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    "name": "Selections from the Book of Investigation"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 1,
    "slug": "complete",
    "title": "Selections from the Book of Investigation",
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    "words": 7916,
    "text": "## p. 502 (leaf n507)\n\nabout him, for those first matters have no measure with the divine Master because\nthe Master in this state is like the imam to the congregation of which he is the custodian and like the shepherd\n٣ and the trainer for the things whose reform and rectification he undertakes, so if it is easy for him or\ndifficult regarding the rectification, then either he discards them or their rectification follows him until they become straight.\nAnd therefore what Aristotle said in that, what he said, and he composed books which he named the external philosophy\n٦ and ordered that they be given to the common people from among the people, and he said: Indeed this class\nof people, it is fitting for the scholar to teach them with them and occupy them with reading them away from the harms\nof the people, since if they were not disciplined and refined, they would be worse upon the people than\n٩ rabid dogs except rarely, for perhaps one of them turns after\nthe one into a noble. Aristotle has indeed said in the places in which he urged the people\nto seek knowledge: that it behooves man not to slacken in seeking refinement\n١٢ as much as he is able, for by that refinement there becomes his the reality of the meaning of humanity and its substance\nand its perfect properties, since hatred is encompassing to the people, for not all people\nare born on the model of Plato in the perfection of existence and knowledge of the truth by their essences as\n١٥ it appeared by Plato from perfection and speaking the truth from his essence without instruction and acting upon it.\nAnd our master the Commander of the Believers ʿAli ibn Abi Talib — may the blessings of God be upon him — has indeed said\nthe like of that, and it is that he said: People are three: a divine scholar who speaks the truth from his essence\n\n\n## p. 503 (leaf n508)\n\nHe saw it and acted upon it, and a learner on the path of salvation who prefers adab and acts according to what he received from it; and a confused, ignorant commoner following every crier or brayer who does not seek knowledge nor prefer it nor act upon it, and there is no power nor strength save in God the Most High, the Mighty. And that the pupil should be silent before the master, keeping his secret, for instruction in this state is like cultivated earth which a man takes for the betterment of his condition; so if its soil is good the seed falls into it, grows, ripens and returns the like of its seed; but if its soil is corrupt and foul the seed perishes in it and does not return its place, or corrupts it and what it returns of that is of little benefit. We have already given examples of this in which we mentioned the condition of adab, the intelligent one and the like of that. And that he should be devoted to the master, constant in study of what he has taken from him, much reflecting upon it; for the master cannot impart to the pupil riyada beyond its name, but only teaches him the principles of knowledge, while upon the pupil lies the riyada in it. As for mentioning all that is obligatory for the master upon the pupil, there is no need in this place for more than this amount; so if you prefer to encompass the whole of this chapter, take it from its place in the riyadat and their books, if God Most High wills. As for what is obligatory for the pupil upon the master, it is: first, testing the pupil’s natural intelligence—I mean by his natural intelligence his substance upon which he was formed and the measure of what is in him of receptivity and hearkening to adab when he hears it and how his soul clings to it and remembers it. So when he finds him receptive, possessed of pure earth and a substance in which the like of it may be nurtured.\n\n\n## p. 504 (leaf n509)\n\nThe knowledges and their figures, according to how near or far they may be, begin with his first imbibitions, which resemble his acceptance of their seeds; and this first imbibition is that he be made to enter the regimens and their beginnings, and according to his age also and his experience there shall be the measure of what is imparted to him, first one thing then another; and whatever increase he can bear, let him increase it for him and test him in what he was first given to drink. So if he is retentive and not wasteful of it, he increases it for him in the drinking and the teaching; but if he finds him forgetful and confused in his retention, he diminishes it for him from the drinking and reproves him for that with a reproof like an allusion, without going deeply into explicit statement. Then he tests him after that a second and a third time; so if he continues in one course in forgetfulness, he shakes him with reproof and pains him with rebuke and is excessive in his chiding. But if at his first testing he has awakened and has not needed any increase in discipline or what resembles unveiling, he continues upon that, giving him the demonstrative and mathematical sciences until he becomes familiar with knowledge and his polishing is perfected and his refinement becomes excellent; then he begins and transfers him to the first of the inner sciences, just as the rational is called; and what he gives him is also first one thing then another, and he does not overstep the ranks with him lest he wrong him in the teaching—for that is corruption in the teaching and a very great harm in the meaning. We have already mentioned in <...> those demands, so let them be taken from there, for the book we are in does not bear its being made equal to another. And he continues in his gradation upon that from rank to rank until he reaches the last of the ranks and becomes numbered among the masters, upon whom there is incumbent for the pupils the like of what was incumbent upon him at the beginning of his affair. And when he reaches\n\n\n## p. 505 (leaf n510)\n\nthe teaching to this rank of knowledge and of its symbols and its [صنائره] and the subtleties of what is in it; and if the disciple is aware of that then it is incumbent upon him to teach it, otherwise the master reminds him of that and does not neglect it or pass over to something else, for that is forbidden in reason and in manly virtue. ٣ If one who does that among the masters, it is necessary that no word of his be heard nor believed in anything, and that is because he is a traitor, and the traitor is not trusted, and one who is not trusted, knowledge is not taken from him, because the knower is only truthful, so that one is not a knower ٦ and he is more deserving of the name of the ignorant than of the name of knowledge. Also, intellectual intimacy requires the manifestation of the secrets and the hidden things from the treasures of the sciences and the delight of the souls, and the manifest; therefore what we said at first: that the way for the disciple is to be yielding to the master ٩ so that it manifests to the disciple; and likewise we said: that the way of the master is to be generous with what he has of knowledge, and not upon everyone, but upon the like of this disciple whom we have ranked in that rank. And in sum, I say: that the way of the master and the disciple is that they be mutually compassionate to one another with the compassion of acceptance, and this is only hinted at in that the disciple be as the matter and the master to him as the form, and this only occurs through acceptance, as the statement in that which precedes ١٥\n\n\n## p. 506 (leaf n511)\n\nAnd since we have already set forth what is in these matters and their divisions, let us turn to the division of the first limit or the noblest part of the substance, which is the goal in the quest and the terminus in every cause, and it is the spiritual division and that which is opposed to the corporeal, since we have already completed the discourse on the corporeal according to the rank of the book. So I say: the spiritual substance is divided [either] according to what is apparent, without need of reflection or much investigation, into three divisions, which are the Intellect and the Soul and the spiritual individuals, which according to most statements are the stars. As for the spiritual individuals, people have divided concerning them into many divisions, so one group said: they are the angels in particular. As for Pythagoras and Porphyry, they hold that the stars are the angels and that they are individuals; and a group held that the sphere itself and all that is in it is what is indicated by the spiritual individuals, and that it is a single nature separate from the nature of the whole world of generation, just as a fifth nature is said to exist alongside the four elements that are in this world, namely fire, air, water and earth. And a group introduced Nature into these divisions, that is, together with the Intellect and the Soul, on the grounds that these are individuals. And a group held concerning these individuals that they are people and that they are the Imams and the Prophets; and that exists according to the adherents of every doctrine.\n\n\n## p. 507 (leaf n512)\n\nAbsolutely. And one group stated that the spiritual persons are subtle persons absent from the senses because they are not bodies nor possessors of colors, but they are light that gleams, and that it is possible for their essence to unite * so that it becomes one thing, and it is possible for it to multiply so that they become many persons however they will. And one group stated that the spiritual persons are the correct demonstrative thoughts and teachings that are either like the first principles in the Intellect or like the derived secondaries by means of the complete upright and non-upright syllogisms. They said: Therefore it is said: This is a spiritual science and not a passionate one and the like of that. And nothing aids man more in understanding this chapter in particular than establishing the proof for the knowledge of these persons—whether they have a reality of coming-to-be and what they are—for they are the foundation in all the other sciences—or whether they have no reality, so that one dispenses with them and they are included in the category of superstitions like auguries and divination and as is the case with the jinn and ʿafaʾ of the Maghrib and ʿIbrayil and the flying man and the like of that.\n\nI say: All the opinions that have been stated concerning these spiritual persons are error and mistake. The best statement is the statement of the one who said: They are the stars, and that is because they are in reality separate persons; and because Intellect and Nature and Soul are simple matters and substances, and a simple thing does not become a person, for we have already finished [explaining] to you...\n\n\n## p. 508 (leaf n513)\n\nFrom that, where we have mentioned the state of the simple and the compound. As for the spiritual persons whom a group believed to be the persons of the Imams and the Prophets and the people of piety and religion and the like of that, indeed every one who stands by the truth and speaks it is a spiritual person, especially if he was a beginner in knowledge and the virtues from his own essence and the first of his creation. As for the statement of one who said: the sphere itself is a spiritual person, it is a true statement except that its action in the meaning of our saying “spiritual person” is not like the action of the stars in that meaning; however, the sphere is without doubt a spiritual person except that its action in that is a general action and the actions of the stars are a particular action. Likewise is the case in the rest of the spheres in relation to the sphere of the All, and that is because the action of the sphere of the All, the oriental one, is the absolute general action for all the spheres and all the stars; and the reason for this is that it is the cause of their motion and it is in truth the absolutely motionless because it moves all the spheres just as it is said that it is the mover of the All, while it is not in its essence in motion in that regard, meaning that if it were, together with its moving of the All, itself in motion <....> and it is an existence without end to it in actuality and the removal of the mover and the moved; and it is the place in which Galen erred to the utmost degree of error. As for the sphere of the fixed stars, even if its motion is general, it is particular by relation to the motion of the sphere of the All, and likewise is the case in the rest of the spheres.\n\n\n## p. 509 (leaf n514)\n\nFrom the Fifth Treatise\n(1)\n.... And how could such a thing be imagined of Aristotle when he says: The Form is the noblest of substances, so that he even says that of the First Mover and of the highest Sphere and the stars and the Intellect and the Soul and applies that unrestrictedly ٣ and says: Most of these Forms have no matter, and the like of that, from the statement. And whoever desires expansion thereon, let him read the six Books, one of which is called the Book of Form and the Former, the second the Book of Motion ٦ and the Moved, the third the Book of Soul and the Ensouled > and the fourth the Book ... < and the fifth the Book of Sense and the Sensible and the sixth the Book of Nature and the Natural, and we have indeed given full account in each one of these Books of all that is said therein of ٩ the opinions of men and have made plain the truth in it; and they are Books needed by every one of men, and not least in the science of philosophy and of the Law also. And we have mentioned the matter of the Law in the margins of our Books because the first Law is only for the philosophers alone, since it was ١٢\n\n\n## p. 510 (leaf n515)\n\nMost of the philosophers were prophets such as Noah and Idris and Pythagoras and Thales the ancient and upon the like of that unto Alexander. Then after that, the Law only was everlasting ٣ and descended among the Christians and among Islam thereafter. As for the Sabians and the Magians, they are a people from the branches of the philosophers at last, and that is because the Sabians are from the end upon the kind of star-worshippers and not like the end. As for the Magians, they are from the time of ٦ Plato in the worship of fire, and that is because Plato opened for them this path when he said: the world is generated from fire and earth; then he said in another place: from the sun and the center. Zoroaster took that and established for them therein their origin upon which ٩ they are. As for the Jews, they are a people stripped of religion while they do not doubt that they are holding fast to the Torah, yet they are in deviation from it and opposition to it. If you desire expansion in that also, then read the Book of al-Ishtimal and the Book of the Image, for in the two of them is ١٢ of the explanation of these religions what exceeds description and the tradition is full of branches.\n\n\n## p. 511 (leaf n516)\n\nAnd that is because when we returned to the highest station, meaning the rank and what is prescribed in it, we assigned it to the second rank, so that the part of the first at the second was the part of the third or the like. Thus we knew that every three of the first rank and what is in it equals one of the second. And we compared between the first also and the third, and it was as one to five. And likewise we compared between it and the fourth, and it was as one to eight. So the ratio of three from five is the ratio of the like and two-thirds, and the ratio of three to eight is the ratio of two likes and two-thirds, and the ratio of five from eight is the ratio of the like and three parts from five. And some of the elders chose in that to transfer it to the example of the ratios of music, so that the giving to things would be complete on the example of the giving of the planets and their ratios on the example of what we said before this section of this chapter and on the example of what we shall say of it and expand upon later when mentioning these stations from the judgments of the planets and the forms of their actions and their givings in this world and its genera and its species and its individuals. And this example which the elder mentioned is from music, not in the noble high ratio which is the ratio of the like and the half and the third which leads to the ratio of the double. And the cause of the difference of that is only on account of the first rank concerning which there is doubt. And that is because if we made the second rank four and the third six and the fourth eight, the matter would be straight in that. And the ratios are not perfected in four ranks, because the ranks are always three, meaning the beginning and the middle and the end, which is the triplication which...\n\n\n## p. 512 (leaf n517)\n\nIt has informed us of it, Nature. And indeed it is the sign of perfection and in that are symbols not hidden\nin the intellectual <sciences> and in the religious sciences, and this is not the place\n٣ for the explanation of these things.\nI say: since the ranks were four, as has been said concerning them, and since\nthat which possesses the most equitable mean is the third, it necessarily follows from that that the ranks\n٦ of the Natures should be three, namely the first, the second and the third, and that the equitable\ncomplete ratios in them should be those possessing like and half. And these are the ratios of the balanced\nprojections which do not go out to the preponderant extreme. So whoever wishes to apply the ratio of the Natures\n٩ and the ranks of the qualities to the ratios of the planets and the first motion and what is said\nby the masters of judgments and the masters of talismans and the philosophers, let him set the ratio\nof the Natures according to that, which is the first posited thing, like the four, and this is\n١٢ the first rank; then that which possesses like and half, which is six, and it is the second rank;\nthen that which possesses double, which is that which possesses like and third, and it is the third rank. And these are\n١٥ the Natures of all existing things, from foods and drugs and drugs and the physician and their like,\nfrom animals and plants and the Stone and their parts used in all pleasures\nand the treatment of diseases and the perfuming of limbs and garments and their like. As for the discourse\n١٨ concerning the properties and poisons and talismans and all the preponderant things, speech\nconcerning them falls outside this system, because the matter in them is greatly disparate. And that\n\n\n## p. 513 (leaf n518)\n\nThat the first one, meaning that which is in the three ranks, is transformed into bodies and increases in their powers and states and perfects them in beauty and does not waste them and improves their states when it is used with moderation and at the times of need for it and in the matters for which it is suitable ٣ and compatible with them. And I say regarding the things which are in the fourth rank the opposite of that exactly, and that is that they transform the bodies of animals to themselves and corrupt them at once and dissolve their composition and alter their states very rapidly and are not transformed into the bodies of animals ٦ and accord with the temperament to the utmost accord and oppose it to the utmost opposition. And this is the opposite of what was said regarding those first three ranks. And also, the amount of Natures which is in them increases greatly over the amount of those first ones, and if the least little of ٩ these which are in the fourth rank existed it would equal the last of what is in the third rank, let alone the second and the first and the beginnings of what is in the third.\nFrom the sixth treatise\n(٤)\n١\nAnd I say: the gift of that ninth sphere—and the first in truth—from itself to the sphere of the fixed stars is only the perpetual motion by which it is moved ١٥\n\n\n## p. 514 (leaf n519)\n\nfrom the east to the west and this motion is from the sphere a forced motion. And indeed the motion of the sphere of the planets which is from the west to the east [and] it is the motion of its essence and as it is said by its nature. ٣ And the disputes here — O my brother — are not few nor slight but many and difficult also. And that is because the astrologers in particular deny the existence of the ninth sphere and make it the end of the equator or another circle which they imagine. Because the sphere according to them ٦ moves by its essence with two different motions: one of them from the west to the east and it is in every hundred years one part so that the motion of the sphere of the fixed stars becomes one in thirty-six thousand years, and it moves this ٩ motion by its essence. And it also moves by its essence this same motion until it cuts from whichever point it began the motion from it until it returns to that same position in twenty-four hours which is the measure of a day and a night. And a group says: Indeed ١٢ the sphere moves by its essence that long motion which is in every hundred years a degree, and it has been said that it is in less than a hundred years, and that the other motion only occurs in it by a forcer upon it. And a group opposed that and said: Indeed the ninth sphere ١٥ moves with a motion which is the swiftest of motions, and the sphere of the fixed stars receives that motion and slows in its motion because it encounters this swift motion, and each one of them moves its motion by its essence and there is no mover for them \n١٨\n\n\n## p. 515 (leaf n520)\n\nDiscourse on the motion of the sphere and everything that is self-moved (.....). And we need to clarify what is in that, because it is the cause for understanding the actions of the stars; and we do not mention in this our book anything of the causes that are not connected with the science of talismans and are of no use in it at all, except according to what cannot be dispensed with; and everything >that< we state regarding it is by necessity, if God the Exalted wills.\nSo I say: there is no state more helpful for understanding these meanings than the refutation of these opinions and the establishment of the necessary opinion in that. As for the statement of the astrologers, it is manifestly contradictory indeed; and that is because what they relate concerning the affair of the sphere is altogether impossible, because it is not a matter that can be imagined in thought at all. Do you not see that whenever a thing is moved, it is not without being either self-moved or moved by a mover that compelled it to that motion; and that a thing self-moved is doubtful in its existence except by way of latitude in speech. And this is a long chapter; whoever desires to consider it and to stand upon it, let him read our book on motion and the moved; and if what concerns him is the statement that we need for this Work, let him take that from this chapter, for it is sufficient.\nAnd I say also: * whenever it is moved by itself or by a mover that compelled it to the motion, then it is moved only by one motion and toward one direction at one time; and that is because the imaginer cannot imagine a thing moving either by itself or\n\n\n## p. 516 (leaf n521)\n\nmoves for it in one time toward the right and the left together, and not toward the high and the low, and not toward the front and the back together, because when the body moves, for example, toward one of the directions, in the state of its movement toward that direction it is necessary that it move toward the opposite direction to it, and this is impossible, separately and in addition to being absurd. Let us draw for that a figure that is perceived by sense, so I say: the example of what the masters of the stars indicated concerning that is the transference of the body to the two opposite directions together in one time and one state, not * to any of the contrary directions. So let us draw a circle and divide it by two diameters passing through the center and mark upon it a b j d, and let us divide arc 1 b into two equal parts at point z, and let us also divide arc a b j at point h, and let us also divide arcs b r j d into two equal parts at points t y, and let us mark at point a the South and at point d the North, and let us mark at point b the East and at point j the West, according to this example:\n\n\n## p. 517 (leaf n522)\n\nI say: the circle ABGD moves from east to west in the time of twenty-four hours until it returns to the place from which the motion began. ٣ I say: the circle ABGD moves, together with its own motion, from the direction of the east to the west [and] from the west to the east, either in a time equal to its motion from the east to the west, or faster, or slower. I say: this is impossible, absurd, and a contradiction that cannot be. That is because when the circle ABGD begins its motion from point B it ends [٢٣٩] at point A; however, when it begins its motion from point B to point A it began from point G and ended at point A; likewise it may proceed from point A to point G, yet it proceeds from point A to ٩ point B. I say: B and G move together until they both arrive at point G, and they move in this manner until B arrives at G and G is in the place of B, in one single circle and in one single time; and this cannot be imagined by the Intellect nor can it stand in the imagination. ١٢ O glory be to God, how far what these people say is from both Intellect and sense-perception together; and when they are asked for the proof of that they fall silent, and this is most disgraceful. This is what is to be replied to the astrologers. ١٥ As for those who say that the two motions are opposed because the aethereal sphere also moves, this is a great error. The first who originated this difficulty and confused people about it was Galen, who refuted Aristotle in passages of his books. ١٨\n\n\n## p. 518 (leaf n523)\n\nAnd in his book On the First Mover and in his book On the Demonstration, and that is because I believe that Galen never knew what he was saying at all in these passages and the doubts. And I say: \n٣ that this objection only occurred to Galen because the First Mover must be moved when it moves what it moves, and we have said many times that this leads and draws to the actual existence of what has no end, and this is an impossible absurdity.\n٦ And this is invalidated from very many aspects, among them that what is moved exists only as a body, and among them that it exists only as compounded of a substrate matter and motion, and for this reason we said that what is moved by itself is doubtful because either its whole essence is motion and this does not subsist by itself, or part of it is motion and part of it is an essence and these two do not become one essence. And also motion is an accident in what is moved by it while essence is a substance, so how can the essence of what its essence \n١٢ is a substance be partly an accident, and many examples of that for which it is not possible to exhaust the discourse here. And among that is what you now say, for it is the ultimate point in this matter, namely that everything that is moved is moved only by a mover that moved it, so if that were extended to \n١٥ the point that everything moved is moved only by a mover that moved it, then that would be without end, so it is necessary that the matter terminate at a mover that moves things while in its own essence it is not moved, as is the case in the lover and in the actions of the senses like the magnet \n١٨ and other than it and as was said at first concerning it. And what leads to clarifying the state in these principles\n\n\n## p. 519 (leaf n524)\n\nAnd the necessary arguments that have already passed in our discourse, among them that it is not [something] except a body (jasad) and it is not [something] except composite, and we proceed from that to what remains <of> the divisions, and the discourse concerning them, if God Exalted wills. I say: Our statement concerning the moved [thing] that it is not [something] except a body (jasad) is because motion does not subsist by itself, since it is an accident, and it does not occur in the simple substance, since motion does not occur upon the simple on account of its remoteness; rather, translation belongs only to the body (jasad), and translation is the noblest of the kinds of motions and the most excellent of them. So if the First Mover were moved, it would be a body (jasad) on this condition. Discourse on all these chapters is difficult, and it is not possible for us to expand in their explanation and to extend discourse on their condition, so let the examiner be content with this allusion here; and if he desires to go deep into them and to gain knowledge of them, then let him refer in that to the books which contain them, and it is permissible to extend discourse on them; but as for here and in the likes of these books, we only aim at them by allusion alone, and therefore we say much and urge the examiner in these sciences to the mathematical sciences and study and the likes of that. As for our statement “and it is not [something] except composite,” [it is] because everything that is moved must be composite, since the composite is divided into two divisions: either composite of similar parts like flesh and bone and the likes of that, or composite of dissimilar parts and of what are not of one father, like the human being from bone and flesh and sinew and veins.\n\n\n## p. 520 (leaf n525)\n\nAnd the like of that. The moving body comes to be from a body and from motion, so it is composite; and therefore it was said of the First Mover that it is form only and separate from all matters, so that in truth it is the simple thing that deserves this name absolutely. For if you consider, you know that everything beneath the First Mover is composite, either from collective substances or from matter and some accident. As for the First Mover, it is one thing only, nothing else mixes with it, and it is eternally at rest. As for the sphere of the fixed stars, it is also composite, because it is from matter, form, and motion; its matter is the body that is in the first noble actuality, and its form is the sphere that is the form of the Soul and its essence, because it is the eternal form that is not overtaken by corruption and does not become too narrow for anything, since it is the widest of all measures and in it is what may be said of the circle; and as for its motion, it is at rest from all motions except the perfect translational motion by which it deserves to be living, because it does not move all of them by its essence <...> and as is said from its interior, not from its exterior, in the manner of pushing and pulling. And the meaning of our saying “what was and is moving” and, regarding the First Mover, that it is at rest, is that the people intend thereby that it is impossible for it ever to be—meaning the First Mover—whereas in the sphere it is.\n\n\n## p. 521 (leaf n526)\n\nIt is not moved by other than this kind of translational motion. Galen has refuted this\nin this [matter] and spoke about it and supposed that he had brought a benefit when he began to explain in his book on\nthe proof that the sphere is living by [the fact] that it has translational motion, and he began to say: that ٣\nthe sphere moves toward the six directions from right and left and front and back\nand the rest of the remaining ones. It escaped him that it has no need of that for establishing life for the sphere\nsince it is established for it that it is self-transferred from its own essence even if it transfers only in a circle, and that ٦\nis because [it is] not that the body transfers toward the six directions and in them what was living, because\nthe dead also can possibly be moved toward all these directions, but rather the living\nis what is self-transferred in the six directions whether all or some of them. But the errors ٩\nof this man are many in all his books.\nSince we have made this clear, I say: that which [٢١٤] remains of the divisions\nis one, and it is the correct [one], namely that the sphere is moved by a mover that moves it ١٢\nwhile [the mover] is not moved, and that it is self-moved toward the first mover while the first mover\nrestrains it in its motion toward the opposite [direction]. The dispute of people concerning\nthese two primary motions has been prolonged, and each party has spoken according to what its knowledge has reached. ١٥\nThe first of that is that we know the motion of the sphere of the planets is coming from west\nto east, and likewise the motion of all that is within it of the spheres of the wandering planets\nand of the epicyclic spheres that are in it of what has an epicyclic sphere, and all that ١٨\n\n\n## p. 522 (leaf n527)\n\ntravelling from the west direction to the east, and they are many except that the disagreement of people also in that is very much. That is because some people said: they are fifty-\n٣ five motions, and they are the people of truth and demonstration. And in that are many sciences and benefits heard greatly, whether from the side of religion or from the side of the stars or from the side of philosophy or from the side of astronomy. And we had already clarified and spoken in every one\n٦ of its meaning according to what the statement required, and we shall mention these motions and divide them into their directions, for speech about them is tiring and very abstruse, and I hope that that may reach your understanding soon without tiring, if God Exalted wills.\n٩ And I say: many of the people have supposed that these two motions are opposed like the case in the motion of rectitude which is from the middle and to it, but the matter is not so, because those differ and oppose only by place and direction.\n١٢ And these, none of these two matters occurs to them. And Aristotle has given an example of that and has expanded the statement about it in his book On the Heaven and the World from the first and second discourses, and it does no harm that we allude * to that, for speech about it is the speech\n١٥ about the actions of the stars and how * they are; and if you do not understand this section you will not understand that at all, because speech about the motions is the speech about the actions of the stars and their bestowals. And I hope that you encompass it with knowledge, for if you grasp that you have indeed attained success.\n\n\n## p. 523 (leaf n528)\n\nO my brother, by the science of talismans and the judgments of the stars according to their realities. And that to which Plato alluded concerning the grasping of the obscure matters and the secrets of the Wisdom and the employing of the celestial things and the causes of the actions of the hidden substance to which there is no path and no ٣ way upon it * — for we shall now bring it in this place of this book and in what follows it, if God the Exalted wills.\nSo I say: the two motions are one, with no difference between them, and that is because they are one ٦ thing and each one of them does not perform other than the act of the other. And that is because they are two circles upon the middle and each one of them does not contend with the other * in its place.\nAnd that is because when we draw (٥) an arc of a circle upon which are a b and the upper one is ٩ that which moves, for example, from the direction of the east to the west and we oppose it with another motion like it running upon an arc j d from its interior and the center upon which the two revolve is center z, then I say: the two circles a b j d are both one single circle. ١٢\nAnd the proof of that is that the cause in that is that the revolution of the two is upon the middle,\nand the middle is only [١٤٠] one single direction. And it is not like the two rectilinear motions one of which ascends and the other descends, and that is because their opposition is ١٥ manifest — only it stops them at their termination > ...... < , and that is because fire\n\n\n## p. 524 (leaf n529)\n\nFor example it rests > * in the upper * < and moves downward by forced motion. And likewise is the case in the two motions of the earth. As for the motion that is upon the middle ٣ it is one, for the line ab ascending from the center to the circumference differs according to the kind of motion, and that is because it always moves at the center and this is the direction that was mentioned there, and this [one] is not found in the two circular motions because they ٦ do not rest in one of the directions and move in the other direction, but rather man imagines the case in the difference of the two arc motions as the case that is imagined in the two rectilinear motions. And if the observer reflects upon what was said in that he knows that ٩ the middle is one and that both motions proceed upon it and that opposition does not belong to them because each one of the two motions meets the other in a direction opposite to its motion. For upon the like of that is the case in the two rectilinear motions, ١٢ and it is not because one of them is higher and the other motion is lower that the two motions opposed, but rather they differed only from the two aspects of the positions that necessitated force and nature and the like of that. So if the observer reflects upon it he knows that the case in that ١٥ has no cause because of the meeting of the lines in the two directions but because of rest and motion. And that is because circular motion has only one direction, therefore it was complete. And also because it is the first it was complete because the first\n\n\n## p. 525 (leaf n530)\n\nThe preceding, which is the complete; that is because if it were not so, the complete would not exist, rather all things would be deficient, because it is not possible that the First, which has no cause for its being, is the complete thing, or the second, which has a cause for its being; and this is not among those matters requiring much investigation for its clarification. The First is the complete thing, and the First complete is the circle, because the straight line ends and stops, and what stops after its motion, its motion does not belong to it essentially, and its opposite may oppose it, which is separation from what it is upon, meaning rest. And that is because rest is not an essence like motion, rather it is only the separation of the moving thing from motion. And since that is so, the moving thing has become non-moving, and this is the matter in which there is separation of the essence or the complete cause which belongs to it. As for before, in the motion of the straight line, that is not because one of them ascends and the other descends, but rather because of the motion belonging to it and its cessation from it. As for the circular, it resembles in its revolution from both directions the straight line, since each one of them meets the other in a direction contrary to its motion, but there is no separation for it from what belongs to it of motion by stopping; rather its essence is moving. And if you consider that, it becomes clear to you the distinction of the people regarding the difference of motions and their similarity. And therefore this world was complete of difference and contradiction and corruption, and it is at one time in potentiality and at one time in actuality, and likewise\n\n\n## p. 526 (leaf n531)\n\nJust as everything that is in it. And likewise the higher world was upon a world of permanence wherein there is no corruption, and it has no cycle and none of its parts, and everything in it is in actuality and there is no potentiality in it and none of the states of this lower world in it, as its Creator, exalted, preserved it, or however it may be said concerning it, for disagreement here is abundant.\nThen this [world] was divided now into a third division, that being that when the living was divided into two: rational and bestial, the rational is not from the use of the Soul alone but rather from the use of the Intellect and its perfection. And that is that the Intellect is the bestowal upon the Soul and the apprehension of the states of existents according to their realities, and investigation, reflection, and rectitude in works and regimens; and it was revealed before that it is a divine person in its coming-to-be. And that is that a group says: the concern of God, exalted, with man was greater than with all other existents, whether from their animals or from those remaining; and therefore there were among them the prophets, the imams, and the saints, peace be upon them. Then the rational animal was also divided into that which is form and matter, like man, and into that which is form without matter, just as it is called spiritual and a lofty person and the like of that; and this division, according to the opinion of the people of the Law, [consists of] the angels, and according to the opinion of a party of the ancients [consists of] the stars, and according to the opinion of others [consists of] hidden souls [imperceptible] to the senses. And these living persons were divided...\n\n\n## p. 527 (leaf n532)\n\nTo what has been said and to what has not been said, for the Intellect among them is the king as has been said, and that is the other; and the non-Intellect is the jinni, and it too, according to the opinion of Plato in particular, is a thing which the division has necessitated. We have already said what is in it in the Books of the Properties and their explanation and have treated it exhaustively, and we have said ٣ what are the devils and the jinn and what are the rebellious ones and what are the incantations and what is incantation and what are the soothsayers and what is physiognomy, and we have mentioned the states of Satih and Fadil and Quss and their like and how their states are in their operations, and we have said what are the fumigations and what are the offerings and what are the sacrifices and what ٦ are the bloods and what are all the rest of these things....\n\n\n## p. 528 (leaf n533)\n\n< <literal English translation of the body>",
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