Chapter VIII: Self-Examination and Self-Accounting
Man loves the sky as he wishes to extend his power of research and investigation of its secrets. The thing that comes within the preview of knowledge is included within knowledge and the wise men rule over them. For this reason, man loves knowledge about God, angels stars, sky and the wonderful matters underneath the oceans and mountains. It is a part of power and lordship. Another kind of things are underneath the ground. Man has got power over it. it is also of two kinds, material and immaterial. Material things are wealth, gold, silver etc. Man wants to lord over them and loves to hoard, spend and give them in charity. It is termed as power which is included within the supreme power of God. It is naturally "dear to men.
Immaterial things are minds of men. Men love power to lord over minds of peoples. So the object of mind is full and complete progress in knowledge and power.
They have got different steps and degrees. There are real and unreal progress. Unreal progress arises out of three causes. The first cause is that the subject of knowledge of God is limitless, while man's wisdom is limited. So if the knowledge of man increases, he becomes much near God. The second reason is the connection of God's knowledge with the objects of knowledge and the full expression of the objects of knowledge. As man's knowledge is limited, the more is the knowledge of a man regarding God, the more be becomes near God. The third reason is that God's knowledge is ever lasting and eternal without any loss or decrease. So whoever's knowledge is not changed with regard to theobjectof knowledge, he becomes very close to God.
The objects of knowledge are of two kinds - changeable and unchangeable. Knowledge of changeable thing is described below. You know that Zaid is in a house. This knowledge is not perfect as Zaid may not be in that house and might have gone out. This knowledge is faulty and not sufficient. This applies to everything in the world. Knowledge about unchangeable thing is that of God, His attributes, His creations and His conduct of heavens and earth and their arrangements. He who acquires knowledge of these things comes near God and this knowledge
216 The Book of Destructive evils Vol-III