ishment for him. We do not know many of the numerous aspects of the All-Just and Wise One’s wisdom; our not knowing how the power of choice is compatible with divine determining does not prove that it is not so.

#### The Second

The Second: Of necessity everyone perceives in himself a will and choice; he knows it through his conscience. To know the nature of beings is one thing; to know they exist is something different. There are many things which although their existence is self-evident, we do not know their true nature. The power of choice may be included among these. Everything is not restricted to what we know; our not knowing them does not prove the things we do not know do not exist.

#### The Third

The Third: The power of choice is not opposed to divine determining, indeed, divine determining corroborates the power of choice. For divine determining is a sort of divine knowledge. Divine knowledge is connected with our will and choice, in which case it corroborates it, it does not nullify it.

#### The Fourth

The Fourth: Divine determining is a sort of knowledge. Knowledge is dependent on the thing known. That is, it knows it as it is. The thing known is not dependent on knowledge. That is, the principles of knowledge are not fundamental so that the knowledge directs the thing known with regard to its external existence. For the essence of the thing known and its external existence look to will and are based on power. Also, pre-eternity is not the tip of a chain reaching into the past which should be considered the end point in the existence of things and a source of compulsion. Rather, pre-eternity holds the past, the present, and the future all at once, looking at them from above like a mirror. In which case, it is not right to imagine an end to past time which stretches back within the sphere of contingency and call it pre-eternity, and to suppose that things enter the knowledge of pre-eternity in sequence and that oneself is outside it; to reason thus is not right. Consider the following example to explain this mystery:

Suppose you holding are a mirror in your hand and the area to your right is the past and the area to your left, the future; the mirror only holds what is opposite it. Then with a movement it holds both sides, but it cannot hold all of it. However low the mirror is held, less will appear in it, and the higher it rises, the area it encompasses expands, until it can hold both sides in their entirety simultaneously. Whatever occurs in the areas reflected in the mirror in this position cannot be said to precede or follow one another, or to conform to or oppose one another. Divine determining is part of pre-eternal knowledge, and in the words of the Hadith, pre-eternal knowledge is at an elevated station which from its lofty viewpoint encompasses everything that has been and will be from pre-eternity to post-eternity. We and