Hayy’s Birth Long ago, a child name Hayy came to be. Some say he was fashioned from clay on a remote island. Others say he was begotten from the daughter of a tyrant and son of a princess, and had to be secretly sent in a basket to a nearby desert island to save him from death if his existence were discovered. By whatever means he truly came to be, he ultimately ended up on this island alone.
Hayy Grows Up A lone mother gazelle found Hayy when he was still a baby. She raised him until he turned 7. From a young age, Hayy was very intelligent, curious, and observant. He taught himself to dress, to make shelter, and to domesticate animals. One day, Hayy’s “mother�, the gazelle, died. Hayy was frightened, but decided she must have stopped moving because of something inside her that he could not see. So he opened her up to find what thing inside her had caused her to die. He found something missing from the left ventricle from her heart. He believed there must be some lifesustaining substance, without which the body could not live. He buried his mother and contemplated this livegiving matter.
Hayy Explores
Hayy became obsessed with this “principle of motion”. He observed fire and saw that it flickered upward and radiated warmth. This led him to think that flame is part of the celestial bodies and may be linked to the life-giving principle. He dissected animals, live and dead, to see if he could find this matter. He discovered that what gives the body unity is an animal spirit radiating from the center of the body, using the body as an instrument to perform different functions.
Hayy and The Perfect Being
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At age 21, Hayy continued to contemplate the world around him, moving from simply the physical to the metaphysical. He thought about classes of objects and things. He searched for the traits that identify and define specific objects. He decided that all bodies have matter, extension, and form. Bodies could change, as when the same matter is given different forms. Hayy realized this means there must a giver of forms, or a producer of forms to be given. Later, when he turned 28, Hayy contemplated the possible infiniteness of the universe. He became convinced that there is an ultimate creator, who exists beyond and outside of the world Hayy perceived, a superior, perfect and omnipotent being.
Hayy’s 3 Emulations Hayy now wanted to discover how he came to know the Perfect Being. It couldn’t be through the senses, since those are subject to corruption and the spiritual world is not. Hayy must have come to know Him through his soul, a spiritual and indivisible thing. Since the soul is not corruptible, Hayy wanted to know what happened to it when a living being died. He decided that perfection of the soul comes from use of reason; if reasoning is not used, the soul dies when the body does. Hayy also thought that if he turned away from this Necessary Being after knowing Him, it would cause him great suffering.
Hayy tried to see if animals are capable of knowing the Necessary Being, but he realized they are not. He also saw that celestial beings hold an intelligent substance much like the soul in him, and must eternally hold the intelligent being. Hayy realized that he has both animal and spiritual tendencies in him. He concluded that his actions are carried out on 3 levels: 1) actions emulating those of animals, 2) actions emulating the celestial bodies, and 3) actions emulating the Necessary Being.
The First Emulation – Each emulation is necessary for the subsequent one, and thus all are necessary to emulate the Necessary Being. But the first emulation was a hindrance and only necessary by accident of hierarchy, so Hayy sought to limit the these actions. For eating, he chose to eat only till full and to consume very ripe foods or else take from animals only in such a way as to not disturb or extinguish a species, which would harm the creation of the Necessary Being.
The Second Emulation To emulate the celestial bodies, Hayy separated their attributes into three groups: the relationship they maintain with the corrupt world below, the qualities that belong to their essence, and the qualities they have because of their relationship with the Necessary Being. For the first, he worked to “remove the cause of the plight” of every animal and plant that he could. For the second, he sought to remain pure by washing often and maintaining beauty, cleanliness, and fragrance. For the third, he focused his energy on the Necessary Being and tried to suppress his sensory connections with the physical world.
The Third Emulation For the third emulation, he pondered the qualities of the Necessary Being. He had come to know of positive attributes, like knowledge, power and wisdom, and negative attributes, like His freedom from corporeality. Hayy wanted to emulate both. Thus he sought to know Him alone without any corporeal attributes, by separating himself from all corporeal attributes.
Removing the Corporeal
Hayy had already removed much of the corporeal in previous emulations, but had also incorporated more of it, as in movement and the action of removing obstructions from the way of plants and animals. To avoid all this, Hayy confined himself to a cave and focused entirely on the Necessary Being, without associating Him with anything. He would go for days without eating or moving, and at times was immersed completely in the True Vision of the Necessary Being.
Hayy’s meditation was so complete that after some time all the world fell away and all that existed was the One Necessary Being and His Will. At some point he made the mistake of confusing himself for God, but he was able to correct his error. He explored the unity and multiplicity of things, and realized a hierarchy of substances, similar to a series of mirrors, with each subsequent class less pure than the next.
While Hayy lived in this state on his island, a religion was brought to the world through a prophet, a messiah figure, on a neighboring island. On this island, two men, Asal and Salaman, became fervent followers of the religion and were friends. However Asal favored isolation, while Salaman favored the community and following the will of the majority, and over this issue they separated. Asal had heard of the island where Hayy was formed, and left to be on the island.
Asal
Hayy Meets Asal –
When Asal first arrived on the island, Hayy remained in his sublime state in the cave, so the two never crossed paths. One day it happened that Hayy came out and they met. Ansal thought he was just another man coming to the island to seek solitude, like himself, and did not want to disturb him, so he fled. Hayy had never seen another man, and thought Ansal an animal. He pursued Ansal out of curiosity, and after careful observation realized he was praying, and saw he was an intelligent being, but Ansal continued to run from him. Eventually he caught up with him. Ansal was intimidated by the animal-looking man, still not comprehending who he was. Though they did not speak the same language, they managed to communicate that neither meant the other harm, and Ansal stopped running.
Hayy Stays with Asal –
Hayy and Asal could not communicate with language, but grew fond of each other in mutual company. Asal had brought food with him, and implored Hayy to eat. Despite his pact, Hayy ate, and immediately felt he had done something wrong. He sought to return to isolation, but when he tried to re-enter into the sublime state, he found it challenging. So he resolved to stay with Asal until he discovered who he was and no longer desired to be with him. Asal began to teach him language, and wanted to teach him about science and other things which Hayy had never known in his isolation.
Reason & Tradition
Asal then inquired as to Hayy’s origins and life, and Hayy told him everything, from his beginnings to his ascension into the spiritual. And Asal found that it agreed completely with the religious tradition he had known on his home island, and venerated Hayy for all he had achieved. Then Hayy inquired as to Asal’s background, and Asal explained his life and religious tradition. Hayy found likewise that the traditions agreed with his life discoveries. However he was confused by the prophet, the messenger of the Lord Asal described, inquiring as to why he used parables to communicate his message instead of the clear truth. Hayy failed to understand that not all men were wise, clearsighted, and resolute souls. He thus pitied man and sought to be their savior, to bring them the clear truth.
Journey Asal explained to Hayy that some men turned from God, but Hayy did not understand and did not give up his pursuit. Asal himself was convinced that Hayy could help some of his own close friends, so they planned to leave, but remain close to the shoreline.
It happened according to God’s will that as the two men wandered along shore, a ship lost its course and ended up in their path. The crewmen took them aboard and brought them to the city where Asal’s friend, Salaman, ruled. Asal brought his friends to Hayy, telling Hayy they were the wisest men. Hayy began to teach them about his experiences, but as soon as he entered into the realm unknown to these men, they became uneasy and resented Hayy. They did not want to receive the truth in this way, and Hayy was greatly discouraged.
Hayy Teaches
Hayy Resolves His Failures
Hayy found that the men were worshipping what they had, and their desires. They were focused on this world, on accumulating all the wealth they could before their death. He saw they were ignorant, and discussion only made them more obstinate. Revealing the truth clearly to them would do them no good.
He saw that the parables and Laws set up by the first messenger was best for these people, to help them avoid trespasses in their mundane daily lives. Having understood this, he apologized to Salaman and his friends, and encouraged them to maintain their Laws and practices, to follow “in the steps of their pious ancestors”.
The Journey Home Having resolved matters with the community, Asal and Hay left the city and returned once more to the island to pursue unity with God, and they worshipped God “until death overtook them�.