Deliverance from Error

have ventured into this vast ocean; I have fearlessly sounded its depths, and, like a resolute diver, I have penetrated its darkness and dared its dangers and abysses. I have interrogated the beliefs of each sect and scrutinised the mysteries of each doctrine, in order to disentangle truth from error and orthodoxyCorrect or accepted belief, particularly in a religious context. from heresyBeliefs or opinions that contradict established religious teaching.. I have never met one who maintained the hidden meaning of the KoranThe central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. without investigating the nature of his belief, nor a partisan of its exterior sense without inquiring into the results of his doctrine. There is no philosopher whose system I have not fathomed, nor theologian the intricacies of whose doctrine I have not followed out.

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SufismThe mystical dimension of Islam, focusing on the inward search for God and spiritual excellence. has no secrets into which I have not penetrated; the devout adorer of the DeityGod; the supreme being. has revealed to me the aim of his austerities; the atheist has not been able to conceal from me the real reason of his unbelief. The thirst for knowledge was innate in me from an early age; it was like a second nature implanted by God, without any will on my part. No sooner had I emerged from boyhood than I had already broken the fetters of tradition and freed myself from hereditary beliefs.

Having noticed how easily the children of Christians become Christians, and the children of MoslemsAn older spelling of Muslims; followers of the religion of Islam. embrace IslamThe religion of the Muslims, a monotheistic faith regarded as revealed through Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah., and remembering also the traditional saying ascribed to the ProphetReferring to Muhammad, the founder of Islam., “Every child has in him the germ of Islam, then