The creation pictured as an interconnected, organic order in which everything is linked like the parts of a tree.

“Humanity is the fruit—the final part—of the Tree of Creation. And it is known that a thing’s fruit is its farthest, most comprehensive, most delicate, and most important part.”¹⁾

“Man is the conscious fruit of the Tree of Creation. And a fruit is the most comprehensive and farthest part—yet a ‘particular’ that possesses a wide-ranging gaze and a universal awareness. Such a person can address and ‘meet’ that All-Beautiful Maker, and devote his universal consciousness and wide gaze entirely to worship of his Creator, admiration of His artistry, and gratitude for His blessings.”²⁾

“Paradise and Hell are two fruits of the branch of the Tree of Creation that bends and stretches toward eternity… two outcomes of the chain of the cosmos… two reservoirs of the flowing divine ‘doings’… two basins for beings surging toward the everlasting… and two arenas where grace and wrath manifest. When the Hand of Power shakes the universe with a mighty motion, those two basins will be filled with the materials suited to them.”³⁾

“The Imām al-Mubīn is like a program and an index for the Tree of Creation, whose branches spread around the past and future and the unseen realm.”⁴⁾

“Since we witness that even a single partial manifestation of a Divine attribute like will operates directly in millions of places and in millions of matters without intermediaries, then it becomes necessary—at the level of witnessed certainty—to believe that the Majestic One, through the manifestation of His power and will, can dispose of the entire Tree of Creation together with all its parts and particles.”⁵⁾

“The Wise Qur’an presents gratitude as the outcome of creation. So too does this ‘Great Qur’an’—the universe—show that the most important outcome of the world’s creation is gratitude. For if you look carefully, you see that the universe is arranged in such a way as to produce gratitude: everything points, in some measure, toward gratitude and is directed to it—so much so that gratitude is as though the most important fruit of the Tree of Creation, and the finest product of the factory of the cosmos.”⁶⁾

“… the everlasting realm is the greatest branch of the Tree of Creation…”⁷⁾

“Because the human being is conscious and comprehensive, his gaze is wide and his awareness universal. With that wide gaze he can see the Tree of Creation in its entirety; with that universal awareness he can grasp the purposes of the Creator. Therefore the human being is the Creator’s special addressee.”⁸⁾

“Since the human being is the fruit of creation, it follows that among human beings there is a seed from which God has caused the Tree of Creation to grow. And that seed—by the agreement of all people of spiritual and moral excellence, and perhaps of half of humankind—is none other than the Best of Creation, the Pride of Mankind: the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).”⁹⁾

“There is a law of development in the universe. Whoever is subject to this law is also within the law of growth. Whoever falls under that law has a natural lifespan; and whoever has a natural lifespan has a natural appointed term—there is no escaping the grip of that term. Indeed, most of the species contained in the universe, and most of the individuals encompassed by those species, are subject to these laws. Therefore, just as the human being—called the ‘microcosm’—cannot escape death and decay, so too the universe—called the ‘macro-human’—has no deliverance from death. And just as a single tree in the cosmos cannot be saved from dying and falling apart, so too the cosmic chain that belongs to the Tree of Creation cannot be saved from ruin and dissolution.”¹⁰⁾

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