learned anything—save my awareness that every contingent being depends upon the Necessary Being. Then he added, “Dependence is a purely negative attribute. I die, and I have learned nothing.”
Such is their condition: the farthest one of them reaches is mere, unadorned ignorance, while many of them end up in compounded ignorance. As for the rare individual among them who does acquire some knowledge, he is like the man who, when asked, “Where is your ear?” sweeps his hand over the top of his head and strains to touch his ear, though he could have reached it with ease from beneath—it would have been nearer and simpler.
Employing Unnatural Methods Is Sheer Torment with No Benefit
Whenever matters that are innate are assigned to paths that are not innate, they become a torture for the soul with no advantage whatsoever. Imagine someone told, “Distribute these dirhams equally among these people.” This could be done effortlessly. Yet another intervenes: “Wait! You cannot proceed until you know the definition of division and distinguish it from multiplication, for division is the opposite of multiplication. Multiplication is augmenting each unit of one number by each unit of the other, whereas division is distributing the units of one number across the units of the other. Thus, when the quotient is multiplied by the divisor, the dividend re-emerges; and when the product obtained by multiplication is divided by one of its factors, the other factor appears. But,” he continues, “your definition of multiplication is invalid, for it covers only whole numbers and excludes fractions. The inclusive definition for both whole and fractional numbers is this: multiplication seeks a total whose ratio to one factor equals the ratio of one to the other factor. Hence, if you are told, ‘Multiply one-half by one-quarter,’ the result is one-eighth, whose ratio to one-quarter is the same as the ratio of one-half to one.”
Although all of this may be technically correct, it is obvious that a man who has money to distribute equally among a known group, yet forbids himself to do so until he has grasped all of the foregoing, would only