Chapter 4: Admonition [on the Need for Religious Law and a Prophet]
(Ibn
Sīnā
):
Since man is not able to survive without association with other individuals of his kind, through commutative contract (mu‘āwaḍa
) and equal exchange that takes place between them, each one agrees to commit himself to an important job on behalf of his neighbor. Were all these things charged tohimself
, too many responsibilities would pile up upon one individual. It would be very difficult if at all possible. Because of this fact, it is necessary for people to have social interactions and to deal with each other with justice, which is preserved and protected by the divine law (shar
‘) that a law-giver (shāri
‘) has sanctioned. Such a legislator merits obedience due to being singled out by signs which prove they are from his Lord. It is also necessary for the doers of good and the doers of evil to receive recompense (jazā
’)
from their Lord, the Almighty, the Omniscient. Recognition (ma‘rifa
) of theRequiter
and the Law-giver is therefore necessary, and with recognition a means of preserving it. Therefore, worship, which is remembrance of the One worshipped, is enjoined upon them. This worship must be repeated by them, because remembrance is preserved by repetition. In this way the invitation to justice, which protects the life of the species, is propagated. Those who act accordingly, besides the great advantages they will accrue in this world, will receive abundant rewards in the life to come. For the mystics who practice it there is an additional benefit reserved for them, inasmuch as they have wholly turned their faces toward Him. Look then toward wisdom, then toward mercy and bounty. You will find an excellence whose wonders amaze you. Then rise and be steadfast.
(Ṭūsī
):
I say: Since he has stated in the previous chapter that asceticism and worship only proceed from thenonmystic
for the sake obtaining recompense and reward in the next life, he intends to call attention to the establishment of the doctrine of reward and punishment, which was mentioned.
He then establishes prophecy(al-nubuwwa
)
and religious law(al-sharī‘a
)
and what is associated with them by the method of the philosophers, because reward and punishment depend upon the existence of prophecy and religious law, and that in turn depends upon certain principles(qawā‘id
)
.
The evidence of this is to say: Man is not independent and alone with respect to the means of his subsistence, because he needs food, clothes, shelter, and the means to defend himself, his children and others. Each of these is a work of craftsmanship which is not possible for a single person to produce alone, unless itbe
in a period of time during which it is impossible or exceedingly difficult to live without it. In contrast, it is easy for a community, where everyone supports each other and participates together in its realization. In such a manner, each one relieves some of the burden carried by his neighbor, and it is accomplished by equal exchange, which is each person acting in a manner comparable to the actions of his peers.
By commutative contract is meant that each one should give his neighbor a portion from his labor comparable to what he takes from him. Man by nature, therefore, needs to live in a society that will support his well-being and his livelihood. This is the meaning of their words: “Man is civilized by nature.” Civilization(al-tamaddun
)
in their [the philosophers’] terminology consists of the kinds of societal relations just mentioned. Consequently, this is a principle.
Moreover, we say: A society whose members support each other will not come into existence unless social interaction(mu‘āmala
)
and justice(‘adl
)
exist between them, because each person craves what he needs and becomes vexed with one who competes with him in that. His desire and anger cause him to commit injustice to others, and this state leads to chaos and the disruption of the social order.
However, if social interaction and justice occur between them, this will not happen. Therefore, there must be a religious law(sharī‘a
)
. The termsharī‘a
in classical Arabic means a watering place, and it is named in this sense because everyone drinks water and benefits from it on an equal basis. This is a secondary premise.
Moreover, we say: The divine law certainly comes from an originator who establishes these laws and determines them in the manner which is best. This is the lawgiver(shāri
‘)
. If the people dispute with each other over the formation of the law, this will lead to chaos and confusion.
Therefore, it is necessary for the legislator to be distinguished among them, by his deserving obedience, so that others will follow him and accept the laws. Deserving obedience is only established by signs which prove that the laws are from the presence of his Lord. These signs are his miracles(mu‘jizāt
)
, and they come either in the form of words or in the form of acts. Those in the form of words are more acceptable to the educated, while those in the form of acts are more acceptable to the masses. A miraculous act by itself, however, devoid of the miracle of utterance, is not complete, because prophecy and performing miracles cannot be realized without inviting the people to goodness.
Therefore, there must be a prophet who can make the laws and manifest miracles. This is a third principle.
The common people and the less educated may disdain justice(‘adl
)
, which benefits them as a species but restrains them from what they covet as individuals, by which they might commit acts contrary to the religious law.
Consequently, for the obedient and the rebellious there is reward(thawāb
)
and punishment(‘iqāb
)
in the next life, the hope and fear of which prompt them to obedience and the abandonment of sin. The religious law cannot work properly without this. Thus, each agent of good or evil must receive the reward that he deserves from God, who is capable of recompensing them and who knows what they do plainly and in private, be it in thoughts, words, or deeds.
Recognition(ma‘rifa
)
of theRequiter
and the Law-giver is also necessary for those who submit to the religious law.
The recognition of the common people is rarely certain, and therefore it is not stable. Thus, together with it, there must be a cause to preserve it, and this is remembrance tied to repetition, in other words, repeated worship in remembrance of the One worshipped performed at successive intervals, such as daily ritual prayer and similar forms of worship. Therefore, the prophet must invite the people to acknowledge the existence of their Creator, the Almighty,the
All-Informed. He must summon them to faith in the truthfulness of the law-giver sent down by Him, and to confession of the promise and the threat in the next life. He must call upon the people to perform acts of worship in which the Creator is praised by His attributes of glory and to obey the religious laws which the people require in their social interactions, so that justice,which
gives life to the human race, will continue. This is a fourth principle.
All of this is ordained by divine providence because of mankind’s need of it, and it therefore exists for all times and places. It is the object sought, and it is a benefit compared to which no otherbenefit
is more universal. Besides the great worldly advantages for those who observe the divine law, there will be great rewards in the next world according to what they are promised. For the mystics among them, besides the worldly benefits and the rewards of the life to come, there will be the additional achievement of the real perfection mentioned. Consider [God’s] wisdom, which is the maintenance of the system in this way, [His] mercy, which is the preservation of ample recompense after great benefit, and [His] bounty, which is real happiness added to these two. Behold the majesty of the One who emanates these good things, whose wonders dazzle, overwhelm, and astonish you. Then elevate the religious law and be steadfast in seeking nearness to His holy presence.
The Learned Commentator [Rāzī
]
has raised the following objections:
(1) If you intended by “necessary” in your words “when the people need a legislator, they need his existence,” this is essential necessity (al-wujūb
al-dhātī
), which is impossible. And if you intended that God is obligated, as the Mu‘tazila
believe, this is not the belief of your school of thought. If you intended thereby that this necessity is a cause for the system that is good, while God is the source of all good, therefore it is necessary for Him to have such a system, this also is not valid, because it is not necessary for the best to come into existence. Otherwise all the people would be created with the disposition to dogood
, since that is best.
(2) Your claim that miracles prove that the legislator is from God is not worthy of you, because, according to you, miracles are a phenomenon of the soul which are achievable equally by the prophets and by their opponents among the magicians (saḥara
), as is stated in the TenthNamaṭ
. The only difference between a prophet and anonprophet
is the fact that the prophets call people to goodness and not to evil, and the criteria to discern good from evil is reason (‘aql
). Thus, there is no proof that those who perform miracles are prophets.
(3) Also your statement that a miracle proves the truthfulness of its author is based on assenting to a free agent [i.e., the Creator] who knows temporal particulars. But you do not assent to this.
(4) Also, punishment for sins does not agree with your principles. You believe that the punishment for a sinner is the desire of his soul for worldly things when the soul has lost access to them. You will be committed to saying that the forgetfulness of the sinner of his sin will necessitate the lapse of his punishment.
The following is the answer [to the above objections] on the basis of their own principles.
As for the first, we say: The dependence of natural acts upon their necessary final causes, along with assenting to divine providence in the way mentioned, suffices to affirm the existence of those acts. It is for this reason that they explain acts through their final causes [i.e., purposes], such as speaking of certain teeth as being suitable for chewing(al-maḍgh
)
, which is their final cause. If the final cause was not necessary for the existence of the act, causation by it would not be a definite result. As for his objection that it is not necessary for the best to come into existence, we reply that the best in relation to the whole is not the same as the best in relation to the part. The former is necessary, while the latter is not necessary. People being created with the disposition to dogood
does not belong to that category, as was explained.
As for the second, we say that extraordinary things, among which are miracles, appear both in the form of words and in the form of acts, as was mentioned. The miracles reserved to the prophets are not miracles of action alone, but the association of miracles of action with miracles of words is what is specialized to them, and this is what proves their truthfulness.
As for the third, we say besides what was said about knowledge and power, the observation of the miracles that are the signs of the souls of the prophets are proof of the perfection of those souls, and this requires acknowledging the truthfulness of their words.
As for the fourth, we say: The commission of sins is based on the existence of a habit deeply rooted in the soul, which causes its suffering. Forgetting the act does not cause the removal of that habit; thus it will not cause the lapse of a due punishment.
Know that whatever the Master has stated about the prophets and religious law is not absolutely necessary for human survival. They are things without which a system that leads to goodness for everyone in this world and the next cannot be established. It suffices mankind to live in some kind of political system for the protection of society, even if it is based upon dictatorship and the like. The proof of this is that the inhabitants of the world all necessarily live in political systems.
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Author: Khwajah Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
