Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

252 • The Making of Islamic Sciencebe transmitted by preaching. He then departs with Asal to resume alife of contemplation in the solitude of the island where he had livedmost of his life.Ibn Tufail’s imaginative tale is an attempt to show that knowledgeof the Truth gained through the intellect and reason does notcontradict what is apprehended through mystical experience. Thetale is based on an earlier work of the same title by Ibn Sina. It isrooted in the Islamic concept of fitrah, the innate nature of humanbeings, and in the QurāĀnic message that when left to itself, humanintellect is capable of comprehending the ultimate Reality which isnone other than One God. What is shown through the experiencesof Hayy is, therefore, a confirmation of the process of convergence ofsound reasoning, observation, and experiences.zHe searched for some common characteristic in all physical objects,ani mate and inanimate, but could find nothing except their extensionin three dimensions. He recognized this as a physical property sinceall objects were physical. His senses did not find any object whichhad just this and no other characteristic. On further examiningthis notion by asking him self [pertinent questions] such as whetheror not another principle existed besides extension, he realized thatthere must be another factor, besides ex tension, to which extension isattached. For mere extension could no more subsist by itself than theextended object could exist without extension.Hayy tried out this idea on several objects which had form.When he examined clay, he discovered that if he molded it into someshape, for ex ample into a ball, it had length, width, and depth in acertain proportion; if he then took this ball and formed a cube oran egg-shaped object, its length, width, and depth still existed, butnow they took on different proportions, though it was still the sameclay. No matter what the proportion of length, width, and depth, theobject could not be divested of these properties alto gether. Since oneproportion could replace another, it became apparent to him that thedimensions were a factor in their own right, distinct from the clay