In our case, this hypothetical boundary is our ego. Ego imagines within itself a fictitious lordship, power, and knowledge, and so posits a bounding line, hypothesizes a limit to the all-encompassing Attributes, and says: "This is mine, and the rest is His." Ego thus makes a division. By means of the miniature measure it contains, ego slowly comes to understand the true nature of the Divine Attributes and Names.

Through this imagined lordship, ego can understand the Lord-ship of the Creator of the universe. By means of its own apparent ownership, it can understand the real Ownership of its Creator, saying: "As I am the owner of this house, the Creator is the Owner of this creation." Through its partial knowledge, ego comes to understand His Absolute Knowledge. Through its defective, acquired art, it can intuit the Exalted Fashioner's primary, originative art. For example, ego says: "I built and arranged this house, so there must be One Who made and arranged this universe."

Ego contains thousands of states, attributes, and perceptions that, to some extent, disclose and make knowable the Divine Attributes and essential Qualities. It is like a measure, a mirror, or an instrument for seeing or finding out, an entity with an indicative function. It has no meaning in itself, but discloses meaning outside itself. It is a strand of consciousness from the thick rope of human existence, a fine thread from the celestial weave of humanity's essential nature, an alif from the book of human character.

That character has two aspects or faces. One face looks toward good and existence and only receives passively what is given; it cannot create. The other face looks toward evil and derives from non-existence. Here ego is active. Ego's real nature is indicative-like a letter that has no meaning by itself-and points to the meaning of things other than itself. Its lordship is completely hypothetical, and its own existence is so weak and insubstantial that it cannot bear or support anything on its own. Rather, ego is a kind of scale or measure showing the degrees and quantities of what is measured. The Necessary Being's absolute, all-encompassing and limitless Attributes can become known through it.

Those who know and realize that this is the reality of their essential nature and act accordingly are included in: Truly he succeeds and prospers that purifies it (91:9). Such people truly carry out the trust and, through their ego, see what the universe is and what duties it performs. They also see that their ego confirms the information they have gathered about the universe. As a result, this information will retain the quality of light and wisdom for them, and will not be changed into darkness and futility. When ego has performed its duty in this way, it renounces its claim to lordship and hypothetical ownership (mere devices of measurement) and proclaims: "His is the sovereignty and ownership of all beings, and to Him is due all praise and thanks. His is the Judgment and rule, and to Him you are returning." Thus it achieves true worship and attains the rank of the best pattern of creation.

But if ego forgets the Divine purpose of its creation, abandons the duty of its nature, and views itself as a self-existing being independent of the Creator, it betrays the trust and falls into the class of those warned and threatened by: And he fails that corrupts it (91:10). This development is responsible for all the kinds of polytheism, evil, and deviation that have caused the heavens, Earth, and the mountains to be terrified of assuming the trust-lest they might be led to associate partners with God.

If ego, which is only an insubstantial alif, a thread, a hypothetical line, is not perceived in its true essence, it grows and swells until it gradually permeates all parts of a human being. Like some huge monster, it completely swallows such people so that they and their faculties may consist of nothing more than an ego. Eventually, the ego of the human race gives strength to the individual ego through individual and national racism. This causes the ego, swollen by support from the ego of race, to contest, like Satan, the Majestic Maker's commands. Finally taking itself as a yardstick, it compares everyone and everything with itself, divides God's sovereignty between them and other causes, and begins to associate partners with God in the most grievous manner. Such people are referred to in: To associate partners with God is the highest wrongdoing·(31: 13).

Ego's case is analogous to a thief who has stolen money from the public treasury-he attempts to justify his action by saying that he took a certain sum for each of his friends. That is why one who claims self-ownership ends up believing and claiming that everything owns itself.

This betrayal causes ego to sink into absolute ignorance. Even if it has absorbed thousands of branches of science, its ignorance is only compounded by its knowledge. Whatever glimmers of knowledge of God it may have obtained from the universe through its senses or reflective powers are extinguished, for it can no longer find within itself anything with which to confirm, polish, and maintain them. Whatever comes to ego is stained with the colors within it. Even if pure wisdom comes, it becomes absolutely futile within an ego Stained with by atheism, polytheism, or other forms of denying the All-Mighty. If the whole universe were full of shining indications of God, a dark point in that ego would hide them from view, as though they were invisible.

In truth, however, the essential quality proper to human nature (and to ego within that nature) is to point outward to what is other than itself. True to that nature, ego is a most sensitive scale and accurate measure, a comprehensive index and perfect map, an all-reflecting mirror, and a fitting calendar and diary for the universe (discussed this in The Eleventh Word).

We now shed some light on the truth of this subject. Consider the following: From Adam's time until the present, two great currents or lines of thought have spread their branches in all directions and in every class of humanity, just like two tall trees. One is the line of Prophethood and religion; the other is that of philosophy and human wisdom. Whenever they agree and unite (whenever philosophy joins religion in obedience and service to it), humanity has experienced brilliant happiness and collective life. But whenever they have followed separate paths, truth and goodness have accumulated on the side of Prophethood and religion, whereas error, evil, and deviation have been drawn to the side of philosophy. We shall elaborate on the origin and foundations of those two lines.

Philosophy, whenever it has split from religion, has taken the form of a tree of Zaqqum spreading its dark veils of ascribing partners to God and of misguidance. On the branch of empowered reason, it has yielded the fruits of atheism, materialism, and naturalism for the intellect's consumption. On the branch of empowered anger and passion, it has produced such tyrants as Nimrod, Pharaoh, and Shaddad to tyrannize people.[1] On the branch of empowered animal desires and appetites, it has produced the fruits of goddesses, idols and those who have claimed divine status for themselves.[2]

In contrast, the blessed line of Prophethood, which takes the form of the Tuba tree of worship, has borne the fruit of Prophets, Messengers, saints, and the righteous in the garden of Earth and on the branch of empowered reason. On the branch of empowered anger, the branch of defense against and repelling of evil, it has yielded the fruits of virtuous and just rulers. On the branch of empowered attractiveness, it has borne the fruits of generous, benevolent persons of good character and modest bearing throughout history. As a result, this line has demonstrated how humanity is the perfect fruit of creation.

We shall now shed light on ego's two aspects or faces as the origin and principal seed of these two lines of thought. One face is represented by Prophets and the other by philosophers. As each group controls one face, they diverge.

The face represented by Prophethood is the origin of pure worship and servitude to God, for our ego knows that it is His servant. Ego realizes that it serves One other than itself and that its essential nature has only an indicative function. Ego understands that it bears the meaning of one other than itself and that it can be meaningful only when it points to that One upon Whom its existence depends. Ego believes that its existence and life depend upon that One's creativity and Existence. Its feeling of ownership is illusory, for ego knows that it enjoys only an apparent, temporary ownership by the real Owner's permission and that it has only a shadow-like reality. Ego understands that it is a contingent entity, an insignificant shadow manifesting the true and necessary Reality. Its function of serving as a measure and balance for its Creator's Attributes and essential Qualities is a conscious willing service.

This is how Prophets, pure and righteous ones, and saints who follow the Prophets' line perceive ego's nature. As a result, they resign sovereignty to the Exalted Sovereign of creation and believe that He has no partner or like in His Sovereignty, Lordship, and Divinity. He does not need an assistant or a deputy. In addition, He possesses the key to and has absolute power over all things. These people also believe that causes are but a veil of appearances, and that nature is the sum of His creation's rules, an assemblage of His laws, of how He displays His Power.

This radiant, luminous, beautiful face of ego always has been like a living seed full of meaning. From it, the Exalted Creator has created the Tuba tree of worship, the blessed branches of which have adorned all parts of our world with its illustrious fruits. Through this face, the past's darkness is lifted and we understand that the past is not a domain of eternal extinction or a vast graveyard, as conceived by philosophy, but rather a source of light and a bright, shining ladder with many rungs from which all souls traversing it may leap into the future and eternal happiness. It is also a radiant abode and a garden for souls that have left this world, cast off their heavy loads, and been set free.

The second face, represented by philosophy, regards ego as having an essential meaning of its own. It says that ego has an independent existence, is an index only to itself, and labors wholly on its own behalf. It considers ego's existence as necessary and essential, and falsely assumes that ego owns its being and is the real lord and master of its own domain. Philosophy supposes ego to be a permanent reality that has, as its duty, the quest for self-perfection for the sake of self-esteem.

As a result of such mistaken views, philosophers have built their schools of thought on corrupt foundations. Even such eminent philosophers as Plato and Aristotle, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and al-Farabi (Alfarabius), maintained that people's ultimate aim is to make themselves like the Necessary Being; in other words, to actually resemble Him. This conclusion was greatly mistaken. Such views provoked ego and set it free to run in the valleys of polytheism. This opened the way to associating partners with God via such practices as the worship of causes, idols, natural forces, and stars. They closed the doors to people's perception and confession of impotence and weakness, insufficiency and need, deficiency and imperfection, which are basic to human beings, and thus blocked the road to worship and servitude to God. Immersed in naturalism and unable to escape from ascribing partners to God, they could not locate the wide open doors of gratitude.

In contrast, Prophethood considered that humanity's aim and function is to be molded by Divine values and achieve good character. Prophets believed that people should perceive their impotence and seek refuge with Divine Power, perceive their weakness and rely on Divine Strength, realize their insufficiency and essential poverty and trust in Divine Mercy, know their need and seek help from Divine Riches, see their faults and plead for pardon through Divine Forgiveness, and perceive their inadequacy and glorify Divine Perfection.

Philosophy's deviation from the Right Path, in disobedience to religion, caused ego to take up the reins and gallop into error. Consequently, a tree of Zaqqum has grown out of such an ego and swallowed up more than half of humanity. The fruits it has presented on the branch of animal desires and appetites are idols and female deities, for according to the principles of philosophy, power is approved. "Might is right" is the norm. Its maxims are: "All power to the strongest"; "Winner takes all," and "In power there is right."[3] ·It has given moral support to tyranny, encouraged dictators, and urged oppressors to claim divinity. By ascribing the beauty in "works of art" and the threads of which they are made to the works and threads themselves, and not to the Maker and Fashioner's pure, sacred Beauty, it says: "How beautiful it is," not: "How beautifully made it is," and thus considers each as an idol worthy of adoration.

In addition, philosophy adulates a cheap, self-conceited, ostentatious, superficial, transient, physical beauty that may be sold to anyone. This has led people into pretension and caused these new "idols" to display hypocritical reverence before admirers.[4] On the branch of empowered anger and passion, it has nurtured the fruits of greater and lesser Nimrods, Pharaohs, and Shaddads to tyrannize unfortunate people. On the branch of empowered reason, it has yielded such fruits as atheism, materialism, and naturalism, all of which it has embedded into the human mind and thereby thrown people into confusion. To clarify this truth, we shall give a few examples and compare the results originating from Prophethood's sound foundations with those arising from philosophy's rotten foundations.

First example:·According to one of Prophethood's principles concerning individual life, namely, the rule: "Be molded by Divine values," there is the instruction: "Seek distinction through Divine values and turn toward the All-Mighty with humility, recognizing your impotence and insufficiency, and be a servant in His presence." But philosophy, due to its self-oriented principle of seeking human perfection in being like the Necessarily Existent Being, instructs: "Try to imitate the Necessarily Existent Being." This is impossible, for while the Necessarily Existent Being is infinitely powerful, omnipotent, self-sufficient, and without need, our essence has been mixed with infinite impotence, weakness, poverty, and need.

Second example:·Among Prophethood's principles of social life's fundamental conditions are mutual assistance, magnanimity, and generosity. These function in the reciprocal cooperation of all things-from the sun and the moon down to particles. For example, plants help animals, animals help people, and particles of food help the body's cells. Philosophy, however, considers conflict to be social life's fundamental condition. In fact, conflict springs from tyrants, brutes, and savage people misusing their innate dispositions. Conflict is so fundamental and general to the philosophers' line of reasoning that they absurdly claim that "life is conflict."

Third example:·One sublime result and exalted principle of Prophethood about Divine Unity is: "That which has unity can proceed only from one [unitary being]." Philosophy states that "only one proceeds from one." Thus, as only one thing can proceed from one person, everything comes from that one by means of intermediaries. This misleading principle opened the way to a most grievous polytheism. By presenting the Omnipotent and Absolutely Self-Sufficient as needing impotent intermediaries, it gave all causes and intermediaries a kind of partnership in His Godhood and allotted only the creation of the "First Intellect" to the Exalted Creator. If the Illuminists (Ishraqiyyun), considered among the foremost of philosophers, exerted themselves for such nonsense, just imagine how absurd are the theories of such inferior philosophers as materialists and naturalists.

Fourth example: According to one of Prophethood's wise principles that There is nothing that does not glorify Him with praise·(17:44), the purpose and wisdom in creation, particularly of living creatures, may have one aspect looking to the creature itself but many aspects looking to the Creator. For example, a fruit has as much wisdom and as many purposes involved in its creation as all fruits of a tree. This principle, which is pure truth, results from Divine Wisdom.

According to philosophy's principles, which lack true wisdom, every living creature's purpose looks to itself or is connected with benefits for humanity. This means that creation is so senseless that the purpose of a mountain-like tree is only to yield a tiny fruit. It is one of the disastrous results of philosophy that such great Muslim philosophers as Ibn Sina and al-Farabi, infatuated by philosophy's apparent glamour and deceived into following it, were considered only ordinary believers. Hujjat al-Islam al-Ghazzali did not accord them even that rank.

The leaders of the Mu'tazili school, who were among the most learned scholars of Islamic theology, were attracted by philosophy's glitter and became closely involved with it. Considering reason to be a self-sufficient and sound measure for determining the truth, they could not rise above the rank of heretical or novitiate belief. Furthermore, since they took pleasure in philosophy's flattery of their evil-commanding selves, such famous literary figures in Islamic history as Abu al-A'la al-Ma'arri (notorious for his pessimism) and Omar Khayyam (known for his pitiful weeping) basked in philosophy's applause. However, they earned contempt, condemnation, and restraining reproofs from people of truth and perfection, who told them: "You are being impertinent. You are approaching heresy and leading others to heresy."

Another consequence of philosophy's rotten basis is that ego, instead of being viewed as insubstantial, is seen as self-regarding and self-dependent. This view has caused it to change from a "light vapor" into a "viscous liquid." Due to our indifference to creation's miraculous truths (as we now are "too familiar" with them) and our preoccupation with this world and natural sciences, that liquid hardens. After this, due to our neglect and denial, ego "freezes." It loses its refinement and becomes opaque, due to ingrained rebelliousness, gradually becoming denser and enveloping the person. It then ·expands with all sorts of human fancies.

Finally supposing all people and even causes to be like itself-though they deny it-it considers each one a Pharaoh. At this point, it contests the Exalted Creator's commands: Who could revive these bones when they have rotted away into dust? (36:78) and, in defiance, accuses the Absolutely Omnipotent of impotence. Ego even goes so far as to debase the Exalted Creator's Attributes by rejecting or deforming the Attributes it deems unsuited to its interest or disagreeable to its Pharaoh-like evil-commanding self.

Some philosophers considered the All-Mighty "self-bound" (i.e., constrained by His own decree) and thus denied Him choice. They rejected creation's endless testimony, which proves that He has choice. Although all creatures show that the Creator has choice, each with its own individuality and order, wisdom and measure, this blind philosophy refuses to see it. Other philosophers claimed that Divine Knowledge does not contain the particulars, thereby denying the Attribute of All-Encompassing Knowledge and refusing to accept creation's true witnessing.

Philosophy also has attributed creative power to nature, thereby attributing a creative effect to causes. Since it does not see the clear stamp upon everything signifying the Creator of all things, philosophy assumes nature to be the originator. It ignores the facts that nature is impotent, inanimate, unconscious, and blind, and that its supposed power comes from chance and necessity, which also are blind. It attributes a part of creation to nature, although every element is but a missive from God, the Eternally-Besought-of-all, relaying thousands of instances of exalted wisdom.

Moreover, philosophers did not find the door to the Resurrection and the Hereafter, which the All-Mighty (with all of His Names), the universe (with all of its truths), Prophethood (with all of its verifications), and the revealed books (with all of their verses) demonstrate. As a result, they denied bodily resurrection and ascribed pre-eternity to souls. Such superstitions give an idea of what their views on other matters would be. Indeed, the powers of evil have flattered their reason and thrown them, in their self-conceit and arrogance, into the abyss of deviation. In the microcosm, they have made ego into an idol or a false deity; in the macrocosm, they have made nature an object of worship. Hence, whoever rejects false deities and believes in God has grasped a most unfailing support that never will give way: God is the All-Hearing, All-Knowing·(2:256).

It is useful to mention here, to elucidate the aforementioned truth, the meaning of an imaginary event I described as a visionary journey in The Gleams. Eight years before I wrote this treatise in Istanbul, during Ramadan, at a time when the Old Said (concerned with philosophy) was about to become the New Said, while pondering over the three ways indicated at the end of Surat al-Fatiha-The way of those upon whom You have bestowed Your grace, not of those who have deserved Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray·(1: 7)-I saw the following:

I was in a vast desert. Earth's face was covered by a layer of murky, depressing, and suffocating clouds. There was no breeze, light, or water. I imagined that dangerous and dreadful monsters were everywhere. It occurred to me that there should be a light, a breeze, and some water at the other side of this land. As it was necessary to get there, I was driven on involuntarily. Worming my way into an underground tunnel-like cave and gradually traveling through the planet, I saw that many people had passed this way before me. They were submerged on all sides. Sometimes I saw their footprints and heard their voices, which later ceased.

O friend, you are with me on this imaginary journey. That land is nature and the philosophy of nature worship. The tunnel is the way opened by philosophical thought to reach the truth. The footprints belonged to famous philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, and the voices I heard were those of such geniuses as Ibn Sina and al-Farabi.[5] ·I occasionally encountered some of Ibn Sina's ideas and principles but, after a time, they would disappear completely. Being unable to proceed, he was submerged before reaching the truth. Anyhow, I showed you a small part of the truth to save you from anxiety. Now I return to my journey.

As I went on, I found that I had two things: a torch to dispel the darkness and a device that was opening a way for me through mighty boulders and rocks, which fell apart one after the other. I was told: "This torch and device have been given to you from the treasury of the Qur'an." After continuing on for a long time, I suddenly realized that I had come out on the other side. I saw a world where everything was rejoicing, and which had bright sunshine in the most beautiful springtime and an enlivening breeze and delicious life-giving water. I thanked and praised God.

Then I realized that instead of being in command of myself, I was being tested by someone. I again found myself under the suffocating cloud in that vast desert. Though now on another path, I still felt urged on by an unseen motive. This time I was traveling on Earth's surface to reach the other side. I saw things so strange and curious that they cannot be described: raging seas, threatening storms-everything caused difficulties for me. As before, I felt my way through them with the help of the equipment that had been given to me from the Qur'an, and so overcame all of them. On the way, I frequently encountered the corpses of other travelers. Barely one in 1,000 had completed this journey. ·However, I was saved from that suffocating cloud and came out the other side, happily, in full view of the shining sun. I breathed in the enlivening breeze and said: "All praise be to God."

Then I started looking around that Paradise-like world. But someone would not let me stay there, for instantly I was returned to that dreadful desert as if I had to see another path. There I saw different sorts of apparatuses-some like airplanes, others like cars and hoists-all of which had descended like lifts. Those who jumped onto them were taken up as far as their power and capacity allowed. I jumped onto one of them, and, in a moment, was raised high above the cloud. I came out among the most beautiful, green, and spectacular mountain tops. The cloud layer only reached halfway up the mountains, and mild breezes, delicious water, and gentle light were everywhere, as were those lift-like luminous vehicles. Although I had seen them in the first two parts of my journey and on Earth's other face, I had not understood what they were. Now I came to realize that they were manifestations of the All-Wise Qur'an's verses.

[1] 1Shaddad was a tyrannical king of Antiquity who ruled in Yemen. (Tr.)

[2] 1The philosophies of ancient Egypt and Babylon, which either practiced magic or were thought to do so because they are represented by a small elite, produced and nurtured Nimrods and Pharaohs. The mire of naturalist philosophy gave birth to idolatry and planted deities in the ancient Greek mind. If humanity draws the veil of nature between Divine light and itself, people will attribute divinity to everything and cause themselves nothing but trouble.

[3] 1The principle of Prophethood says: "Power is inherent in right; right is not inherent in power." It thus halts tyranny and secures justice.

[4] 1In order to appear desirable to their admirers and gain their attention, such people display a kind of "worshipful" attitude through a hypocritical show.

[5] 1If asked: "Who are you to challenge these famous philosophers? While you are like a fly, how dare you challenge the flight of eagles?" I would reply: "I have an eternal teacher like the Qur'an, and so, in matters of the truth and knowledge of God, do not need to attach as much value as a gnat's wing to such eagles, who were students of misguided philosophy and deluded reason. However inferior I am to them, their teacher is far more inferior than mine. With the help of my "teacher"-the Qur'an-nature and materialistic tendencies that led them to drown cannot even wet my toes. An insignificant private who serves a great ruler's laws and commands can achieve more than an insignificant ruler's chief general."