In the opening chapter of Mudāwat al-Nufūs, Ibn Ḥazm al-Andalusī (d. 456/1064), writes:
“The pleasure of the intellectual with his cognition, the scholar with his knowledge, the sage with his wisdom, and the [qualified] jurist [for Allāh’s sake] with his reasoning faculties is greater than the pleasure of the consumer with his meal, the drinker with his beverage, the one engaged in sexual relations with his intimacy, the earner with his revenue, the player with his game, and the commander with his authority.
The proof of this lies in [the fact] that the sage, the intellectual, the scholar, and the one striving [all] possess those [other] pleasures we have highlighted in the same manner as those engrossed in it. They perceive it just as the one engaged in it, yet they have abandoned and turned away from it and preferred seeking the [higher] virtues over these [activities]. And certainly, the one [qualified] to judge two things is the one who knows them [both], not the one who knows only one and not the other.”
(Ibn Ḥazm, Mudāwat al-Nufūs. pg. 13)
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