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Spiritual_Roadmap_by_Ghazali, page : 121
the disease, while to know Allah Most High is the life-giving antidote and to obey Him by opposing
desire is
the healing medicine. I saw too, that the only way to treat the heart, to end its disease and
procure its health,
is by medicines, just as it is the only way of treating the body.
Moreover, medicines of the body are effective in producing health through some property in them
which
the intellectuals do not apprehend with their intellect, but in respect to which one must accept
the statement
of the doctors; and these in turn are dependent on the prophets who by prophethood
have grasped the
properties of things. Similarly I came of necessity to realize that in the case of
the medicines of formal
worship, which have been fixed and determined by the prophets, the manner of their effectiveness is
not
apprehended by the intellectual explanations of the intellectuals; one must rather
accept the statements
(taqlid) of the prophets who apprehended those properties by the light of prophecy,
desire is
the healing medicine. I saw too, that the only way to treat the heart, to end its disease and
procure its health,
is by medicines, just as it is the only way of treating the body.
Moreover, medicines of the body are effective in producing health through some property in them
which
the intellectuals do not apprehend with their intellect, but in respect to which one must accept
the statement
of the doctors; and these in turn are dependent on the prophets who by prophethood
have grasped the
properties of things. Similarly I came of necessity to realize that in the case of
the medicines of formal
worship, which have been fixed and determined by the prophets, the manner of their effectiveness is
not
apprehended by the intellectual explanations of the intellectuals; one must rather
accept the statements
(taqlid) of the prophets who apprehended those properties by the light of prophecy,