Another sect adopted this doctrine with pious austerities. Afterwards, a division of this sect made an application of this doctrine as necessary to the Koran, and took care not to maintain any thing contrary to the companions of the revelation, and these are called _Sofis matsherâîn_, “orthodox Sofis.” Another sect did not believe this necessary, and these are entitled _Hukmá âshrákîn_, to whom _Aflátún_ (Plato)[564] who was the preceptor of Arastú, furnished lessons and instructions of piety.
Another class adopted this doctrine with a view to the precepts of the possessors of holiness, and made it a necessary condition that in all questions about customs, in which reason is _likely_ to err, they should strictly adhere to the sayings of the possessors of holiness; and these are called _Akhbárîn_. The companions of the pure Imáms (the blessing and peace of God be upon them!) all observed this rule, and the Imáms (peace be upon them!) prohibited them the science of scholastic theology, and the science of the fundamentals of religion and law, which have been collected according to the views of the intelligent; and likewise they prohibited the science of jurisprudence, which has been composed as an abstract of opinions, for this reason: because, safe from error, one is inclosed in what is right by the words of the possessors of holiness, and because many contradictions and discordancies occur in the three sciences.[565] As it is evident and clear that there are no contradictions in truth, so certainly one of the different opinions is false. The Imáms also instructed their companions in the science of scholastic dialectics, in the science of the fundam etals of religion and of law, and in jurisprudence; but these three sciences are, in many of the questions, not without contradiction with the sciences which the professors of common religion have combined. The lords of the temple (peace be upon them!) have declared, “that in the three sciences, as received by the generality of the people, truth is that which from us is come to them, and error is whatever originate from their conceptions.” The doctrine of the _Akhbárîn_, in after times called _Gháibet sâry_, “the minor absence,” which by some is reckoned among the traditions of the seventy-and-three, and by others among the traditions of the seventy four sects, became diffused among the learned of the _Imámíyat_; although it was also known among the first of the _Ghâibet[566] Kaberî_, “the great absence,” and the companions of the Imáms (peace be upon them!) after having received the three sciences from the people of the temple (blessing be upon them!), formed a collection of them in a book according to their direction; it was to this that the people of the temple referred in their belief and actions, until the time of the Ghâibet Kaberî of the Shíahs, and this book, by way of continuation, was brought down to the times of the moderns; the entire work, which was compiled by the trusty friend of the right faith, _Muhammed ben Yâkúb al Kalbiy_,[567] (may his tomb be sanctified!) comprehends the three sciences.