The Brethren then describe the role of apprenticeship in geometric arts,
particularly surveying. Although theyfirst enumerate the measurements of
their era, their discussion focuses less on what they call the applied
practical arts than on the role of practice as a gateway to the substance of
the soul. They imagine the geometric adept following a clear path of release
from material concerns, regardless of intention or belief, and without any
external referent. The geometry itself opens the practitioner greater
wisdom.
Know that numerous geometers and scientists believe that dimensions, like length,
width, and breadth, have an existence in themselves and by their own constitution
...
If they were to be informed that the ultimate aim of studying the propaedeutic
sciences is training the apprentices’minds to receive the forms of the sensible
entities through the sensory faculties, and to imagine their forms as they are in
themselves through the faculty of ratiocination. If the sensible entities were to be
concealed from being perceivable through the senses, then the images [al-rusum]
formed of them, which have been transmitted from the sensory faculties to the
faculty of imagination [al-quwwa al-mutakhayyila], and from the faculty of ima-
gination to the faculty of ratiocination would persist. The faculty of ratiocination
then transmits [these forms] to the faculty of memory [al-quwwa al-hafiza] in such
a way that they are visualized [musawwara] in the essence of the soul.
The Brethren thus promote geometry as a secret agent converting pragma-
tists into spiritualists through a natural and inevitable psychological
process:
In consequence, the soul abandons the use of the sensory faculties in grasping data
when being self-reflective, since itfinds all the forms of the sense data in its own
essence. It [the soul] is therefore in no need of the body [al-jasad], and is ascetic
while dwelling in the world with it. It is alert to the slumber of inattentiveness
[nawm al-ghafla] and wakeful in the slothfulness of ignorance [raqdat al-jahala].
[The soul] rises up by its own potency and is autonomous by itself. It departs from
the body and exits the ocean of matter, and is saved from being captivated by
nature. It is freed from slavishness to its bodily desires, and it is delivered from the
pain of missing its corporeal pleasures. It is elevated higher as He said:Good words
rise up to Him and He lifts up the righteous deed[Q35:10]. He meant by it the
‘chastened soul’that is recompensed with thefinest of rewards. This is the ultimate
aim behind the studying of the propaedeutic sciences that the sons of the philoso-
phers and the pupils of the ancients graduated from. This is the credo of our
righteous and esteemed brethren.^50
(^50) El-Bizri, 2012 : 144.
Isometric Geometry in Islamic Perceptual Culture 285