“It is foolish to admit the knowledge of the mind when the senses are sleeping and to deny it, when the senses are waking. A man of reason must believe that the mind is the king, and prime administrator of the senses. However foolish he may be, he cannot be ignorant of the fact that the hand cannot extract the eye, nor amputate the tongue, nor can have any senses any power to deal with any part of the body without its permission, suggestion and contrivance.
Allah has created the mind to be the regent of the body, and the body can only feel, see or hear, through its agency. If the mind conceives retreat, the body can not advance and vice-versa. It is only through its medium the senses work. They are obedient to its orders. If the mind prohibits them to act, they at once obey its command. It is the mind on which sorrows prey, and joys enliven. Despite the loss or derangement of the senses, the mind remains intact. But if the mind gets out of order the senses share the same fate, the eyes do not see properly, the ears do not understand,”
Agnostic: “I scarcely believed,” said he, “that you would be able to deal with these difficult questions without being confounded. Your arguments are so elegant as to appear irrefutable”.
Imam: “Listen,” said I, “and I will more firmly convince you, as to the truth of what I have narrated, and of the things you have seen in your dreams”
Agnostic: “Do so,” he exclaimed, “I am not a little astounded your eloquence.”
Imam: “When you think of any calling,” asked I, “or devise plans to build or erect something, do you not deliver order to that effect?”
Agnostic: “Yes,” He replied.
Imam: “While devising such plans, and forming designs of non-existing things, do you make any of your senses the partner of the mind that creates them?”
Agnostic: “No,” he replied.
Imam: “Is it not visible,” said I, “that things done in compliance with the mind's mature judgment, are of a high order?” (Then is it not proved that it is the mind that knows all the things and not the senses?).
Agnostic: “I think so”, he said. “But please go on with your arguments. I am now anxious to throw off doubts and accept the truth.”
Imam: “So much the better,” said I. “Tell me if there are any astronomers in your native place?”
Agnostic: “You do not seem to be acquainted with the extent of astronomical knowledge possessed by my countrymen.” he said. “I don’t think there is a nation to surpass us in this particular science.”
Imam: “Well, tell me,” asked I, “how they acquired this knowledge of astronomy? For this knowledge cannot be acquired through the medium of the senses, but through profound thought and deep reflection”
Agnostic: “Yes,” he replied, “it is true. Some wise and learned persons prepared tables of such importance, which generation after generation in successive order have followed. When an inquiry is made, the movements and the positions of the Sun, Moon and Stars are considered. They state which of the visible stars are ill-omened, and which of the invisible ones are auspicious. They are so well versed in this science that they rarely err in their calculations. People take their children to these astrologers, and they, calculating from the movements of the planets, predict events and incidents occurred or to occur in the child's life.”
Imam: “What concern,” I asked, “have the movements of planets, with the lives of children that their parents take them to astrologers.”
Agnostic: “Because”, he replied, “each child's birth corresponds with a planet's movement, If this were not so, the astrologers would make mistakes. They calculate the movement - day, month and year - in which the child is born, and are correct in their conclusions.”
Imam: “If this be really true,” said I, “You have described a science so wonderful, that none other can be compared to it or more worthy of respect; for the incidents and the accidents of a person's life from birth to death are known through its means. Do you think the knowledge of this science is an innate one, born with every person?”
Agnostic: “No,” he said, “I do not think it is so”
Imam: “Then, let us think,” said I, ''as to how this knowledge was acquired. And let us use if it be correct to say that all people cannot acquire it, though all are born in connection with the movements of the planets and stars. I am ready to grant that only few people learn and master the science. But the question is how did they learn or master it-specially the knowledge which declares one star to be ill-omened and the other to be auspicious? How have they fixed the time, hour and degrees, the slow or rapid movements of the planets and the stars, their exact position over or below the Earth; and their predictions which you mention? How have they gathered them? I believe that any of the creatures inhabiting this globe are so advanced as to penetrate the secrets of the visible and invisible Universe”.
Agnostic: “You may not believe,” said he. “But that they have done so, I am positive about it”.
Imam: “When you assert,” said I, “that all the Earth's inhabitants are born in conjunction with the movements of the stars and planets, the wise man (Hakim) who first discovered the science of astronomy must have been born like-wise.”
Agnostic: “Of course,” he exclaimed, “he must be included in the category of the human race.”
Imam: “Then does not your reason guide you to the fact that these planets and stars existed before the birth of that wise man, who, as you say discovered the science of astronomy, and was born in conjunction with the movements of the stars and planets?”
Agnostic: “Indeed,” said he, “the planets and stars must have existed prior to his birth”.
Imam: “Tell me,” said I, “how could the wise inventor of the science learn the method of calculating the stars without a master to teach him? If you say that he had a master, then that master must have existed before the existence of the stars. And indeed must be He, Who established the rules and regulations for those movements, on which you say the events of a life are based, and from which the future of a new born child is foretold. Taking this for granted, the wise man inventor of the science- must have been the follower and pupil of that master, who had existed before the stars, and had created them-the wise man-in conjunction with the movements of certain of them.
Then He who established the science, was He who lived before the stars, the Creator of them and the people born according to their movements. Presupposing the age of the wise man to be ten times that of the Earth, he must have had the same observation of the stars as we have now. They must have twinkled over-head as they down-where lay the difference between him and us? How did he know the exact calculation whilst we do not? Had he special power to go nearer to this very high firmament, and more closely study the secrets of the stars, their position and movements; learn, which of them eclipse the Sun and the Moon; which are consistent with the birth of children; which are ill-omened and suspicious, rapid or slow, and many other things, such as the length of time they are concealed under the Earth, and the exact hours of their appearance and disappearance?
How chances it that a human being has so great a knowledge of things heavenly, since deep reflection cannot give it to him and his senses cannot reach so far? How did he invent the method of calculation by which is known the movement of the Sun and Moon, and the knowledge--which among the seven planets suspicious or ill-omened; the exact position of these luminaries, and correct judgment as to which was rising or a setting one? How could he-on the surface of the Earth-study that which was in the heavens? How could he see those stars which are made invisible by the Sun's blinding luster? If you suggest that he flew up to the skies, my mind still perplexes me, for even then he could not master the science without a teacher; when one cannot master an earthly science thus, how can he master a science not of the Earth?”
Agnostic: “I do not even recollect,” said he, “of hearing of a human being going up to the skies”.
Imam: “Perhaps,” I suggested, “the wise man may have done so, and you may not be aware of it”.
Agnostic: “I would not accept its truth,” he said, “from any source”.
Imam: “I agree with you there,” I said, “but let us suppose the fact of the wise man's ability to climb up to the skies. In that case we shall have to believe that he performed incredible journeys, visited every star and planet, staying with them as they set or rose till he had gained fullest knowledge about those functions; and as some of the planets take as much as thirty years to complete their rotation, he must necessarily have stayed with them for the prescribed period however long it may have been in order to fully collect all information. Let us take all this for granted also, that he not only ascended to the skies, but he traveled in company with each and every luminary, till he had become fully acquainted with their habits.
(Debate continued in comments below)