Should one fail to observe the duties of servitude...

Should one fail to observe the duties of servitude, and his acts, works, movements and pauses be not in accordance with the precepts of the divine Law, one will not attain to the Garden of Acts, concerning which this has been said: ﴿وَفِيهَا مَا تَشْتَهِيهِ الْأَنفُسُ وَتَلَذُّ الْأَعْيُنُ.﴾ Therein being whatever the souls desire, and the eyes delight in.

( 43:71 ) On the basis of these preliminaries, which are in accordance with philosophical proofs, the experience of the gnostics, and the traditions of the prophets and the awliya (A) in addition to being inferable from the Noble divine Scripture, the sciences-whatever their level, whether they pertain to the ma’arif or something else are a path for reaching the Garden appropriate to each of them, and the wayfarer of each of the paths of knowledge is a traveler on one of the paths of Paradise.

We have said earlier that knowledge is absolutely the way to action, even the knowledge of the ma’arif ; which, however, involves the actions of the heart and inward gravitations, the result and inward forms of which are the Garden of the Essence and the Paradise of Tryst. Hence, the pursuit of the path of knowledge is the pursuit of the way leading to the path of Paradise, and the way to a path is also part of the path.

📌An Important Point That journey on the path of knowledge has been ascribed to the creature and the movement towards the Garden to the Sacred Divine Essence (in the phrase سَلَكَ بِهِ طَرِيقاً إلَى الجَنَّةِ) is for the reason that on the level of multiplicity the acquisitive aspect of the creature has been given predominance, whereas on the level of return to unity the Divine aspect has been made to prevail.

From another viewpoint, it may be said that the wayfaring towards the Garden is also ascribable to the creature: ﴿وَوَجَدُوا مَا عَمِلُوا حَاضِرًا.﴾ And they find all that they did confronting them. ( 18:49 ) ﴿فَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَه. وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَه.﴾ And whoso doth good an atom’s weight will see it, and whoso doth ill an atom’s weight will see it.

( 99:7-8 ) The authority amongst the philosophers and the pride of the righteous sect, Sadr al-Muta’allihin (R) has made statements in this regard indicating that the perception of favorable and repulsive things is by itself heaven and hell, and the ‘knowledge’ pertains to things favorable to the soul and ‘ignorance’ to those which are incompatible with it.

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