The Royal Institute of History, Culture, Religion & Philosophy
Barzakh university
oN THE nature of existence
Of all the mysteries that cloud our understanding of the true nature of the world, none appears more clandestine than the ontology of life itself. Since our very inception, long before we could exercise the sophistication needed to form societies and civilisations, we have sought to answer an unyielding question: how have we come to be? And, despite centuries of query, we have not yet reached a conclusion. In light of this, some would call theology a failed science.
Perhaps it is in somber resignation that some of us acquiesce to the beckons that the greatest minds in our societies have urged us to follow — that there is no answer, no matter how perseverant one is in their pursuit. Perhaps it is, they suggest, in the nature of the universe to remain surreptitious for all eternity, as it is for a mother to nurture, or a baby to cry. And yet, today, I come with news to assuage even the most ardent sceptic: there may an answer, found not through the traditional route of surveying the landscape for the origins of the universe, but by understanding the nature of the universe itself.
To us, devotees of the Wise Lord, the universe's origins are clearly demarcated: the Wise Lord, in a pocket of 'space' beyond the very fabric of the corporeal realm; in a 'moment' of ahistorical time, the universe was born into existence. At this very moment, at the beginning of space, time and history, the very first being, Gayōmart, was conceived. Thus, existence was born, and life created. In other words, the very first 'being', when first he was conceived, came not only into existence, but brought into existence the very concept of what it is to be.
And yet, what is often forgotten is that: for something to be possible, it must exist within the configurable parameters of the universe, as well as the nameless domain wherein our Wise Lord resides. In simpler terms, for something to exist, to be alive, the possibility of existence must align with reality. For us to be here, reality must allow us to be.
To better understand this, let us take our Lord as an example. Consider how He — an omnipotent being capable of the unfathomable — is bound by certain constraints. These are not the constraints of weakness, but of coherence. He cannot will into being that which is intrinsically meaningless or paradoxical — a pocketwatch cannot tell the time if it does not move, and a man cannot be married and unmarried at once. For, you see, omnipotence does not entail the power to undo the principles of intelligibility, but rather the perfection of operation within them.
For something to be possible, its very essence must align within the plausible paradigm of reality. Existence itself is a fundamental parameter etched into the very fabric of all that is, and it is not made possible by any one being, not even the Wise Lord. Thus, we are no accidents, but a profound truth whose destiny is rooted in the order of the universe and the nameless domain beyond. We exist because existence is a true, coherent reality — and because the Wise Lord has willed it so within the constraints of that truth. Had He not, perhaps something else might have — for our omnipotent Lord is but an engineer in the grand scheme of plausibility, and we, His humble worshippers, are but a fundamental truth of the universe made manifest.