And what labour can be greater, and what misery more grievous, than his who works, if you well observe, from the time he awakes till he goes to sleep again ; there will not be found so much as one amongst them who does anything but what tends to the attaining of some one or other of these vile sensible things that are of no value, to wit, either riches - to heap them up, or pleasure which he may take, or lust whereby to satisfy his mind, or wrath and revenge whereby he may satisfy his mind, or power whereby to defend himself, or some outward work commanded by the law, whereof he may make a-vain-glorious show or whereby he may care to save his neck? "Now all these are darkness upon darkness in the deep sea: nor is there any of you who doth not go in thither: for such is the unchangeable decree of the Lord." (Koran.)

When, therefore, he understood the state and condition of men to be such as this, and seeing that most of them might be justly ranked amongst unreasonable creatures - were, in fact, like brute beasts - he knew that all wisdom, discretion and success was grounded on and consisted in that which the messengers of God spoke and the law delivered, and that there was no other rule possible, and that there could be nothing added to it, and that these were men appointed to every work, and every one was mostly capable of that thing unto which he was ordained by nature : and that the law of God was the same unto those that had gone away before, neither was there any change in the law of God.

Hayy Gives Up His Preachings And Teachings

Whereupon, returning to Salaman and his companions, he craved pardon for those things that he had spoken amongst them and desired to be excused, and told them that he was of the same opinion with them, and went on in the same way and persuaded them to stick firmly to their resolution of respecting and following the customs of the law and the performance of the external rites without intruding themselves upon things that did not concern them or intermeddling therewith, that in doubtful things they should give credit and yield a ready assent to those rules that they had of old received: that they should be averse to novel opinions and to their appetites, and follow the examples of their good Forbears, and leave novelties severely alone.

He also commanded that they should shun and avoid that neglect of the laws that is seen in the vulgar sort of men, and the love of the world, and this he specially bade them to take heed of: for he and his friend A sal well knew that there was no salvation to this weak, tractable, and defective sort of men but by this means; and that if they were forced away and raised above this to curious speculations, their condition would be much worse, so much so that it would be impossible for them to obtain the state and degree of the Blessed; but that they would be wavering in their motives, and tossed up and down, and at last meet with a bad end. But if they remained in that state of things in which they were till death overtook them, they should obtain salvation and should be placed amongst those that are on the right hand. But, on the other side, as for those who had gone before and outwent them, those came near unto them: yet these came next after and approached near to them.

A Sal And Hayy Return To Their Island

Thus A sal and Hayy, after this admonitory talk, having bid farewell to Prince Salaman and his people, took leave of them and waited for an opportunity of returning to their own Island, till at length it pleased God, the Almighty and Glorious, to afford them a commodious passage thither. And Hayy Ibn Yokdhan endeavoured to attain to his lofty state of speculation in the same manner as formerly, until he attained thereto: and A sal followed his steps till he came near him or was not far therefrom. So they continued worshipping God in that Island until death seized upon them.