What Is Not Natural Is Not Necessarily Bad
Not everything that is unnatural or unusual is necessarily bad. Unnatural existence can be divided into two types: an existence that is supernatural and transcends nature, and an existence that is defeated by nature and dissolves into it. Likewise, the supernatural can be viewed through two worlds: a higher world and a lower world.
From here, it becomes necessary to distinguish between what transcends nature because it has risen above it, and what departs from it because it has fallen beneath it. Not every departure from the general law of nature moves in the same direction; it may be an ascent, or it may be a descent.
Before understanding the lower world, we must understand the nature of higher existence, because comparing the two reveals the true difference between them.
Removing a Veil May Become a Greater Veil
The meaning of the veil and the removal of the veil has been discussed previously, and it was said that removing a veil may itself become a greater veil. Every time you remove a veil, you may discover that the veil that remains is denser, because the veil you removed was subtler than the veil that has not yet been removed.
For this reason, the process of peeling and exposing is not necessarily a process of true revelation; rather, it may in reality be a process of covering. A person may think that whenever they reveal something, they have exposed the essence, while what they have actually done may be to move the essence into another layer of concealment.
Here we arrive at the question of essence and appearance, which is one of the most important keys to understanding the lower world.
Higher Existence and the Protection of Essence
One of the most important characteristics of higher existence is that the beings within it possess armored, fortified, and dense coverings, meaning that their essence is highly protected from destruction. Natural beings, and even more so lower beings, are exposed to varying degrees of corruption and disappearance.
The principle here is that every exposed essence is vulnerable to decay and dissolution.
In higher existence, the essence is fortified, so it is not exposed to bleeding and destruction as it is in lower existence. Therefore, the higher world, or existence in the original existence, is an existence in which the proportion of corruption is nonexistent, and in which the essence is secured and fortified.
In the lower world, the opposite happens completely.
Iblis as the Echo of the Death of Essence
If we want to speak about Iblis or the Iblisian world away from common discourse, Iblis can be understood as the echo of the death of essence and the reverberation of its exposure.
When the essence becomes exposed and vulnerable to dissolution, the being begins searching for form, because it believes that form and appearance can protect its essence from erosion and destruction.
But the process is exactly reversed.
The one who wants to protect their essence from destruction does not protect it through appearances, because excessive covering of the essence with appearances may itself be a process of exposing the essence. The more a being tries to conceal its essence, the more this indicates that there is something wrong, defective, or diseased within that essence that it fears will be exposed.
As for the possessor of a sound essence, they have no need to conceal their essence.
Here the difference appears between the one who tries to hide something and the one who has no need to hide it. A criminal, for example, tries to conceal the crime because they know that it exposes them to punishment. Likewise, a being that carries something wrong within its essence tries to confine that essence within certain appearances, believing that by doing so it protects itself, while in reality it punishes itself by confining its essence within those appearances.
The more it relies on appearance, the more this indicates weakness in its essence, a lack of awareness of truth, a lack of trust in truth, and a failure to rely upon truth.
The Meaning of Wrongdoing and Bad Deeds
When we say that there is something wrong within a being, wrongdoing should not be understood according to whatever meaning each person chooses according to their own interpretation.
Wrongdoing is everything that stands between a being and itself, between it and its nature, or between it and the possibility of being in its best possible state.
A person suffers when something enters between them and themselves. If a dagger enters the body, the problem is not merely the existence of the dagger, but that it has become a barrier and a cause of separation between the human being and themselves.
From here, bad deeds can be understood as veils and obstacles.
If there is an obstacle within a being, that obstacle makes it incapable of being true to its nature in the best possible form, and corrupts its dispositions, qualities, and behaviors. Therefore, wrongdoing is not merely a separate attribute; it is an obstacle that prevents a being from harmonizing with its nature and also prevents it from rising above nature.
Above Nature and Beneath Nature
If we have a scale that distinguishes between natural existence, the existence above it, and the existence beneath it, then departing from the natural does not always mean deviation.
There is an existence above nature, and there is an existence beneath it.
The one who departs from the general natural law into a state better than the ordinary has transcended convention, not because of circumstances that made them so, but because of something within them that caused them not to follow the bad nature that their circumstances might impose upon them.
A person's circumstances may be bad, while the person themselves is not bad.
This is the meaning of being extraordinary: to depart from the general law that applies universally into a particular law, whose character is creative. We call this existence above nature, which is the existence bearing the creative character.
As for devils or Iblisian beings, they too have departed from the general natural law, but their departure was into unjust laws; they are governed by unjust forces, unjust wills, and unjust intentions, and these are themselves the bad deeds.
Bad deeds are created by the person, and then they lead that person into the world of the Iblisian beings.
Wrongdoing as an Obstacle a Human Being Creates for Themselves
If bad deeds are obstacles, then the human being is the one who creates these obstacles.
How do they create them?
By obstructing nature.
When a human being begins obstructing nature, they become beneath nature. When they begin helping nature improve, they become above nature.
But an important matter must be noted: the goal is not merely to be in your nature.
Many people say, “Return to your nature,” as though nature itself were the goal. But being in one's nature is ordinary, and is not necessarily good or bad. The goal is not to be in your nature, but to rise above nature.
The one who cannot be in their nature has obstacles between themselves and their nature, and these obstacles are wrongdoing. If wrongdoing continues within them, it does not merely prevent them from harmonizing with nature; it also prevents them from transcending it, trapping them within it until they sink into the depths beneath nature.
Therefore, it can be said that Iblis is submerged in the depths of the sea of nature, at its lowest point.
The Prison of Bad Deeds and the Multiplicity of Constraints
Iblis, according to this conception, carries many obstacles that prevent him from ascending. Even if he wanted to ascend, he would not be able to unite his will toward ascent, because he is scattered and divided by multiple bad deeds.
There is not merely one bad deed pulling him downward, but many things.
Whenever he wants to loosen one restraint, he finds himself bound by a thousand other restraints. Whenever he removes one obstacle, another obstacle appears before him.
Here we must distinguish between constraints, laws, boundaries, etiquette, and chains.
Etiquette is not chains; it is their direct opposite.
Etiquette Is Voluntary Commitment
Etiquette is voluntary commitment to the law. You commit yourself to etiquette because you chose to do so, not because there is a voice above your head forcing you to do it.
As for something to which you submit unwillingly, that is not etiquette; it is a law or constraint, and it may be a constraint imposed upon the wrongdoer.
There is a difference between the constraints to which the good adhere and those to which the wicked adhere.
The wicked submit only unwillingly, while the good submit voluntarily. Therefore, the constraints of the good become voluntary etiquette, while the constraints of the wicked become coercive chains.
Since Iblis belongs to the world of aversion, coercion, inevitability, and force, he is bound by chains. Therefore, he sees the law as his enemy and considers it unfair and oppressive, because the law restrains him and casts him into the lowest degrees of existence.
The law is an enemy to him because the law itself treats him as an enemy.
Good Deeds Become Etiquette
Just as bad deeds turn into chains over time, good deeds, by contrast, turn into etiquette.
Etiquette is a superior habit, or a transcendence of habit.
A person may have an additional behavior that is not imposed upon them by their nature, but they choose it voluntarily and lovingly. With continued choice, that additional habit becomes something that elevates them above natural convention.
Thus, good deeds become like vessels ridden by the good and beneficent. They distinguish them from others and make them more particular and more fortified.
In higher existence, beings are armored and fortified because the essence is not exposed to bleeding and corruption. Whatever is lost there is closer to being mere outer layers, and the loss of those outer layers itself contributes to preserving the essence.
In the lower Iblisian world, the opposite happens: they try to preserve the outer layers, believing that preserving them will prevent their disappearance and destruction.
But the mistake is that preventing the outer layers from peeling away and perishing may prevent the essence itself from renewing and remaining.
Why Does Iblis Distort Femininity?
If femininity represents cosmic convention and natural movement, then the distortion of femininity becomes understandable within this structure.
Natural convention is what occurs repeatedly and regularly: the arrival of the sun, the movement of the moon, and the succession of things according to their order. This natural movement is femininity within this conception.
For this reason, Iblis distorts femininity because he sees in it what confines and restricts him within cosmic conventions and prevents him from departing from them.
The existence of the natural female burdens him because she represents the natural movement that he seeks to violate.
Iblis wants to violate convention, but he does not realize that convention cannot be transcended merely by rebelling against it.
The True Supernatural and the Lower Supernatural
The unnatural world is divided into a lower world and an upper world.
The upper world breaks through nature because it has surpassed it.
The lower world attempts to break through nature, but its breaking through does not place it above nature; rather, it places it beneath it.
This is the difference between the true supernatural and the lower supernatural.
Iblis wants to violate nature, convention, and law, and every time he attempts to do so, he becomes more degraded because he cannot reach the opening through which he could escape his prison.
Every attempt to rebel against convention increases his prison, and every attempt to violate the law without understanding it may become a new constraint.
The Law Is a Means, Not an Enemy
To escape the prison of convention, what is required is not to rebel against customs, laws, or constraints, but to know how to use the law.
What is required is to know how to use the constraint so that its negative side does not fall upon you and the law does not become an external authority dominating you.
The law can become a means in your hands.
This does not mean being “above the law” in the sense of being beyond accountability or not subject to it; rather, it means allowing accountability to take place.
If you allow accountability, the process of accounting proceeds quickly and ends quickly. But if you try to obstruct accountability, you impose upon yourself more constraints, surveillance, and scrutiny.
Whoever Complicates the Law Complicates Their Own Accounting
The matter can be imagined through a company subject to periodic auditing by the tax administration.
If the authority asks to inspect the company's records within a normal and ordinary framework, and the company cooperates, there is nothing suspicious about it.
But if the company refuses to cooperate, the question begins: Why does it refuse? What is it hiding? Is there tax evasion? Is there something undisclosed?
Therefore, the more difficult the company makes the auditing process, the greater the suspicion, the greater the surveillance, and the greater the scrutiny, perhaps making the accounting more difficult.
This is the difference between the one who facilitates accounting and the one who tries to evade it.
The one who does not try to evade accountability has an easier accounting, because there is no need for deep scrutiny. But the one who hides and attempts to evade it is subjected to deeper and deeper accounting, and as the accounting deepens, additional reasons for further depth appear.
For this reason, Iblis is among the beings whose accounting is difficult and profound, because he is among those who attempt to evade accountability and conceal what they possess.
Easy Accounting and Difficult Accounting
This meaning also appears in the concept of easy and difficult accounting: there are those whose accounting proceeds with ease, and there are those whose accounting becomes deeper because of what they carry and what they attempt to conceal.
Accounting itself is not the problem, and the law should not become an obstacle.
What is required is to know the laws and to know how to transform the law from something external that dominates you into something internal that becomes your friend.
Because if you regard the law as something external that dominates you and then resist it, you create a state of rebellion, and ultimately you are the one who loses.
There Is No Single Law or Single Authority
There is no freely existing law standing alone, and there is no law that is the only law and is itself governed by nothing.
There is a law that regulates a law, an authority that regulates an authority, and another authority that regulates another authority.
No authority can destroy you absolutely, because judgment proceeds according to multiple laws and multiple levels.
Ultimately, there is the encompassing divine authority that regulates all authorities, and it is governed by a balance that accepts neither error nor injustice.
From here, a person's statement, “I will be wronged,” may result from their lack of knowledge of their own validity and of the possibilities available to them.
There Is Not Only One Door
If one door is not opened for you, this does not mean that existence has closed all its doors before you.
There are other doors that can be knocked upon, and other paths that can be taken.
The one who fails one test may be given another test until they succeed. There is not necessarily a single decisive final test whose failure makes everything come to an end.
There are always doors and paths, and there is no total obstacle that places a human being in a state of absolute paralysis.
From here we can understand the mistake of believing that the corruption of one system means the corruption of the entire system.
There may be corruption at a small level, a subsidiary level, or a detailed level, but it remains within the overall judgment and is capable of being addressed within the greater wisdom.
The Entire System Cannot Be Corrupted
Iblis and those who follow him may imagine that total corruption of the system is possible, but this is not possible within this conception.
There may be a defect in one part, and there may be corruption at one level, but it does not become total corruption of the system, because there is always a higher judgment that regulates it and addresses it.
Therefore, even if you are in the deepest predicament imaginable, this does not mean that it is too late, nor does it necessarily mean that you are doomed.
There are always mechanisms, behaviors, and open doors available to those who repent, return, make mistakes, sin, disobey, and even to those in the most severe states of wrongdoing.
There are always centers of treatment, centers of guidance, centers of education, and centers of instruction.
Even in the deepest predicament, there may be one of the hands of God, or assistance from the forces of God, regardless of how complicated the predicament may be.
What appears extremely complicated to you remains simple compared with the complexity of the divine system.
Therefore, everything can be repaired, except the one who does not want to be repaired and the one who rejects repair itself.
Anyone who possesses a good intention can be repaired, even grain by grain.
The Multiplicity of Authorities and Forces in Existence
In this universe there are countless forces, authorities, and laws.
This does not concern only natural laws, but also the laws above nature and the laws beneath it, including the laws of rebellious worlds.
There are orders that can put a person in prison and orders that can pardon them. There are orders that arrest them and orders that release them. There are forces or authorities that may regard them as an enemy, and others that may regard them as a friend.
Therefore, a human being should not live in perpetual conflict with authority, but should understand the complexity of authority.
Authority in existence is not a single block.
Yes, ultimately authority belongs to God, but in the method of administration there are multiple authorities: the authority of knowledge, the authority of provision, the authority of money, the authority of governance, the authority of wisdom, the authority of beauty, and others.
This does not mean that these authorities ultimately conflict, because they all ultimately converge within the encompassing authority.
A person may perceive that the authority of knowledge prevents them from receiving provision, or that the authority of provision prevents them from attaining wisdom, or that wisdom stands in the way of something else. But this prevention is not necessarily absolute.
What Appears to Be Conflict May Be the Beginning of Harmony
There may appear to be a conflict between branches, while in reality the matter is part of a greater coordination.
Prevention is not always final prevention, and regulation is not always cancellation.
Everything has a reason, and everything has wisdom.
Therefore, there is not one authority standing alone, but multiple authorities, along with an encompassing authority surrounding them all and reconciling the different elements.
It is a mistake to judge the system through a fragmented judgment that cannot see the complete picture.
Not every agreement is a true harmony, and not every conflict is a true conflict.
You may see a conflict between two things that you believe are enemies, while that conflict may actually be the beginning of harmony between them.
And you may see two things in agreement and assume that they are friends, while in reality they are merely in a truce.
Therefore, before attacking the system or attacking authority, you must understand the complex mechanisms through which the elements operate together.
A Court Above a Court and a Judgment Above a Judgment
There is a court above a court, a judgment above a judgment, and an order above an order.
Above every possessor of knowledge is one more knowing, above one judgment is another judgment, and above one command is another command.
There is no order that is absolutely tyrannical, and no order can be the final decisive order in isolation from the rest of the system.
Ultimately, nothing dominates absolutely, because what appears tyrannical to you may appear so because of your insistence on rejecting its role in the matter.
You see something as tyrannical because you reject the role it plays within the greater picture.
Understanding the Whole Is Understanding the Truth
The words may appear brief, but they are actually complex and contain interconnected matters.
Whoever does not understand them can listen again, and whoever has not grasped them can write them down and divide them into chapters, then try to connect the chapters and bring them together.
But do not say that you have understood until you understand the whole.
Understanding the elements individually does not mean understanding the thing that brings them together.
You may know that this letter is “Alif” and that this letter is “Ba,” but knowing Alif and Ba separately does not mean that you understand the meaning of the word “Ab.”
When we say “Ab,” we do not mean Alif alone or Ba alone; we mean Alif and Ba together in a single composition.
The same applies to all these issues.
When we speak of essence and appearance, nature, above nature, and beneath it, law, constraint, and etiquette, accounting and authority, multiple authorities and the encompassing authority, we do not mean merely each element separately; we also mean the whole that brings all these elements together.
Whoever knows the elements but does not know how they come together has not yet understood the complete picture.
Understanding truth here does not rest merely on knowing each part separately, but on knowing the relationship that brings the parts together, the system that makes them operate together, and the place occupied by each element within the overall system.
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