Chapter Fifteen: Establishing the Proof of the Need for the Words Used Among People

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and so he leaves it off out of modesty before them.

Chapter Fifteen

On establishing the demonstration of the need for the words used among men

We say: since man is not such that the affair of his life in this world can be set right save by the company of another of his own kind — for one man alone is incapable of undertaking all the affairs to which he is driven by necessity, of foods and drinks and garments, which are produced by the various crafts — it was necessary (1) that men gather [28] into villages and cities, so that the said mutual aid might be had and the subsistence of their existence in this world be set in order. And that is not accomplished except by address and answer. So the divine wisdom required the bringing into being of the words that pass among men in transactions, litigations and conversations; and they composed the words that issue forth, by drawing in and expelling from the windpipe of the lung and the larynx, and by shaping the tongue, the teeth (2) and the lips into various figures, to match whatever need arises.

Discourse on symbolic things — Man has the capacity and the power to compose for every thing in existence a particular figure (3), distinct from the figure of anything else, and to point to it by its figure — whether with his eye, or with his lips, or with his finger, indeed with any (4) of the organs he moves by his will — and that when agreement is reached between him and another upon these (27)

conventions that have been mentioned, just as every number among the numbers has a sign [29] in the fingers distinct from the sign of any other. And the mute man may be found (1) to have many of these said signs and well-known tokens. Men could indeed have taken this path, but the words mentioned are clearer, easier, nearer to knowledge, and more properly attached to the human species (2).

Discourse on writing — We say: just as every meaning in existence has a word proper to it, so likewise it is possible that for every meaning (3) a particular figure be made. But since the meanings are infinite and their figures infinite, and since man is incapable of holding all the said figures in his mind and his memory, men contrived (4) the devising of these simple letters, and the composition of names and of the changing, finite meanings was made easy for them — a favour from God, exalted be He, to His creation, and a kindness toward the weakness of their power; blessed be His name, the Most High, the Great.

On the crafts — The definition of a craft is that it is a thing holding fast in a practical, cogitative matter [30] by means of which man brings the kinds of composites from potency (quwwah) to act (fiʻl). And this matter has two principles: the one is the agent, the second the instrument. As for the agent, it is the cogitative faculty that disposes over what ought to be done; and as for the instrument, it is the bodily organs. Hence, had cogitation not gone before and first formed the figure of the thing to be made in his mind, he would not have been able to perfect it.

— Notes —

[26] 1) In the original: fa-wajaba.

[26] 2) In the original: wa-al-insān.

[26] 3) In the original: shakl khāṣṣ.

[26] 4) In the original: bal wa-bi-kull.

[27] 1) “Qad yūjad” must be deleted.

[27] 2) That is, “fī nawʻ al-bashar”.

[27] 3) Dropped in the original: maʻná.

[27] 4) In the original: taḥayyalū.