The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 206
PREFACE FOOTNOTE 205 benefit from even a single drop of rain and remains dry and parched, scorched by the heat of the sun. Likewise, the air sometimes becomes foul, and subjects a city, a country, or a locality to a severe epidemic while some other places are totally safeguarded from it. Similarly, we see thousands of such phe- nomena as the result of profound Divine wisdom, which we can never ascribe to lifeless elements and bodies. And we know for certain that such works permeated with appropriateness cannot be performed by lifeless, non-cognizant and non-planning heavenly bodies, elements, or by the material creations of space. No doubt, God Almighty was capa- ble of acquiring these things to do all such work, but if He had done so, He would have first invested these things with the faculty of under- standing, consciousness, and the power of using a thing in its proper place. However, when this is not proven to be the case, it means that they are associated with other beings who have been granted the fac- ulty of discrimination between the uses of different things. And those are angels. I know that if a man who believes in God Almighty and believes Him to be Merciful, Beneficent, the Best of planners and Just, will never entertain the idea that God has handed over the whole machin- ery of the universe to things which have not been endowed with the faculty of discriminating between good and bad; and which are not blessed with the power of planning, of maintaining a state of equilib- rium, or of recognizing the exigencies of a situation. Yes, a naturalist or an atheist, not having a belief in God Almighty, will doubtless have such an idea; but, out of ignorance, will say at the same time, that what- ever is happening in the heavenly bodies, the elements, and in the cre- ation of space is not based on wisdom or expediency; that there is no God, and, therefore, a belief in His wisdom and appropriateness is out of question; that, rather, by mere chance, mankind meets with fortune or misfortune as the result of happenings and changes taking place in the heavenly spheres and the earth. Hence, there is a different way to convince such a man, that is a