A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ Would you say Plato’s Dividing Line and the concepts of zhahir and bathin in Islam thought to share any similarities? ”   You are referring to the famous Analogy of the Divided Line from Plato’s Republic.   It is a hypothetical dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates.   In summary, it divides the world between the seen and the unseen.   But that division is unequal.   It further divides the world into shades of understanding from the intelligible, to hypothesis, faith, thought, and finally comprehension.   It can be said to address levels of consciousness from heedlessness at its fundamental level.   Everything else built on it from there can be said to be conjecture.   The concept of the zhahir , manifest, and bathin , hidden, in Islam is simpler, and yet more profound in its nuance.   In taswawwuf , spirituality, the zhahir refers to the ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Plato said, “The virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Plato said, “Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a man.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Plato said, “Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Plato said, “Philosophy is the highest music.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Plato mused, “Who are the true philosophers?   Those whose passion is to love the truth.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Plato said, “For a man to conquer himself, is the first and noblest of all victories.”