Ibn Bajja Quotes on Knowledge
Ibn Bājja (Avempace, c. 1085–1138), the principal philosopher of the Almoravid Andalusi west and a major influence on the subsequent Andalusi tradition through Ibn Ṭufayl and Averroes, defended in the Governance of the Solitary (Tadbīr al-mutawaḥḥid) the case that the philosophical life is in principle attainable by the rare individual whose rational soul achieves "conjunction" (ittiṣāl) with the Active Intellect even under conditions of a city whose received opinions are hostile to philosophical inquiry. The framework, supported by Ibn Bājja's extensive commentaries on Aristotle's natural philosophy and on al-Fārābī, supplies one of the founding statements of the medieval Islamic doctrine of philosophical happiness as the cognitive perfection of the human intellect.
Quotes
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Attributed to Ibn Bajja:
“The solitary thinker has reached the highest stage of the philosophical life.”
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Attributed to Ibn Bajja:
“Knowledge is the soul's perfection.”
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Attributed to Ibn Bajja:
“True happiness is the contemplation of intelligibles.”
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Attributed to Ibn Bajja:
“Reason rises by stages from the senses to the contemplation of the divine.”
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“وإذا تكلم المرء في غير فنه أتى بهذه العجائب”
He who speaks in other than his field of knowledge comes up with such absurdities. Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani (in ar). Fath al-Bari . -
“He who speaks in other than his field of knowledge comes up with such absurdities. Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani (in ar). Fath al-Bari .”
وإذا تكلم المرء في غير فنه أتى بهذه العجائب -
“Diwan Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani , quoted in Selections from the Fath al-Bari, p.4”
By the gate of your generosity stands a sinner, who is mad with love , O best of mankind in radiance of face and countenance! Through you he seeks a means (tasawassala), hoping for Allah's forgiveness of slips; from fear of Hime, his eyelid is wet pouring tears. Althought his gerealogy attributes him to a stone (Ḥajar), how often tears have flowed, sweet, pure and fresh! Praise of you does not do