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Everything depends on a cause in the universe and
takes place according to the cycle of cause and effect. since
causality is apparent through the universe, it means that causes
have an actual part in the creation and operation of things. if they
have a part, they may be partners.
As is required by the Divine Will and Wisdom and as
the Divine Names tend to manifest themselves, the results have been made
dependent on causes. However, as is convincingly argued in many places,
causes have no creative effect in the universe. In addition to what we
have already said in other places concerning the subject, we say here
only this:
Among conscious beings who may be regarded as most
effective causes in bringing about effects, man is evidently the most
elevated among them with a free, most comprehensive will-power which has
a vast field of operation. Speaking, thinking and eating are the most
apparent among the acts arising from his free will. All these three acts
include well-ordered chains of events, but only one is directly
connected to man’s free will. For example, among the series of events
related to eating, from the formation of fruits and growth and ripening
of grains to their becoming sustenance for the cells of the human body,
only chewing them depends on man’s free will. As hunger, thirst and
appetite are outside the field of man’s will, so also does his body
work independently of him. What he does from among the actions related
to speaking is only to take the air in and out of the vocal organs where
sounds are produced. Whereas, while being like a seed in the mouth, a
word becomes like a tree in the air when uttered. That tree produces
millions of fruits of the kind of that single word. It goes into the
ears of millions of listeners. A man can only imagine this
multiplication. After uttering the word, he has nothing more to do with
it of his free will.
If man, the most honored among causes, even agents,
and the most free in using will, has nothing to do with creation to that
degree, how can inanimate objects, elements, plants and animals, which
constitute nature, have any real effect or part in creation? How can
things, called ‘natural laws’, which have no consciousness, will and
knowledge, and which have only nominal existence, be the originators of
a miraculous system-the universe-the creation and operation of which
require infinite knowledge, will and power, and of a miraculous living,
conscious, speaking, reasoning, thinking, and learning organism like
man? Nature is only an envelope for the Lord’s creatures and a tray or
a cauldron for the gifts of the All-Merciful One. Certainly, neither the
tray on which they offer you a gift of the king, nor the piece of cloth
in which the gift is wrapped, nor even the private who brings it to you,
can be a partner of the king in his sovereignty. The one who imagines
him to be a partner, is suffering delirium. In the same way, neither the
apparent causes nor means can have any part in the Divine Lordship in
any way. What falls to their lot is only the duty of worship.
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