and disingag'd from all manner of Business, and follow it close with great Application. And if you are really in earned, and set about it heartily, you will rejoyce as one that has Travelled all Night do's when the Sun rises upon him, and will receive a Blessing for your Labour, and take delight in your Lord, and he will delight in you. And for my own part, you will find me, according to your own Hearts desire, just such an one as you could wish; and I hope that I shall lead you in the right way, free from Evils and Dangers: and really I perceive some Glimmerings now, by the help of which I shall inflame your Desire, and put you upon entring this way, by telling you the Story of Hai Ebn Yokdhan and Asâl, and Salâman (as Avicenna calls them); in which, those that understand themselves right will find matter of Improvement, and worthy their Imitation.
NOTES:
[1] In the Name, &—This is the usual Form with which the Mahometans begin all their Writings, Books and Epistles. Every Chapter in the Alcoran begins so, and all their Authors have followed this way ever price. The Eastern Christians, to distinguish themselves from the Mahometans, begin their Writings with Bismi'labi Wa'libni, &c. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, One God:and so do the Æthiopians. We here in England observe something like this in Wills, where the usual Form is, In the Name of God, Amen.
[2] These words—Who hath taught us the Use of the Pen; who hath taught Man what he did not know, are taken out of the XCVI. Chapter of the Alcoran, according to those Editions of it which are now in use: but Joannes Andreas Maurus, (who was Alfaqui, or chief Doctor of the Moors in Sciatinia, in the kingdom of Valentia in Spain, and afterwards converted to the Christian Religion in the Year of our Lord 1487) says, that it is the first Chapter that was written of all the Alcoran. But be that how it will, we may from hence, and infinite other places, observe the strange way which these Eastern Writers have of Quoting the Alcoran; for they intermix those Expressions which they take out of it with their own words, without giving the Reader the least Notice or Hint whence they had them, or where to find them.
[3] And I testify, &c.—After be testified the Unity of the Godhead, be immediately adds La Sharica Leho, That he has no Partner. These words frequently occur in the Alcoran, and are particularly levell'd against the Christians, which Mahomet frequently will Mushricoun, i.e.. Associantes, Joyning Partners with God, because they acknowledge the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour.
[4] The whole Mahometan Creed consists only of these two Articles, 1. There is no God but God, [i.e. There is but One God] and 2. Mahomet is his Apostle. A very short Creed, but their Explications of it, make amends for its shortness. The Reader may see a Paraphrase of it out of Algazâli, in Dr. Pocock's Specimen Historiæ Arabum, p. 174.
[5] The Learned Avicenna—This great Man was born in Bochara, a City famous for the Birth of a great many very Learned Men; it lyes in 96 Degrees, and 50 Minutes of Longitude reckoning from the Fortunate-Islands, and 39 Degrees and 50 Minutes of Northern Latitude. A pleasant place, and full of good Buildings, having without the City a great many Fields and Gardens, round about which there is a great Wall of XII Parasangæ, or 36 Miles long, which encompasses both the Fields and the City Abulphed. Golius 's Notes upon Alferganus. Thus much concerning the Place of his Nativity; he was born in the Year of the Hegira 370, which is about the 980 Year of Christ. He was indeed a prodigious Scholar; he had learn'd the Alcoran, and was well initiated into Human Learning before he was Ten years old; then he studied Logick and Arithmetick, and read over Euclid without any help, only his Master show'd him how to demonstrate the first five or six Propositions; Then he read Ptolemy's Almagest, and afterwards a great many Medicinal Books; and all this before be was sixteen years old. He was not only a great Philosopher and Physician, but an excellent Philologer and Poet. Amongst other of his Learned Works, he wrote an Arabick Lexicon; but it is lost. Besides all this, he was a Vizier, and met with a great many Troubles, which nevertheless did not abate his indefatigable Industry. The Soldiers once mutiny'd, and broke open his House, and carry'd him to Prison, and would fain have persuaded the Sultan Shemfoddaulah to have put him to Death, which he refusing, was forc'd to Banish him. After a Life spent in Study and Troubles, having written more Learned Books than he liv'd Years, he died, Aged 58 Years.
[6] Subhhéni—Praise be to me. Which is an expression never us'd but when they speak of God.
[7] I am Truth—or, I am the True God. For the Arabick word Albákko signifies both, and is very often us'd for one of the Names or Attributes of God. Kamus. Dr. Pocock, Specimen pag. 168.
[8] Abu Hamed Algazâli—What Abu Hamed Algazâli thought concerning those Men who were so wild and Enthusiastick as to use such extravagant expressions, appears plainly from those words of his quoted by Dr. Pocock in his Specimen. p. 167, where he says, "People ran on to such a degree, (of madness you may be sure) as to pretend to an Union with God, and a fight of him without the interposition of any Veil, and familiarly discourse with him. And a little after, which sort of Speeches have occasion'd great mischiefs among the common People; so that some Country Fellows laying aside their Husbandry, have pretended to the same things: for Men are naturally pleas'd with such discourses, as give them a liberty to neglect their business, and withal promise them purity of Mind, and the attainment of strange degrees and proprieties. Now the most stupid Wretches in Nature may pretend to this, and have in their Mouths such false and deceitful expressions. And if any one denies what they say, they immediately tell you, that this Unbelief of yours proceeds from Learning and Logick: and that Learning is a Veil, and Logick labour of the brain, but that these things which they affirm, are discovered only inwardly then by the Light of the TRUTH. And this which they affirm, has spread it self through a great many Countries, and produc'd a great deal of Mischief." Thus far Algazâli. How exactly this answers the wild extravagancies of our Enthusiasts, let themselves judge. And withal I would have them from hence learn the Modesty not to pretend to be the first after the Apostles who had endeavour'd to turn Men from Darkness to LIGHT, since they see so many worthy Persons among the Mahometans gone before them.
[9] Avenpace—This Author is oftentimes quoted by the Name of Ebn'olfayeg; he was accounted a Philosopher. of great Ingenuity and Judgment. Maimonides, in his Epistle to R. Samuel Aben Tybbon, gives him a great Character. Abu'l Hasen Ali, who collected all his Works, and reduced them into One Volume, prefers him before all the Mahometan Philosophers whatsoever. He was famous for his Poetry as well as Philosophy; he died young, being prison'd at Fez, in the Year of the Hegira 533. i.e. of Christ, 1138, or 39, others in the Year 525, which answers to 1131. Most of his Works are imperfect. See Dr. Pocock's Elenchus Scriptorum prefix'd to the Arabick Edition of this Book.
[10] Tho' this instance will serve to explain the meaning of the Author, yet 'tis very improper, because 'tis utterly impossible to give a Man that is born Blind, the least notion or idea of Light or Colours.