Chapter Eleven — On the States of the Consummate Wretched

You have already learned the summary of the human being's state when the rulings of the bodily faculties dominate him — that the one dominant among them bends the rational faculty toward itself, so that it generates opinions and assents in agreement with the rule of that faculty; and that the principal among these classes are three: the one dominated by appetite, the one dominated by anger, and the one dominated by the rulings of estimation (al-wahm). The remaining classes are compounded of these. So we say: these three faculties differ in serving and being served. For appetite does not serve another; rather it employs the other two so as to attain its object; the estimative faculty both serves and is served; and the irascible faculty serves but is not served, save rarely and most anomalously. The reason for this is that the chief act of the appetitive faculty is to draw in pleasure, and this is something sought in itself, not intended for the sake of another; whereas the chief act of the irascible faculty is repelling something, and repelling is employed to clear the way for some other affair, so it is sought for the sake of another. As for the estimative faculty, it admits of both considerations.

Then we say: the human being over whom the rulings of appetite and anger dominate obtains from his rational faculty (al-quwwa al-nuṭqiyya) — as has passed — only the generation of estimative opinions suited to that, so he conceives nothing but what suits it. As for the connected conceptions and opinions befitting the order of the luminous world, and likewise the universal, renewed opinions and sciences, these remain hidden from him; and there remains only what suits the faculty dominating him, together with some connection between these matters and appetite and anger. Yet between the two there is a difference: since the appetitive faculty is common and notorious among people, the soul's directedness may turn away from it, its possessor being counted lowly and unmentioned — unlike the one dominated by the irascible faculty, who may indeed be remembered, especially if some power is mixed in with him, like certain lethal ones among sultans and the courageous, unlike the flagrant sinners of the bodily members. So the man of anger is remembered by the generality of people, unlike the man of appetite, who is remembered only among his own companions.

Then we say: as for the human being over whom the rulings of the estimative faculty (al-wahm) dominate, you have learned that this domination is in reality due to the domination of one of the other two faculties, so the faculty generates rulings suited to their rulings but detached from them in matter. The root of this is that appetite must be preferred, and anger too — and this is an appetitive or irascible ruling. Then the person sees that he attains this felicity (al-saʿāda) only by grasping and possessing its reins; so possessing the reins is, in his eyes, more preferable and more felicitous than the bridled thing that is possessed — for of the objects of appetite he attains only one, whereas through mastery he attains whatever he wishes, choosing and having power over whatever he wishes. This, in accordance with innate nature (al-fiṭra), holds with respect to all voluntary acts, particular and universal, namely that the human being be free, choosing in his will. Then, setting aside the particulars of acts and their concerns — which too is among the things of innate nature, as we have mentioned in its place — there remains the preferring of the generality of acts and affairs, and this is more specific than the first.

Then the common opinion sees this felicity (al-saʿāda) as the attainment of the great affairs in their estimation — which is the most specific of the objects of appetite, that which one man after another singles out for himself, because the generality fall short of reaching it, their hands cut off from it by domination. For this reason the concern of people — save the base among them — turns to treading these two paths in their affairs, namely the two we mentioned: falling short [of reach] and being cut off [by force]. So you see them wearying themselves and contriving stratagems to display something by which they may be distinguished from the generality — kinds of adornments, arrangements, garments, foods, drinks, and forms of dwellings and assemblies — and thus this class keeps rising and shifting from one form to another. This is in what the generality and others of their own tier fall short of; and the tier ranked a little above the level of the lowly contests with the tier of the generality in its distinctions, to ward off injury from itself, so that they share in these either in reality or by imitation. Thus contention and mutual repelling remain standing among them. As for the other path, it is that which is naturally distinguished, beyond the reach of the majority, whose hands fall short of it through domination and superiority over them; so they submit, in some fashion, to its possessor and point him out with their fingers.

This is standing — such as sovereignty, leadership, and all kinds of dominance and renown. This path is the thing most closely clinging to human beings, and the last thing from which the people of purity become purified; it comes in degrees which no one among people is free of, so that even the lowest of people has within himself some share of standing without which he does not love to remain. It may become mixed with absolute choice, which is among the innate things (al-fiṭriyyāt), indeed with absolute felicity (al-saʿāda), so that the person does not love his life apart from it. Yet it has many, uncountable degrees, according to people's opinions about the absolute felicity that is, as it were, its matter: so one sees it in some wealth, another in some children, another in good repute, another in leadership, another in something else. What dominates most people is the first [wealth], because of the prevalence of their being tried by it. This is the state of these three groups in summary.

Then we say: all of these remain in imaginal pains and griefs, with no respite from them — because the matter of their opinions is material things, and the rule of contrariety and mutual crowding is rife among them, and it is impossible for a material thing to be attained in the best conceivable manner. [It is aimed at, yet] since matter is limited, whatever of it exists, it remains possible to conceive of something more and better than it; so at everything they find they keep seeking what is more excellent than it and more agreeable. Their soul recoils from what they attain, because it turns to conceiving of what is more perfect than it; that entails conceiving of the [attained] thing under the aspect of its deficiency, so love falls away — for love is what draws toward the aspect of perfection apart from deficiency — and aversion follows upon that. And when some of the sought-for things passes away, it is conceived under the aspect of its pleasure, so regret is generated from it; thus the human being in this state remains ever between regret and hope and a little pleasure from which the soul will [soon] turn away and recoil. This is a proof against them in their clinging to this world. And when the soul is left alone with them, it grows desolate at the loss of its perfections and grieves most intensely, and that imagination weaves for it the terrible, repugnant, ugly things it has within, which remain a companion to it — and evil is that companion. This is the state of the consummate wretched and those who follow them; the difference among them, if there be one, is the difference of innate nature (al-fiṭra) and acquisition, corresponding to what passed regarding the felicitous.

Then we say: here is yet another group of those over whom estimative opinions (al-wahm) dominate — namely those who tread the paths of the soul, or bare ascetic discipline, without the way of truth, as you have learned. They are those who set about purifying the soul or disciplining it, yet abandon the principles of its perfections and their farthest reaches — like the people of estimation, the people of the soul, and the people of subjugation [of spirits]. Some of the soul-sciences gleam forth for them, so they take intimate delight in what they witness and enjoy a pleasure more intense and greater than the pleasure attained by the aforementioned people of this world. And the pains of the world may fall away from them — like the enraptured and the bewildered — save that this belongs to them only while they are occupied with that. But when the soul is left empty and unoccupied with anything else, and is uprooted from what it was upon, their state is the state of the three aforementioned groups of those immersed in the world, as you have learned.