الرسالة التاسعة
من القسم الرياضي
في بيان الاخلاق واسباب اختلافها وانواع عللها ونكت من اداب الانبياء وزبد من اخلاق الفضلاء
The Ninth Epistle of the Propaedeutic Sciences: An exposition on morals and ethics, the causes for variation in them and the reasons behind this variation; an insight in to the conduct of prophets and the essence of the morals and ethics of the preeminent.
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful
الحمدلله وسلام على عباده الذين اصطفى آلله خير اما يشركون
All praise is for Allah, and salaam upon his followers, those He has chosen. Is Allah better or those whom they ascribe as partners [to Him]?
We have concluded discussing essences of a corporeal nature, and describing the primordial matters that constitute them; their form and composition; and how these composites are subjected to various conditions.
In our epistle titled ‘The Place of Conception’, we detailed the various changes a human embryo undergoes in the womb, from the day of conception to that of its birth. We have shown how the spiritual forces of stars collectively influence the fetus’ development and how the various characteristics ingrained in human nature define his disposition over a period of nine months otherwise known as the ‘natural inhabitation’, one month after another, until the day of his birth, and the inception of man’s life in this world of 120 years, known as the ‘natural life’.
In this epistle we intend to explain how acquired characteristics combine themselves with inherent ones through the formation of habits; the means through which such traits are inculcated and the extent to which they are formed during the mutable days of one’s life until the day of his demise: the moment the soul departs the body. We also wish to expound upon the soul’s second birth, which is an alternate form. Allah Ta´ala states intending the hereafter, ‘And verily you are aware of the first creation. Then why do you not reflect?’, ‘And we will create you in forms of which you are not aware’, ‘then Allah will create another form, verily Allah has power over all things’.
Chapter on Man’s Ability to Inculcate All Characteristics
Know, my brother, may Allah aid both you and us with His pneuma: when Almighty Allah intended to appoint his representative on earth from amongst mankind so that the lower world – the one beneath the moon’s orbit – would flourish and prosper by virtue of man inhabiting it, be filled with awe-inspiring crafts produced by him and so that it would remain safe and secure through the prevalence of law and order based upon religious, spiritual, philosophical, general and specific governance mechanisms, all so that this world remains in its complete state and realizes its perfect purpose, He – as mentioned in the 4th volume of the Books of Hormuz: Idris Nabi AS, and narrated by us in Risaalah al-Jameah and alluded to in this epistle, as we will shortly explain – began by creating a body for his representative made from earth. A body of staggering proportions, of amazing form, various limbs and joints and great strength. He then combined these elements and gave it a form far more superior than that of any living organism, so that his preeminence over them would be established, and that man would have command over them and employ them as he would see fit.
He then insufflated him with His spirit, combining his physical body with a spiritual soul, one of the greatest and most distinguished of all souls, by which man would be able to move, sense, perceive, learn, act and undertake all that he aspires to. He then aided his soul with the spiritual powers of all the stars through which the soul would be able to prepare itself and assimilate all character traits and morals, learn all forms of knowledge, literature, propaedeutic studies, understandings and form of governance, just as He had enabled him through his limbs and organs, in their various forms and shapes, to master all human crafts, carry out the deeds of man and the acts of angels.
The Almighty has brought together in the composition of man’s body all of the four humors and the nine dispositions in a perfect balance which enables him to imbibe all the character traits and morals of living beings and their various distinct qualities. This in turn allows him to easily discharge all forms of actions and extraordinary crafts; proficiently carryout various undertakings and practice good governance. This is necessitated by the fact that carrying out such a range of acts with only one limb, one instrument, one characteristic and one temperament is impossible for man, as we have explained in the ‘Epistle on Human Crafts’. The objective behind this is that man is ultimately able to emulate his Lord and Creator, for he is His representative in His lands, the bringer of prosperity to His world, the master of all that lies in it, the trainer of its animals, the cultivator of its plants, the miner of its minerals and the one who commands and leads over all that it is in it so that he may train and prepare them in accordance to the tenets of divine governance as per the counsels of faith and in line with philosophical directives. This is all takes places so that his soul through such providence, governance and planning becomes an angle from among the angles who have attained closeness, and by which divine blessings rain down upon him for all eternity. Such an end is one that has been narrated in one of the scriptures of the prophets of Bani Israa’il: Allah Ta´ala states ‘O, Son of Aadam! I have created you for eternalness; for I am ever-living and will never cease to exist. Obey me whenever I command you to do something, distance yourself from all that I prohibit you from carrying out and I will make you eternal, no death will come to you. O, Son of Aadam, I have the power to say to something, ‘Be’, and it will come into existence. Obey me in whatever I command you to do, distance yourself from all that I prohibit you from doing and I too will empower you with the ability to say to something, ‘Be’, and it will come into existence’.
Since what we have discussed herein has made apparent the reason and purpose for a spectrum of character attributes featuring in man’s disposition, we now wish to explain the reasons and causes that account for the differences in the nature and qualities of men; their number, their essence, their means of influence and, as we have mentioned before, why they exist.
