The Inhabitants of the Heavens

There is no god but Allāh, the Necessary Being. The consensus of

the saints, through their verified, attested-to wonders and manifest

mystical unveilings, demonstrates the necessity of His unitive existence.

The traveller through this world then proclaimed that the most important and most sublime of human perfections, indeed the foundation and the source of them, is the love of Allāh (muḥabbatullāh) that springs from faith in Him (al-īmānu billāh) and knowledge of Him (ma‘rifatullāh).

He raised his head to the heavens, greatly desiring to discover new knowledge and increase the strength of his faith further and further, and he addressed his own intellect:

‘The most precious and important thing in the universe is life - and all beings in the universe are subjugated to it. Creatures endowed with spirits are, of living creatures, the most precious and important, and of creatures with spirits, the most precious and important are those with consciousness. For the sake of this preciousness, the sphere of the earth is filled and emptied in every age and in every year. This being the case, there can be no doubt that these magnificent, beautifully adorned heavens also have their own inhabitants and dwellers befitting to them, life-endowed, spirit-endowed, and consciousness-endowed. For since the days of antiquity, instances of encounters and conversations with angels have been related, and that by unanimous testimony - such as when, in the presence of the Prophet Muḥammad (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) the embodied form of Jabrā'īl (Gabriel) (‘alayhissalām) appeared to his companions. I wish then that I have also met with the inhabitants of the heavens, and found out their opinions. For the most important remarks about the Creator of the universe are theirs.’