The Kashf al-Mahjub: The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism
Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson
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The opening
CHAPTER I. ON THE AFFIRMATION OF KNOWLEDGE.
ON THE AFFIRMATION OF KNOWLEDGE.
God hath said, describing the savants (lulamd): “Of those who serve God only tJie savants fear Hint “ (Kor. xxxv, 25).^” The Prophet said: “To seek knowledge is obligatory on every Moslem man and woman; “and he said also: “Seek knowledge . >y even in China.” Knowledge is immense and life is short: therefore it is not obligatory to learn all the sciences, such as Astronomy and Medicine, and Arithmetic, etc., but only so mucrT’of each as bears upon the religious law: enough astronomy to know the times (of prayer) in the night, enough medicine to abstain from what is injurious, enough arithmetic to understand the division of inheritances and to calculate the duration of the ‘idda?- etc. Knowledge is obligatory only in so far as is requisite for acting rightly. God condemns those who learn useless knowledge (Kor. ii, 96), and the Prophet said: “I take refuge with Thee from knowledge that profiteth naught.” Much may be done by means of a little knowledge, and knowledge should not be separated from action. The Prophet said: “The devotee without divinity is like a donkey turning a mill,” because the donkey goes round and round over its own tracks and never makes any advance.
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About this edition
- The words
- Reynold A. Nicholson's English translation, copied word for word.
- Left out
- Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 408 places
- The scanning library's shelf marks on the cover (OCR specks) (4 blocks)
- The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 3 places
- The library's preservation stamp (“SEEN BY PRESERVATION SERVICES”) (4 blocks)
- The printer's line (Stephen Austin and Sons, Hertford) (2 blocks)
- Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 6 places
- Other material that isn't the author's, in 4 places
- The printed table of contents (the app makes its own)
- The index
- The library's call numbers and pocket card (“UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY”) (5 blocks)
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