It is appropriate to mention here the gist of a fictitious event I described in semi-verse in Lemeât in the form of an imaginary journey, to illuminate the aforementioned truth.

Eight years before writing this treatise, in Istanbul during the month of Ramadan, when the Old Said, who was concerned with the study of philosophy, was about to be transformed into the New Said, I experienced something resembling a dream or vision, an imaginary event, while pondering over the three ways that are alluded to at the end of Sura al-Fatiha,

The way of those upon whom You have bestowed Your grace, not those who have received Your wrath, nor those who go astray.(1:7)

It was as follows.

I saw myself in a vast desert. A layer of murky, dispiriting, and suffocating cloud had covered the whole face of the earth. There was neither breeze, nor light, nor water, none of these was to be found. I imagined that everywhere was full of monsters, dangerous and dreadful creatures. It occurred to me that through on the other side of this land there should be light, breeze, and water. I had to get there. I realized that I was being driven on involuntarily. Under the earth I wormed my way into a tunnel-like cave and gradually travelled through the earth. I saw that many people had passed along this subterranean way before me, on all sides they were submerged. I saw their footprints and once I heard some of their voices, then later they ceased.

O my friend who is accompanying me on my imaginary journey! That land is nature and the philosophy of naturalism. The tunnel is the way that the philosophers have opened up with their thought in order to reach the truth. The footprints I saw were those of famous philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, [^15] and the voices I heard those of geniuses like Ibn Sina and Farabi. Indeed, I saw in various books some of the things Ibn Sina had said and some of his principles, but he had become stuck, he could go no further, he was submerged before reaching the truth. Anyhow, I showed you a small part of truth to save you from anxiety. Now I return to my journey.

[^15]:If you say: “Who do think you are to challenge these famous philosophers? You are a mere fly, yet you meddle in the flight of eagles,” I would reply: “While having a pre-eternal teacher like the Qur’an, in matters concerning truth and the knowledge of God, I do not have to attach as much value as that of a fly’s wing to those eagles, who are the students of misguided philosophy and deluded intellect. However inferior I am to them, their teacher is a thousand times more inferior than mine. With the help of my teacher, whatever caused them to become submerged did not so much as dampen my toes. An insignificant private who acts in accordance with the laws and commands of a great king is able to achieve more than a great field marshal of an insignificant king.”