The revealed law

The physicians of souls are the prophets — blessing and peace be upon them — by reason of the divine revealed laws they set forth, which comprise the ways of setting souls right and make plain what serves men's interests in this life and in the life to come;

Then, if the actions that issue from it are fine and praiseworthy in the judgement of intellect and of the revealed law, the trait is good;

and mastery, and the satisfying of the appetites' craving — both of them content, in these, with what the intellect and the revealed Law have shown them, and holding fast to the rulings of the true Law (sharīʻah) in all states and all deeds;

so that mentioning the doctrine of those men is a thing that obliges the scholars to give thanks for God's favour upon them, inasmuch as they come to know that the revealed law is better than anything else — whereas had it not been mentioned, it might have been supposed that in their doctrine there are realities more complete than what is in the revealed law.

so what ails you, that you ask about a question upon which the soundness of Islam does not depend?

As for what is laid out in depth, it is what is ranked one beneath another, as the art of saddlery is ranked beneath the art of horsemanship, and the art of horsemanship is ranked beneath the art of war, and the art of war is ranked beneath the art of kingship, and the art of kingship is ranked beneath the art of the law — I mean that it preserves for men the customs by which their affair is set i …

But as for one who follows his delight and does not know the harm that follows upon it, no fine act is to be expected of him, nor does the leaving of a foul one come easily to him, and penalties must certainly be laid down for him, as is found in the revealed laws.