Description
Asceticism pulls at knowledge from one side, just as tyranny pulls at rule from the other, keeping them at a distance
that allows the scholar to be ascetic and the ruler to be tyrannical. If they meet; Asceticism tamed tyranny and subdued it, while the Sultan liberated asceticism from its impotence. Thus, knowledge and governance, the sheikh and the sultan, converged, returning humanity to its golden age when knowledge and governance were embodied in one person. The earth yielded its treasures through prosperity, as in the days of Muhammad, Solomon, and David, and as in the days of Jesus at the end of time—peace and blessings be upon them all. Between these two periods, knowledge and governance were united in the Rightly Guided Caliphs, then separated except for brief periods, such as during the reign of Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz and sultans like Yusuf ibn Tashfin. They continued to draw near and drift apart in two individuals for centuries until their separation became apparent. The story of Sheikh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah and Sultan Muhammad ibn Qalawun is but one example of these tensions, penned by a writer troubled by this painful schism.
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