their orbits every moment; they change their orbits. It is evidenced in the radioactive elements that there are changes called fissions taking place in the nuclei of atoms, too. Further, in these nuclear fissions one element turns into another; and some mass of matter ceases to exist and turns into energy, and this change has even been formulated by the Jewish physicist Einstein (d. 1375 A.H. [1955]). So, like compounds, elements change and may turn from one into another. Every substance, living or lifeless, changes, i.e. the old one disappears and a new one comes into being. Every living being, plant or animal that exists today used to be nonexistent, and there were other living beings. And in future, none of the present living beings will remain, and some other living beings will come into existence. So is the case with all lifeless beings. All living and lifeless beings, e.g. the element iron and the compounds stone and bone, and all particles always change, i.e. the old ones disappear, and others come into being. When the peculiarities of the substance that comes into being and those of the substance that disappears are alike, man, being unable to notice this change, supposes that the substance is always existent. An example of this is seen in a movie, where a different picture comes before the eye at certain short intervals; yet, unable to notice this, the watchers suppose that the same picture moves on the screen. When a piece of paper burns and becomes ashes, we say that the paper disappeared and ashes came into being, because we notice this change. When ice melts, we say that ice disappeared and water came into being. It is written at the beginning of the book Sharh al-’Aqâ’id: “Because all beings signify Allâhu ta’âlâ’s existence, all creatures are called the ’âlam. Also, each class of beings of the same kind is called an ’âlam, for example, the ’âlam of human beings, the ’âlam of angels, the ’âlam of animals, the ’âlam of the lifeless. Or each object is called an ’âlam.” It is writen in the 441st page of the book Sharh al-Mawâqif:[1] [1] Sayyid Sherif Alî Jurjânî, the author of the book Sharh-i Mawâqif, passed away in Shiraz in 816 [1413 A.D.]. The book itself is a sharh (commentary) to Mawâqif, which in turn had been written by Qâdî ’Adûd ’Abd-ur-Rahmân bin Ahmad ’Alâ’uddîn Îjî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ (700 A.D., Îj, Shîrâz – 756 [1354 A.D.]). He wrote an abridged version for his own book and entitled it Jewâhîr, and later Shems-addîn Fenârî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ (751 A.H. – 834 [1431 A.D.]) wrote a commentary to the abridged version.
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