You would be told: The prophets are all followed in the principles of belief and fundamental rules, for these are constant and fixed; unlike secondary matters, the nature of which is to change in the course of time. Just as the four seasons and the stages in a person’s life warrant different remedies and clothing – what is a cure at one time may cause illness at another – so the stages of the life of humanity necessitate differences in rules of secondary importance, which are healing for spirits and nourishment for hearts.

► 7 ◄

“Not of those who earn Your anger (ghayri’l-maghḍūbi ‘alayhim)”

The positioning: Know that in being a station of fear and flight, this station has a relationship with those preceding it. For a person looks in bewilderment and terror towards the station of dominicality signified by Glory and Beauty; he looks seeking refuge towards the station of worship in “do we worship;” in his impotence he looks towards the station of reliance in “do we seek help,” and seeking consolation he looks towards its constant companion; that is, the station of hope and relief. For what occurs first to the heart of one who sees something terrifying is a sense of bewilderment, then he wants to flee, then having realized his impotence it occurs to him to rely on Allah, and then he receives solace.

• If you were to ask: Allah (May He be exalted) is All-Wise and Self-Sufficient, so what is the wisdom in the creation of evil, ugliness, and misguidance in the world?

You would be told: Know that perfection, good, and beauty are essentially what are intended in the universe, and are in the majority. Relatively, defects, evil, and ugliness are in the minority, and are insignificant, secondary, and trivial. Their Creator created them interspersed among good and perfection not for their own sakes, but as preliminaries and units of measurement for the appearance, or existence, of the relative truths of good and perfection.

• If you were to ask: So what is the importance of the relative truths for the sake of which partial evil is approved?

You would be told: Relative truths are the ties between beings and the threads with which their order is woven. They are the rays from which is reflected each unique being of the species in the universe. Relative truths are thousands of times more numerous than real truths, for if the real attributes of a person were sevenfold, the relative truths would be seven hundred. A lesser evil may therefore be forgiven, approved even, for the sake of the greater good. For to abandon the greater good because it contains