Principles of Thinking - Part I

1. Critique (al-naqd) is one thing, and faith (al-īmān) is another; there is no contradiction between the two in any respect.

2. Thinking (al-tafkīr) and declaring unbelief (al-takfīr) are two contraries that can never be joined, neither in expression nor in meaning.

3. There is a distinction between the “thought of unbelief” (fikr al-kufr) and the “unbelief of thought” (kufr al-fikr): the former is a truth that subsists alongside falsity, whereas the latter is a falsity that lays claim to truth.

4. Abstraction (al-tajarrud) is the very clarity of thinking (al-tafkīr); if it becomes clothed [in extraneous accretions], it turns perilous and base, thereby contravening proper measure and apportionment (al-taqdīr).

5. Thought has two operations: the first is with matter (mādda) and duration (mudda), and this is thinking (al-tafkīr); the second is without either of them, and this is intuition (al-ḥads).

6. The first and lowest rank of thought is thinking (al-tafkīr), while its final and highest rank is intuition (al-ḥads).

7. Intuition (al-ḥads) comprises both bestowals (mawāhib) and acquisitions (makāsib): the former belong to the All-Powerful Creator (al-Khāliq al-Qadīr), and the latter to the discerning creature (al-makhlūq al-khabīr).

8. Intuition (al-ḥads) is immediate, face-to-face cognition (idrāk wajīh): it is active through orientation (al-tawajjuh) and receptive through being oriented (al-tawjīh).

9. Thought may apprehend by means of a proof (dalīl), and such apprehension is secondary (ʿalīl); but it apprehends through intuition (al-ḥads) without recourse to proof, and such apprehension is primary (aṣīl).

10. Intuition (al-ḥads) without proof is nobler (ashraf) than thinking (al-tafkīr) with proof, both with respect to rank itself (ʿaynan lil-martaba) and as an indication (ʿalāman) of the possibility (imkān) of error (al-khaṭaʾ).