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Spiritual_Roadmap_by_Ghazali, page : 88
them what knowledge they had gained from this infallible person, and raise objections against them,
they did
not understand these far less answer them, and in their perplexity had recourse to the `hidden
Imam‟ and
said one must journey to see him. The astonishing thing is that they squander their lives in
searching for the
`instructor‟ and it boasting that they have found him, yet without learning anything at all from
him. They are
like a blight smeared with filth, who so wearies himself with the search for water that when he
comes upon it
he does not use it but remains smeared with dirt.
There are indeed certain of them who lay claim to have some special knowledge. But this knowledge,
a.,
they describe it, amounts to some trifling details of the philosophy of Pythagoras. The latter was
one of the
earliest of the ancients and his philosophical system is the weakest of all; Aristotle not only
criticized him but
they did
not understand these far less answer them, and in their perplexity had recourse to the `hidden
Imam‟ and
said one must journey to see him. The astonishing thing is that they squander their lives in
searching for the
`instructor‟ and it boasting that they have found him, yet without learning anything at all from
him. They are
like a blight smeared with filth, who so wearies himself with the search for water that when he
comes upon it
he does not use it but remains smeared with dirt.
There are indeed certain of them who lay claim to have some special knowledge. But this knowledge,
a.,
they describe it, amounts to some trifling details of the philosophy of Pythagoras. The latter was
one of the
earliest of the ancients and his philosophical system is the weakest of all; Aristotle not only
criticized him but