IBN TUFAYL

TEN

IBN TUFAYLHayy the Son of Yaqzan

Translated by George N. Atiyeh

Ibn Tufayl (Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Tufayl, ca.1110-1185) was born in Guadix near Granada. Hepracticed medicine in the city of Granada, becamesecretary to the governor of the province of Gran-ada, and in 1154 was appointed by the founderof the Almohad dynasty, 'Abd al-Mu'min, as sec-retary to his son Abu Sa'íd, governor of Ceutaand Tangier. He became the chief physician andvizier of the second Almohad prince, Abu Ya'qúb(r. 1163-1184), who "was most affectionate andfriendly to him," "l was told," says the historian al-Marräkushí, "that he [Ibn Tufayl] used to stay withhim for many days and nights without leaving thepalace:' In 1182 he retired as chief physician to besucceeded in this function by his protégé, Aver-roes, whom he had introduced to the prince in1168/9. After Abu Ya'qúbs death in 1184, his sonand successor, Abu Yúsuf seems to have keptIbn Tufayl as vizier and honored courtier until thelatter's death in Marrakesh.

Hayy the Son of Yaq~än is an epistle addressedto a disciple and friend seeking information aboutthe secrets of the Oriental or Illuminative phi-losophy mentioned by Avicenna. It consists of anintroduction, which is a critical survey of the his-tory of Islamic philosophy; the narrative relatingthe birth of hayy (alive) the son of yaqzôn (awake)and his development on a deserted island; the

narrative of the development of salámán (soundor whole?) and äsäl (questioner?) in a religiouscommunity on a neighboring island; and the nar-rative of Asal's retirement to Hayy's island, theirmeeting, their decision to go back to Asal's islandto educate and improve the religious community,their failure in their mission, and their return toHayy's island. A number of the names and the el-ements of the story are borrowed from popuiarHellenistic stories and from Avicenna's story thatbears the same title.

Ibn Tufayl's Hayy the Son of Yaqzan was trans-lated into Hebrew by an unknown author, andMoses Narboni wrote a commentary on the workin 1349. The Arabic original was first publishedtogether with a Latin translation by Edward Po-cocke, [r.: Philosophus Autodictatus, sive EpistolaAbi [aafar ebn Tophail de Hai ebn Yokdan, quo-modo ex lnferiorum contemplatione ad Superi-orum notitiam Ratio humana ascendare possit(Oxford, 1671, 1700). Pococke's Latin versionwas translated into English by the Quaker GeorgeKeith (1674) and by Ashwell (1686). A third En-glish translation, made directly from the Arabic,was done by Simon Ockley: The lmprovement ofthe Human Reason, Exhibited in the Life of HaiEbn 'Yokdhan (London, 1708). The reason for theinterest in this book during the late seventeenth

106 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY IN ISLAM

and early eighteenth centuries may be detectedin Ockley's subtitle: "in which is demonstrated,by what Methods one may, by the meer Light ofNature, attain the Knowledg of things Naturaland Supernatural; more particularly the Knowl-edg of God, and the Affairs of another Life:'Ockley found it useful to add an appendix "inwhich the Author's Notion concerning the Pos-sibility of Mans attaining the True Knowledg of

God, and Things necessary to Salvation, with-out the Use of external Means [Instruction], isbriefly considerd," because "the preceding His-tory ... contains several things co-incident with theErrors of some Enthusiasts of these presentTimes:' The following translation and summaryare based on the critical edition of the Arabic textby Léon Gauthier: Hayy Ben Yaqdhán 2nd ed.(Beirut, 1936).

[INTRODUCTION]

You have asked me, my noble, sincere, and affec-tionate brother (may God bestow upon you eter-nallife and infinite happiness), to convey to youwhat l can of [4] the secrets of the illuminative [ororiental] philosophy referred to by the LeadingMaster Abu 'All Ibn Síná [Avicenna]. Know, then,that he who desires to know the perfect truthshould seek after this philosophy and assiduouslyendeavor to possess it.

Your question has awakened in me a noble in-tent ion that led me, praise be to God, to partake inthe vision of a state l had not experienced before.It made me reach a point so extraordinary thatwurds cannot describe and clear exposition can-not render an account thereof, because it is of anorder and realm not belonging to them. Nonethe-less, because of the joy, exuberance, and the plea-sure radiating from that state, whoever attains it orreaches one of its limits is incapable of remainingreticent about it or of concealing its secret. He isoverwhelmed with such rapture, liveliness, gaiety,and cheerfulness that drive him to divulge the gist,though not the details, of its secret.

Now, if the one who experiences this state lacksscientific skill, he will speak about it inconclusively.One such man went so far as to declare while inthis state, "Glory to me, how great l am." Anothersaid, "l am the Truth." And still another said, "Hewho wears this garment is none other than Goď"As to the Master Abu Härnid [Alghazali], when he

attained this state, he described it by reciting thefollowing verse:

There was what was of what I do not mention;So think of it well, and ask for no account.' [5]

But then he was a man refined by knowledgeand made skillful through the pursuit of science.

Consider, further, the discourse of Abu BakrIbn al-Sä'igh [Ibn Bajja] in connection with hisdoctrine on the character of conjunction (itti~äl).5He says, "If... someone comes to grasp the (in-tended) mean ing, then it becomes evident to himthat no knowledge of the ordinary sciences can beplaced in the same category. His conception of thatmean ing takes place on a level in which he findshimself cut off from all that preceded, and holdingnew convictions free of corporeality, too sublimeto be attributed to natural life, and free from theephemeral composition inherent in natural life.They are rather worthy to be considered as divinestates, bestowed by God upon whomsoever Hepleases of His servants." This level to which AbuBakr [Ibn Bajja] has alluded is attained by way oftheoretical science and by rational investigation.Doubtlessly, he must have attained such alevelalthough he did not go beyond it.

Regarding the level to which we have alludedfirst, it is different although it is the same in thesense that there is nothing revealed in the first

J. Attributed to the Sufi al-Bistämí (d. 875 or 877).2. Attributed to the Sufi al-Halläj (d. 922).3. Attributed to the Sufi al-Halläj.4. The verse is by the poet Ibn al-Mu'tazz (d. 908). It is quoted

by Alghazali in the Deliverer from Error in see. 96 of the MeCarthytranslation.

5. A term used espeeialJy by philosophers to distinguish eon-junction from unifieation (ittiJ:riid). Unifieation with God smaeks

of something that the Qur'an strictly forbíds, namely, association-ism (shirk). In spite of Sufisms wide mystieal appeal, some Sufisseem to have crossed this line.

6. Ibn Bajja, On Conjunction (Fi itusá! al- 'aql bi-l-insiin):M. Asín Palacios, "Tratado de Avempaee sobre la unión del in-teleeto con el hornbre," Al-Andalus 7 (1942): 22-23 (text), 46-47(Spanish trans.). See also Ibn Bäjjah, Opera Metaphysica, ed. MajidFakhry (Beirut: Dár al-Nahär, 1968), 172-73.

that is not revealed also in the second. The first,however, differs by its superior clarity and in theway it is beheld through something that we call"force;' but only metaphorically because we failto find terms, [6] whether current or technical,that designate the thing by virtue of which thatkind of vision is experienced. The state we havejust described-of which, moved by your ques-tion, we have had a taste (dhawq)?-is one of thestates indicated by the Master Abu 'AH [Avicenna]when he says, "Then, when by will and disciplineone is carried to a limit where he catches delight-ful glimpses of the Truth, strokes of lightning asit were, which no sooner flash than they disap-pear .... Now, ifhe persists in his disciplinary prac-tice, these ecstatic glimpses multiply. Then he goesdeeper and deeper until he is capable of catchingthese glimpses without any more discipline. Everytime he glances at a thing, he turns toward theAugust Divinity, and remembers something ofthat state. An ecstasy takes hold of him until hewould see the Truth in almost all things .... Finallydiscipline leads him to the point where his [trou-bled] time turns into tranquility. What was onlyevanescent becomes common and what was justa gleam [7] becomes a shining star. He acquires afirm intimacy, a constant association as it were:'He then goes on to describe the orderly gradationof the levels and how they terminate in attainingthe goal as the seeker's most intimate soul turnsinto "a polished mirror facing the Truth:' At thispoint the most sublime pleasures flow upon hím,and "the traces left by the Truth" in his soul fillhim with happiness. And at this level, he hesitat-ingly fluctuates between "looking at the Truth andat himself" until finally "all consciousness ofhim-self is lost and he notices nothing but the AugustDivinity. If he ever happens to glance aside at hissoul, he does so only inasmuch as his soul is theglancing agent. ... It is then that true union takesplace." Now by these states that he described,Avicenna intended that he [the initiate] acquirea taste that is not acquired by way of theoreticalperception, which results from syllogistic reason-ing, the assumption of premises, and the drawingof conclusions.

If you wish a comparison to illustrate the dif-ference between the perception attained by this

Ibn Tufayl, Hayy the Son of Yaqzan 107

group of men and that attained by others, thenimagine the case of a man born blind, but en-dowed with keen innate intelligence, penetratinginsight, tenacious memory, and determined will.From the day he is born, he grows up in a [S] cer-tain town. By means of his other powers of per-ception, he continues to acquaint himself with theindividual men living the re, the many species ofanimate and inanimate beings, the streets of thecity and alleys that cut through it, its houses, andits markets-to such an extent that he can walkaround in that city without a guide, and recog-nize instantly everyone he meets. Colors forman exception; he knows them by means of theexplanations of their names and by certain defi-nitions designating them. Then, when he reachesthis grade, his eyes are open of a sudden, and hiseyesight is restored to him. He runs all over townonly to discover that in fact nothing is differentfrom what he has believed it to be, nor does he failto recognize anything he lays eyes upon. He findsthe colors truly corresponding to the descriptionsgiven him. In all this he experiences, nevertheless,two great things, the one a consequence of theother: a greater lucidity and clarity, and an exaltedpleasure. The state of the speculators who have notattained the level of sanctity is comparable to thefirst state of the blind man; the colors, which, [9]in this state, are known through the descriptionof their names, are comp ar able to those things ofwhich AbU Bakr [Ibn Bajja] said that they are toosublime to be attributed to natural life and thatthey are bestowed by God upon whomsoever Hepleases of His servants. The state of the speculatorswho attain sanctity and to whom God grants thatthing of which we said that it is not called "force"except metaphorically, is the second state.

In very rare cases, one may find someone withpiercing intelligence, keen, and not in need ofspeculation. Here l do not mean-may God be-stow His sanctity upon you-by "the perception ofthe speculators" what they perceive of the physicalworld and by "the perception of the men of sane-tity" what they perceive of the metaphysical; forthese two kinds of perception in themselves arevery different from each other, and it is hardlypossible to copfound the one with the other. Whatwe mean by the perception of the speculators is

7. A Sufi term meaning the first immediate experience of theintuition of God; it is characterized by its instability and furtive-ness. Cf. note 4 above.

8. Note Avicenna's willingness to speak of "union:' Avicenna,Directives and Remar/cs (al-Ishárát wa-al-tanbihát), ed. J. Forget(Leiden, 1892), 202-4 (French trans.: A,-M. Goichon, Livre desdirectives et des remarques [Paris, 1951], 493-97).

108 POLITICAL PHILOSOP rr ;

what they apprehend of the metaphysical (hUCr,such as was apprehended by Abu Bakr [Ibn Bajja].When this perception is true and valid, it is pos-sible to compare it with the perception of the menof sanctity who are concerned with these verysame [metaphysical] things, but who perceivethem with greater clarity and pleasure. However,[10] Abu Bakr [Ibn Bajja] censures the men ofsanctity for this pleasure and ascribes it to theimaginative faculty. He promised to describe ina clear and precise manner how the state of thehappy one s ought to be. One ought to answer himin this context with the saying: "Do not call sweetwhat you have not tasted, nor step over the necksof the veracious" Our man did not do any of thethings he said he would do; he did not fulfill hispromise. It seems, as he himself mentions, he wasimpeded by shortage of time and the trip he tookto Wahrän [Oran]. Or, it could be he realized thatif he described that state, he would find himselfobliged to say things that decry his own conduct,and belie what he had continually maintainedconcerning the efforts one should exert to accu-mulate and hoard riches and the use of all kinds ofartifices to obtain them.

We have deviated somewhat from the courseto which your question had led us, as this seemednecessary. However, it is now clear from what hasbeen said that your goal can only be one of twothings: (l) That you are seeking to understandthat which is beheld by those who experience thevision, the taste, and the presence [of God] in theirmoment of sanctity. This is one of those thingswhose real nature can not be entrusted to thepages of a book; and once you try to do that, con-straining yourself either through the spoken orthe written word, the very nature of the experi-ence is altered by pass ing to [ll] the other realm,that is, the speculative. Because whenever such anexperience is wrapped in sounds and letters andbrought nearer to the sensible world, its naturedoes not remain the same, no matter how welook at it. Hence it lends its elf to a great manydifferent and varied expressions. As a result manyare led astray from the right path, and others arethought to have gone astray although in realitythey have not. This is because [one is trying to ex-plain] an infinite entity within a divine epiphanyof enormous dimensions, an epiphany that con-tains but is not its elf contained. (2) The second

of the two goals to which your question couldpossibly lead is that you are seeking that thisthing be made known to you in accordance withthe method of the speculators. This-may Godhonor you with sanctity-is a thing that could beentrusted to books and it lends itself to being ex-pressed, although [this knowledge] is rarer thanred sulphur, especially in the region we live in[that is, Andalusia and Northwest Africa]. Such[knowledge] is so extremely uncommon that onlynow and th en someone acquires small portions ofit. Moreover, whoever comes to acquire any por-tion of it does not communicate it to others exceptthrough symbols. The Hanífite [Islamic] religionand the true [Islamic] Law have prohibited delv-ing into it and warned against pursuing it.

Do not think that the philosophy that reached us[12] in the works of Aristotle, AbUNasr [Alfarabi],and in [Avicenna's] Healing is sufficient to achieveyour purpose. Furthermore, no Andalusian has asyet written enough on the subject. This is becauseall those Andalusians with brilliant talent-andwho received their education before the diffusionoflogic and philosophy in that country-dedicatedthemselves to the science of mathematics, reach-ing a high degree in it. But they were not able todo more than that. The generation that succeededthem went beyond and into the science of logic.They studied it, but it failed to bring them to trueperfection. One of them recited:

Afflicted l am, because all that mortals knowAre two things and no more;

A truth whose acquisition is impossible,And a falsehood whose acquisition is of no use.?

Then followed another generation with agreater perspicacity and closer to the truth. Therewas none among them of a finer genius, of agreater understanding, or of a truer insight thanAbu Bakr Ibn al-Sä'ígh [Ibn Bajja]. Yet, the thingsof this world kept him busy until death overtookhim before the treasures of his science could bebrought to light and the secrets of his wisdommade available. The greatest part of his extantwritings are in an imperfect state and incomplete,[13] such as On the Soul and the Governanee ofthe Solitary, as well as his books on logic andphysics. As for his finished works, they include

9. The verse is by the Toledan poet al-Waqqäshí (d. 1095).

only concise books and hastily written treatises.He himself declared this when he mentioned thatthe idea he meant to demonstrate in his treatiseOn Conjunction cannot be clearly understoodwithout hard struggle and great effort; that theorder of his explanations, in some places, is notthe best; and that he was inclined to change them,had time permitted him to do so. This is what hascome down to us concerning this mans knowl-edge; we never met his person. With regard tohis contemporaries who are described as being ofthe same rank as he, we have not found any writ-ten works by them. Regarding their successorswho are our contemporaries, they are either inthe stage of development, or have stopped shortof perfection, or else we are not sufficiently in-formed about them.

As to the books of Abu Nasr [Alfarabi] thathave reached us, the majoríty are on logic. Theones that deal with philosophy proper are plaguedwith doubts. For example, he affirms in the Vir-tuous Religion'? that the souls of the wicked aredoomed after death to infinite suffering for an infi-nite time. Then he declares in The Political Regimethat they dissolve into nothingness and that only[14] the virtuous and perfect souls survive. Thenin his commentary on [Aristotles Nicomachean}Ethics, he describes an aspect of human happi-ness and affirms that this is achieved only in thislife and in this very world. He then adds aremarkwhose meaning can be summed up as follows: allthat is said contrary to this is senseless chatter andtales told by old women. A doctrine like this leadsall men to despair of Goďs mercy, and places thewicked and the good in the same category since,according to this doctrine, all men are destinedfor nothingness. This is a slip that cannot be rec-tified, and a false step that cannot be remedied.This, aside from his declared disbelief in prophecy,namely, his assertion that it is the exclusive prop-erty of the imaginative faculty; and not to men-tion his preference for philosophy over prophecy,and many other things into which we need notnow go.

As for the works of Aristotle, the Master Abu'All [Avicenna] undertook to explain their con-tents. He followed Aristotles doctrine and philo-sophie method in his Healing. At the beginning of


that book, he declares that the truth in his opinionis otherwise, that the above work expounds theperipatetic teaching, and that he who seeks pu retruth should look for it in his [15] Illuminative [orOriental} Philosophy. He who takes the troubleof reading the Healing and the books of Aristo-tle cannot but recognize their agreement on mostpoints, though there are things in the Healing thathave not come down to us as Aristotelian. Now,were one to accept the literal mean ing of every-thing presented in the books of Aristotle as well asin the Healing without penetrating into the secretand esoteric sense, this would not enable him toattain perfection-as the Master Abu 'Ali [Avi-cenna] warned us in the Healing.

As for the books of the Master Abu Hämid[Alghazalí], what he says in them depends on hisaudience; he says one thing in one place and a dif-ferent thing in another. He charges others withunbeliefbecause they hold certain doctrines, thenturns about and accepts them as lawful. Amongother things, he charges the philosophers withunbelief, in his lncoherence [of the Philosophers},for their denial of the resurrection of the bodyand their affirmation that only the souls receiverewards and punishments. But at the outset of hisCriterion [of Action}, he says that this very sametenet is definitely held by the Sufi masters. Then,in his Deliverer from Error and the Explainer ofthe States, he says that he himself holds the samebelief as the Sufis and that he had arrived [16] atthis conviction after a long and detailed study. Hisbooks are packed with things of this kind, andanyone who takes the pain to con sider and exam-ine them can see that for himself. In fact he apolo-gizes for such conduct at the end of his Criterionof Action, where he maintains that opinion is ofthree classes: cl) an opinion in which one agreeswith the multitude; (2) an opinion that is in con-forrnity with the way one addresses all question-ers and seekers of counsel; and (3) an opinion thatone holds intimately within oneself and does notdisclose except to those who share ones convic-tions. Then he says: "Even if there were no value inthese words except to make you doubt your inher-ited beliefs, that in itself would be useful enough.He who does not doubt does not look, he whodoes not look does not see, he who does not see

10. This is apparently a reference to the Virtuous City (ThePrinciples of the Opinions of the Inhabitants of the Virtuous City)chap. 16,possibly sec. 8, though nothing Alfarabi says there is quite

as decisive as it is portrayed by Ibn Tufayl. See Richard Walzer, ed.and trans., AI-Farabi on the Perfect State (Oxford: Clarendon Press,1985),273-74.


remains blind and perplexed," Then he recites thefollowing verse:

Acceptwhat you see and let go what you hear;When the sun comes out you will need no

Saturn."

So this is how he presents his teaching. It ismainly symbols and allusions of little use exceptfor the one who is cap able of grasping them firstby his own perspicacity and then by listening tohis [Alghazali's] explanations, or the one who isnaturally disposed to understand and is endowedwith great intelligence and for whom the slight-est allusion is enough. He mentions [17] in hislewels [of the Qur'anJ that he composed some eso-teric books in which he incorporated the unveiledtruth. But as far as we know none of these bookshas reached Andalusia. The books that have infact reached us and are alleged to be his esotericworks are in reality not so. These books are theIntellectual Cognitions, the Blowing and Leve/ing,and a work in which certain other problems arebrought together. Although these books containcertain allusions here and there, they neverthelesscontain little else that could reveal more than whatis already to be found in his more familiar books.In fact one may find in his Supreme Purpose thingsthat are more ambiguous than what is found inthese [allegedly esoteric books]. Since he himselfdeclares that the Supreme Purpose is not esoteric, itmust follow if this is so, that these books that havereached Andalusia are not the esoteric books. Arecent author imagines that what is said at the endof the Niche [of Lights]" presents agrave difficultythat supposedly caused al-Ghazálí to fall in a pitfrom which there is no salvation. The reference isto what [Alghazali] says after enumerating the dif-ferent classes of those who are veiled by [divine]lights, and his passing to mention the ones whoattained [union with God]. He says that the lat-ter have learned that this Being is characterizedby an attribute [18] incompatible with pure unity.[Our author] tries to infer from this that [Alg-hazali] must believe in some kind of multiplicityin the very essence of the First Truth (may Godbe exalted far and above what the unjust say ofHim). We, on the other hand, do not doubt thatthe Master Abu Härnid [Alghazali] was one of

ll. The verse is by the poet al-Taghrä'l (d. 1120).

those who were blessed with supreme happinessand who have consummated that most honorableof unions [the union with God]. Yet his esotericbooks, which contain the science of unveiling [thetruth], have not come down to us.

Now the truth at which we have arrived,which was the end of our quest, would have beenimpossible to obtain had we not scrutinized his[Alghazalľs] teaching and the teaching of Abu'Ali [Avicenna], compared the one with the other,and then related both to the opinions that ap-peared in our times and are being professed bysome who pretend to philosophize, until thetruth dawned upon us-at first by means of in-vestigation and speculation, and now we enjoyalso this slight degree of the taste [that we expe-rienced] through vision. It was at this stage thatwe felt ourselves wort hy of saying something ofour own. And we deem it an obligation that yoube made the first to be presented with what wehave and to be acquainted with what we possess,in recognition of your sincere loyalty and candor.However, to hand you the conclusions at whichwe arrived before making sure that you possessthe principles upon which they rest, will be of aslittle value to you as giving you a conventional[19] summary. In return, we trust that you willapprove what we say because of our intimatefriendship rather than because we are worthy ofsaying things that ought to be accepted. However,we do not accept this level for you; and we willnot be content until you achieve a higher one,since this level does not insure salvation, muchless the winning of the highest dignities. It is ourdesire to take you along the same path throughwhich we have passed, and to make you swim inthe very sea we had to cross first, until you arecarried to where we have been carried. You willthen see what we have seen; you will ascertainfor yourself all the things we ascertained for our-selves. In this way you will not need to make yourknowledge dependent upon ours.

This requires an appreciable length of time, free-dom from all concerns, and complete dedication tothis art. Now, if you are sincerely decided and reso-lutely set on seeking this end, gratefully will you riseafter a nocturnal journey [ef. 17:1] and blessed willbe your endeavor. Both your Lord and your self willbe satisfied [ef. 58:22]. l will be at your side as you

12. See David Buchrnan, ed., Al-Ghazäli: The Niche of Lights(Provo, UToBrigham Young University Press, 1998).

expect," to guide you along [20] the shortest roadand the one safest from mishaps and accidents,although now l am only hinting at a little glimpsejust to stirnulate and exhort you to get going. l shallnarrate to you the story of Hayy the son of Yaqzan


and of Asal and Salaman, who are mentioned by theMaster Abu 'AH [Avicenna]." In their story is surelya lesson for men of understanding [12:111], andsurely in that there is a reminder to him who has aheart, or will give ear with a present mind [50:37].

[Summary of the Tale]

After this introduction, Ibn Tufayl proceeds to narrate the ex-periences of Hayy the son of Yaqzan. Starting with his birth,he offers the reader a choice between two alternative accounts.According to the first, Hayy would have been born on a desertisland south of the equator, not from a father and a mother, butfrom day in fermentation. The author expounds the impor-tance of the islanďs perfect geographic position and ternper-ate dimate in order to indicate the possibility of spontaneoushuman generation without the need for mother and father.According to the second story, Hayy would be the illegitimateson of a princess who is daughter of the tyrant of a large ínhab-ited island next to the desert island. To save Hayy from certaindeath if she were discovered, she puts him in a feather-línedbox and entrusts him to the waves. Overnight the tides toss iton the desert island. The author then gives a detailed descríp-tion, in accordance with the first story, of the successive phasesin the spontaneous generation of the human embryo. First, theday ferments, then sticky and aerated bubbles appear, a heartis formed from the bubbles, and finally a soul descends fromheaven and enters the heart. There follows a comparison be-tween the soul and the continually emanating light of the sun.The soul sheds its light on the human body, whereas the sunsheds its light on the different dasses of substanee that consti-tute this world. The two stories coincide from here on.

The author begins his description of Hayy's self-education.A gazelle who had lost her doe hastens to the sound of a cryingbaby. She adopts, feeds, and raises him, putting him to sleepevery night in the feathers from the box he arrived in," untilhe is over seven years old. As the boy, endowed with keen intel-ligence, grows up, he begins to observe nature and the animalworld around him. To provide for his needs, he learns how todress himself, how to shelter himself, and also how to dornes-ticate animals. One day, however, the gazelle dies. Frightened,but wanting to save her, he reasons that the gazelle's inertnessmust be due to an invisible impediment. He decides to openher up and look for the seat of the impediment. He finds it inthe left ventricle of the heart. He discovers that the obstacle isnothing but the permanent departure of a vital principie 10-cated in the ventricle. And that leads him to think of the bodyas the mere instrument of a lífe-sustaíníng principie, with-out which the body is nothing. After burying his "mother,'he wonders what that principie is, what unites it to the body,and where it goes. For a time he roams around the island untilone day he sees a fire break out in a bush. Taking a firebrandto the cave in which he now lives, he keeps it alive night and

day. He studies the properties of the flame and observes thatit tends to go upward and to radiate warmth. This convinceshim that it belongs by nature to the celestial bodies and thatit may somehow be related to the life-sustaining principie. Tofind out whether that principie possesses things like fire, light,and heat, he opens the heart of a living animal. In the left ven-tricle, which he had found empty in the heart of the gazelle, hesenses with his finger a whitish vapor of such warmth that hisfinger is almost burned. The immediate death of the animalconvinces him that the hot vapor is the principie of motion inall living beings, and that its absence spells death. Devouredwith curíosíty, he now wants to know how this vapor holdstogether and how it imparts life to all the bodily organs. Hayydissects live and dead animals until his scientific knowledgeequals that of the greatest natural philosophers. He recognizesthat what gives unity to the body, in spite of the multiplicityof its parts and the variety of its sensations and movements, isthe animal spirit radiating from a central abode and using thebodily organs as instruments to perform specific functions.

When Hayy reaches his twenty-first birthday, he has al-ready learned how to stew meat, dress, use a knife made fromthe spines of fish, build himself a refuge, and domesticate ani-mals. But then his mind begins to move from the considerationof the physical order of things to the metaphysical. He startswith the world of generation and corruption. After exarnin-ing all kinds of objeets such as animals, plants, and mineraIs,he notices that they possess a great variety of attributes andperform a number of varied functions; moreover, their move-ments are either concordant or discordant. Looking at themcarefully, he notices that they coincide in certain attributes butdiffer in others. They form a unity if one looks at them withan eye to their congruencies, and form a multiplicity if onelooks at them with an eye to their discrepancies. He observesin every animal a certain unity in spite of the multiplicity ofits parts. Also, all classes of animals coincide in sensation, inthe need for food, and in voluntary motion, all of which arefunctions of the animal spirit. This must be, he thinks, one inessence in spite of the small differences that exist between thespecies. He then mentally reduces the animal and vegetablekingdoms to their smallest units, and in the inanimate king-dom he observes a tighter unity in all corporeal bo dies. Fromthe attributes common to corporeal bodies, he infers the gen-eral notion of a body as a three-dimensional extension. He be-gins then to look for that quality which makes a body, that is,the essence of a body. He had observed that bodies are either

13. Or "He [that is, God] will enable you to reach whereyou want"

14. Avicenna, Recital of Hayy Ibn Yaqzôn (in Henri Corbin,Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, trans. W. R. Trask [New York,1960],137-50).

15. See the introduction to the Islamic part of this volume(part 1) for a discussion of Hillel Fradkin's interpretation of thismoment in Hayy's story.


light or heavy. Nonetheless, these two attributes, lightness andheaviness, do not belong to the body as body, they are addedto corporealíty, which is common to all bodies. This is howHayy arrives at the notion of form and thus comes nearer tothe spirituaI world. He comes to realize that a body, aside frombeing an extension, is aIso a form, and that a substanee is madeup of matter, extension, and form. He discovers aIong with thisduality in substanee the notion of a first matter that is apt to re-ceive all forms through change. Now, ifbodies change, that is,if the same matter receives different forrns, this implies a giverofforms. He looks for a gíver offo rms among the bodies thatsurround him, but he realizes that they are all produced, whichimplies the existence of a producer.

When Hayy reaches his twenty-eighth year, he looks intothe sky and among the stars but comes to the conclusion thatthe sky and what is in it are all corporeal since they all havelength, width, and depth. He proves to himself that an infi-nite body is impossible. He later demonstrates to himself thatthe celestiaI body is finite and tries to find out what form thesky could have. He arrives at the conclusion that it is spheri-cai in shape, but composed of a series of concentrie spheres,the outermost of which causes the movement of the rest. Healso infers that the world is a huge animal. Asking himselfwhether the world is eternal or produced, he finds that thereare two plausible answers to this question, which he leaves un-answered. In each case, however, he is led to the conclusionthat there exists a necessary being who is the maker of all otherthings and who is exempt from all corporeal qualities and in-accessible to the senses or the imagination. He maintains theworld and is superior to it in the order of His being as well asby His eternity. Hayy then determines the degree of His powerover all created things, also His eternity and omnipotency. Hefinds Him, furthermore, endowed with complete perfectionand exempt from all imperfection.

When Hayy reaches his thirty-fifth year, he is completelyabsorbed in thinking about this producer. Sure of the exis-tence of a Perfect Being, Hayy wants to find out how he cameto know Him. He realizes that he could not have knownHim through the senses. These, being divisible, are not capableof knowing what is indivisible, spiritual, and not subject tocorruption. He mu st have come to know Him through some-thing to which corporeality cannot be attributed, and thatmust be the very essence of his own being, that is, his soul.

This, consequently, is indivisible, spiritual, and not subject tocorruption. After he reaches the knowledge that his soul is notsubject to corruption, he wants to know what happens to itafter it departs from the body. Examining all the faculties ofperception, he finds out that they perceive sometimes in actu-ality and at other times in potentiality. Whenever the percep-tion is in a state of potentiality, it tends toward actuality, thisbeing a state more perfect than potentiality. In fact, the moreperfect a being is, the greater is the craving for actuality andthe sadness at being deprived of it. He thus comes to know thatthe Necessary Being is perfect and exempt from all privation,and that He is known by something whose nature is unlike thecorporeal bodies. This leads him to see that the perfection ofthe soul consists in the constant use of reason in this life. Ifone does not use reason, however, his soul becomes a nothíng-ness after death. Also, if he has known the Necessary Being,but turned away from Him in order to follow his passions, hewill be deprived of the intuitive vision and will suffer infinitely;however, if one turns wholly toward God and dies while en-joying the intuitive vision, he will enjoy eternal bliss. Theseconsiderations lead Hayy to seek divine ecstasy by concentrat -ing his thoughts on the Necessary Being. However, the senses,sensible images, plus the physicaI needs of the body, wouldobstruct him. He is afraid death would overtake him while heis still being distracted from the Necessary Being. Hoping tofind a remedy for his plight, he examines the actions and goalsof.all animals to find out whether they seek after God so thathe could learn from them how to save himself. To his dísmay,he discovers that they do not seek after God. He next examinesthe celestial bodies and finds out that they possess an intel-ligent substance, like his, and that they eternalIy behold theNecessary Being. Among all the animals, he thinks ofhimselfas the only one who could know the Necessary Being. The rea-son lies in his possession of a perfectly balaneed substanee thatabides in the heart and presents unmistakable similarities tothe celestial bodies. Moreover, he realizes that he resembles, onthe one hand, the Necessary Being through that noble part ofhimself-the immaterial intelligent substance, his soul-and,on the other, the animals through that vile part of himself thatis his body. From this he concludes that his action should becarried out on three levels: (1) the actions emulating those ofthe animals, (2) those emulating the celestial bodies, and (3)those emulating the Necessary Being [20-107].

[HAYY'S THREE EMULATIONS]

He was obliged to undertake the first emulationby virtue of having a murky body with separablemembers, different faculties, and a variety of pas-sions. He was obliged to undertake the secondemulation by virtue of his animal spirit, which hasits seat in the heart and which is a principle for thewhole body and the faculties existing in it. He wasobliged to undertake the third emulation by virtueofhis being what he is, that is, by virtue ofbeing theessence through which he came to know the Nec-essary Being. He had come to know before that hishappiness and his triumph over misery consisted

in a continuous intuitive vision of this NecessaryBeing and not parting from it for so much as thetwinkling of an eye. Then he considered the meansby which this continuity might be secured, and hisconsiderations led him to conclude the necessityof continuous practice in the three levels of emu-lation. The first emulation, he realized, could notcontribute to his acquiring any portion of [108]this vision, but on the contrary it was a deterrentand a hindrance to it because it concerned sensiblethíngs, and all sensible things are curtains that in-terfere with that vision. The reason for practicing

such an emulation, therefore, was to preserve theanimal spirit that makes possible the second emu-lation, namely, emulating the celestial bodies. Sheernecessity demands that one take this road, althoughit is not exempt from the harm indicated. Throughthe second emulation, he realized, he might obtaina great portion of this continuous vision. However,it is an adulterated vision since whosoever beholdsafter this manner of vision, remains, while expe-riencing the vision, conscious of his own essenceand turns toward it, as will be shown afterwards.Finally, through the third emulation one might ob-tain pure vision and absolute absorption, withoutbeing diverted from it in any direction except in thedirection of the Necessary Being. The very essenceof the one who experiences this vision disappearsfrom his consciousness, it melts and fades away,and so do all the other essences, irrespective oftheir number, except the essen ce of the One, theTrue, the Necessary [109] Being (may His name beexalted).

Now it became clear to him that his ultimateend consists in the third emulation, that this is notobtained without long exercise and practice in thesecond, and that the continuation of the seconddepends on his first emulation. And he also real-ized that the first emulation, although necessary,is as such a hindrance and a help only accidentally.Consequently, he forced himself to reduce the firstemulation to bare necessity, that is, the strictlyrequired amount below which the animal spiritwould not subsist. He found two things necessaryfor the subsistence of the animal spirit. One, whatmaintains it internally by restoring what is wastedof it, namely, food. The other, what preserves it ex-ternally and guards it against all kinds of possibledamage coming from cold, heat, rain, sunburn,harmful animals, and the like. And he perceivedthat íf he were to take his necessities from these el-ements haphazardly, he would fall into excess andtake more than the strictly required amount. Hemight thus [110] injure himself unawares. Where-upon he thought it prudent to set for himself cer-tain limits that he would not pass and measuresthat he would not exceed; and it became clear tohim that this prescription should apply to thekind, content, and quantity of his nourishment aswell as its frequency.

Examining first the types of his food, he dis-covered that they are three in number: (l) Eitherplants that have not yet finished, or reached thelimit of, their growth-that is, the different kinds ofgreen vegetable s proper for nourishment; (2) fruit


of the plants that have reached their full growthand developed seeds for the reproduction of thesame species-that is, the different kinds of fruit,fresh or dry; (3) or some kind of edible animal,either terrestrial or marine. Hayy had ascertainedthat all these types of food are made by the Neces-sary Being; and it had become evident to him thathis happiness consists in the nearness to, and thedesire to imitate Him. Doubtless, he thought, toeat these different foods [lll] must prevent themfrom reaching their perfection and obstruct therealization of the end for which they are destined.This would be like an objection against the workof the Maker, an objection that is contrary to whathe was seeking: the nearness to, and emulation ofHim. He perceived that the correct thing for himto do, if possible, would be to abstain from eat-ing altogether. But this was impossible. He foundthat by completely abstaining from eating, hisbody tended to dissolve, a thing that constituteda much greater objection against his Maker thanthe former; since he is nobler [by nature] than theother things whose very destruction is the causeof his preservation. He chose the lesser of the twoevils and indulged in the milder of the two objec-tions. Now, it seemed proper to him that, when-ever some of these classes of food are not available,he should partake of whatever can be obtained,and in quantities that he will decide about later.But if all the classes of food are available, then heshould make sure to choose those foods whoseconsumption ~ill not constitute a major objectionagainst the work of the Maker, such as the fleshof fully ripe fruit whose seeds have so matured asto produce [l l Z] others of the same class. But al-ways with the condition that he preserve the seedsby not eating them or spoiling them or throwingthem in places not fit for plants to grow in, suchas rocks, briny soil, and the like. And wheneversuch fruit with nourishing flesh-such as apples,plurns, and the like-are not accessible, he shouldthen eat of those fruits that had nothing edible inthem but their seeds-such as walnuts and chest-nuts or the vegetables that had not yet reached thelimit of their perfect growth-but on conditionin both cases that he should prefer the vegetablesthat are more abundant and endowed with greaterforce of reproduction. He was never to extract anyof their roots or destroy their seeds. And if none ofthese [edible plants] was to be had, then he couldtake some animals or their eggs, on condition-inasmuch as the animals were concerned-that hetake the more numerous and not exterminate any


one species. This was what he considered prudentwith regard to the kind ofhis nourishment. Regard-ing the quantity, he perceived that it should be inaccordance with what satisfies a man's hunger andno more. As to the lapse of time between meals,he ruled that once he had satisfied [113] his needs,he was to remain content with that and not touchanything until he suffered a weakness that wouldhinder him from the performance of some of theactions to which he was committed in the secondemulation and that will be mentioned afterwards.Regarding the necessities required for the subsis-ten ce of the animal spirit, protecting it from exter-nal harm, he had very little to worry about, for hedothed himself with skins and he had a dwellingthat protected him against external harm. This sat -isfied him, and hen ce he did not see any furtherneed to worry about it. And as far as his diet wasconcerned, he observed the rules he had set forhimself, which we have already explained.

Then he applied himself to the second exercise-that is, to emulate the celestial bodies, imitate them,acquire their attributes, and look for their qualities,which he found to be of three kinds. First, the quali-ties the celestial bodies possess by virtue of the rela-tions they maintain with what is below them in theworld of generation and corruption: imparting heat(byessence), and cold (by accident), illumination,rarefaction, condensation, and the other actions[114] by means of which they dispose the thingsof this world to receive the overflow of the spiritualforms from the Agent, the Necessary Being. Thesecond kind of qualities are qualities that belongto their very essence-such as that they are trans-lucent, luminous, pure, free from turbidness andany kind of vileness, and that they move circularly,some of them moving around their own center andsome around the center of another. The third kindof qualities are the ones they possess by virtue oftheir relation to the Necessary Being, such as thatthey possess continuous vision of Him without anydeviation, and that they yearn for Him and act ac-cording to His command, constrain themselves inorder to do His will, and do not move save in ac-cordance with His wish and within His control. Sohe proceeded to emulate them [the celestial bodies]in every one of these three kinds of qualities to theutmost of his power.

In the first case, his emulation of the celestialbodies consisted in obliging himself, wheneverhe could, to remove [the cause of the plight] ofevery animal or plant he sees to be in need, dis-eased, injured, or facing an impediment. Thus,

whenever he saw a plant that was deprived ofsunlight by the interference of another object, orthat was entwined with another harmful plant,or that was suffering from extreme dryness; hewould remove the object [115] if it was some-thing that could be removed, and he would sep-arate the harmful plant from the other withoutinjuring the harmful one, and he would take careto water it whenever that was possible. Wheneverhe happened to see any animal endangered by awild beast, or trapped in a snare, or pricked withthorns, or that had something harmful falleninto its eyes or ears, or was hungry or thirsty; hewould take infinite care to relieve it and give itfood and drink. Or whenever he happened to seeany watercourse, flowing to irrigate a plant or toquench the thirst of an animal, stopped by a stonethat has fallen in it or by a fallen di ff; he took careto remove all that. He persisted in this kind ofemulation until he attained its highest end.

In the second case, his emulation consisted inobliging himself to remain pure, to remove all dirtand filth from his body, washing himself often andkeeping his nails, teeth, and the hidden parts ofhis body dean, and perfuming himself [116] withevery kind of fragrant herb and all sorts of aro-matic pomades that he could find. He took careto maintain his dothes dean and fragrant untilhe was resplendent with beauty, deanliness, andfragrance. In addition, he took upon himself toperform all sorts of circular movements. One timehe would walk around the island compassing itsshores and journeying to its remotest are as. Some-times he would walk or run around his house or arock a number of times. At other times, he wouldspin himself until he lost consciousness.

In the third case, his emulation of the celestialbodies consisted in concentrating his thoughtson the Necessary Being and suppressing all con-nection with the sensible world. He would do sehis eyes, stop his ears, and restrain himself fromfollowing his imagination. He would wish, to theutmost of his power, to think of nothing else butHim, and to associate nobody with Him. To ac-complish this, he would have recourse to spinninghimself more rapidly. As his spinning increased,sensible objects would vanish out of his sight, hisimagination would grow weaker and so would allthe faculties that make use of [117] bodily organs.Meanwhile, the work of his essen ce, which is in-dependent of the body, grew stronger; so that attimes his thoughts freed themselves from all con-fusion, and he beheld the Necessary Being. But

the corporeal faculties would return upon himand spoil this state for him, bringing him back tothe lowest of levels; thus he would go back to hisformer condition. Whenever he felt any weaknessthat interrupted him from pursuing his purpose,he partook of some food, but always according tothe established conditions. Henceforth he movedto the performance of his emulation of the celestialbodies in the three mentioned respects. He appliedhimself assiduously to this for some time, strug-gling against his corporeal faculties-just as theywere resisting him. Whenever he got the better ofthem and his thoughts were free from confusion,he briefly experienced something of the state ofthose who have attained the third emulation.

Then he started to seek after the third ernula-tion and tried hard to attain it by pondering overthe attributes of the Necessary Being. He hadcome to know, during the period of his [118] sci-entific speculation on the subject before he hadentered upon any action, that these attributes wereof two kinds: positive, such as knowledge, power,and wisdom; and negative, such as His completefreedom from corporeality and from the bodilyattributes, and from whatever adheres to these at-tributes or is related to them even remotely. Thenegative attributes are a condition that renders thepositive attributes absolutely exempt from the at-tributes of the bodies, one of which is multiplic-ity, so that His essence would not be multipliedby these positive attributes, and so that all of themwould be reduced to a single notion which is thatof His real essence. He started thereupon to seek away by which to emulate Him in both these kinds[of attributes]. As for the positive attributes, whenhe came to know that they are all to be reduced toHis real essence and that they are free from mul-tiplicity in every respect-since multiplicity is oneof the attributes of bodies-anďthat His knowl-edge of His essence is not a notion superimposedon His essence, but that His essence is His knowl-edge of His essence and His knowledge of His es-sence is His essence; it became evident to him thatif he could know his own essen ce, the knowledgewith which he would come to know it could notbe something superimposed on his essence, butidentical with it. Therefore, he perceived that toemulate Him in His positive attributes would beto know Him alone without association with [119]any of the corporeal attributes. He took it upon

Ibn Tufayl, Hayy the Son ofYaqzan 115

himself to do exactly that. As for the negative at-tributes, they are all reduced to exemption fromthe corporeal.

He began therefore to strip himself of all cor-poreal attributes. He had cast off a great deal ofthem during his former exercises in which hesought to emulate the celestial bodies. However, agreat many relics had been left, such as spinningaround-and movement is one of the most char-acteristic attributes ofbodies-and his care for an-imals and plants, the feeling of pity toward them,and the preoccupation he had to remove whateverinconvenienced them. The latter, too, are corporealattributes. For, to begin with, they can be seen onlywith the help of a corporeal faculty. Furthermore,the hard labor they require is also performed witha corporeal faculty. Therefore, he began to ridhimself of all this, for it in no way befits the state towhich he now aspired. Henceforth he confined hisactivities to repose in the bottom of his cave withhis head tilted down, his eyes closed, disregardingall sensible things and all corporeal faculties, con-centrating all his effort and thoughts on the Nec-essary Being alone, without associating Him withanything whatsoever. Whenever a thought thatwas not of God crossed his imagination, he triedto drive it away [120] and put it off with all hisforce. He exercised himself in this, persisting for along time, so much so that several days would passwithout his having anything to eat and withoutever stirring. At those moments when he wouldreach a high pitch in his exercise, all things mightvanish from his memory and thought except hisown essen ce, which would continue to be presentwhen he was deeply immersed in the vision of theTrue Being, the Necessary Being.

This used to cause him great concern, for heknew that it was a mixture perturbing the sure vi-sion and an intrusion in the observation [ofHim].Nevertheless, he kept seeking the disappearanceof his soul and the utmost sincerity in his visionof the Truth, until finally he achieved what he wasafter. Thereupon, the sky, the earth, and everythingthat is between [15:85; 78:37] vanished from hismemory and thought. And so did all the spiritualforrns" and corporeal faculties and all the powersseparate from the elements, namely, the essencesthat know the True Being. Also, his own essencedisappeared like the other essences. The universevanished and dwindled away, a scattered dust

16. See Ibn Bajja Governanee of the Solitary chaps. 7 and 12(above, selection 9).


[56:6). There remained only the One, the TrueBeing, the Permanent Being, and he recited hisspeech (which is not anotion superimposed onhis essence): Whose is the Kingdom today? God's,the One, the Omnipotent [40:16). He understood[121) His words and heard His call, and not evenhis ignorance of words and his inability to speakcould hinder the understanding of Him. He im-mersed himself in this state, and beheld "thatwhich no eye has ever seen nor an ear ever lis-tened to, neither has it ever presented itself to theheart of a rnan.""

Do not allow your heart to be chained to thedescription of something that has never pre-sented its elf to the heart of a man. Many are thethings that present themselves to the heart of aman but are hard to describe. How much harder,therefore, would be the description of somethingthat has no chance of ever presenting itself to theheart, and that is not of the same world nor ofthe same category. And l do not mean by "heart"the body out of which the heart is constituted orthe spirit contained in its ventricle, but rather theform of the spirit whose powers extend through-out the body. Now, each one of these three thing s

might be called "heart:' but it is impossible forthis thing [ecstasy) to occur to any of these three.And yet there is no way of expressing anythingbeyond what occurs to these three. Therefore, hewho seeks to express this state is seeking the im-possible. He is like someone who wants to tastethe dyed colors inasmuch as they are colors,and at the same time requests that black shouldtaste, for example, sweet or [122) sour. However,in spite of all this, we will not let you go with-out some allusions by which we shall hint at thewonderful things Hayy saw when he was in thatstation. We will do this in the form of an allegorywithout knčcking upon the door of the truth;for there is no other way to ascertain what is inthat station without actually reaching it. So listennow with the ear of your heart to what l sh all in-dicate to you and gaze at it with your minďs eye;perhaps you will find in it some form of guid-ance that may bring you to the highway. l de-mand that you not ask me at present for any oralexplanation in addition to what l have entrustedto these pages. For my hands are tied, and it isdangerous to express arbitrarily something thatcannot be expressed.

[Summary of the Tale-Continued]

Hayy, in spite of his superior intelligence and philosophicpreparation, falls into the error of identifying himself withGod. But with the help of divine mercy, he corrects his error.Furthermore, he comes to understand that the separate es-sences cannot be said to be one or multiple, since they arebeyond the reach of any human logical classification andsince the divine world can only be known through vision.Reason only observes the particulars and abstracts uni-versal notions from them. Then the author describes in anallegorical form the descending hierarchy of the separateessences that Hayy perceives during his ecstasy, narnely,the intelligences of the spheres, the fixed stars, and thoseof all the other spheres until one reaches the sublunaryworld. They are compared to a series of mirrors of dimin-ishing perfection that reflect from the first to the last the

image of the divine essence in a descending order of clar-ity. The mirror of the sublunary world is the last and leastperfect of them all. The image of the divine essence seemsto be reflected in it as in troubled waters and divided intoa multi tu de of indefinite individual essences each of whichis united to a body (this refers to human souls), some virtu-ous and happy, the others perverse and miserable. However,one should not think that these souls disappear when thebody to which they are united disappears, as happens tothe image reflected in a mirror once the mirror is destroyed.The comparison shouId not be taken literally since it is not thebody that sustains the soul, but the soul the body. Likewise,since the sensible world is sustained by the divine, it neces-sarily follows the divine world just as the shadow necessarilyfollows the body [122-34].

[CONCLUSION]

This is as much as l could indicate to you nowconcerning what Hayy the son of Yaqzan intui-tively beheld in that noble station. Do not expect

any more than this through mere words. For thisis almost impossible. As for the rest of his story,that l will tell you.

17. Cf. l Cor. 2:9.

After he had come back to the sensible worldfrom the excursions he had undertaken, he be-came weary of the concerns of this life and hestrongly yearned for the ultimate life. He soughtto return to that station through the same meansby which he had sought it at first, till he was ableto attain it with less effort than before and also tostay there longer than he had stayed before. Thenhe return ed to the sensible world, and [135] at-tempted later to attain his station on ce more andattained it with less effort than in both the first andthe second preceding attempts, and his stay therewas longer too. And so it grew easier and easierfor him to attain that noble station and to con-tinue in it longer and longer until he could attainit whenever he pleas ed and stay in it for as long ashe pleased. He used to keep himself in that stationand not turn away from it except when the neces-sities of his body, which he had cut down to thebare minimum, demanded it. In all this, he usedto wish that it would please God, the Mighty andMajestic, to deliver him altogether from his body,which caused his separation from that station;so that [he might] give himself up perpetually tohis [supreme] pleasure, and so that [he might] berelieved from the pain he suffered every time hehad to retire from his station to attend to the ne-cessities of the body. He continued in this state ofaffairs until he was past the seventh septenary ofhis birth, that is, he was fifty years old. Then hehappened to come together with Asal; the story ofwhat took place between them will be narrated-God willing-in what follows.

It is told that on an island close to [136] theone on which Hayy the son ofYaqzan was born-according to one of the two different accounts ofthe circumstances of his birth-there arrived oneof the true religion s received from one of the oldprophets (upon whom be the blessings of God).It was a religion that imitated all the true beingsthrough parables that present images of thosethings and establish their descriptions in thesouls, as is customary in addressing the multi-tude. This religion continued to spread on the is-land and kept growing and gaining in power untilthe king adopted it himself and made the peopleembraceit.

Now there had grown in that island two youngmen of virtue and good will, called respectivelyAsal and Salaman, who embraced that religionand accepted it eagerly. They took it upon them-selves to observe all its Laws and to follow regu-larly its practices; this formed the basis of their


friendship. Sometimes they used to study thewording of that religious Law concerning the at-tributes of God, the Mighty and Majestic, and Hisangels, and also the character of resurrection, re-wards, and punishments. Of the two, Asal delvedmore deeply into the esoteric mean ing; he wasmore apt to find [137] spiritual notions, and wasa more ambitious interpreter. As for Salam an, hewas more apt to keep to the apparent mean ing, toavoid interpretation, and to abstain from exami-nation and ref1ection. However, both assiduouslyperformed the external practices [of the religiousLaw], disciplined themselves, and controlled theirpassions.

Now there were in this religious Law certainarguments that favored seclusion and solitude, in-dicating that these led to salvation and [ultimate]success; and there were other arguments that fa-vored sociability and adherence to the whole bodyof the community (jamä'a). Asal devoted himselfto the search for seclusion and favored the argu-ment for it, because he was naturally inclined tocontinued meditation, to heeding the warnings [ofthe religious Law], and to penetrating deeply intothe meanings [of the things mentioned in it]; andit was through solitude that he most frequently ac-complished these objectives. In contrast, Salamandevoted himself to adhering to the whole body ofthe community and favored the argument for thisposition, because he was naturally timid as regardsthought and examination. Following the majority,he thought, would lead to the suppression of evilthoughts and the removal of the promptings of thedevil. Their differences on this issue caused [138]them to separate.

Asal had heard about the island on which itwas said that Hayy the son ofYaqzan was formed.He knew also of its fertility, conveniences, andtemperate climate, and that the one who seekssolitude can achieve it there. Resolved to movethere and to retire from the company of menfor the rest of his life, he gathered together whatmoney he possessed; with a part of it he hired aship to carry him to that island, and the rest hedistributed among the poor. He bade farewellto his friend [Salaman] and went aboard. Themariners transported him to the island, set himashore, and withdrew. Asal remained there wor-shiping God, the Mighty and Majestic, magnify-ing Him, sanctifying Him, and meditating uponHis most beautiful names and exalted attributeswithout any interruption in the presence of hismind or disturbance in his thoughts. Whenever


he felt the need for food, he took from the fruit sor game of the island enough to satisfy his hunger.He remained in this state a while, enjoying themost complete felicity and the greatest delightthrough an intimate intercourse with his Lord,experiencing every day His kindness, the excel-lence of His gífts, and the ease with which Heenabled him to satisfy his necessary needs andnourishment-all of which confirmed his beliefin him and consoled Asaľs heart. [139]

In the mean time, Hayy the son of Yaqzan waswholly immersed in his sublime stations. Henever left his cave but once a week to take what-ever nourishment was at hand. This is the reasonwhy Asal did not discover his presence at first; heused to walk aro und the island and go over all itsparts without seeing a human being or observingthe traces of any footsteps. This swelled his joyand gladdened his heart as he was firmly resolvedto lead the most retired and solitary life that waspossible, until Hayy the son of Yaqzan happenedto go out one day to seek his provisions at a placewhere Asal happened to be. They both spied oneanother. Asal did not entertain any doubt but thatHayy was a retired worshiper who mu st have cometo that island in search of solitude as he himselfhad done, and feared that should he come up andmake his acquaintance, this might disturb Hayy'sstate and disrupt the pursuit he was engaged in.Hayy the son of Yaqzan, however, did not knowwhat Asal was; for of all the animals [140] he hadseen, he had never seen anything with such a form.Now Asal had on a black coat made out of hairand wool, which Hayy the son of Yaqzan thoughtwas a natural part of him and at which he stoodwondering for quite a while. Asal turned and fledfrom fear that he might distract Hayy. But Hayythe son ofYaqzan ran after him out ofhis naturalcuriosity to look for the truth of things. When hesaw that Asal began to run faster, he slowed downand hid himself from him, so that Asal thought hehad left him and gone off far from the place wherehe was. Asal then proceeded with his prayer,recitation, invocation, supplication, and lamenta-tion, until this made him forget everything else.Hayy the son ofYaqzan started to draw closer andcloser, with Asal unaware ofhis presence, until hecame so close as to hear his recitation and praise[of God], observing in him a sense ofhumility andthat he was weeping. Hayy heard a pleasant vo iceand harmonious sounds such as he had neverheard before in any kind of animal. Then he con-sidered Asal's shape and lineaments and saw that

he was of the same form as himself. He also foundthat the coat he had on was not a natural skin butan artificial attire like [141] his own. Upon watch-ing the sincere humility of Asal, his supplicationand weeping, he did not doubt but that he was oneof those essences who know the True One. He felthimself seized by an affection toward him and adesire to know what was the matter with him, andwhat caused his weeping. He drew closer to himtill Asal felt his presence and took to flight, Hayythe son of Yaqzan chased him energetically untilhe caught up with him-as the result of the vigorand the capacity, intellectual as well as physical,that God had bestowed up on him-seized him,held him fast, and would not let go of him. WhenAsal looked at him and saw that he was clothedwith animal furs, his hair grown so long as tocover a great part of his body, and perceived hisalertness and great strength; he trembled fromfear and began to implore and entreat him withwords, which Hayy the son of Yaqzan could notunderstand and did not know what they weremeant to convey. [Hayy] could see the signs ofalarm on Asaľs face, however. Therefore, he en-deavored to allay his fear with such voices as hehad learned from some of the animals. He strokedhis head and both sides of his neck, and caressedhim, showing him a great joy and gladness, untilAsaľs agitation calmed and he understood that hemeant him no harm.

Asal had formerly [142] studied most lan-guages as a result of his love for the science of in-terpretation and had become an expert in them.So he began to speak to Hayy the son ofYaqzan inevery language he knew, asking him about himselfand trying to make himself understood, but with-out success. Hayy the son of Yaqzan wondered allthe while at what he heard, not knowing what itwas. Nevertheless, he showed gladness and gooddisposition; and they mutually wondered at eachother. Asal had conserved some of the provisionshe had brought along from the inhabited island.He offered it to Hayy the son ofYaqzan, who, hav-ing never seen such food before, did not knowwhat it was. Asal ate a little of it and signaled Hayyto eat too. Hayy the son of Yaqzan rememberedthe dietary obligation he had resolved to abideby. Not knowing the constitution of the food hehad been offered, nor whether or not he shouldpermit himself to partake of it, he declined toeat. Asal, nonetheless, kept asking him and urg-ing him beseechingly. As Hayy the son of Yaqzanhad become fond of Asal and was afraid lest he

might be vexed ifhe should continue to refuse, hewent ahead and ate some of the food. As soon as[143] he had tasted it and liked it, Hayy realizedthat he had done wrong by violating the covenanthe made with himself as regard s diet. He repentedwhat he did and wanted to separate from Asal andgo back to his former condition, seeking to returnto his sublime station. But he could not attain thevision quickly. Thereupon he decided to stay withAsal in the sensible world until he discoveredwhat he really was and until he felt no more desireto be with him, after which he might apply him-self to his station without any interruption. Thushe remained in the company of Asal. Now as Asalperceived Hayy's inability to speak, he felt securesince [Hayy's] company could po se no threat tohis faith. He hop ed to instruct him in speaking, inscience, and in the faith, so that he [Asal] mightobtain a great reward and be favored by God. Asalbegan to teach him how to speak, first, by pointingat particular beings and pronouncing their name s,repeating them several times, and then makingHayy pronounce them. Hayy pronounced them atthe same time as he in turn pointed to each being,until Asal taught him all the names. He helpedhim to improve gradually, until, in a very shorttime, Hayy could speak.

Then Asal began to ask him about his con di-tion, and whence he came [144] to that island.Hayy the son ofYaqzan told him he knew nothingof his orígin, nor of a father or a mother beyondthe gazelle that reared him. Then Hayy describedhis experiences from beginning to end, and howhe ascended in knowledge until he attained adegree of union [with God]. Asal heard him de-scribe those truths and the essences separate fromthe sensible world, which know the essence of theTruth, the Mighty and Majestic. Then Hayy de-scribed the essence of the Truth, the Exalted andMajestic, with his beautiful qualities. And finallyHayy described, as far as he could, what he be-held when he attained union [with God], the joysof those who unite [with God], and the pains ofthose who are veiled from Him. After hearing allthis, Asal had no doubt that all the things givenin his own religious Law concerning God, theMighty and Majestic, His angels, His books, Hismessengers, the last day, and His paradise andhell, are the similitudes of these things that Hayythe son ofYaqzan had beheld. The eye ofhis heart


was thereby opened, the fire of his mind kindled.He found that reason and tradition agree, and hefound a better access to the ways of interpretation.There remained not one difficulty in the religiousLaw that he did not now see clearly, nor anythinglocked up that was not open ed, nor anything ob-scure that did not become plain. Thereupon hepassed into the ranks of the men of understanding[12:111]. From that moment, Asal looked uponHayy the son of [145] Yaqzan with veneration andrespect, and he was convinced that Hayy was oneof the saints of God who need have no fear, nei-ther shall they suffer [2:38, 262, 274]. He took itupon himself to wait upon him, to follow in hisstep s, and to accept his directions with regard tothe fulfillment of the religious-legal practices thathis religion had taught him, but had seemed to becontradictory.

Hayy the son of Yaqzan, in his turn, began toinquire from him about himself and his presentcondition. Whereupon Asal proceeded to describethe island from which he came, the people whoinhabit it, and their way of life before and after re-ligion reached them. He described to him all thecontent of the religious Law concerning the divineworld, paradise, hell, the quickening of the dead,the resurrection, the assembly for a final judg-ment, the balance, and the bridge." Hayy the sonofYaqzan understood all this, not finding in it any-thing that disagreed with what he had intuitivelyseen in his sublime station. He recognized that theone who described these things and brought themforth was truthful in his description, veridical inhis words, and a messenger from his Lord. He be-lieved in him, accepted his truthfulness, and borewitness to his mission.

Then he began to find out from Asal whatwere the acts of worship that he [the messenger]ordained as duties. Asal described prayer, alrns-giving, fasting, pilgrimage, and similar [146] ex-ternal practices. Hayy accepted them, and he tookit upon himself to carry them out in compliancewith the command of whose author's veracityhe had become convinced. There only remainedtwo points that kept him wondering and whosewisdom he could not understand. One point waswhy this messenger, in the greatest part of hisdescription of the divine world, used parables?Why he avoided the clear disclosure [of the truth]and thus led men to fall into the great error of

18. Or the "way," "path" (sirät), which separates hell fromparadise.


attributing corporeality to Him and believe cer-tain things about the essence of the Truth fromwhich He is completely exempt? And why he didthe same concerning rewards and punishments?The other point was why he confined himself tothose duties and acts of worship and permittedacquisition of wealth and excessive consumptionof food so that people gave themselves up to vainoccupations and turned away from the Truth.Hayy's own opinion was that nobody ought to eatanything more than necessary to keep body andsoul together. As for riches, they meant nothingto him. He saw no point to the [147] rules of thereligious Law with regard to wealth, such as alms-giving in its various forrns, trading, and usury,and with regard to penalties and punishments. Allthis he found strange and considered it superflu-ous. He said that if people understood the truthof the matter they would avoid these vanities,turn toward the Truth, and dispense with all this.Nobody will then own private property for whichalms would have to be paid, hands cut off forstealing it, or people die for robbing it. What mis-led Hayy was his belief that all men were endowedwith excellent natures, clear-sighted sagacity, andresolute souls. He was not aware how stupid, de-ficient, ill-opinioned, and weak in resolution theywere, as the cattle; nay. they arefurther astray fromthe way [25:44].

As his pity toward men increased and he en-tertained the ambition of becoming the instru-ment of their salvation, he made up his mindto reach them, and to lay bare the truth beforethem and make it clear for them. He discussed[148] his intention with Asal and asked him if away could possibly be contrived to reach them.Asal informed him of their deficient nature andhow they turn away from God. But Hayy couldnot comprehend that and still hoped to be ableto pursue his intention. Asal, too, entertained theambition that God might, through Hayy, leadinto the right path some of his acquaintances,who were initiates and closer to salvation thanthe others: so he helped him to carry out his de-sign. They resolved to keep close to the seashorewithout leaving it night or day, till God shouldplease to offer them the opportunity to cross thesea. So they stayed by the shore supplicating andpraying to God, the Mighty and Majestic, that Hemay guide them to the right path in their design[ef. 18:10].

It happened, by God's command, that a shipthat had lost its course was driven [149] by the

winds and the tumultuous waves upon the shoreof that island. As the ship drew closer to the land,the people on board saw the two men on shoreand made toward them. Asal spoke to them andasked that the two of them be taken along. The[mariners] responded favorably and took themaboard. God sent a fair wind, which in a shorttime brought the ship to the island they wereseeking. There they landed and went into the city.Asal's friends met with him, and he told them thestory of Hayy the son of Yaqzan. They flockedaro und Hayy, showed him great admiration,met with him, and esteemed and venerated him.Asallet Hayy know that this group was superiorto all other men in understanding and sagac-ity, should he prove un able to instruct them, bischances of instructing the multitude were slim.Now the ruler [150] and chief of that island wasSalam an, Asal's friend who believed in adheringto the whole body of the community and arguedfor prohibiting seclusion. Hayy the son ofYaqzanbegan to teach and to disclose the secrets of wis-dom. But no sooner had he gone a little beyondthe apparent, and started to describe what theyhad previously learned to be otherwise, than theybegan to feel ill at ease in his presence, to feel intheir souls an abhorrence for what he told them;and they resented it in their hearts, although tohis face they showed that they were pleas ed, outof respect for his being a stranger as well as forthe sake of their friend Asal. Hayy the son ofYaqzan kept entreating them night and day, andkept explaining to them the truth both in privateand in public. But this did not produce any ef-fect except to increase their disdain and aversion,despite their love of goodness and their desirefor the truth. Nonetheless, because of their defi-cient natures, they did not pursue the truth in theproper way, nor did they receive it in the propermanner nor [151] call for it at its own doors. Onthe contrary, they wanted to learn the truth onthe authority of other men. So Hayy despaired ofreform ing them and lost hope about their abilityto receive the truth.

Examining afterwards the different categoriesof men, he found that each party was rejoicing inwhat it had [ef. 23:53; 30:32], taking their capriceto be their god [ef. 25:43] and worshiping their de-sires. They were fighting desperately to collect thecrumbs of this world, and they were absorbed inamassing [wealthJ until the day they reached theirgraves [ef. 102:1-2]. All good advice is lost uponthem, and kind words have no effect. Discussion

only makes them more obstinate; and as for wis-dom, there is no way they could acquire it, neitherhave they any portion of it. They were submergedin ignorance, and what they were earning hasrusted upon their hearts [83:14]. God has set a sealon their hearts and their hearing and on their eyesis a covering, and there awaits them a mighty chas-tisement [2:7]. When he saw the pavilion of pun-ishment surrounding them and the darkness of theveils covering them-all of them, except a few, donot take seriously anything but the worldly aspectsof their religion; they disregard the observance ofits practices [152] regardless of their easiness, andthey sold it for a small price [ef. 3:187]; commercedid divert them from the remembrance of God, theExalted, and they had no fear of a day when heartsand eyes shall be turned about [ef. 24:37]-it be-came clear to him, indeed he was absolutely sure:It was impossible to address them by way of un-veiling [the pure truth]; and that to enjoin uponthem any works beyond the measure [laid downby their messenger] was not expedient; and fur-ther, that the greatest benefit the multitude couldget from the religious Law concerned their mun-dane life alone, so that they might live forthrightlyand no man trespass the private property of theothers. Only the exceptional and the rare amongthem would attain the happiness of the hereafter,namely, the one who desires the tillage of the here-after, and strives after it as he should-being a be-liever [ef. 17:19]. As for him who is impious, andprefers the life of this world, then surely hell is hisabode [79: 37-39]. What weariness can be greater,or what misery more overwhelming than that ofthe one who, if you examined his activities fromthe moment he wakes up till the time he goes tosleep, you would find does nothing but seek [153]after one or another of the vile sensible things:riches to collect, pleasures to partake of, lusts tosatisfy, a rage for which he seeks relief, glory to ob-tain, or practice commended by the religious Lawwith which to make a vainglorious show or defendhis own neck. All these things are darkness upondarkness in a deep sea [ef. 24:40], and there is notone of you, but he shall go down to it, that for thyLord is a thing decreed, determined [19:71].

Upon cornprehending that this is the condi-tion of men and that the majority are like irratio-nal animals, he knew that all wisdom, guidaneeto the right path, and good fortune reside in theutterances of the apostles of God and what is setforth by religious Law: nothing else is possibleand nothing more could be added to it. Certain

Ibn Tufayl, Hayy the Son ofYaqzan 121

kinds of men are fit for certain kinds of work, andeach man is more fit to do that for which he ismade. Such has been Goďs way with the ones whohad passed away, and you shall find no change inGoďs way [ef. 48:23]. Hence Hayy went back toSalaman and his friends, apologized for what hehad said to them, and asked that he be forgivenfor it. He informed them that he now shared theiropinion and has been guided to the right paththat they were following. He also exhorted themto keep firm in their observance of the prescrip-tions of the religious Law and the performance ofthe external [religious] practices and not to delveinto what does not concern them. They shouldbelieve, furthermore, in the ambiguous [state-ments of the Law] and assent readily to them.They should avoid [154] innovations and privateopinions and follow in the footsteps of their piousancestors, forsaking all unprecedented novelties.He commanded them to avoid the indifference ofthe vulgar toward the religious Law, and their loveof this world, and cautioned them with insistenceagainst it. He and his friend Asal knew now thatthis is the only way in which this group, whichhas the desire but not the capacity for salvation,can achieve it. Should one try to raise them to theheight of personal vision, this would upset theirpresent order without enabling them to attain thegrade of the happy ones. They will waver and suf-fer a relapse, ending in evil. However, if this samegroup should continue in this same condition tilldeath overtook them, they would gain security andbelong to the Companions of the Right [56:90, 91].As for the Outstrippers, they are the ones broughtnigh [to Goďs Throne] [56:10-11].

Asal and Hayy took their leave and separatedfrom the group. They sought an opportunity to goback to their island, till it pleased God, the Mightyand Majestic, to help them and facilitate their pas-sage back. Hayy sought his previous sublime sta-tion the same way he had sought it before, till herecovered it. Asal followed in Hayy's footsteps tillhe came close to him or almost did so. They bothworshiped God [155] in that island until dea thovertook them [ef. 15:99].

This-may God assist you through his inspira-tion [ef. 58:22]-is the story of what happenedto Hayy the son of Yaqzan, Asal, and Salaman.It contains certain statements that are not to befound in any book, nor heard in a common dis-course. It is a part of that well-protected sciencewhich only those who know God accept and onlythose deluded concerning God ignore [ef. 31:33;


57: 14; 82:6]. We have taken a road contrary to thatof the pious ancestors who grudged its dissemi-nation and parsimoniously guarded it. The reasonthat the disclosure of this secret and the tearing ofits veil were made easy for us was the appearance,in our present time, of corrupt opinion s aired andbroached by some contemporaneous pretendersto philosophy, till they spread all over the coun-tries, and the mischief caused by it has now be-come common. Fearing lest the weak ones whohave rejected the authority of the prophets, andwho would want to imitate the fools, should thinkthat these opinions are the secrets guarded [156]against the ones unworthy of them, and so increasetheir inclination to, and love of, them; we decidedto give them a glimpse of the secret of secrets inorder to attract them to the side of self-fulfillmentand avert them from this road. Nevertheless, we

have not left whatever secrets we confided to thesepages without a thin veil and a delicate curtain,which is easy to break by those worthy of doingso, but which turns thick for the ones unworthyof going beyond it so that they would be un able togo any further.

l ask my brothers who read this book to ac-cept my apologies for my indulgence in explain-ing whatever l explained and for my liberality inwriting it down. l did not do so except becausel climbed heights that the eyes fail to see, andwished to simplify my discourse about them inorder to attract others and make them desire totake to the way. l ask for Goďs indulgence and for-giveness, and that He may lead us unto the pureknowledge of Him. He is gracious and generous.Peace be with you, my brother whom it is my dutyto help, and the mercy and blessing of God.

IBN TUFAYL

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