The 5 Elements

This world has a certain order and solid construction. It shows nexuses between:

• causes and effect
• combinations of some parts of creation with others
• transformations of some existent things into others

These patterns are remarkable and endless.

Beginning with the world of the body and sensual perception, and therein first with the world of the visible elements, one notices how these elements are arranged gradually and continually in an ascending order, from earth to water, from water to air, and from air to fire.

Each one of the elements is prepared to be transformed into the next higher or lower one, and sometimes is transformed.

The higher one is always finer than the one preceding it. Eventually, the world of the spheres is reached. They are finer than anything else. They are in layers which are interconnected, in a shape which the senses are able to perceive only through the existence of motions.

These motions provide some people with knowledge of the measurements and positions of the spheres, and also with knowledge of the existence of the essences beyond, the influence of which is noticeable in the spheres through the fact (that they have motion).

One should then look at the world of creation.

It started out from the minerals and progressed, in an ingenious, gradual manner, to plants and animals.

The last stage 269 of minerals is connected with the first stage of plants, such asherbs and seedless plants. The last stage of plants, such as palms and vines, is connected with the first stage of animals, such as snails and shellfish which have only the power of touch.

The word “connection” with regard to these created things means that the last stage of each group is fully prepared to become the first stage of the next group.

The animal world then widens, its species become numerous, and, in a gradual process of creation, it finally leads to man, who is able to think and to reflect.

The higher stage of man is reached from the world of the monkeys, in which both sagacity and perception are found, but which has not reached the stage of actual reflection and thinking. At this point we come to the first stage of man after (the world of monkeys).

This is as far as our physical observation extends. The various worlds have manifold influences.

In the world of sensual perception, there are certain influences of the motions of the spheres and the elements.

In the world of creation there are certain influences of the motions of growth and perception.

All this is evidence of the fact that there is something that exercises an influence and is different from the bodi(ly substances). This is something spiritual.

It is connected with the created things, because the various worlds must be connected in their existence. This spiritual thing is the soul, which has perception and causes motion. Above the soul there must exist something else that gives the soul the power of perception and motion, and that is also connected with it.

Its essence should be pure perception and absolute intellection. This is the world of the angels. The soul, consequently, must be prepared to exchange humanity for angelicality, in order actually to become part of the angelic species at certain times in the flash of a moment.

This happens after the spiritual essence of the soul has become perfect in actuality, as we shall mention later on. (The soul) is connected with the stage next to it, as are all the orders of the existentia, as we have mentioned before. It is connected both upward and downward. Downward, it is connected with the body.

Through (the body, the soul) acquires the sense perceptions by which it is prepared for actual intellection. 271 Upward, it is connected with the stage of the angels.

There, it acquires scientific and supernatural perceptions, for knowledge of the things that come into being exists timelessly in the intellections of (the angels). This is in consequence of the well-constructed order of existence mentioned above, which requires that the essences and powers of (the world of existence) be connected with one another.

The human soul cannot be seen, but its influence is evident in the body. It is as if all (the body’s) parts, in combination or separately, were organs of the soul and its powers. The powers of action are touching with the hand, walking with the foot, speaking with the tongue, and the total combined motion with the body.

The powers of sensual perception are graded and ascend to the highest power, that is, the power of thinking, for which there exists the term “rational power.”

Thus, the powers of external sense perception, with the organs of vision, hearing, and all the other (organs), lead up to inward (perception). The first (inward sense) is the “common sense,” 272 that is, the power that simultaneously perceives all objects of sensual perception, whether they belong to hearing, seeing, touching, or anything else.

In this respect, it differs from the power of external sense perception, as the objects of sensual perception do not all crowd upon external sense perception at one and the same time.

The common sense transfers (the perceptions) to the imagination, which is the power that pictures an object of sensual perception in the soul, as it is, abstracted from all external matter. The organ for the activity of these two powers (common sense and imagination) is the first cavity of the brain. The front part of that cavity isfor the common sense, and the back part for the imagination.

Imagination leads up to the estimative power 273 and the power of memory.

The estimative power serves for perceiving (abstract) ideas that refer to individualities, such as the hostility of Zayd, the friendship of ‘Amr, the compassion of the father, or the savagery of the wolf.

The power of memory serves as a repository for all objects of perception, whether they are imagined or not. It is like a storehouse that preserves them for the time when they are needed.

The organ for the activity of these two powers is the back cavity of the brain. The front part of that cavity is for the estimative power, and the back for the power of memory. All these powers then lead up to the power of thinking. Its organ is the middle cavity of the brain. It is the power that causes reflection to be set in motion and leads toward intellection. The soul is constantly moved by it, as the result of its constitutional desire to (think).

It wants to be free from the grip of power 274 and the human kind of preparedness. It wants to proceed to active intellection by assimilating itself to the highest spiritual group (that of the angels), and to get into the first order of the spiritualia by perceiving them without the help of bodily organs.

Therefore, the soul is constantly moving in that direction. It exchanges all humanity and human spirituality for angelicality of the highest stage, without the help of any acquired faculty but by virtue of a primary natural disposition that God has placed in it.

As far as this (process) is concerned, human souls are of three kinds. One is by nature too weak to arrive at spiritual perception. Therefore, it is satisfied to move downwards toward the perceptions of the senses and imagination and the formation of ideas with the help of the power of memory and the estimative power, according to limited rules and a special order.

In this manner, people acquire perceptive and apperceptive 275 knowledge, which is the product of thinking in the body. All this is (the result of the power of) imagination and limited in extent, since from the way it starts it can reach the primary (intelligibilia) but cannot go beyond them.

Also, if they are corrupt, everything beyond them is also corrupt. 276 This, as a rule, is the extent of human corporeal perception. It is the goal of the perceptions of scholars. It is in it that scholars are firmly grounded.

A (second) kind (of soul), through thinking, moves in the direction of spiritual intellection and (a type of) perception that does not need the organs of the body, because of its innate preparedness for it. The perceptions of this kind of soul extend beyond the primary (intelligibilia) to which primary human perception is restricted, and cover the ground of inward observations, which are all intuitive.

They are unlimited as to their beginning and their end. They are the perceptions of saints, of men of mystical learning and divine knowledge. The blessed obtain them after death, in Purgatory (barzakh). 278

A (third) kind (of soul) is by nature suited to exchange humanity altogether, both corporeal and spiritual humanity, for angelicality of the highest stage, so that it may actually become an angel in the flash of a moment, glimpse the highest group within their own stage, and listen to essential speech 279 and divine address during that moment. (Individuals possessing this kind of soul) are prophets.

God implanted and formed in them the natural ability to slough off humanity in that moment which is the state of revelation. God freed them from the lets and hindrances of the body, by which they were afflicted as human beings.

He did this by means of ‘ismah (immunity from sin and error, infallibility) and straightforwardness, which He implanted in them and which gave them that particular outlook, and by means of a desire for divine worship which He centered in them and which converges from allsides toward that goal. They thus move toward the (angelic) stage, sloughing off humanity at will, by virtue of their natural constitution, and not with the help of any acquired faculty or craft.

(The prophets) move in that direction, slough off their humanity, and, once among the highest group (of angels), learn all that may there be learned. They then bring what they have learned back down to the level of the powers of human perception, as this is the way in which it can be transmitted to human beings.

At times, this may happen in the form of a noise the prophet hears.

It is like indistinct words from which he derives the idea conveyed to him. As soon as the noise has stopped, he retains and understands (the idea).

At other times, the angel who conveys (the message) to the prophet appears to him in the form of a man who talks to him, and the prophet comprehends what he says. Learning the message from the angel, reverting to the level of human perception, and understanding the message conveyed to him - all this appears to take place in one moment, or rather, in a flash.

It does not take place in time, but everything happens simultaneously. Therefore, it appears to happen very quickly. For this reason, it is called wahy (“revelation”), because the root why has the meaning “to hasten.” 280