become the same again;
it can never return as an individual whole, but it can return to the
specific variety of which it is a part. When air separates from water
or water separates from air, each of these substances can not become
again the thing it was, but must return to its own species."
* * * * *
How have we come to adopt these tales of the creation? Through habit.
Just as a man inured to poison can take it with impunity, so a man
used to them from childhood can accept the most unbelievable opinions.
Therefore the opinions of the masses are only formed through habit. The
people believe that which they hear incessantly repeated. And that is
why the power of religion is so much stronger than that of philosophy,
for it is not accustomed to hearing the opposite of its belief, a
thing which happens very often to philosophy: So one sees frequently,
nowadays, men who, having entered suddenly into the study of the
speculative sciences, lose the religious beliefs which they have only
held through habit, and become _zendihs_ (infidels).
The religion sacred to philosophers is to study that which _is_, for
the most sublime worship one can render to God is the recognition and
knowledge of his works, which leads us to know him, himself, in all his
_reality_. In the eyes of God that is the noblest action, while the
vilest action is to tax with error and presumption those who practise
this worship, higher than any other, who adore him by this religion,
the best of all religions.
Among the most dangerous of these fictions concerning a future life are
those which counsel virtue as a means of arriving at happiness. In that
case virtue is no longer worth anything, since one only abstains from
voluptuousness in the hope of being doubly repaid in the future. The
brave will only seek death to evade a worse evil. The good will only
respect the belongings of others in order to acquire twice as much.
Wine is forbidden because it excites wickedness and quarrels; but I am
preserved from those excesses by wisdom: I take it only to sharpen my
wits.[52]
That renegade philosopher, Al Ghazali, has gathered up all he learned
from the writings of the philosophers, and has turned against them the
arms he borrowed from them.
As for us, the philosophers, at the risk of exposing ourselves to the
rage of the persecutors of philosophy, which was our mother, we will,
when the time is ripe, uncover the poison hidden in Al Ghazali's book.
* * * * *
Our social state does not bring out all the resources and possibilities
there are in women; it would seem that they are only destined to bear
and rear children, and this state of servitude has destroyed in them
the capability for larger things. That is why one never sees, with us,
a woman possessed of the moral virtues—their lives pass like those of
flowers, and they are a burden upon their husbands. From this comes
also the misery which devours our cities, for there are twice as many
women there as men, but the former are not permitted to work for their
own support.
* * * * *
My father aided in rescuing from prison Ibn Badja, who was accused of
heresy. My father does not understand that his own son will one day be
regarded as a far worse heretic.
God alone knows if I am one; but it is absolutely certain that it
was only the intrigues of my enemies which led to my condemnation.
I thought only of editing Aristotle and establishing accord between
religion and philosophy.