and attains tranquility. This is not a thing hidden from a particular class
and the commonalty of mankind. A'sha bin Rabi' says:
(It is) as if my heart knows
What my eyes see and my ears hear.
The poet has shown that these two senses are the media for the accomplishment of knowledge, but the allusion is to the heart, not the mind,
as this is what is generally said. God Himself has said:
Lo! the hearing and the sight and the heart — of each of these
it will be asked.7
Abu Tammam says:
All sapient ones say that the tongue of man
Is the servant of the heart.
Jamil bin Ma'mar al-Adhari says:
We feel afraid of the ear and the eye
When we tend to be sportive.
This is so because these are the instruments of the rivals. They interfere,
and learn the secrets.
A blessing is appreciated once it is lost, and the advantage of the
auditory faculty is realised only by one who is deaf and that of sight by
the blind alone. God has said:
But canst thou guide the blind even though they see not?8
And further (in the same Surah):
But canst thou make the deaf to hear even though they
apprehend not?9
God, reprehending the infidels (of Makka) asked them as to who, beside
Him, could bring about the night and the day. The other senses are connected with animation fnafsj and are closer to the animal than the
human factor. It is true, however, that through these vehicles also man
has reached this high state of attainment in his rationalising and thinking
faculty.
Pause
Affection is a product of homogeneity. It is, therefore, held that like
seeks like and the bird seeks its own partner. For the mute, all men are
mute, since he cannot get any benefit out of them, although by making
signs and moving his fingers he can explain what he means. The mute
gets pleasure only out of the mute as if he has found a man who is able
to understand him when men in general are not able to follow him. And
God, therefore, has said:
He it is Who did create you from a single soul, and therefrom
did make his mate that he might take rest in her. . .10
And again:
