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,<br />
'<br />
CHAHARf- MAQALA. COSMOGRAPHY<br />
SECTION II.<br />
c (.<br />
f The Royal Mind (may 'God exalt if!) should deign to know<br />
that all existing beings fal} necessarily into pne of two categories.<br />
(Such being is either self-existent, or it exists through some other.<br />
Th'at Being whic'h is self-existent is called "the Necessarily Existent?<br />
which is God most High and most Holy' who existeth by virtue<br />
of Himself, and who, therefore, hath always existed, since He<br />
awaiteth none other and who ;<br />
(t) will always exist, since He subsisteth<br />
by Himself, not by another. But that existence whose<br />
being is "<br />
through another is called Contingent Being" and t^his<br />
is such as we are, since our is. being from the seed, arid the seed<br />
is from the blood, and the blood is from food, and food is from the<br />
water, the earth^and the sun, whose existence is in turn derived<br />
from something else,; and all these are such as yesterday were<br />
not, and to-morrow will not be. And on profound reflection [it<br />
appeareth that] this causal nexus reacheth upwards to a Cause<br />
which deriveth not its being from another, but existeth necessarily<br />
in itself; which is the Creator of all, from* Whom all derive their<br />
existence and subsistence. So He is the Creator of all these<br />
things, and all come into being through Him and subsist through<br />
Him. And a little reflection on this matter will make it clear<br />
that all Phenomena consist of Being tinctured with Not-being,<br />
while He is Being characterized by a continuance reaching from<br />
Eternity past to Eternity to come. And since the origin o_f all<br />
creatures lies in Not-rbeing, they must inevitably return again to<br />
nothing, and the most clear-sighted amongst the human race<br />
have said, "Everything shalt return unto its Origin" more<br />
especially in this world of Growth and Decay. Therefore we,<br />
who are contingent in our being, have our origin in Not-being ;<br />
while He, wl?o existeth necessarily, is in His Essencp Being, even<br />
as He (glorious is His Praise and high His Splendour) saith in the<br />
Perspicuous Word and Firm Hand-hold, " A l^ things perish save<br />
His Countenance^" ,<br />
Now you must know that this world, which' lies in the, hollow<br />
of the Heaven of the Moon 2 and within the circle of this first<br />
'<br />
Sphere, is called " the World o'f' Growth and Decay."<br />
And you<br />
must thus conceive it, that within the concavity of the Heaven of<br />
the Moon lies the Fire, surrounded by the Heaven of the Moon ;<br />
and that within the Sphere of the Fire is the Air, surrounded by<br />
the Fire; and within the Air is the Water, surrounded by t*he Air,<br />
while within the Water is the Earth, with the Water* round about<br />
it. And in the middle of the earth is an imaginary point, from<br />
t<br />
K<br />
1<br />
Qur\fn, xxviii, 88. ,<br />
2 This is the lowest or innermost of the nine celestial spheres which environ the<br />
earth. Concerning the Muslim Cosmogony, see V\eter'\ci'sMakrokosmos, pp. 1 78 et seqq.