484 appendix 2
that everyone be made responsible for a task that is necessary for mutual help,
and that everyone be occupied with their task. Arrangements like this are called
“government” (siyaset). And if this arrangement is made according to the rules of
necessity and wisdom—which cause a perfection innate to humanity and allows
people to achieve both types of happiness [i.e. of this world and the next]—then
wise people call it divine government, and its driving force is the law (namus). As
for religious people, they call this government Sharia, and its moving force the
“Lawgiver”, who is the Prophet. Otherwise, that is to say if this arrangement does
not reach this degree [of perfection], and is regulated instead solely upon reason
in order to achieve the order of the visible world (such as in the case of Jengiz
Khan’s government), then the name is again related to the cause, and this ar-
rangement is called kingly government, imperial law, or, according to our terms,
customary government (örf). At any rate, whatever the form of government, its
application depends on the existence of a king.
... As for the description of the various kinds of virtues that constitute the
beneficences of ethical science, they are written in the philosophical books. As
the greatest of the Muslim wise-men, Hoca Nasireddin Tusi, argues in his book
Nasirean Ethics, the human spirit has three faculties, distinct from one another,
that cooperate to cause man to engage in various acts and perform different
tasks with the participation of [the divine] will. The first power is the faculty of
speech, also called the angel soul; it causes desire for thought, discrimination of
things, and seeing the reality of actions. The second is the faculty of wrath, also
called the passion soul; it causes desire for anger, heroism, engagement in terri-
ble acts, victory, aggression, and elevation. The third is the faculty of lust, also
called the sensual soul, which causes desire for sensual pleasures, for eating and
drinking. Now, the number of virtues is proportional to these faculties, so that
every time the rational soul [the faculty of speech] is qualified with moderation
and desires the knowledge of certainties, then this movement produces the vir-
tue of knowledge, and from this virtue comes naturally the virtue of wisdom.
And every time the movement of the passion soul is moderated and obeys the
rational soul, being satisfied with the share provided by the rational soul and
staying within the limits of necessity and time, then this movement produces
the virtue of patience; and from this virtue, the virtue of courage arises naturally.
And whenever the sensual soul is moderated and obeys and submits to the ratio-
nal soul ... then its movements produce the virtue of honesty, which naturally
produces generosity. And all these faculties have three situations each, that is
excess, deficiency, and moderation; abstaining from excess and deficiency and
seeking moderation is another feature, and this feature is called the virtue of
justice; with it, all the aforementioned virtues are perfected. That is why the