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And this is a topic that is debated nowadays, especially in the online sphere, which is kind of contradictory because we're discussing nature online with technology after all. But you have a growing camp of people, some of them neo-pagans as well, that want to return to a more natural way of life. And within their worldview, essentially they're describing hardcore materialism, that what you see is what you get. There is no mystery behind anything. There are no miracles and of course there is no God either. The only thing that truly exists and reigns supreme is nature. If you go out into nature, you are subjected to the laws of nature. There might be a bear that will eat you. We will freeze to death because it is so cold or you're going to dehydrate because you are in a desert. After all, we all fall slave to nature, but they do not understand, of course, that there is a hierarchy that it goes higher than that. They're limited in their outlook of life. They want to limit everything to physical occurrences. Very similar to the Darwinist nowadays that claims that everything started with the big bang. But anyways, let's jump into the book. I want to read from it because El-Razali can say it way, way better than I ever could. Guys, before we jump into it, however, leave me a thumbs up if you enjoy my content. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and check out the links in the description box to further support. And now with no further ado, let's read. Know, however, that there is an immense distance and wide interval between perceiving the beauty of the Lord and understanding that which constitutes its soul, marrow and essence. O seeker of the divine mysteries, those important astrologers and physicists, he's speaking basically about the scientists of his day, who shut out from the knowledge of God, ascribed changes and events to the stars and to nature resemble an ant. That seeing a pen making marks upon paper should be overjoyed and cry out, I have found out the secret of the effect. So here he compares the scientists to an ant basically seeing a pen and attributing the mark of the pen to the pen alone, but not seeing who is actually holding the pen. It is the pen that causes the marks. This class of men in another point resembles the natural man, who ascribes the influences in nature to heat and cold, water and earth. So a second ant, looking on with attention, sees that the pen does not move of itself, but rather by the will of the hand. And he turns and says to his first ant, You were mistaken, you did not perceive the real nature of the thing. You thought the marks and movements were caused by the pen. It is not so, the whole influence proceeds from the fingers and the pen is just subject to the fingers. So here he speaks about the natural man. This is the whole reason why I want to read this out to you. The natural man is of course the naturalist. We see something like it nowadays with hardcore materialism, people that ascribe everything to nature. It is simply evolution, Darwinism, et cetera, et cetera, you name it. But moreover, we have paganism, neo-paganism nowadays as well, where people want to return to nature and tell you that as long as it's natural, therefore it must be right. There is no higher force than nature in itself. And this is why yet again I want to read this passage out to you because this has been written basically 1000 years ago and those people already discussed atheism, naturalism, et cetera. This is nothing new, but nowadays on YouTube people find out about naturalism and they believe it's the new holy grail. Believe me, it is not. Beloved, this ant resembles the astrologer who ascribes effects to the constellations. He does not know that he also is mistaken and that the stars and the constellations are subject to the angels and that the angels can do nothing without the command of God. So this is of course a theological perspective here where you simply go higher and higher into the hierarchy. You do not draw the end line at nature. Quite the opposite, now we enter metaphysics, we enter a supra-rational realm that the naturalist would deny of course. In the same manner as there is falsity in the way in which the material world is regarded by the natural man and the astrologer, there is also a diversity of views among those who survey the spiritual world. There are some who just as they are upon the point of entering upon the vision of the spiritual world, seeing that they discover nothing, descend back to their old sphere. There is also a difference of view between those who do succeed in reaching the spiritual and invisible world by meditation for some have an immense amount of light veiled from them. Everyone in the sphere to which he attains is still veiled with a veil. The light of some is as of a twinkling star. Others see as by the light of the moon. Others are illuminated as if by the world effulgent sun. To some the invisible world is even perfectly revealed as we read in the Holy Word of God and thus we caused Abraham to see the heaven and the earth and hence it is that the prophet says there are before God 70 veils of light. If he should unveil them, the light of his countenance would burn everything that came into his presence. And this is a sight of El-Razali that many people nowadays especially on YouTube do not describe. They shy away from it because it sounds a lot like Sufism. Yes, El-Razali here is describing spiritual experiences. El-Razali was surely not a stranger to spiritual experiences because here I want to read a quote to you. He said, I knew verily that Sufis are the seekers in Allah's way and their conduct is the best conduct and their way is the best way and their manners are the most sanctified. They have cleaned their hearts from other than Allah and they have made them as pathways for rivers to run receiving knowledge of the divine presence. So I believe it is fairly obvious that we cannot deny that El-Razali especially in his later life was Sufi. He proceeds, still the miserable naturalist who ascribes effects to the influences of nature speaks correctly. For if natural causes had no operation, the art of medicine would have been useless and the holy law would not have allowed to have recourse to medical treatment. The mistake which the naturalist makes is that he contracts his sphere of vision and is like the lame ass that left his load at the first stopping place. He does not know that nature also is subjected to the hand of the power of God and is a kind of humble servant such as a shoe is to the ass. Ass means donkey by the way. The astrologer also says that the sun is a star which causes heat and light upon the earth. If there had been no sun, the distinction between day and night would not have existed and vegetables and grain could not have been produced. The moon also is a star and if there had been no moon how many things connected with the requirements of the law of the Quran would have been impracticable such as fasting, alms and pilgrimage. Since there would have been no distinction of weeks, months and years. The colors and perfumes of herbs and fruits exist also from its influence. The sun is warm and dry. The moon is cold and moist. Saturn is cold and dry. Venus is warm and moist. And the school of astrologers is to be credited in these representations. But when they ascribe all events to influences proceeding from the heavenly bodies they are liars. They do not perceive that they all alike a subject to the almighty power of God as God says in his word. And the sun, moon and stars are subject to his commands. There is also an influence exercised by the stars which resembles the control exercised by the earth that comes from the brain over the finger in writing while the force of nature is like the control exerted upon the pen by the finger. So as you can tell El-Razali makes very very long sentences describing it from all kinds of angles. I'm sure it would be very very beautiful to read this in Arabic but after all he's simply describing that nature does not do anything by itself. That there is a creator behind every reaction we see here. Action, reaction, causal chains are observed within our universe but the question becomes of course what was the first cause. The Big Bang cannot be the first cause because the Big Bang has to come from somewhere. The Big Bang cannot create itself out of nothing. So what was the first cause? The first cause of course in El-Razali's opinion and my opinion here as well must be God. When the health of a person undergoes a change and he becomes the prey of melancholy and suspicion and the pleasures of the world become distasteful so that from disgust with it he withdraws from all society. His position says this person is diseased with melancholy. Nowadays the doctor would say you are depressed. He must take infusion of daughter, of thime and bark of endive as a medicine. The naturalist says as this person's melody is of a dry nature it arises from a predominance of dryness which has settled on the brain. So yet again he's describing the naturalist and the scientists. This can be translated into this day and age as well. The psychologist would diagnose you with some sort of depression some sort of depressive disorder and then would give you medicine for that. The naturalist on the other hand would tell you that naturally something is wrong with you because you're not engaged within a natural life. Maybe you're not eating raw meat. Maybe you're not getting enough sunshine. Maybe you're not getting enough sleep. So both camps want to find the reason within the physical world from two different angles. The occasion of his having a dry temperament is the season of the winter. Until spring comes and dry weather predominates there is no possibility of a cure. The astrologer says this person being under the influence of melancholy which arises from a hurtful conjunction between Mars and Jupiter there will be no favorable change in his health until the conjunction of Jupiter with Venus shall have reached the trine. Now you know beloved that the language of all these persons is correct for they all speak and believe according to the degree of reach of their reason and understanding. These circumstances can never be understood in this sense either by medicine or by nature or by the stars. One may however learn to understand them by knowledge and the prophetic power combined for they embrace the whole kingdom of the universe with its deputies and servants and possesses the knowledge of the end for which everything was created. They know to whose command all things are subjected to what man are invited and what they are forbidden to do. Alright, that's it for today's video. I'm gonna cut it off here. The book is yet again called The Alchemy of Happiness by Imam El-Razali. I highly recommend this is not a complicated read and as I said it is thousand years old by now but it's still so extremely applicable to our day and age. Alright guys, but this is it. If you liked it, leave it a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Check out the links in the description box to further support and as always may God bless you all. Much love and peace.