Revised translation of the Chahár maqála : ("Four discourses") of Nizámí-i-ʼArúdí of Samarqand, followed by an abridged translation of Mírzá Muhammad's notes to the Persian text / by Edward G. Browne.

  • Nizami Aruzi
Date:
1921
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Revised translation of the Chahár maqála : ("Four discourses") of Nizámí-i-ʼArúdí of Samarqand, followed by an abridged translation of Mírzá Muhammad's notes to the Persian text / by Edward G. Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Chahar Maqala.—Cosmography Section II. The Royal Mind (may God exalt it!) should deign to know that all existing beings fall necessarily into one of two categories. Such being is either self-existent, or it exists through some other. That Being which is self-existent is called “the Necessarily Existent” which is God most High and most Holy, who existeth by virtue of Himself, and who, therefore, hath always existed, since He awaiteth none other ; and who (t) will always exist, since He sub- sisteth by Himself, not by another. But that existence whose being is through another is called “ Contingent Being” and this is such as we are, since our being is from the seed, and the seed is from the blood, and the blood is from food, and food is from the water, the earth and the sun, whose existence is in turn derived from something else ; and all these are such as yesterday were not, and to-morrow will not be. And on profound reflection [it appeareth that] this causal nexus reacheth upwards to a Cause which deriveth not its being from another,but existeth necessarily in itself; which is the Creator of all, from Whom all derive their existence and subsistence. So He is the Creator of all these things, and all come into being through Him and subsist through Him. And a little reflection on this matter will make it clear that all Phenomena consist of Being tinctured with Not-being, while He is Being characterized by a continuance reaching from Eternity past to Eternity to come. And since the origin of all creatures lies in Not-being, they must inevitably return again to nothing, and the most clear-sighted amongst the human race have said, “ Everything shall return unto its Origin,” more especially in this world of Growth and Decay. Therefore we, who are contingent in our being, have our origin in Not-being; while He, who existeth necessarily, is in His Essence Being, even as He (glorious is His Praise and high His Splendour) saith in the Perspicuous Word and Firm Hand-hold, “ All things perish save His Countenance1.” Now you must know that this world, which lies in the hollow of the Heaven of the Moon2 and within the circle of this first Sphere, is called “ the World of Growth and Decay.” And you must thus conceive it, that within the concavity of the Heaven of the Moon lies the Fire, surrounded by the Heaven of the Moon ; and that within the Sphere of the Fire is the Air, surrounded by the Fire; and within the Air is the Water, surrounded by the Air, while within the Water is the Earth, with the Water round about it. And in the middle of the earth is an imaginary point, from 1 Qur’an, xxviii, 88. 2 This is the lowest or innermost of the nine celestial spheres which environ the earth. Concerning the Muslim Cosmogony, see Dieterici’sMakrokosmos, pp. 178 et seqq.
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