The Garden of Wisdom

The world did not create itself since it is impossible for a thing to create itself, to originate its own essence. For if things created themselves, they would be autonomous, perfectly free in their actions. They would do whatever they wished whenever they wished. If the sun, for instance, were the Creator and originator of itself and there were no other Being who is its Creator and Ruler, it would perhaps appear at one time in the east and at another time in the west. It would moisten what it usually dries and would dry what it usually moistens. It would remain in whatever zodiacal signs it wished, would leave them at pleasure, would rise when it wished, and perhaps would determine never to set. The same may be said of the other stars above and the elements beneath, for the application of this illustration is universal. Since things, then, always were as we find them now—not having left the beaten path or shifted their characteristics or in anywise changed from what they were in the earliest time—we know, and know with certainty, that they are creations, originated, governed, and controlled, and that besides them there is One who originated them, who prescribed what their conduct shall be, and who controls them by His irreversible decree, and impressed upon them different characteristics, e.g., heat in the sun and cold in the moon, and likewise the characteristics of the stars and of the elements, and the courses of the various planets, as we shall partially mention in one of the chapters of this book, please God. [ . . . ]

Some of the learned hold that the happiness of this world’s people has its foundation wholly in astrological conditions depending upon the spheres, the stars, and the heavens in general. These celestial agencies decree that the one born into this world in the horoscope of the happy, shall be happy; the one born in the horoscope of sobbing, shall sob; and so on for the other natal decrees of the stars. But since the activity of the stars is limited to what their Creator has entrusted to them, and they do not rebel against Him nor overstep His injunctions and prohibitions, it follows that this activity originates not with themselves but with God. For He sends them forth in His wisdom, directs them according to His will, and instructed them at the time of their creation. Every work issues from them but originated with Him and unto Him is its return. They are the mediators between Him and His creation, just as trusted ministers are between the king and his subjects. Whatever reward or punishment is meted out to any of the king’s subjects emanates from the king not from the ministers. [ . . . ]

In this wise, God intended that all His acts should be through the acts of the celestial bodies. Since human kings, whose dominions are earthly, limited, and without permanence, and were they to take it into their own hands to reward or punish anyone, it would not harm them in the least and still they keep themselves aloof and are too proud to directly mingle with the world, the more reason, that the King of Kings, the most exalted, unto whom the highest comparison would be fitting were he not too exalted and too lofty to have anything compared to Him or to His Essence which is too sacred, should be too exalted and too glorious to look after the daily sustenance of any individual creature or attend to any such matters. His wisdom makes it necessary to put this into the hands of deputies whom he has singled out and made the inhabitants of the heavenly vaults to declare His praise unto all eternity, to serve him properly, and, without deceiving or disobeying their Creator, to dispense such gifts, daily sustenance, riches, and felicity as He has bestowed upon them for His creatures. Thanksgiving and service are due Him, not them, since He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things and bestows on them happiness and innumerable blessings. [ . . . ]

And likewise God imparted to him [i.e., man] various arts: the science of geometry to build houses out of hewn rocks and beaten tiles; the painting of all kinds of pictures in the temples with oils and pigments; the gilding and depicting of forms and figures; the laying out of gardens with every variety of plants; the conjunction of two species that there might arise from them something different from either of them whether it be plant or animal; the method of conducting water in aqueducts; the devising of wonderful waterwheels for irrigation; the different kinds of machines; water mills; hot baths and the like. Besides he has been granted the knowledge how to build strong ships with cunning tools in the firmest manner. With these ships he cleaves the crest of the sea and carries out his purpose with the aid of his Creator who guides him with the shining stars. His journey depends upon favorable winds and the calmness of the sea. He carries wares to every land without paying tribute to the sea.

Likewise he carries wares from these lands to other lands. He plunges into the sea to extract therefrom the precious pearl, the red coral, etc. He manufactures the net and snare to catch fish small and great, to derive benefit thereby and to be fed therefrom in diverse manners and ways. And likewise there is the great benefit he derives from mining quicksilver, gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, rubies and all the different kinds of precious stones, and the smelting of glass from sand and tinting it with different colors and figures. He sets gins to catch ferocious beasts, venison, and fowl of the air. He crushes the fruit of trees to extract the essential oils and the like. Consider also what knowledge God has given him that he might evolve writing, the reading of books and the composition of verses, polite literature and commentaries, the cultivation of letter writing and eloquence, and the study of history according to years, genealogies, dynasties, and the conjunctions of the planets. The brutes are far from the possession of all these noble qualities, not to mention the other excellencies which we have passed over but with which God has favored him above all other creatures. Furthermore, God endowed him with the inclination to fall in love that He might thereby multiply him and cause him to derive benefit in this world and in the world to come.