Electromagnetic

In the formulation of historico-critical problems it is wrong to conceive of scientific discussion as a process at law in which there is an accused and a public prosecutor whose professional duty it is to demonstrate that the accused is guilty and has to be put out of circulation. In scientific discussion, since it is assumed that the purpose of discussion is the pursuit of truth and the progress of science, the person who shows himself most “advanced” is the one who takes up the point of view that his adversary may well be expressing a need which should be incorporated, if only as a subordinate aspect, in his own construction. To understand and to evaluate realistically one’s adversary’s position and his reasons (and sometimes one’s adversary is the whole of past thought) means precisely to be liberated from the prison of ideologies in the bad sense of the word–that of blind ideological fanaticism. It means taking up a point of view that is “critical”, which for the purpose of scientific research is the only fertile one.

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937). Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, edited and translated by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. New York: International Publishers, 1971, pp. 343-344.

Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889), in the introduction to his literary compilation Choice Narratives, says the following:

This book, although not on the subject of the Qur’an and sunna [Prophetic tradition], the religious law or the knowledge of what is lawful and forbidden, yet points to sublime things and shows the correct way to noble character; it restrains from baseness, diverts from the disreputable, and incites to right personal conduct, fair management [of others], mild administration [of government], and to making the land prosperous. For the way to Allah is not one nor is all that is good confined to night prayers, continuous fasting, and the knowledge of the lawful and the forbidden. On the contrary, the ways to Him are many and the doors of the good are wide….

Knowledge is the stray camel of the believer; it benefits him regardless from where he takes it: it shall not disparage truth should you hear it from polytheists, nor advice should it be derived from those who harbor hatred; shabby clothes do no injustice to a beautiful woman, nor shells to their pearls, nor its origin from dust to pure gold. Whoever disregards taking the good from its place misses an opportunity, and opportunities are as transient as the clouds…. Ibn `Abbas [the Prophet's uncle]* said: “Take wisdom from whomever you hear it, for the non-wise may utter a wise saying and a bull’s eye may be hit by a non-sharpshooter.”

*The translator identifies Ibn `Abbas, may God be pleased with him and his father, as “the Prophet’s uncle” in parentheses above. This is an error. He was a paternal cousin of the Prophet, peace be upon him.

Ibn Qutayba, `Uyun al-akhbar, Cairo, 1923-30 (repr. 1973), vol. 1, pp. 10.11-15 and 15.11-17. English translation found in Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early `Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries), New York: Routledge, 1998, p. 159.