5248. Mohammedans are in natural light more than Christians and also have a greater desire to know truths than others do. They understand, accept and take in the following better than Christians, namely: that all things in heaven and in the world relate to what is true and what is good; that when truth is believed it becomes a part of faith and when good is perceived it becomes a part of love; and that therefore human beings have been given two faculties, namely, understanding and will, and truth that is part of faith is the understanding, and good that is part of love is the will; and also that what is true and what is good must be a one for a human being to be truly human, equally so, faith and love must be one; and understanding and will must be completely so. Learned men of the Christian faith heard these things, both those men who professed the belief that faith alone, thus truth alone, [brings salvation], and those who professed belief that good works alone do so, the former from among the Reformed, the latter from among Catholics. The learned men were incapable of grasping this, while the Mohammedans understood in clear light. They also clearly perceived that those who have been dedicated to goodness in life have an affection for truth, because what is good hungers for what is true, since truth is as it were the food of what is good; and as a consequence with such people truth hungers for goodness since truth then receives life from goodness; thus a reciprocal desire of the one for the other arises. And the Mohammedans perceived that this is what makes a genuinely human person, a person who is human by virtue of wisdom and intelligence. They gathered that there are very many Christians who suppose there can be intelligence and wisdom in maliciousness, when yet it is the opposite; it is madness and foolishness. 1
Footnotes:
1. Drawing of a long building with a curved roof.
5248. Mohammedans are in natural lumen more than Christians, and also desire to know truths more than they. They understood, received and drank in, more readily than Christians, the fact that all things in heaven and earth resolve themselves into truth and good; that, when truth is believed it is of faith, and when good is perceived it is of the love; that two faculties are therefore given to man, namely, understanding and will; and that the truth which is of faith is the understanding, and the good which is of love is the will: further, that, in order that man may be truly man, truth and good must be one, consequently faith and love, and, in general, the understanding and the will. The learned from among the Christians heard these things: some of them also professed faith alone, thus truth alone; and some held to good works alone. The former were of the Reformed, the latter of the Catholics. These could not apprehend those things, when yet the Mohammedans understood them clearly. They also clearly perceived that they who have been in the good of life are in the affection of truth, for the reason that good hungers for truth, since truth is, as it were, the food of good; and that, afterwards, with the same ones, truth longs for good, since truth then receives its life from good, so that there occurs a desire of one for the other reciprocally; and that a man who is a man of wisdom and intelligence, is characterized by this desire. They ascertained that very many of the Christians place intelligence and wisdom in craft, when yet this is contrary to them, and is, therefore, insanity and foolishness.
[After this passage is a diagram of a long building with a curved roof and five windows on the side. It appears to be a dwelling, see SE 4832.]
5248. Mahumedani in lumine naturali sunt prae Christianis, et quoque desiderant scire vera prae illis; hoc prae Christianis intellexerunt, receperunt et imbuerunt, quod omnia in coelo et in mundo se referant ad verum et ad bonum, et quod verum cum creditur sit fidei, et bonum cum percipitur sit amoris; et quod ideo binae facultates homini datae sint, nempe intellectus et voluntas, et quod verum quod fidei sit intellectus et bonum quod amoris sit voluntas; tum quod verum et bonum unum erunt, ut homo sit vere homo, proinde fides et amor, et omnino intellectus et voluntas: haec audiverunt docti ex Christianis, tam ex illis [qui] solam fidem professi, ita solum verum, et qui solum bonum opus, illi ex Reformatis hi ex Catholicis, haec non potuerunt capere, cum tamen Mahumedani haec intellexerunt in luce. Percipiebant etiam clare, quod qui in bono vitae fuerunt in affectione veri sint, ex causa quia bonum appetit verum, quoniam verum est quasi cibus bono, et dein apud eosdem, quod verum appetat bonum, quoniam verum tunc vitam a bono accipit: sic ut fiat desiderium unius ad alterum reciproce, et quod in eo consistat homo, qui est homo ex sapientia et intelligentia. Compererunt quod perplures ex Christianis intelligentiam et sapientiam ponant in malitia, cum tamen haec est contraria, ideo insania et stultitia.