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The Book of the Choice among Beliefs and Convictions
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The author opened his work by saying: Blessed is God, the God of Israel, the truly Real in the sense of the manifest Truth (al-ḥaqq),
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who made certain for rational beings the finding of their own selves as a sure certainty (yaqīn),
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so that by it they found their sense-perceptions a sound finding, and by it they knew their objects of knowledge with truthful knowledge,
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thereby doubt (al-shubha) was lifted from them, and with it the uncertainties (al-shukūk) departed,
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so the proofs (al-dalāʾil) became pure for them, and the demonstrations (al-barāhīn) cleared for them — and He is exalted above every lofty description and praise.
Chapter Two
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Now, following the praise of our Lord and the laudation of Him with which we opened in brief words,
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I am prefacing this book, whose composition I have purposed, with an account of the cause of doubt's befalling people in their inquiries,
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and of the manner of its removal, so that their attainment of the sought-for goal may be completed;
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and of how some of these doubts overpower some people, until they affirm them as established truths upon surmise and conjecture (al-ẓann);
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and in God I seek help to uncover them from myself, so that there may be completed for me that by which I attain His obedience,
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as His friend, peace be upon him, asked the like of this, in his saying, 'Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Torah' (Ps 119:18).
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And I see fit to set that, together with the discourse of the book as a whole, in speech near at hand, not far-fetched — plain speech, not abstruse,
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drawn from the roots of the proofs (al-dalāʾil) and arguments, not their branches,
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so that its acquisition may be near, its burden light, and its learning easy, and the one who seeks it may reach by it justice and truth,
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as the friend [Solomon] said of wisdom, when it draws near: 'Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path' (Prov 2:9).
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So I shall first give an account of the cause of doubt's (al-shubha) befalling people, and I say:
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Since the intelligibles (al-maʿqūlāt) have their foundations laid upon the sensibles (al-maḥsūsāt),
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and since the things apprehended by sense have doubt occurring in them for whichever of two causes it may be —
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that is, either through the scantness of the seeker's insight into what he seeks, or through his sparing himself by abandoning careful reflection and verification —
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like a man seeking Reuben son of Jacob: he is confused about him for one of two reasons,
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either because he has little acquaintance with him, having never stood before him, so he does not recognize him; or he sees someone else and reckons him to be Reuben,
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so he takes the lighter course and forgoes thorough inquiry; since his bent is toward ease, he pursues it with the least effort and a slack mind — and for that reason he does not make it out.
The intelligible things, likewise, have doubt occurring in them for whichever one of these two causes:
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either because the seeker of rational knowledge has no insight into the manner of inference (al-istidlāl), so he makes the proof no proof, and also makes what is not a proof a proof;
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or because he does see the paths of speculation (al-naẓar), yet drives himself to the lightest and easiest, and so rushes to a verdict on what is to be known before completing the discipline of speculation upon it.