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The_Savior_from_Spiritual_Error_and_50_Principles, page : 49
(2) the Batiniyah, who consider that they, as the party of `authoritative
instruction‟ (ta‟lim), alone derive truth from the infallible imam;
(3) the Philosophers, who regard themselves as the exponents of logic and
demonstration;
(4) the Sufi or Mystics, who claim that they alone enter into the `presence‟ (sc.
of Allah), and possess vision and intuitive understanding.
I said within myself: `The truth cannot lie outside these four classes. These
are the people who tread the paths of the quest for truth. If the truth is not with
them, no point remains in trying to apprehend the truth. There is certainly no
point in trying to return to the level of naive and derivative belief (taqlid) once it
has been left, since a condition of being at such a level is that one does not
know one is there; when a man comes to know, the glass of his naive beliefs
is broken. This is a breakage which cannot be mended, a breakage not to be
repaired by patching or by assembling of fragments. The glass must be
melted once again in the furnace for a new start, and out of it another fresh
instruction‟ (ta‟lim), alone derive truth from the infallible imam;
(3) the Philosophers, who regard themselves as the exponents of logic and
demonstration;
(4) the Sufi or Mystics, who claim that they alone enter into the `presence‟ (sc.
of Allah), and possess vision and intuitive understanding.
I said within myself: `The truth cannot lie outside these four classes. These
are the people who tread the paths of the quest for truth. If the truth is not with
them, no point remains in trying to apprehend the truth. There is certainly no
point in trying to return to the level of naive and derivative belief (taqlid) once it
has been left, since a condition of being at such a level is that one does not
know one is there; when a man comes to know, the glass of his naive beliefs
is broken. This is a breakage which cannot be mended, a breakage not to be
repaired by patching or by assembling of fragments. The glass must be
melted once again in the furnace for a new start, and out of it another fresh