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The_Foundations_of_the_Islamic_Belief, page : 60
traversed.
(ii) Reality and Religion
If you say that this discourse implies that these sciences have external as well as internal
meanings,
that some of them are obvious and readily understood, while others are hidden and become evident
through self-mortification, discipline, earnest desire, pure thinking and a heart free from all
worldly
activities except those which are required, and conclude that such discourse is almost contrary to
the
Religion because the Religion does not have external and internal meanings, secret and manifest, but
the external and the internal, the secret and the manifest, are in it all the same. Then you should
know
that the division of these sciences into hidden and obvious is not denied by anyone of any insight
but is
denied by the ignorant who, having acquired some knowledge in their youth, did not advance any
further and consequently failed to gain promotion to the lofty heights where lie the stations of
the
(ii) Reality and Religion
If you say that this discourse implies that these sciences have external as well as internal
meanings,
that some of them are obvious and readily understood, while others are hidden and become evident
through self-mortification, discipline, earnest desire, pure thinking and a heart free from all
worldly
activities except those which are required, and conclude that such discourse is almost contrary to
the
Religion because the Religion does not have external and internal meanings, secret and manifest, but
the external and the internal, the secret and the manifest, are in it all the same. Then you should
know
that the division of these sciences into hidden and obvious is not denied by anyone of any insight
but is
denied by the ignorant who, having acquired some knowledge in their youth, did not advance any
further and consequently failed to gain promotion to the lofty heights where lie the stations of
the