This intuitive power of man is hidden within him as fire is...

This intuitive power of man is hidden within him as fire is implicit in the stone. When this fire blazes forth, the entire world becomes bright and illumined. Discussing the value of knowledge in the tenth question he says that by knowledge he does not mean the device by which people gain worldly power and prestige, for that is contrary to the spirit of a true mystic. Knowledge is useful only when it leads one to the right action, action that springs from the heart.

Shabistari also suggests a study of both the sources of knowledge mentioned in the Qur’an – the external world (afaq) and the internal world of self-consciousness (anfus) . But in practice the mystics’ study of the internal world has always led them to emphasize the illusory character of the external world. The account of moral qualities given by Shabistari is a mere reproduction of Platonic and Aristotelian theories.

Wisdom (hikmah) , moral purity (‘iflah) , bravery (shaja’ah) , and justice (‘adalah) are the main moral qualities. He discusses briefly the Aristotelian principle of the mean. Paradise is the result of following this middle path, while adopting either of the extremes would lead to hell. When moral purification is attained, man is vouchsafed divine light (tajalli) which illumines his soul and raises him to the highest level.

Saints and prophets are the persons who fall in the category of the illumined souls. This manifestation (tajalli) of God is not only in things that are good but also in things which in common usage, we call evil. As God is the only being and the only cause of everything, so all things without distinction manifest His light. The logical position of pantheism is that good and evil are all alike and, as manifestations of God, stand on an equal footing.

But when we come to the ordinary common-sense view, we distinguish between them and attribute good to God and evil to Satan.[^5] Like all other pantheists, Shabistari is completely deterministic. He holds that the so-called sense of freedom possessed by man is due to his consciousness of selfhood as an entity distinct from God. Man is by nature non-existent and, therefore, it is meaningless to attribute freedom to him.

Believers in freedom of choice are Zoroastrians who make a distinction between the god of good and the god of evil.