Now, consider the behaviour of the subtle matter which the All-Wise Provider sends: you will see that while the matter’s particles are dispersed through the air, soil, and water like a caravan, they suddenly gather together in a way that suggests a deliberate action, as though they had suddenly received the order to move. They collect together in the most orderly fashion as if each particle of them was entrusted with a duty and ordered to proceed to a specified place. Also, it is apparent from their conduct that they are being propelled through a particular law of one who acts and has choice, and from the realm of the inanimate are entering the animal kingdom. Then they enter a body as sustenance through a particular rule, and with a determined order and in a regular process, and after being cooked in the four kitchens of the body, undergoing four amazing transformations, and being strained through four filters, they are apportioned through regular laws and the beneficence of the True Provider according to the alldifferent needs of the members, and are circulated to every part of the body.

Thus, whichever of these particles you consider with the eye of wisdom, you will see that blind chance, lawless coincidence, deaf nature, and unconscious causes can in no way interfere with it; it is impelled in a discerning, orderly, hearing, and knowing fashion. For whichever stage each of them enters from the surrounding element to the body’s cell, it acts as though voluntarily through the specified laws of that