The Exalted Faith

Kitāb al-‘aqīda al-rafī‘a

ca. 1160

About This Entry

The Arabic philosophical work The Exalted Faith (Kitāb al-‘aqīda al-rafī‘a) by Abraham ibn Dā’ūd survives in only two medieval Hebrew translations, and is generally known by the Hebrew title Emunah ramah, given to it by its late fourteenth-century translator, Solomon ben Lavi. This work constitutes one of the earliest statements of Jewish Aristotelianism. While overshadowed by Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, ibn Dā’ūd’s contribution to medieval Jewish philosophy was a pathbreaking attempt to apply philosophical reasoning to Jewish tradition. It deals with a gamut of philosophical problems, including physics (i.e., motion), the spheres, the veracity of Jewish tradition, divine attributes, and ethics. Among Muslim authors, Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna; ca. 980–1037) and, to a lesser extent, al-Fārābī (ca. 870–ca. 950) were Ibn Dā’ūd’s primary sources. These excerpts discuss to the masses’ beliefs about God’s corporeality, reminiscent of the opening of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, and then turn to interpreting the Ten Commandments (“utterances”) and other biblical verses, according to philosophical principles.

The First Basic Principle: On the Sources of Faith

The faith of the masses is that they regard [as] common knowledge [the claim] about God, may He be exalted, [that He has a body]. [The reason for this is] that they think that what has no body has no existence. [ . . . ] However, the faith of the elite is [that claims about] knowledge of God, may He be exalted, [are made] with respect to His actions. The books of the Torah are intended to direct the masses to the grades of the elite. [ . . . ] However, it is not clear by this [doctrine of] faith that He is not a body, that is, a sphere, a star, or something similar to this. [ . . . ]

God, may He be exalted, establishes for a nation His providence primarily over creatures by raising from them doubts and preserving [them] from acts of erring, so that they will not think what some of those who err think, that God, may He be exalted, and the angels do not have providence over this world. The notion [of happiness] is delivered to the stars, so therefore [these people erroneously] serve [the stars] and turn to idols and images at certain times, saying of certain stones that the powers of one of the stars befalls this stone at this time. Therefore, the first [thing] about which the nation was warned was an utterance of I am YHWH your God who brought you forth [from the land of Egypt] (Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6), so that it would not arise in their thought that the conjoining of such and such or the rotation of such and such necessitated their going forth from humiliation to veneration. Therefore, an explanation supports this utterance that there is no importance to these images when He, may He be exalted, says, There shall be no other gods before you (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7). [Furthermore,] in another verse the worship of the stars themselves is prohibited, which is Lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens and you see the Sun, the Moon and the stars (Deuteronomy 4:19). The third utterance affirms honoring this great name and forsaking vain oaths by it, because this [behavior] is contemptible and heresy. The fourth is about keeping the Sabbath by which [one affirms his] distinction from the faith of the one who believes in the eternity of the world. The fifth is to honor parents since they are approximate principles. When man fixes himself to honor the principle, he comes to be closer to honoring the Divine Aspect. The five other [utterances deal with] politics by which [one brings about] the improvement of the world. [All of these utterances] are sealed by an utterance that when it is performed perfectly directs correctly the ordering of the world: to forsake desiring and coveting what belongs to [other] people, and to be content with what God, may He be exalted, bestows upon a servant, abstinence and benevolence, which is the end that his soul appoints to him of [what is achieved by] the most venerable philosophers. This great rank encompasses all the general rules of faith, conduct, and the improvement of what [takes place] between the servant and his master, as well as what [takes place] between the servant and his friends.

He, may He be exalted, adds to this explanation in the notable book by saying, And you shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6:5). This commandment is included to warn about knowledge, because it is an impossibility for a man to love [some]thing [with] a very mighty love that He does not know. The commandment necessitated by this commandment is that he know His notable attributes and His actions, because His attributes are known with respect to the relation of His actions to Him. When His attributes and His actions are known, there is impressed on the heart of the knower by this [acquisition] a love for Him that is not understood. [ . . . ]

This commandment, that is, You shall serve Him (Deuteronomy 10:20), necessitates each one of us to set his thought on God and His Torah in every place. However, if he does not have the leisure to be isolated in [meditation], he should relate God in every offering to His spirit, in the sense that when he disposes his tendency to do a certain thing, he relates his success in it to Him. [ . . . ]

But [concerning] the one who occupies himself continuously with thought about God, may He be exalted, God, may He be blessed, says, And these things which I command you today shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them to your children through when you lie down and when you rise up (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). Our ancestors said [that] this [qualification]—at the time that humans lie down and at the time that humans rise up—[is stated] in order to make the performance easier. [ . . . ]

The Torah already set helpers for preserving one in occupying [his] heart with remembering and fearing God by placing things between the eyes, [on] the heart, upon the gates of homes, and the corners of garments. Therefore, it commands us [concerning] tefilin, tsitsit, and mezuzah. By [means of] this [commandment], remembrance of His graciousness to the nation at certain times is necessitated.

Translated by Norbert M. Samuelson.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

Abraham ibn Dā’ūd, from The Exalted Faith, ed. and trans. Norbert M. Samuelson and Gershon Weiss (Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press and London: Associated University Press, 1986), 135–36, 260–62. Used with permission of the translator’s estate.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.