and his desire inclined towards him. as for their argument with the large number of writers poets leaders and chiefs who were in love we say leadership leadership poetry and eloquence are not things that can never be found except with the perfection of reason and wisdom. if the matter is thus it is possible that the lovers among these are deficient in their reason and wisdom. these people due to their ignorance and recklessness think that knowledge and wisdom are only grammar poetry eloquence and rhetoric and they do not know that the wise do not consider any of these to be wisdom nor do they consider the one who is skilled in them to be wise. rather the wise according to them is the one who knows the conditions of proof and its laws and its deduction and has attained from mathematical natural and divine knowledge the amount that is within the capacity of man to attain. one day i saw one of their pedants with one of our sheikhs in the city of peace. this sheikh in addition to his philosophy had a great deal of knowledge of grammar language and poetry. he would go along with him recite to him and be extravagant and haughty in the process and go on a long and exaggerate in praising those in his profession and despising those other than them. the sheikh in all of this tolerated him knowing his ignorance and arrogance and smiled until he said among other things this by god is knowledge and everything else is a smell. the sheikh said to him o my son this is the knowledge of one who has no knowledge and one who has no mind rejoices in it. then he turned to me and said ask our young man about some of the principles of the necessary sciences for he is one of those who think that one who is skilled in language can answer all that he is asked about. i said tell me about the sciences are they necessary or conventional? i did not finish the division deliberately so he hastened and said all the sciences are conventional. this is because he had heard our companions taunting this group that their knowledge is…
ومالت إليه شهوته. وأما احتجاجهم بكثرة من عشق من الأدباء والشعراء والسراة والرؤساء فإنا نقول إن السرو والرياسة والشعر والفصاحة ليست مما لا يوجد أبدا إلا مع كمال العقل والحكمة، وإذا كان الأمر كذلك أمكن أن يكون العشاق من هؤلاء من النقص في عقولهم وحكمتهم. وهؤلاء القوم لجهلهم ورعونتهم يحسبون أن العلم والحكمة إنما هو النحو والشعر والفصاحة والبلاغة، ولا يعلمون أن الحكماء لا يعدون ولا واحدا من هذه حكمة ولا الحاذق بها حكيما، بل الحكم عندهم من عرف شروط البرهان وقوانينه واستدراك وبلغ من العلم الرياضي والطبيعي والعلم الإلهي مقدار ما في وسع الإنسان بلوغه. ولقد شهدت ذات يوم رجلا من متحذلقيهم عند بعض مشايخنا بمدينة السلام، وكان لهذا الشيخ مع فلسفته حظ وافر من المعرفة بالنحو واللغة والشعر، وهو يجاريه وينشده ويبذخ ويشمخ في خلال ذلك بأنفه ويطنب ويبالغ في مدح أهل صناعته ويرذل من سواهم، والشيخ في كل ذلك يحتمله معرفة منه بجهله وعجبه ويتبسم إلى أن قال فيما قال هذا والله العلم وما سواه ريح، فقال له الشيخ يا بني هذا علم من لا علم له ويفرح به من لا عقل له. ثم أقبل علي وقال سل فتانا هذا عن شيء من مبادئ العلوم الاظطرارية، فإنه ممن يرى أن من مهر في اللغة يمكنه الجواب عن جميع ما يسئل عنه. فقلت خبرني عن العلوم أظطرارية هي أم اصطلاحية؟ ولم أتمم التقسيم على تعمد، فبادر فقال العلوم كلها اصطلاحيه. وذلك أنه كان سمع أصحابنا يعيرون هذه العصابة أن علمهم