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Then I say: I have seen people who think these four root prohibitions are not actually wrong — that for them, the only wrong is what causes pain and grief, and the only good is what gives pleasure and comfort.
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I have a broad refutation of this view in Maamar IV in the chapter on justice; but I will mention a portion of it here.
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I say: one who holds this view has abandoned every argument I have made here, and whoever abandons that is simply ignorant — we owe him no further discourse.
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Yet I will not be satisfied until I bind him in self-contradiction. I say: killing an enemy is something that pleases the killer and pains the killed.
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On this view, every such act must be simultaneously wisdom and ignorance — wisdom, because it pleases the killer, thief, and adulterer; ignorance, because it harms his victim.
Then I say: the second type — things that are permitted by reason — in which the law has come commanding some, prohibiting others, and leaving the remainder as they were, permitted.
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Examples: setting aside one day among days, as Sabbath and festivals; singling out one person among people, as prophet and leader; refraining from eating certain foods; and keeping away from intimate contact with certain persons.
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— by way of ritual impurity. These principles, their branches, and their additions — the primary reason for adopting them is our Lord's command and His directing us toward benefit.
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I find that most of them have partial, beneficial reasons, and I shall establish some of them — saying alongside them: the wisdom of the Blessed and Exalted exceeds what I can articulate.
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Among the benefits of designating a period of time by ceasing work in it: first, to gain rest from the burden of labor; then, to obtain a portion of knowledge during it.
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And so that people may find time to meet one another in assembly, recall matters of their religion together, and call out to one another.
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Among the benefits of designating one particular person: to receive knowledge from him more reliably, to intercede through him, and to inspire people to pursue righteousness in hope of attaining a rank like his.
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Among the benefits of forbidding the eating of certain animals: so that one not resemble the Creator — for it is not permissible to eat freely what resembles Him or to treat it as impure — and so that a person not worship any of them.
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Among the benefits of ritual impurity and purity: that a person humbles himself through them; that prayer becomes more precious to him after being separated from it for a period; and that his heart be gathered in reverence.
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Also: so that infatuation not befall the beautiful among her relatives, and so that rejection of the less attractive not occur when her relatives see that they did not desire her.
Following this same pattern, if one traces most of these transmitted laws, one finds in them many branches of rationale and beneficial causes.
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Section 3. Having said all this about the two types of legislation — the rational and the transmitted — I should now explain what need there is for messengers and prophets.
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For I have heard that some say people have no need of messengers, and their own minds suffice to guide them in what is good and what is repugnant.
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I turned to the standard of truth and saw that if the matter were as they say, then the Creator — who knows it better than anyone — would not have sent messengers, for He does not do what has no purpose.
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Then I reflected carefully and found that creatures' need for messengers is a pressing one — not only for the transmitted laws, so they might be made known to them,
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but also for the rational laws, because acting on them cannot be completed without messengers who ground people in them.
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Among such needs: reason requires gratitude to God for His benefaction, yet has not specified the form of that gratitude — neither its wording nor its timing nor —