in obedience to them, and realizes that the ratio of the sciences people acquire through their own reasoning to those sciences (1) is smaller than the ratio of a child’s knowledge to the sciences of mature minds—by a distance that cannot even be conceived.

Section
The fifth cause: captivating souls with unfamiliar, out-of-the-ordinary notions (2). When the mind manages to seize such notions, it enjoys a pleasure akin to the thrill of capturing a wild quarry one had never hoped to snare. This is simply how souls are: they are entrusted to every novelty that strikes them as attractive; they favor it and vie for it. Yet once that novelty becomes plentiful, inexpensive, and attainable to both the affluent (3) and the needy, they grow disinterested in it and turn away (4)—even though it may be more beneficial and better for them. Because it is cheap and widely shared, they scorn it (5) and look instead for something that will set them apart from others, for there is a special delight in exclusivity and distinction.

They therefore coined for those strange notions terms even stranger than the notions themselves, planted them in people’s ears, and declared, “Beneath these expressions lie the rational cognitions and the certain sciences.” Souls were then stirred to try to grasp those alien terms and penetrate those meanings. It so happened that they found hearts void of the realities of faith and of what Allah sent His Messenger with, and so the notions took firm root. The physicians of religion then found it exceedingly difficult to rescue those hearts once the ideas had gained mastery over them, as it has been said (6):