Reading from the words of the poet: A section on explaining the similarity between their error in abstracting words and the philosophers' error in abstracting meanings ... to the end of the section
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The reader: "Section: On explaining the similarity between their error in abstracting words and the philosophers' error in abstracting meanings
This is what guides you, may Allah guide you, from their misguidance *** And their misguidance in the logic of man
Like abstractions in the imagination, and a people *** Built upon them the weakest of structures
They thought that they have an external existence *** And their existence, if it were true, is in the minds
How so, when those are concretions obtained *** In the form of a particular, evident to the eye
But they are universal if they correspond *** To their individuals, like the word on the scale
They call it the universal, and it is a specific *** Individual; thus in meaning, the two are the same"
The Shaykh : This abstraction in the mind
The student: Abstracted in the mind
The Shaykh : This abstraction in the mind, abstracted from you
The student: Abstracted
The Shaykh : Abstracted in the mind ... abstracted or abstraction
The student: In the logic of the Greeks
The Shaykh : Ah?
The student: The logic of man, he said
The student: The first verse
The student: The logic of the Greeks
The Shaykh : In your logic of the Greeks, and by Allah, what you have is better; we will correct it after we explain it, if Allah wills.
The reader: " Neither the mind comprehends it, nor is it external *** It is like the imagination, a subtle thing of the drunkard
But the abstraction of the restricted is established *** And other than that is impossible without possibility
So the abstraction of entities from description and *** From placement, and from time and place for them
Is a supposition from the minds that they suppose, like disbelief *** In the impossible; the two are suppositions for them
Allahu Akbar, how many an eminent person has been bewildered *** By this abstraction from ancient times
The abstraction of words from their composition *** And likewise the abstraction of meanings is the second
And the truth is that both are in the mind, a supposition *** So do not judge them in the minds
So the opposing adversary leads you with what *** You conceded for judgment in the entities
So you must detail if they generalize *** Or summarize, so you must clarify"
This is what guides you, may Allah guide you, from their misguidance *** And their misguidance in the logic of man
Like abstractions in the imagination, and a people *** Built upon them the weakest of structures
They thought that they have an external existence *** And their existence, if it were true, is in the minds
How so, when those are concretions obtained *** In the form of a particular, evident to the eye
But they are universal if they correspond *** To their individuals, like the word on the scale
They call it the universal, and it is a specific *** Individual; thus in meaning, the two are the same"
The Shaykh : This abstraction in the mind
The student: Abstracted in the mind
The Shaykh : This abstraction in the mind, abstracted from you
The student: Abstracted
The Shaykh : Abstracted in the mind ... abstracted or abstraction
The student: In the logic of the Greeks
The Shaykh : Ah?
The student: The logic of man, he said
The student: The first verse
The student: The logic of the Greeks
The Shaykh : In your logic of the Greeks, and by Allah, what you have is better; we will correct it after we explain it, if Allah wills.
The reader: " Neither the mind comprehends it, nor is it external *** It is like the imagination, a subtle thing of the drunkard
But the abstraction of the restricted is established *** And other than that is impossible without possibility
So the abstraction of entities from description and *** From placement, and from time and place for them
Is a supposition from the minds that they suppose, like disbelief *** In the impossible; the two are suppositions for them
Allahu Akbar, how many an eminent person has been bewildered *** By this abstraction from ancient times
The abstraction of words from their composition *** And likewise the abstraction of meanings is the second
And the truth is that both are in the mind, a supposition *** So do not judge them in the minds
So the opposing adversary leads you with what *** You conceded for judgment in the entities
So you must detail if they generalize *** Or summarize, so you must clarify"