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SpiritualRoadmapbyGhazali, page : 82
agreeing with them; we accepted their assertion that `instruction‟ is needed and
an infallible `instructor‟; we conceded that he is the one they specified. Yet when
we asked 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 showed the weakness and corruption of his thought. Yet he is
the person followed in the Book of the Brethren of Purity, which is really but the
dregs of philosophy.
an infallible `instructor‟; we conceded that he is the one they specified. Yet when
we asked 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 showed the weakness and corruption of his thought. Yet he is
the person followed in the Book of the Brethren of Purity, which is really but the
dregs of philosophy.