then ascend to the celestial sphere from the other side.” Although this is possible in principle, it is impossible in the sense that someone seeking a goal cannot will such a course. It is contrary to the innate disposition, for a person seeks his goal by the shortest route, especially when the One he seeks is the One he worships and upon whom he relies. If he turns towards Him by any path other than the straight path, his course is inverted and reversed.
Moreover, in his course and intention, such a person combines negation with affirmation: drawing nearer to his goal while moving away from it, seeking it while recoiling from it. If he approaches it from the farthest and most distant direction, turning away from the nearest and closest one, he combines two contradictory intentions. His intention to reach it cannot therefore be complete, since a complete intention excludes its contrary and opposite. This is known through the innate disposition.
If someone loves the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with complete love and seeks him—or loves anyone else, whether that love is praiseworthy or blameworthy—then, whenever his love is complete and he seeks his beloved, he seeks him by the shortest route that will bring him to him.
This differs from a case in which his love is wavering: for example, when he loves something that religion deems blameworthy to love. His desire continues to urge him to seek it, while his reason restrains him. Thus, you see him approaching it by a distant route, as people commonly say:
“One foot forward, one foot back.”
Likewise, if his religious commitment is deficient, and his reason directs him to go to the mosque, to jihad, or to pursue some other aim that religion commends but the soul dislikes, he continues towards it by a distant route, moving sluggishly. All this is known through the innate disposition.
Likewise, if the seeker does not wish to go in person, but wishes to