Ibn Tufayl's: Hayy Ibn Yaqzan (A Philosophical Tale)

"The discovery of finding the source of his true-self"

by Nabilah M K Umarella

        Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, a feral child who was discovered and nurtured by a doe on an uninhabited island represents the prototype of a solitary and defenseless humankind. By presenting this precursor, Ibn Tufayl demonstrates the solitude of the unpeopled island as a model of the development of the mind that occurs naturally without the diversion of society which establishes Hayy’s invention on spiritual belief. Moreover, upon the doe’s death, young Hayy suffers the taunts and attacks of other animals until he migrates into a cave and discovers fire. Hayy identified fire as a symbol of the warmth that animates living things and confirms. Propelled by curiosity and desire for knowledge, he then dissected animals where he concluded that warmth is an animating spirit, and "He was sure for this reason, that he himself was the ideally balanced animal, kindred spirit of the celestial bodies" (105).

        During the infant stage, Hayy is exceedingly dependent on his mother where he begins to imitate his mother’s voice, sorts food, and learns to identify his differences with other creatures. He lived among the deer, expertly imitating their calls, and eventually “The animals were used to him and he was used to them, so they were not afraid of each other” (34). His competency in animating the animals led him to a new analysis where he observed that even though both animals and humans are living organisms, they are dissimilar as an animal are high- powered owing to the fact that they have natural garments and self-defense, while Hayy himself was undressed and defenseless. As he believes ”No maimed or d deformed animal he could find was at all like himself” (36), the discouragement of his self-frailty increases as he grows older, therefore, he endeavors to fix it by manufacturing some leaves that he took from a tree and altering it as a belt to concealed certain part of his body. Unfortunately, the doe, his mother, died and this incident raised a question regarding the death and its reason, therefore, young Hayy decided to dissect her body. This action provides him new perception that despite the fact that the “body” itself looks intact, however, when the heart stops beating, it will cause death. Subsequently, as he grows older, the desire to gain a deeper understanding of the manner of existence massively grows.

        “Hayy turned the focus of his thought on that being. What was it? What its manner of existence? What bound it to this body? Where had it gone, and how had it gotten out?” (45). Those questions filled his mind and became the initial root of his investigation of other animal organs, their population, and the interrelationship between species by doing the identical praxis that he did towards his mother. This study against animals directed him to an invention where he found out that “One spirit uses the eye as a tool for seeing, the ear for hearing, the nose for smelling, the tongue for tasting, the skin and flesh for feeling, the limbs for moving, the liver for feeding and digestion. Every one of these organs is at the service of the spirit and would be deprived of its functions were it not directed by this spirit through what we call the nerves” (52). His observation towards animals brought him to the conclusion where he considered all objects in the world such as animals, plants, minerals, as well as himself are in essence were all connected and contiguous. Unconsciously, Hayy has started his journey in the spiritual world. As he utters, “This spirit itself was one, and it was this which was his real self, all other organs serving as its tools” (56), exposes his belief about the spirit present throughout the species whether they are animate or inanimate, collectively or discretely, the identity is still the same and fundamentally are one thing.

        His desire to gain a deeper understanding of the soul encouraged him to commence on observations, experiments, empirical testing, and analogies to the objects of the universe. Subsequently, he discovered every being that exists must have a cause. Beyond his conscious mind, little did he know that he was eager to know more about Him, the actual creator of the spirit that exists in those living creatures. However, not having left the world of his senses, he first tried to find the cause among his sense objects, besides was still wondering in any case He was one or numerous. He started to change his focus of study to the celestial phenomena and the diversity in which the essence is one, and as a closure, he found an outcome about the true meaning of the Almighty in which He has a secret power, unique and holly, unseeable, and “nothing can subsist except through Him” (86) as Hayy’s belief. Furthermore, Hayy realized that he is the creator of the things that exist in his world and Hayy started to perceive objects from new and distinctive points of view. Hayy also noticed how wonderful His craftsmanship, the gracefulness of His scheme, and His brilliance work.

        “Hayy considered how the Creator had given each sort of animal its makeup and showed how these were to be used–for if He did not teach animals to use their parts for their intended purposes, they would do the animals no more good than if they did not have them.” (89). Continuing the sequence of his invention towards the Almighty, when he was thirty-five, he was wondering about how the knowledge of knowing the Creator had come to him.

        Analytically, Hayy’s life journey, specifically during his infant stage up until his adolescent stage, where he was surrounded by non-human animals that naturally provided him with new insight toward living organisms, has carried him to the question about the soul inside those beings, how does it work, and whose the creation of those works. Furthermore, to be more specific, as he stated “Seeing that what made him different from all other animals made him like the heavenly bodies, Hayy judged that this implied an obligation on his part to take them as his pattern, imitate their action and do all he could to be like them” (105), displays evidence that the animals were once his “role model”. In spite with the fact that he does not live in his “natural habitat”, the figure of a “surrogate mother” which in this case was a doe, was the main reason that led him finding his real “identity”. She has taught him about the basis of life and gave aninfluential characteristic as it proven by his affirmation about how influential his mother was; “He was friendly to the deer, treating them more kindly for their likeness to his mother” (47).

        “When this spirit was linked with that chamber all the powers of the latter submitted totally to it, bowing to its sway according to god’s command” (30), briefly means that the real idea about Hayy’s earlier thought regarding physical things is one in reality could be happening as a consequence of His Greatness. In general, it could be said that in his scientific pursuits and spiritual journey, he was given the gift of reason to find the ultimate truth. Even without prophets and sacred texts, Hayy is given a way to find the truth by knowing the substance of Being, and the creator of everything. Moreover, being surrounded by non-human animals during his life journey was not a curse from the Almighty, but it was a “path” that He gave Hayy so that Hayy could help himself finding the true meaning, the source of his true self.

Works Cited:

Ibn Ṭufayl, Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-Malik, -1185. Ibn Tufayl's Hayy Ibn Yaqzān. New York :Twayne Publishers, 1972.