Thereupon, he began to question him about his past and about his manner of living, and Hayy described to him the progress he had made in knowledge until he had attained to that degree of union with God, and told him of those essences that are separated from the sensible world; and of that essence, the True One, the Almighty and Glorious, with all his glorious attributes.
When Asal heard of all this, the eyes of his heart were opened and his mind enlightened, and he realised that all those rules and precepts he had been taught himself in his law, regarding the Almighty and Glorious God, his Angels and Books, his Messengers and the Day of Judgment, Paradise and Hell, were, in fact, resemblances of what Hayy had seen, and that his religion and Hayy’s philosophy were only two different forms of the One Eternal Truth.
Now, when Hayy heard from Asal, in the course of their further conversations and discussions, of the sad state of the inner life which the people on Asal’s Island lived in, he was greatly affected with pity towards them, and a resolution entered into his mind of going over to them in the hope and desire to become an instrument in their salvation. Asal quickly fell in with this plan. So they took the first ship that passed the shore of their Island and repaired to the opposite Island.
When they arrived there, Asal’s friends gathered round him, anxious to hear of his adventures; and when they heard his account of Hayy Ibn Yokdhan, they flocked together from all sides, surrounding him with all tokens of reverence and admiration.
Hayy sets to work at once. He begins to explain to them the mysteries of wisdom, and to inculcate them with those precepts with which he was imbued. But as they were diametrically opposed to the notions deeply rooted in their minds, they began to withdraw themselves from him, and to loathe and abhor him; outwardly, however, in his presence, making a great show of kindness.
Hayy soon found out that it was hopeless to reform these people, whose only God was their lusts and appetites, blinded and captivated as they were by the trifles and vanities of this world, tossed up and down until they tottered to their graves. He saw that God had sealed up their hearts and ears, a thick mist being before their eyes and sore punishment abiding them.
When Hayy saw how things stood—that there was no salvation for this weak, tractable, and defective sort of men, he craved pardon for the things he had spoken and desisted from further efforts in that direction.
Greatly disappointed at being unable to regenerate Salaman’s subjects, he bade him farewell and returned with Asal to his Island. There they continued to devote themselves to contemplation and the search after the Eternal Truth, and did not cease worshipping God until death laid his hands upon them.
These are the outlines of the story of Hayy Ibn Yokdhan.
Both Myth and History are the parents of many of its most touching and tender motives.