It is the nature stripped of the garment of the pillars (arkān). Just as ink is for the letter, and sound is for the pronounced letters, so is nature in relation to the elements. Because they can be considered separately from one another, attributes (ṣifāt) mean heat, coldness, moisture, and dryness. In relation to attributes, nature is what attributes are to the pillars. All of these attributes are found in every pillar of nature. However, in fire, two attributes—heat and dryness—dominate. In air, the attributes of coldness and dryness dominate. When nature assumes the form of any attribute, it is not possible to separate it from that attribute, just as when attributes assume the form of any pillar, it is not possible to separate them from that pillar. When the pillars assume one of the attributes of created beings (maḫlūqāt), they do not separate from it; even after the external appearance of the existent (mawjūd) nature disappears, it remains as mawjūd. Just as people observe it materially, so too does the one who observes it see it clearly.
This celestial sphere of nature is truly a vast sphere. Allah has created within this sphere everything in Paradise, Hell, the Gathering (maḥshar), the 664 degrees of existence (marātib-i wujūd), the barzakh, everything in this world (dunyā), and all natural created beings (tabiʿat maḫlūqāt), known and unknown, before the world was created. The outward face of this sphere, as we see it, is the world (dunyā) realm; its inner face, hidden from us, is the otherworldly (ukhrawī) realm. The world that accepts both the inner (bāṭin) and the outer (ẓāhir) is the barzakh realm. The barzakh realm is the realm of imagination (khayāl) and similitude (mithāl). The copy of the world within you is like your external organs. The copy of the barzakh within you is your imagination. The copy of the hereafter within you is the realm of the spirit (rūḥ), which is your inner being (bāṭin).
One of the degrees of existence (marātib-i wujūd) is hylē (hayūlā). Hylē is the degree of form and depiction. These forms arise from that degree, just as waves arise from the sea. When hylē necessitates the emergence of a form of existence, by divine power (qudra) and will (irāda), it becomes inevitable for nature to manifest that form in the world. For just as Allah the Exalted has made the supplication (duʿā) of the distressed a cause for His help, so too has He made hylē the cause for the creation of that form. As Allah the Exalted has said: "Or, Who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him..." (al-Naml 27:62). In this state (ḥāl), the fact that hylē has necessitated a form determined within itself is the invitation, by the language of state, for that which must emerge into the field of existence (wujūd); and Allah's decree for nature to create that form is the divine response. Accordingly, in relation (nisba) to forms and shapes, hylē is like water is to a tree; it varies according to each tree. (Marātib, 24)
Another of the degrees of existence (marātib-i wujūd) is habāʾ. Habāʾ is a notional (ḥukmī) space within Allah the Exalted's world, in which He created the world, but which itself has no real existence. The Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, was the first to give this notional space the name habāʾ. If you ask how the existence of this habāʾ, which is the space of the world, is, we can explain it as follows: Did Allah the Exalted not create the world? Is not the world the name for everything other than Him? If Allah the Exalted created habāʾ within His own essence (nafs), then His essence would become the locus for created things, but Allah the Exalted is exalted above this. If He created habāʾ elsewhere, then that place would be within the world. Thus, it remains to say that Allah created habāʾ in a notional space without real existence, so that this space is defined as the world and remains outside the Essence (Dhāt) of Allah the Exalted. Understand this!
This is how the affirmation of the sphere of habāʾ is established by the method of the people of intellect and contemplation. According to us, Allah the Exalted created the world from His own knowledge (ʿilm). Allah's knowledge is Himself. He is His Essence (Dhāt). By "from His own knowledge," I mean attributing existence (wujūd) to Allah the Exalted. For all created beings (maḫlūqāt) exist in Allah's knowledge. His knowledge, in reality (ḥaqīqa), is Himself, and He is His knowledge. For Allah knows, hears, and sees by His Essence. If you say that Allah hears with an ear, sees with an eye, and knows with knowledge, we answer: That knowledge, hearing, and seeing is Allah's very Essence, nothing else. Thus, the existence that appears in the world is the creation of their existence in His sight. This is nothing but attributing their existence to the essence of their being. They exist in Allah's knowledge both before and after; in their relation to Him, they are not separate from the degrees of existence (marātib-i wujūd) in His knowledge. In their attribution to His knowledge, they are not separate from Allah the Exalted Himself. (Marātib, 26)
Another of the degrees of existence (marātib-i wujūd) is the indivisible substance (jawhar-i fard, atom). For substance (jawhar) is the origin of bodies. Just as letters are to a word—and you may also say, as a dot is to a letter—so is substance to bodies. As we have explained in our book Kitāb al-Nuqṭa. Substance is an entity that accepts composition (combination with other existents) but does not accept division. For this reason, substance is the final point at which bodies, when divided and destroyed, can reach.
The annihilation of a composed thing is the dispersal and dissolution of its parts until each of its substances remains on its own. Before composition, the substance is called jawhar-i...