Deliverance from Error note 1

"This is the practice of dim-witted men who know the truth by men, and not men by the truth. The intelligent man, on the contrary, follows the advice of the Master of the Intelligent, Ali –God be pleased with him!– where he says: "Do not know the truth by men, but rather, know the truth and you will know its adherents."


"However, assuming that they are found only in the writings of the philosophers, if what is said is reasonable in itself and corroborated by apodeictic proof and not contrary to the Qur'an and the Sunna, then why should it be shunned and rejected? If we were to open this door and aim at forgoing every truth which had been first formulated by the mind of one in error, we would have to forgo much of what is true. We would have to give up a lot of the verses of the Qur'an and the traditions of the Apostle and the recitals of our pious forebears and the sayings of the sages and the sufis."        

"Thus they always know the truth by men, not men by truth – which is the ne plus ultra of error! This, then, is the evil due to total rejection of the philosophers' ethical teaching"


"The second evil is that due to total acceptance of their ethical teaching. For one who studies their books, such as that of  "The Brethren of Purity" and others, and sees the prophetic maxims and sufi sayings they interspersed with their own utterances, often approves of their writings and accepts them and forms a good opinion of them. Thereupon he may readily accept their errors mixed up with those borrowed truths because of a good opinion acquired about what he has seen and approved. That is a way of luring men into error."


"...the close proximity of the true to the false does not make the true false, as it does not make the false true."

                                                                                             ~ Deliverance from Error by Al-Ghazali ~ 

This puts my mind at ease. All this while, when I read books and found some sort of serendipitous truth or wisdom from writings, I find myself conflicted. I know that what I've found is beautiful and true but since the author is, to quote al-Ghazali, 'in error' I reluctantly reject them. It breeds self-contempt too because it makes me feel as if I'm adhering to teachings of those who do not see the truth. I know now that it's not that they do not see, they do, they simply do not realize it. Of course, I state this with careful reservation. It is not a universal application to be used carelessly. I also know that my judgement of what is true and what is not is very restricted for someone so un-learned like me. I understand that.

We must learn to know men by the truth, not the truth by men and be aware of the second evil.