The Twelfth Flash

Third: since the Absolutely Wise One does not waste and creates nothing in vain; and since the existence of creatures is directed toward conscious beings, and they attain their perfection through conscious beings, become animated and enlivened through them, and are rescued from futility through them; and since it is visibly observed that the Absolutely Wise One, that Qadīr-i Dhul-JalālAllah, Who has power over all things and Whose greatness and majesty are boundless., has animated and enlivened the element of air, the world of water, and the layer of earth with countless living beings; and since, just as air and water do not prevent the movement of animals, so too dense and solid substances like earth and stone do not prevent the passage of subtle forces such as electricity and X-rays; then certainly that Hakīm-i Dhul-KamālAllah, the All-Wise One Whose perfection is boundless., that Sāni-i Bī-ZawālAllah, the Everlasting Creator, Whose existence never comes to an end and Who creates all things with perfect artistry., has not left empty and uninhabited the seven connected universal layers, their vast fields, worlds, and caverns, from the centre of our globe to its outer crust, which is our dwelling place and centre.

Rather, He has enlivened those worlds and created conscious beings suited and fitting for their habitation, and He has settled them there. Since these conscious beings must belong to the kinds of angels and to the species of spiritual beings, even the densest and hardest layer is, in relation to them, like the sea in relation to a fish and like the air in relation to a bird.

Even the tremendous fire at the centre of the earth must be, in relation to those conscious beings, like the heat of the sun in relation to us. Since those conscious spiritual beings are created from light, fire becomes like light for them.

Fourth: in The Eighteenth Letter, a comparison is given concerning the wondrous qualities of the earth’s layers, in order to clarify the descriptions of the ahl-i kashfSpiritually elevated people who, by Allah’s permission, can perceive certain matters of the unseen., which appear to go beyond reason. Its summary is as follows:

The globe of the earth is, in the visible world, like a seed; but in the ālam-i mithālThe immaterial realm in which the images of all existence and events are reflected. and the ālam-i barzakhThe realm where the souls of the deceased await the Resurrection., it has the form of a vast tree whose greatness reaches up to the heavens.

Thus, when the ahl-i kashfSpiritually elevated people who, by Allah’s permission, can perceive certain matters of the unseen. perceive the layer of the earth assigned to the ifrītsA class of powerful jinn, traditionally described as possessing extraordinary strength and abilities. An ifrīt is mentioned in The Qur’an 27:39. as a distance of a thousand years, this does not belong to the physical globe of the earth in the visible world, but rather to the manifestations of its branches and layers in the ālam-i mithālThe immaterial realm in which the images of all existence and events are reflected..

Since even one outwardly insignificant layer of the earth has such immense manifestations in another world, it may certainly be said that the earth consists of seven layers corresponding to the seven heavens. And in order to point to these truths, the verses of the Qur’an, in a concise and miraculously eloquent manner, present this small earth as corresponding to the seven layers of the heavens.