—all of that (1) they have never sensed with their five outward faculties; likewise, there is no human being who fails to acknowledge what lies beyond his own city—other towns, journeys, markets, and the like—matters about which they are unanimously agreed and to which they are compelled. Nor do they deny that the houses they inhabit were built by builders, that the food they eat was prepared by cooks, and that the woven garments they wear were produced by weavers, even though none of them has perceived any of this with any of his five senses (2). This subject is vast indeed. Whoever claims that any nation denies such things has uttered falsehood.
As for the statement made by some dialecticians that the Sophists (3) are a people who deny the realities of things and who trace themselves back to a leader called “Sophista” (4)—that among them are those who deny knowledge of any realities, others who deny the existing realities along with knowledge of them, and still others, the agnostics (5), who persist in doubt—so
(1) In the manuscript and printed edition: “mimma.”
(2) In the manuscript and printed edition: “yaqrūn.”
(3) In the original text; in the manuscript it appears as “sūfisṭānīyah,” which is also confirmed in the printed edition. The definition of them appears earlier (p. 58).
(4) On the following page, the Sheikh—may Allah have mercy on him—will explain that some theologians thought Sūfisṭā was the name of a man to whom sophistry (sūfisṭāyā) was ascribed. In fact, it is a Greek word, sōphistia, meaning “veiled wisdom”: sōph denotes “wisdom” and istia “veiled,” and it was Arabized as sūfisṭā.
(5) In the manuscript: “lil-adriyya.” The al-Adriyya are those who deny knowledge of the affirmation or negation of any matter, asserting doubt and doubting that they doubt, and so forth. They advocate suspension of judgment regarding the existence of everything and its knowledge. They constitute a sect among the sophists, and the Sheikh—may Allah have mercy on him—classified them as the first type of sophists in his division; this was mentioned earlier in the definition of sophistry (p. 174).