On passing from stage to stage, the human body undergoes wondrous and orderly transformations. From sperm to a blood-clot; from a blood-clot to flesh and bone; from flesh and bone to a new creation, that is, the transformation into human form; it follows extremely precise rules. Each of these stages has such particular laws, such determined order, such regular development that it displays the manifestations of a purpose, will, choice, and wisdom as though through glass.

Thus, the All-Wise Maker, Who creates the body in this way, changes it every year as if it were clothes. For the body to be changed and for its continuance, a compound is necessary so that new particles appear that will work and fill the place of the parts that are dissolved. Since the body’s cells are destroyed through an orderly divine law, it requires a subtle matter, known as sustenance, to repair it, again through an orderly dominical law. The True Provider allots and distributes the sustenance through a particular law in relation to the different needs of the body’s members.

Now, consider the behaviour of the subtle matter which the All-Wise Provider sends: you will see that while the matter’s particles are dispersed through the air, soil, and water like a caravan, they suddenly gather together in a way that suggests a deliberate action, as though they had suddenly received the order to move. They collect together in orderly fashion as if each particle of them were entrusted with a duty and ordered to proceed to a specified place. Also, it is apparent from their conduct that they are being propelled through a particular law of a being who acts and has choice, and from the realm of the inanimate are entering the animal kingdom. Then they enter a body as sustenance through a particular rule and with a determined order and in a regular process, and after being cooked in the four kitchens of the body, undergoing four amazing transformations, and being strained through four filters, they are apportioned through regular laws and the beneficence of the True Provider according to the all-different needs of the members and are circulated to every part of the body.

Thus, whichever of these particles you consider with the eye of wisdom, you will see that blind chance, lawless coincidence, deaf nature, and unconscious causes can in no way interfere with it; it is impelled in a discerning, orderly, hearing, and knowing fashion. For whichever stage each of them enters from the surrounding element to the body’s cell, it acts as though voluntarily through the specified laws of that stage. It enters it in an orderly fashion. To whichever level it journeys, it steps with such order that it appears self-evidently to be proceeding at the command of an All-Wise Mover. In this way, it gradually advances from stage to stage, and level to level until, at the command of its Sustainer, without deviating from