The Need of the Intellect for the Divine Code of Laws

The Third Aspect: the need of the intellect for the divine code of laws and the dependence of the latter on the intellect
Know that this study necessitates a passage of introduction, namely a description of how all the prophets and intimate friends or saints are doctors of the self and healers of the heart, in the same way as the doctors and physicians are all healers of the ailments of the human body. By this I mean that just as the doctors of the human body know how to get rid of physical diseases from their patients by their skill in healing and their use of potions and drugs, so the doctors of the self or the soul know how to remove the psychological and spiritual ailments of their patients by their skillful guidance and their use of knowledge and gnosis derived from the realm of reality.
Thus we read the following description of spiritual treatment in a language specific to its domain: `Spiritual treatment is by knowledge‑ of the perfecآ­tions of the heart, by knowledge of whatever mars these perfecآ­tions through illness, and by knowledge of that which cures this illness. Likewise, it is knowledge of the methods of maintaining good health and even temperament and prevention of further "infection" with this disease.' We read too of the spiritual doctor in similar terms: `The spiritual doctor is the shaykh, the person who has gnosis of the treatment and who is capable of giving guidance and perfection.'
As we have already seen, it has also been said: `The shaykh is the perfect man with regard to the shari`ah, the tariqah and the haqiqah, having reached the limits of perfection in each by his knowledge of the diseases and illnesses of the self and the corresآ­ponding treatment and medicine and his capacity to cure. The perfect man gives guidance to the self if it is ready for that guidance and agrees to be guided.' Just as it is not permitted for the one who is physically sick to object to the method of treatment nor the nature of the medicine given by the physician, so the person who is spiritually or psychologically sick is not permitted to object to the spiritual doctor, nor to his methods of guidance, his imposition of spiritual exercises or difficult physical tests. Indeed, objecting to any doctor, whether of the physical or the spiritual, only increases the sickness of the sick person. If the physically sick person objects to the physician, then the latter will abandon him and the course of treatment; this will result in a worsening of his illness, sudden death or a long, drawn‑out, painful end. Whatever happens, the result is undesirable and may lead to loss of life.
Similarly, if the spiritually sick person objects to the spiritual doctor, then the latter will abandon him and the treatment (that is the guidance) and the spiritual illness will increase (that is, he will go further astray and Allah refers to this when He says: 'There is a disease in their hearts, so Allah added to their â€کdisease') and they will die the death of meaning or the death caused by disbelief and hypocrisy which Allah refers to when He says: `Is he who was dead then We raised him to life and made for him a light by which he walks among people, like him whose likeness is that of one in utter darkness whence he cannot come forth?' Either result is undesirable: it causes eternal distress and never‑ending misery.
Thus, just as a physiآ­cally sick person who wishes to regain perfect health is obliged to take bitter‑tasting medicine from the physician, willingly or unwillingly, without objection or remonstration, so the spiritually sick person who desires perfect health is also obliged to drink a bitter medicine, namely to accept the imposition of arduous tasks of varying degrees of severity from the spiritual doctor, ‑ wilآ­lingly or unwillingly and without objection or remonstration. Allah refers to this when He says, with respect to the Prophet Muhammad: `But no! By your Lord! They do not believe (in reality) until they make you a judge of that which has become a matter of disagreement among them, and then do not find any straightness in their hearts as to what you have decided and submit with entire submission.'
Our aim in this introductory study is to demonstrate to the reader the truth and validity of the principles and precepts outآ­lined herewith, with particular regard to the shari`ah, tariqah and haqiqah. We also wish to show how each level is just as it should be, and that no one from any one level should object to anything from another level, or say that that thing contradicts the intellect or the narrated body of traditions. It is clear that something which is contrary to one person's intellect is not necessarily contrary to another person's intellect, particularly in the case of the intellects of the prophets and saints ‑ their intellects are the most perfect of intellects, just as their souls are the most perfect of souls: there is manifestly a great distance between the two and whoever denies this is in sheer folly and in haughty disregard of his intellect. We are not, however, addressing such persons.
The situation is similar with regard to the body of the narrated traditions: it is not possible that one can have heard or understood all the traditions which exist. By the nature of things we do not become aware of many of the traditions and we thus cannot be expected to comprehend them all. Allah refers to this notion when He says: `I have prepared for My righteous slaves what the eye has not seen, what the ear has not heard and what the heart has not yet awareness of.' It is also clear that the majority of the laws and prohibitions of the divine legal code are beyond the compass and perception of the intellect and sensory awareآ­ness.
Nevertheless, it is not permitted to object to any of them, since the prophets and saints would not have been commanded to enact these laws if they had not have been in accordance with their intellect; indeed, anything which is in accord with their intellects is in accordance with all intellects. It may be that the conclusion drawn in a particular subject is contrary to one perآ­son's intellect or contrary to others of like intellect, but this does not mean that it is irrational and contrary to the intellect: most intellects are incapable of understanding the divinely appointed code of laws.
Moreover, most of the profounder meanings of the laws and judgments lie outside the framework of human underآ­standing. The Messenger did not allow the people of outward dimension to ask about the precise nature and purpose of certain things ‑ questions, for example, concerning the reason why the midday prayer should consist of four cycles, the sunset prayer of three and the morning prayer of only two.
The same applied to the rest of the basic pillars of the legal code. As for the incapacآ­ity of the intellect to comprehend the more profound meanings of the divine system, we may cite its inability to understand the secret of the Angel of Death: the intellect does not have the power to see how one angel is able to seize the souls of hundreds of thousands of persons or animals from the four corners of the earth in one instant.
Likewise, it cannot perceive the secret of Gabriel and how he descends in one instant from the seventh heaven and from the Throne to the earth, how he reveals the revelation to a prophet and then returns in the same instant or a few moments later. In the light of these events, the best a thinking Muslim can do is to submit to the divine commands and laws; the best he can do is to affirm and believe in them without enquiring into their substance and inner reality. There is nothing in the divine code which is contrary to the intellect and, on investigation, one realizes that the whole system of legal duties and ordinances with all its details and ramifications is based on the intellect and is within the true grasp of the thinking man.
Indeed, all the workings of existence are based on the intellect and the understanding of the man of intellect: it was within these parameters that existence came into being and so will it end with the annihilation of existence. Thus it has been said: `Glory to the One Who brought existence into being with the intellect and sealed it with the man of intellect. It has also been narrated in a hadith of the Prophet: `The first thing which Allah created was the intellect. He thereupon said to it: "Come closer" and it came closer. He then said: "Go back" and it went back.. He then said: "By My power and My glory, I have not created any creation more beloved to Me than you: By you I take and by you I give, by you I reward and by you I punish." '
The likeness of the divine code and the intellect and the depenآ­dence of each on the other is also the likeness of the soul and the body and the dependence of each on the other: I mean by this that just as the workings of the soul and the manifestation of its attributes and perfections is not possible except by means of the body (by way of its physical strength and the various limbs), so the workings of the divine code and the manifestations of its various levels are not possible except by means of the intellect and by means of the different levels and stations of the intellect.
The different levels of the intellect comprise what is called the material intellect, the intellect of action, the faculty of intellect, and the acquiring intellect. The whole of the divine code is based on these different levels: the first and the second are the levels of the common people, the third is that of the elite, and the fourth that of the elite of the elite from amongst the prophets and saints.
The object of this study is to show that the divine code is not independent of the intellect, nor the intellect independent of the divine code. Most scholars, gnostics and philosophers, among them the perfect shaykh Abu'l‑Qasim al‑Husayn ibn Muhammad al‑Raghib al‑Isfahani, agree with this. In his book Tafsil al آ­Nash'atayn fi tahsil al‑sa`adatayn,' Shaykh Raghib mentions this subject in detail saying: `Know that the intellect never guides except by the divine code and that the divine code will never be understood except by the intellect.' The intellect is like the founآ­dation and the divine code is like the building: the building cannot be firmly established without a foundation. Moreover, the intellect is like the faculty of sight and the divine code like the rays of light: sight is of no use without light. It is for this reason that Allah says, `Indeed there has come to you light and a clear Book from Allah; with it Allah guides him who will follow His pleasure into the ways of safety and brings them out of utter darkness into light by His will.'
Similarly, the intellect is like a lamp and the divine code the oil which fuels it: if there is no oil, then the lamp will not burn; and without the lamp, there will be no light. Allah has indicated this to us with His words: `Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth... Light upon light.' What is referred to in the latter portion of the ayah is the light of the intellect which is above the light of the divine code ‑ for the former will not shine without the latter. Besides, the divine code is the intellect from without and the intellect is the divine code from within: indeed the two are mutually supportive, inآ­deed, united.
As the divine code is the intellect in its outward aspect, so Allah has stripped the name intellect from the disbeliever on2 more than one occasion in the Qur'an, like, for example, when He says: `Deaf, dumb (and) blind, so they do not understand.' As the intellect is the divine code in its inward aspect, Allah has said: `The nature made by Allah in which He has made men: there is no altering of Allah's creation; that is the right religion, but most people do not know.' In this ayah Allah relates knowing and the intellect to din ‑religion as a complete way of life. Allah also refers to the union of the intellect and the divine code when He says, `Light upon light' meaning here the light of the intellect and the light of the divine code.
Thereafter He says, `Allah guides to His light whom He wills' referring to these two lights as one single light. If the intellect is missing, then our worship is deficient, for the divine code does not cover in detail all aspects of belief and worship; likewise, if the divine code is missing, then the intellect is incapable of dealing with many of the details of belief and worship. This is because the divine code is as the eye and the intellect as the light or vice‑versa: neither of the two can do without the other.
One should realize too that the intellect of itself is hardly enough: it can perceive the universality of things, but it cannot cope with the details. It realizes the benefit of belief in the truth, in speaking the truth, in behaving well towards others, in acting justly, in being chaste and so forth, although it may not comآ­prehend the details of these matters. The divine code encompasآ­ses both the fundamentals of belief and worship together with the details of these matters; it describes in detail man's obligaآ­tions and how to conduct one's affairs in an equitable manner.
Thus the intellect does not know of itself, for example, that pork, blood or wine are prohibited, or that one should abstain from eating at specific times, or that one should not marry someone who is closely related, or that one should not have sexual interآ­course with a woman during her period of menstrual bleeding. The only way of finding out these things is to refer to the divine code since it is a system of correct belief and correct behaviour: it is a means towards the best of this world and the next and whoever abandons it goes astray.
Allah indicates that there is no option for the intellect but to accept and realize this fact when He says, `We do not chastise until We raise an apostle' and also, `And had We destroyed them with chastisement before this, they would certainly have said: "O our Lord! why didst Thou not send to us an apostle, for then we should have followed Thy communications before we met disgrace and shame." On another occasion Allah refers to the intellect and the divine code in terms of grace and mercy: `And were it not for the grace of Allah upon you and His mercy, you would have certainly followed Satan, save a few' ‑ by the word `few' Allah is indicating the elite.
As we have already seen, Allah shows that a person who does not devote himself to the divine code and worship of His Lord is neither a true man nor a person of intellect ‑ if he is called a man, he is supposed to be a thinking person. Shaykh Raghib has said that `man, because of his human nature, either becomes a true man by means of his intellect or he loses his human qualities when his behaviour is no longer connected to this faآ­culty; in fact he is reduced to being a mere shadow of a man and becomes in reality like a mindless brute.'
As we have seen above, the intellect is not perfected except after having taken on the guidance of the divine code. In several places in the Qur'an the disbeliever is regarded as devoid of intellect because he has failed to heed the prophetic words of guidance. Acceptance of this guidance, this divine code, is in fact worship of Allah. Thereآ­fore the true man is the person who recognizes the truth of the message and thereby worships his Lord: it was for this very purpose that he was created. Allah says, `And I have not created the jinn and the men except that they should serve Me' and `And they were not enjoined anything except that they should serve Allah, being sincere to Him in obedience, upright, and keep up the prayer and pay the poor‑rate.'
Anything which has been brought into existence for a specific task is as if in a state of non‑existence if it does not fulfill that specific task. Thus, in a similar way, people discard a thing's very name if that thing is not fulfilling the function for which it was created. When they see a worthless horse, for example, they might say, `That is not a horse;' likewise of an abject man they might say, `That is not a man;' again they might say of someone `he has no eye' or that `he has no ear' if that persons' eye or ear have ceased to function properly, although there may be still a trace of hearing or sight left. Allah refers to this when He talks about those who do not use their faculty of intellect: `Deaf, dumb (and) blind for they do not understand.'
Likewise man only attains to his human nature to the extent that he attains to the worship for which he has been created: whoever worships in the correct manner perfects thereby his humanity; whoever refuses to worship is stripped thereby of his humanity and becomes the worst of beasts. Allah refers to these disbelievers when He says, `They are as cattle, nay, they are in worse errors' and also, `Surely the vilest of animals, in Allah's sight, are the deaf, the dumb, who do not understand;' thus not only does He describe them as beasts and animals but also as the worst of their kind. Indeed, He describes their speech as non‑human: `And their prayer before the House is nothing but whistling and clapping of hands,' likening them to the birds that whistle and clap their wings.
Again Allah elaborates on this theme when He declares that man is not a man except by way of his religion: `The Beneآ­ficent God, taught the Qur'an, He created man, taught him how to express himself.' It should be noticed that the two halves of the statement are not joined by an `and'; one would have thought at first that in describing man Allah would have said, `He created man, He taught him how to express himself and then taught him the Qur'an,' but Allah begins by mentioning the Qur'an and thereafter says that He created man, since he is not consiآ­dered to be a man if he does not apply himself to the Qur'an.
Allah demonstrates hereby that the true capacity to articulate thoughts is attained only through knowledge of the Qur'an. Allah demonstrates these meanings in a particular order and leaves out the joining word `and' in between, making each phrase take the place of the one preceding it. Thus the words indicate a certain progression and are not merely placed one after the other as mere additional information.
Again, in order to emphasize this point, we would repeat that man cannot be considered to be a man as long as he has no knowledge of the various acts of worship required of him, and his speech is not considered speech unless his words are uttered in accordance with the demands of the divine code. We are not denying that the unbeliever is a human being in a general sense, but rather that, with respect to the exigencies of the intellect and the divine code, it is not fitting to call him human except in a superficial way as there appears no sign of these two things in his actions. If, however, he is called a human being for the sake of classifying him with a general name, then there is no objection to this. It is clear that many words are used in this way: knowآ­ledge of the divine code shows that some words do not in fact mean what they appear to mean. The Arabs use the word ghinan to mean abundance of wealth, but a narration of the Prophet demonstrates that this is not so: `ghinan is not abundance of wealth, but rather it indicates self‑sufficiency and contentment of the self.' Allah Himself has said, `Whoever is rich, let him abstain altogether' and here uses the word according to its usual meaning. In short, if a wise person uses a word of praise, it is understood as such, although the word may either be used to describe something praiseworthy or despicable, for example, if someone says someone is well‑known, it can carry either a positive or a pejorative implication depending on the circumstances.
Thus it might be said that everything is described or praised in terms which are related to the nature of that thing or its kind; it is said, for example, `such and such a person is a human‑being' or `this sword is a sword:' In an analogous manner it is said that the absolute human being is the prophet of his time.
One scholar has said that the person who says that man is ,a living being, endowed with speech and doomed to die, is correct, but the real or inner meaning of this statement is not as many people imagine. He does not live or die in the same way as animals and his speech is not the mere faculty of expressing words; rather, what is meant is that the life of the one referred to in His words `He taught him the mode of expression' and the subsequent death of such a person is the life and death of the man who has overcome the forces of desire and anger by means of the shari`ah.
Thus death is here the death of the will and life is the true and natural life of the balanced man. This notion has also been expressed in the phrase `Die the death of the will and you will live the natural life of a balanced man;' the Prophet has also indicated this kind of death with His words, `Die before you die.' The Commander of the Faithful ('Ali) has also said in this respect: `He has brought his intellect to life and has killed his self (nafs) such that his splendour manifests and his coarseness is refined; there then apآ­pears a shining radiance which lights up the way for him; he travels along that way, propelled from gate to gate until he reaches the gate of peace and the abode of rest; his step is firm and his body is tranquil, enclosed in safety and ease ‑ and this by virtue of how he has used his heart and satisfied his Lord.'
Examples such as these are many and the reader is advised to research the matter in the appropriate books ‑ and Allah is more Knowing and Wise; He it is who declares the Truth and guides to, the right path.
Thus we conclude our investigation of the shari`ah, tariqah and haqiqah. and the need of the intellect for the divine code and the need of the divine code for the intellect; we have treated the matter in such detail and depth as befits a matter of such imporآ­tance. We shall now begin another investigation which follows on from, and is a necessary complement to, the two other subjects; indeed our research cannot be completed in a fitting matter except by recourse to this third domain of investigation which is concerned with what may be called the two principles and the two rules. The first principle concerns the general duty incumآ­bent upon the prophets, the messengers and the saints which is the duty to instruct and guide creation to the straight path.