Hayy Ibn Yaqzan and Common Sense

### Introduction

The search for knowledge is a never ending journey for humans, which *Hayy Ibn Yaqzan* chooses to display. The story of Hayy is a story of what makes a human, human. Hayy is born on an island separated from society and is raised by a gazelle, and learns the lay of the land through her guidance and his perceptiveness. Slowly but surely, Hayy develops a solid understanding of the reality he perceives. He is different from the animals, being able to rationale and think bigger than what's obvious, and sees himself at the top of the food chain. And with him being above animals, he comes to the conclusion that their must be a higher being above him as well. Well into his life, his first contact with humans commences on a neighboring island after being discovered for being the only human on his. But this begs the question, how does he gain such information without a society backing up his claims? Are these assumptions common to nature, or common to man?

### How Important Is Social Integration?

Through the life Hayy lives in Ibn Tufayl’s *Hayy Ibn Yaqzan*, he is born in a state of isolation where he is physically and mentally in which he’s never interacted with  society. The first time he interacts with another person is in his adult life, after all of his social skills learned through his childhood would be challenged by the integration of another human being. Through Hayy’s teachings, what exactly marks the importance of society? The integral aspect that Tufayl seems to play into parts from the aspect that Hayy is able to differentiate the two ways of study of religion, noticing how “None of this could be different. There was nothing to be added”  (Tufayl 164), in the sense that their concept of socialization has placed certain limits in the way they understand their own religion. This begs the question of how Hayy was able to come to certain conclusions on his own, without the inclusion of an extra perspective on his findings.

#### Hayy versus Society

In a humanities blog post *Hermanity*, they explore the methods in which Tufayl implements the teachings of Ghazali—a great philosopher—in which he recommends, “withdrawal from society for reasons of conscience and moral consistency, to avoid the inevitable hypocrisies of social intercourse”. ( “Ibn Tufayl's Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: Solitude and Understanding”). Hayy’s introduction to the readers as an isolated man causes him to become a possible reliable narrator, due to his abstinence of human greed and desire, with his connection to the land leading him to his own personal enlightenment and direction of morals. His way of learning how to interact with others was taught to him by nature itself, creating an almost perfect balance of nature and nurture, considering his upbringing away from the basic status of human nature. He relies on his connection to the land to truly understand the world around him, considering he thinks, “…that he is was no more than another body,” (Tufayl 122) meaning his soul—ie the human soul that often differentiates the status of one another in a society—was no different than that of the bodies of “animate or inanimate” (122) things. He learned through the teachings of nature that all bodies are made of the same material, each with their own destined attributes, and each one following similar orders. When he is introduced to society, he sees how his different ways are viewed by those who have only learned one way. Madhi, who wrote a scholarly paper for the American University in Cairo, writes how “Ibn Tufayl likens his fellow Muslims to sheep, because they were so distracted by greed in amassing worldly possessions that they had no means of reaching Wisdom.” (Madhi 21), showcasing how their set in ways due to societal pressures of religion do not allow for the integration of Hayy’s reasoning, despite them being more in-depth into the truth of their religion. The security that comes with a uniform set of rules when it comes to a society and its norms does not allow for the acceptance of true reasoning and for the dedication to true self realization. Hayy and Absal’s journey to the truth of self begins when they realize they must return to isolation in order to stray from the interference of human greed—in this case, greed being power or access to knowledge. The idea that a society needs to stay uniform means that those who control the teachings control what is right and wrong, and Hayy attempting to teach those the teachings nature has taught him creates a division of the unknown in which the people are afraid and unwilling to hear him, placing an important of familiarity rather than the truth. Through a YouTube video uploaded by Muntadher Al-Mansoori on a review of *Hayy Ibn Yaqzan*, states how, “those higher things being clean suggests that in order to become higher we human beings also need to clean ourselves.” (5:38) which helps support the fact that Hayy, after interacting with the people in society, understands his need to be in isolation as Hayy details later that, “[i]f ever they were to venture beyond their present level to the vantage point of insight, what they had would be shattered,” (Tufayl 165). Hayy has come to terms with the differences the two have, with society only needing what they know instead of searching for the deeper meaning in their teachings, whereas Hayy thrives on the teachings of nature and extends his previous knowledge.

#### Understanding Self

At the end of the lesson, Hayy understands the differences between his understanding of the concept of his self realization when it comes to his soul, and the importance of his isolation through his journey, that as he witnesses a collective society, he can see how being born on the island alone has shaped his experience. Hayy’s growth as a human in a world full of society's pressures shows how with dedication and precision, one can find their purpose without falling into the standard norms placed by society. Hayy is able to maintain his teachings and even gain a new friend by understanding how society interacts with those who do not follow the same rules.

### Nature vs Nurture: What’s The Deal With Common Sense?

#### From a Fawn, To A Man

The idea of having an aspect in life be objectively the correct perception of it, comes down to the human understanding of common sense. Common sense, as the name entails, is a generally accepted view of any given situation. But what affects what becomes "common sense"? Is it just something you inherently understand from birth, something encrypted into your DNA, or is it from the environment around you that dictates this world view? Hayy from Hayy Ibn Yaqzan  runs into a similar dilemma during his upbringing. While being far from the norm, Hayy's solitary life away from humans gives us a possible answer to my previous question. He shows a level of self importance amongst his animal friends, and even worries about the consequences of wearing the furry skin of one. He frets and worries like any normal person, understanding a type of universal social code. This would suggest that Hayy was born with his perceptiveness and critical thinking skills, with no real work on his end. According to Phillip Ackerman, the nature of an individual doesn't decide the whole of one's character, rather, the nurture sows its seeds as well. At first glance you could just assume this to be false, since Hayy clearly seems more like an observer than a player in a society run by animals. But Hayy's mother teaches him how to survive, where to sleep, and how to eat. The animals around him, personal or not, show him an aspect of life that he must deem true through eyes. He knows no other way to look at life but through this lens of the animal kingdom. His environment inherently shaped his character, much like his natural born talent of observation and critical thinking.

#### Critical Thinking, And Its Place In Religion

So with the understanding that Hayy is influenced by both his innate nature and upbringing from animals, how does the religious aspect of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan come into the equation? Hayy within the story begins to question the reality around him. First it starts with the differing nature of him and the animals around him. The he questions the material that makes up what he sees be it rocks, carcasses, water, or air. All of these observations lead him to one starking realization of his life: there is a higher being called God. With no outside help, he comes to this conclusion quite fast, prompting readers to wonder if this would be a normalcy if the concept of a society didn’t exist. Hayy answers this himself, stating “This conscious part was something sovereign, divine, unchanging and untouched by decay, indescribable in physical terms, invisible to both sense and imagination unknowable through any instrument but itself, yet self-discovered, at once the knower, the known and knowing, the subject of consciousness, and consciousness itself.” (Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, passage 105). Some people feel as though believing in a religion strips you of your individual thoughts, your ideas, your understanding of reality. The loss of “common sense” is simply false when taking a look at a survey from Pew Research Center. In 2014, an American study showed that 54% of adults who say common sense is their primary source of guidance on what's right and wrong, Believe in God with absolute certainty. Hayy believes that the rational thought he obtains is gifted from God, and his critical thinking is one and the same. The belief of religion doesn’t destroy your common sense, but rather influences it.

#### Wrong Place, Wrong Time

At the end of his journey in Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, Hayy is finally confronted with other members of the human race. Upon reaching the island closest to his, he meets a civilization quite similar to our society. They have institutions, buildings, markets, and everything in between happening in their city. Hayy then decides to spread his knowledge of the existence of God to the people, but is shunned instead. In the passage of their confrontation, he “...began to teach this group and explain some of his profound wisdom to them. But the moment he rose the slightest bit above the literal or began to portray things against which they were prejudiced, they recoiled in horror from his ideas and closed their minds.” (Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, passage 151). They themselves have their own institutional understanding of religion, and refuse to hear that of an outsider. Even though both sides of the story have come to the same conclusion, how they got there is what creates a rift in their understanding of each other. This set of circumstances is quite common in society, where the norm of societal norms is shifted every generation. The “common sense” of the first generation will not be the same as the second, and so on and so forth. If Hayy were introduced into their community later, they perhaps would have significantly grown their tolerance and understanding of differing religious views. But with this phenomenon, common sense doesn’t stay common for long.

### What Hayy warned us about what was to come and how It's still relevant today

“They destroyed each other to collect the trash of this world, distracted by greed ‘til they went down their graves” (163).

Hayy is telling everyone that if they don’t care for their world and blindly follow others, they’ll become a shell of themselves and give themselves to the wealthy elites. He also warns about the damage they will do to their planet through pollution, greed, bigotry, and war. These warnings contribute to the obvious environmental allegory which is present in the story. By confronting the natural world instead of following how others teach, Hayy is able to see the bad that has happened to the society he just found out about. His perspective on them is a clear warning about what is going to happen to both humanity and nature, and foreshadows the eventual downfall of both sides of the food chain. By thinking this way, Hayy knows how far down the rabbit hole humanity is going to sink into. The advancements and technologies, if not used in a sustainable way, can cause a lot of turmoil to the planet. This, in turn, leads to humanity becoming more selfish and more power-hungry. One instance of how Hayy’s warnings are taking effect is through the fact people pay for water. To talk about this example of greed, Johanna Wadsley emphasizes on the quote ‘God is a rotten plumber’ to tackle this sort of inequality. “The repertoire is not about God or fish: it is, firstly, about normalizing the idea that water should not be free because someone has to pay for the pipes to each village, street or house” (Wadsley 683). In order to get basic needs, big companies are making water something that is more “luxurious.” This also shows why greed can make basic human rights a lot more material, something Hayy would be utterly disgusted by.

Hayy’s wisdom is also key to understanding our world because he wants us to take care of the world and be kind to each other. Slipping into the depths of greed also means that we can lose our free will and individualism. Thus, making us even more susceptible to a world that is envisioned by materialism and corporate greed. This world is emphasized in the documentary Breaking Boundaries: The Science of our Planet. Hayy’s beliefs about the world are examined here through showing the consequences of the planet thanks to our own impacts. As a result, we are warming the planet to the extent that our polar ice caps are melting. This results in higher sea levels, which leads to cities going underwater and loss of biodiversity. Human corruption has resulted in everything Hayy warned us about and in order to fix it, we should rethink how they should respond to greed and to not let it influence them.

### Moralities without Institutions: Coming to Terms with the Truth

Hayy shows through multiple different areas of his life that there are more than one way to get to a religious idea. The path to religious path taken to achieve and understand universal truths is fought upon whether which way, Hayy’s or the people of Salamon’s islands, is correct. Hayy grew up by himself with no other humans besides himself. This led him to have to become his own investigator of life by himself. His experiences of the work is shown strictly through his own perspective and his own lens till the day he meets other humans. This causes him to not be influenced by society's laws and rules.

#### Mass, Mystical, and Rational Religion

A big theme within the book is how Hayy tries to assimilate to the island’s society and how his methodologies of truths are seen as ‘inferior’ to the people of the island. In Falsabeth’s article about Hayy, he describes the interconnectedness of Mystical, Rational, and Mass religions. All of these we can see within the span of the book. Mass religion, a religious doctrine by laws and codes are seen with the people of Salamon. Rational and Mystical religion can be seen with Hayy when he was growing up. Both of these methods of spirituality lead people to the same outcomes and truths. There are advantages and disadvantages to each realm of these types of religion but each plays an important part in Ibn Tufayl’s critique of life without a religious institution. We know in the story that Hayy refuses to become assimilated into society but how do people like Hayy fit into society? How can morals be taught in non religious institutions?

Hayy’s personal experience with the world came with no instructions to become a human. He felt his way through the world and experienced it through observation and logic. This falls into the realm of Mystical and Rational religion. His own relationship with the world was so personal and spiritual, Aravamudan describes his experience as, “ Hayy’s purity is echoed by his resemblance to the stars in their circular motions and his ability to renounce the desires of flesh.” This quote about Hayy shows many aspects of mysticism throughout the different experiences he has endured to come to his conclusions of the Truth. He discovers the “human element directly through empirical experiences and a partially transcended route to the discovery of the divine” (Aravamudan). All of these quotes are a key factor when recognizing how important self discovery is in terms of how we connect to the rest of the world.

#### Morality or Lack-There-Of in *Hayy Ibn Yaqzan*

The way morality is seen is based on stories and religious rules that are set throughout society. These ideas tell us to: ‘treat others the way we want to be treated’ and ‘one should not lie’. Without these stories and rules how are people supposed to know these laws? According to Nemeth, “one can not understand society without living in it.” Which in this article I do agree to a certain extent. Hayy has dedicated his life to his spiritual practice and his alone. In his article he states about Hayy,

“The mystic is following the physical reminders and religious obligations of his faith not because they are necessary to him, but as a way to seem nonthreatening to the organized structure of the religion. In fact, they are antithetical to their practices, as they only desire meditation, not performing good works for other men.”

Does having a good moral system only depend on doing good works for others? Structured religion is a way that keeps people from enacting those deeds that are harmful for others, but does that imply to people who were never raised to think that way? Hayy simply on his own devoted himself to teaching people spiritual realizations that he has concluded on his own that goes further than mass religious rules of how to treat one another. A quote from the books states, “when he (Hayy) saw all the provisions of the law to do with money, such as the regulations regarding the collection and distribution of welfare, or those regulating sales and interest, with all their statutory and discretionary penalties, he was dumbfounded. All this seemed superfluous. If people understood things as they really are, Hayy said, they would forget these inanities and seek the Truth. They would not need all these laws” (Tufayl, 161). This shows that Hayy understands the complexities of society and still chooses not to act. As it continues, “What made him think so was his naïve belief that all men had outstanding character, brilliant minds, and resolute spirits. He had no idea how stupid, inadequate, thoughtless, and weak-willed they are — like sheep gone astray, only worse”  (Tufayl, 161). Hayy understands what a good moral standing point is by the basis of comparing himself and his love for the Divine. When we compare Hayy’s character of individualized love to his source and to typical mass religion’s ideals of ‘being a good person’ it takes away a lot of mysticism and personal connection to said source. The connection between you and the divine is almost severed because people are too focused on becoming a ‘good’ person. Whereas when you focus on you and your connection to the Divine that comes automatically.

#### Morality in the Wild

In Frans de Waal’s famous TedTalk, he describes the separations of morality and religious institutions. He claims that through different studies of monkeys and elephants- animals that are almost as intelligent as us, that they provide empathy and cooperation outside of societal influences that we have. These are very important studies that help to prove that within society we do not need such mass religious institutions to be able to enforce people to become better human beings. There is a connection to Hayy because he is like a wild animal that was born on an island with no humans, yet he is the one with more wisdom, cooperation, and empathy than those that are settled within society. In an article written by Guenther, he writes that “Hayy is forced to recognize that these people strive for material riches and sensuous pleasures-rather than seek God on a personal level.” Hayy does not seek to climb a social ladder rather than be by himself and become closer to his Creator. Hayy, though raised completely differently than society, has proved to be a man that has wisdom from generations without any institutionalized education.

#### Connections to our 21st Century

This book spoke volumes for our 21st century. Ever since the pandemic, it drove people around the world to challenge their beliefs and become introspective within themselves and their upbringings. They have questioned their beliefs in religious institutions and some have gotten stronger within that time. Even though, “Ibn Tufayl reminds us that we cannot all aspire to be like Hayy; we are creatures born into society, and a certain degree of acquiescence to law and custom is necessary just to get along. To that extent, even the legislative aspects of scripture are important” (Alsabeh). We can always be able to question our beliefs and our society but none of us will ever be like Hayy. All we can do is start to realize and reflect on who we are and how we have become to master a more spiritual and influential life to ourselves.

### References

*Breaking Boundaries: The Science of our Planet*. Directed by Jon Clay, starring David Attenborough & Johan Rockström, Silverback Films, Indikate Productions, 2021. *Netflix*. https://www.netflix.com/title/81336476

Goodman, Lenn Evan. *Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale*. “University of Chicago Press.” 2009.

Wadsley, Johanna. “‘God was a rotten plumber’: Common sense, moral economy and ‘financing water for all’.” *Politics and Space*, Vol. 38, No. 4, 2020, pp. 674-692.

Alsabeh, Farid. “Hayy Ibn Yaqzan and the Pursuit of Rational Religion.” Medium, Medium, 17 June 2019

De Waal, Frans. “Frans De Waal: Morality without Religion.” Morality without Religion, TedxPeachTree, 22 May 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le-74R9C6Bc.

Nemeth, Keith. “Dlib.bc.edu.” The Path Towards Mysticism: A Critical Examination of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, Boston College, May 2010,

Ackerman, Phillip L. "Nonsense, common sense, and science of expert performance: Talent and individual differences." Intelligence, vol. 45, 2014, pp. 6.

“Ibn Tufayl's Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: Solitude and Understanding - Articles - House of Solitude.” Hermitary, https://www.hermitary.com/solitude/ibntufayl.html.

Madhi, Rabia Abdul Salim. The writer's journey into solitude : self-discovery in Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, Robinson Crusoe and Friday. 2004. American University in Cairo, Thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/retro\_etds/2377

“Ibn Tufayl’s ‘Hayy Ibn Yaqzan’ And the journey of the soul - A book review.” YouTube, uploaded by Muntadher Al-Mansoori, 22 May 2020, https://youtu.be/mv5bldtx9wc.

“Religious Landscape Study.” Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project, Pew Research Center, 13 June 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/belief-in-god/among/sources-of-guidance-on-right-and-wrong/common-sense/#demographic-information.

Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World, A Personal Exploration by Jason Riley. Directed by Tom Jennings.