same kind are indubitably related to one of the three notions referred to — either to the welfare of a belief or to the welfare of the conditions of the city, which is achieved through two things: abolition of reciprocal wrongdoing and acquisition of excellent characters.
Sum up what we have said concerning beliefs as follows: In some cases a commandment communicates a correct belief, which is the one and only thing aimed at — as, for instance, the belief in the unity and eternity of the deity and in His not being a body. In other cases the belief is necessary for the abolition of reciprocal wrongdoing or for the acquisition of a noble moral quality — as, for instance, the belief that He, may He be exalted, has a violent anger against those who do injustice, according to what is said: And My wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill, and so on,6 and as the belief that He, may He be exalted, | responds instantaneously to the prayer of someone wronged or deceived: And it shall come to pass, when he crieth wito Me, that I will hear; for I am gracious?
CHAPTER 29 It is well known that Abraham our Father, peace be on him, was brought up in the religious community of the Sabians,1 whose doctrine it is that there is no deity but the stars. When I shall have made known to you in this chapter their books, translated into Arabic, which are in our hands today, and their ancient chronicles and I shall have revealed to you through them their doctrine and histories, it will become clear to you from this that they explicitly asserted that the stars are the deity and that the sun is the greatest deity. They also said that the rest of the seven stars2 are deities, but that the two luminaries3 are the greatest of them. You will find that they explicitly say that the sun governs the upper and the lower world. They say it in these very terms. And you will find that they mention in those books and those chronicles the story of Abraham our Father, and they say literally what follows: When Ibrahim, who was brought up in Kutha, disagreed with the community and asserted that there was an agent other than the sun, various arguments were brought forward against him. In these arguments they4 set forth the clear and manifest activities of the sun in what exists. Thereupon he, they mean Abraham, told them: You are right; it is like an axe in the hands of a carpenter. Then they mention a part of his 6. Exod. 22:23. 7. Exod. 22:26.
1. The term “Sabians,” as used bv Maimonides, designates the pagans.
2. Including the sun and the moon. Another possible translation is: all the seven stars.
5. The sun and the moon. 4. I.e., the Sabians who were Abraham’s contemporaries.
63 a ] The Guide of the Perplexed III -29 argumentation, peace be on him, against them. At the conclusion of the story they mention that the king put Abraham our Father, may peace be upon him, into prison, and that, being in prison, he persevered | for days and days in arguing against them. Thereupon the king became afraid that he would ruin his 5 polity and turn the people away from their religions and banished him toward Syria after having confiscated all his property. This is what they relate. You will find this story set forth in this manner in “The Nabatean Agriculture.”6 They do not mention what is related in our true traditions, and the prophetic revelation that came to him. For they tax him with lying because of his disagreeing with their corrupt opinion. I have no doubt that in view of the fact that he, may peace be upon him, disagreed with the doctrine of all men, these erring men reviled, blamed, and belittled him. Accordingly, because he bore this for the sake of God, may He be exalted, and preferred truth to his reputation, he was told: And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.1 And in point of fact his activity has resulted, as we see today, in the consensus of the greater part of the population of the earth in glorifying him and considering themselves as blessed through his memory, so that even those who do not belong to his progeny pretend to descend from him. No one is antagonistic to him or ignorant of his greatness except the remnants of this religious community that has perished, rem¬ nants that survive in the extremities of the earth, as for instance the infidels among the Turks in the extreme North and the Hindus in the extreme South, These are the remnants of the religious community of the Sabians, for this was a religious community that extended over the whole earth.
The utmost attained by the speculation of those who philosophized in those times consisted in imagining that God was the spirit of the sphere and that the sphere and the stars are a body of which the deity, may He be exalted, is its spirit. Abu Bakr Ibn al-Sa’igh8 has mentioned this in the commentary on the “Akroasis.”9 Therefore all the Sabians believed in the eternity of the world, since in their opinion heaven is the deity.
They deem Adam to have been an individual born of male | and female like the other human individuals, but they glorify him and say that he was a prophet, the envoy10 of the moon, who called people to worship the moon, and that there are compilations of his on the cultivation of the soil. Similarly the Sabians say that Noah was a cultivator of the soil and that he did not 5. I.e., the king’s. 6. A supposedly ancient Sabian book. Cf. this chapter below.
10. Or: prophetic lawgiver.
j/6 The Guide of the Perplexed III - 29 [ 636 approve of the worship of idols. Therefore you will find that all the Sabians blame Noah and say that he never worshipped an idol. They also mention in their books that he was beaten and put into prison because of his worship¬ ping God, and tell various other tales about him. They deem that Seth dis¬ agreed with the opinion of his father Adam concerning the worship of the moon, and tell most ridiculous lies that show a great deficiency of intellect and that they are more remote from philosophy than any other men and are extremely ignorant. Of Adam they say that when he left the clime of the sun, which is in the vicinity of India, and came to the clime of Babylon, he brought with him marvellous things: among them a golden tree that grew and had leaves and branches, also a stone tree, and a green leaf of a tree that fire could not burn. And he spoke of a tree, of a man’s stature in height, that could given shelter to ten thousand men. He also brought with him two leaves in each of which two individuals could be wrapped. They also tell fables about other marvels. It is to be wondered at that people who think that the world is eternal should at the same time believe in these things that are impossible in nature for those who have knowledge of the speculation on nature. Their purpose in mentioning Adam and everything they ascribe to him is to fortify their doctrine concerning the eternity of the world so that it should follow that the stars and the sphere are the deity.
However, when the pillar of the world 11 grew up and it became clear to him that there is a separate deity that is neither a body nor a force in a body and that all the stars | and the spheres were made by Him, and he under¬ stood that the fables upon which he was brought up were absurd, he began to refute their doctrine and to show up their opinions as false; he publicly manifested his disagreement with them and called in the name of the Lord, God of the world12 — both the existence of the deity and the creation of the world in time by that deity being comprised in that call.
In conformity with these opinions, the Sabians set up statues for the planets,13 golden statues for the sun and silver ones for the moon, and dis¬ tributed the minerals and the climes between the planets, saying that one particular planet was the deity of one particular clime. And they built temples, set up the statues in them, and thought that the forces of the planets overflowed toward these statues and that consequently these statues talked, had understanding, gave prophetic revelation to people — I mean, the statues — and made known to people what was useful to them. Similarly they 13. kawakib. Literally: stars. In the following lines this Arabic term is rendered several times as “planets.”
64a ] The Guide of the Perplexed III • 29 j/j said of the trees, which were assigned to the various planets, that when one particular tree was set apart for one particular planet, planted with a view to the latter, and a certain treatment was applied to it and with it, the spirit of that planet overflowed toward that tree, gave prophetic revelation to people, and spoke to them in sleep. You will find all this set forth literally in their books, to which I shall draw your attention. These were the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah that are mentioned in our texts; among them these opinions became so firm that they they forsook the Lord 14 and called: O Baal, answer us.ls All this came about because of these opinions being generally accepted, ignorance being widespread and the world then often being given to raving concerning imaginings of this kind. Accordingly such opinions developed among them that some of them became soothsayers, enchanters, sorcerers, charmers, consulters with familiar spirits, wizards, and necromancers.16 We have already made it clear in our great compilation, | Mishneh Torah f that Abraham our Father began to refute these opinions by means of arguments and feeble preaching, conciliating people and drawing them to obedience by means of benefits. Then the Master of the prophets18 received prophetic inspiration; thereupon he per¬ fected the purpose in that he commanded killing these people, wiping out their traces, and tearing out their roots: Ye shall break down their altars, and so on,19 and forbade following those ways of theirs in anything: And ye shall not walk in the customs [huqqoth] of the nation, and so on.20 You know from texts of the Torah figuring in a number of passages that the first intention of the Law as a whole is to put an end to idolatry, to wipe out its traces and all that is bound up with it, even its memory as well as all that leads to any of its works — as, for instance, familar spirits and a wizard and making to pass through fire, a diviner, a soothsayer, an enchanter, a sorcerer, a charmer, and a necromancer — and to warn against doing anything at all similar to their works and, all the more, against repeating the latter. It is explicitly stated in the text of the Torah that everything that was regarded by them as worship of their gods and as a way of coming near to them, is hateful and odious to God. This is stated in His saying: For every abomination to the Lord, which He hateth, have they done unto their gods.2i You will find that in their books, about which I shall give you information, they mention that under certain circumstances they offer to the sun, their highest deity, seven beetles, seven mice, and seven bats. This alone is sufficient to arouse 2i. Deut. 12:31.
ji8 The Guide of the Perplexed III ■ 29 [ 646 disgust in human nature. Consequently all the commandments that are concerned with the prohibition against idolatry and everything that is con¬ nected with it or leads toward it or may be ascribed to it, are of manifest utility, for all of them are meant to bring about deliverance from these unhealthy opinions that turn one’s attention away from all that is useful with regard to the two perfections toward the crazy notions ] in which our fathers and forefathers were brought up: Your fathers dwelt of old time on the other side of the river, even Ter ah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nachor$ and they served other gods.22 It is about these notions that the truth¬ ful prophets have said: 23 For they walked after vain things that do not profit. How great then is the utility of every commandment that delivers us from this great error and brings us back to the correct belief: namely, that there is a deity who is the Creator of all this $ that it is He who ought to be wor¬ shipped and loved and feared and not the things that are deemed to be gods; and that to come near to this true deity and to obtain His good will, nothing is required that is fraught with any hardship whatever, the only things needed being love of Him and fear of Him and nothing else. For these two are, as we shall explain, the end of divine worship: And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, and so on.2* We shall exhaust this subject in the sequel.
I shall now return to my purpose and say that the meaning of many of the laws became clear to me and their causes became known to me through my study of the doctrines, opinions, practices, and cult of the Sabians, as you will hear when I explain the reasons for the commandments that are considered to be without cause. I shall mention to you the books from which all that I know about the doctrines and opinions of the Sabians will become dear to you so that you will know for certain that what I say about the reasons for these laws is correct.
The most important book about this subject is “The Nabatean Agri¬ culture” translated by Ibn Wahshiyya.25 In a future chapter I shall let you know why the Sabians treated their doctrines and agriculture in the same work. This book is filled with the ravings of the idolaters and with notions to which the souls of the vulgar incline and by which they are captivated — I mean the actions | of talismans, practices with a view to causing spirits to descend, demons, and ghouls living in deserts. In this book are also included 22. Josh. 24:2.
23. The following quotation amalgamates two passages: I Sam. 12:21, and Jer. 2:8.
24. Deut. 10: 12.
25. Abu Bakr Ahmad Ibn 'All Ibn Wahshiyya seems to have been the author of this work, which he passed off as a translation from the Chaldean. The work appeared in 904.
65&] The Guide of the Perplexed III • 29 j jp extraordinary ravings laughed at by the intelligent, which are thought to depreciate the manifest miracles through which the people of the earth know that there is a deity governing the people of the earth; as it says: That thou mayest know that the earth is the Lord's,-26 and: That I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.21 Accordingly it is related there about Adam, the first man, that he recounts in his book that in India there is a tree whose branches, if taken and thrown on the earth, move, crawling as snakes do; and also that there is another tree there whose root has a human form; this root may be heard to growl and to emit isolated words. He also narrates that if a man take a leaf of an herb, whose description is given, and puts it against his breast,28 he becomes hidden from people and is not seen wherever he comes in or goes out. If this herb is used in fumigations under the open sky, people hear a sound and fearsome voices in the atmosphere while the smoke rises. There are many such fables in the book, told in the course of setting forth informa¬ tion about marvels in plants and the properties of agriculture; in this way the miracles are criticized and the suggestion made that they are worked by means of tricks. In one of the fables figuring in that book, it is mentioned that an althea bush, which was one of the asheroth 29 that they used, as I have let you know, remained for twelve thousand years in Nineveh; that it quarreled with a mandragora because of the latter’s wanting to take its place; that the individual who used to receive prophetic revelation from that tree was deprived of that revelation for a while. After that interval of time,, it informed him by such a revelation | that it had been preoccupied with the quarrel with the mandragora and ordered him to write to the Chaldeans asking them to judge between them and to pronounce which of them — the althea or the mandragora — was better for, and more frequently utilized in, their magic. This is a long fable, from which, if you examine it, you may draw inferences concerning the intellect and the sciences of the people of those times. Such were the Sages of Babylon that are referred to in those dark times. For these were the religious beliefs upon which they were brought up. If the belief in the existence of the deity were not generally accepted at present to such an extent in the religious communities, our days in these times would be even darker than that epoch. However, their dark¬ ness is of different kinds. I am, however, returning to our subject.
In that book it is related that an individual from among the prophets of idolatry, named Tammuz, called upon a king to worship the seven 2,6. Exod. 9:29. 27. Exod. 8:18. 28. Or: in his pocket.
29. A biblical Hebrew word that Maimonides applies to trees that have been consecrated to gods.
j20 The Guide of the Perplexed III • 29 [ 66a planets50 and the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Thereupon that king killed him in an abominable manner. It is narrated that on the night of his death all the statues from the various countries of the earth assembled in the temple in Babylon, near the great golden statue, which was the statue of the sun. This statue was suspended between heaven and earth. And it came to a stop in the middle of the temple, while all the other statues surrounded it. Then it began to eulogize Tammuz and to relate what had happened to him, and all the statues wept and lamented during the whole of the night. In the morning, however, the statues flew away and returned to their temples in the various countries of the earth. And this became an enduring traditional custom to lament and weep over Tammuz on the first day of the month of Tammuz. The women weep over him and eulogize him. Consider then and understand and see what were the opinions of the people in those times. For this J story of Tammuz is very ancient among the Sabians. And from this book you will understand most of the ravings, practices, and festivals of the Sabians.
As for the story they tell about Adam and the serpent and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a story that also alludes to unusual clothing, take great care not to be confused in your intellect in such a way as to have the notion that what they say is a thing that has ever happened to Adam or to somebody else. For it is by no means a story concerning something real. With very little reflection it will become clear to you that all that they set forth in this fable is absurd and that it is a story that they put out after the promul¬ gation of the Torah. For when the Torah had become generally known among the religious communities51 and they52 had heard the external meaning of the Account of the Beginning, taking the whole of it according to its external meaning, they concocted this story in order that inexperienced people should listen to it and be so deceived as to think that the world is eternal and that the story described in the Torah happened the way they tell it. Even though a man like you does not have to have his attention drawn to this point — as you have already acquired such sciences as will prevent your mind from becoming attached to the fables of the Sabians and the ravings of the Chasdeans and Chaldeans who are devoid of all science that is truly a science — I have warned against this in order to safeguard others, for the multitude frequently incline to regarding fables as the truth.
Among these books there is also the book of al-Ustumakhus that is ascribed to Aristotle,55 but he cannot have written it $ also books concerning 30. Literally: stars. 31. Or: nations. 32. I.e., the Sabians.
33. This pseudo-Aristotelian work exists in manuscript.
§7a ] The Guide of the Perplexed III • 29 $21 talismans like the book of Tumtum, the book al Sarb, and the Book of the Degrees of the Sphere and the Forms Appearing in Each of These Degrees 5 also a book concerning talismans that is likewise attributed to Aristotle, a book | ascribed to Hermes, and the book written by Ishaq al-Sabi on the defense of the religious community of the Sabians, and the big book of this same author concerning the laws of the Sabians, the details of their religion, their festivals, their sacrifices, their prayers, and other matters belonging to their religion. All the books that I have mentioned to you are books of idolatry that have been translated into Arabic. But there is no doubt that they are but a very small part of this literature if compared to the writings that have not been translated and are not even extant, but have perished and been lost in the course of the years. However, the books extant among us to¬ day contain an exposition of the greatest part of the opinions and the prac¬ tices of the Sabians 5 some of the latter are generally known at present in the world. I mean the building of temples, the setting-up in them of images made of cast metal and stone, the building of altars and the offering-up upon them of either animal sacrifices or various kinds of food, the institution of festivals, the gatherings for prayer and for various kinds of worship in those temples in which they locate highly venerated places that are called by them the temple of the intellectual forms, as well as the setting-up of images upon the high mountains, and so on,5* the veneration of those asheroth,55 the set¬ ting-up of monumental stones, and other matters of which you will learn in the books to which I have drawn your attention. The knowledge of these opinions and practices is a very important chapter in the exposition of the reasons for the commandments. For the foundation of the whole of our Law and the pivot around which it turns, consists in the effacement of these opinions from the minds and of these monuments from existence. With respect to their effacement from the minds, it says: Lest your heart be deceived, and so on;56 Whose heart turneth away this day, and so on-51 and