Aligned sentence by sentence
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Part One · Chapter Seventy-Two — The Universe as a Single Living Organism
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Know that this entire existent is a single individual — no more. I mean the sphere of the outermost heaven with all that is in it: it is a single individual without doubt, in the manner of Zayd and ʿAmr in their individuality; and the differences of their substances — I mean the substances of this sphere with all the different substances within it.
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The number of these spheres encompassing the world cannot in any way or under any circumstance be less than eighteen; as for whether their number is greater, that is possible and a matter of inquiry.
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Inside this nearby sphere that is close to us there is a single matter different from the matter of the fifth body; it received four primary forms and became through those four: the four bodies — earth, water, air, and fire; and everything composed of these four constitutes all the perceptible bodies.
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As for those circular bodies — they are living, possessed of a soul by which they move; there is in them no principle of rest whatsoever; and no alteration reaches them except with respect to position, through their circular motion.
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Just as in the human body there are governing organs and governed organs that require for their subsistence the governance of the governing organ that governs them — so too in the entire world there are governing parts, which are the fifth body that encompasses, and governed parts that depend upon it.
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Just as the governing organ which is the heart is constantly in motion and is the principle of every motion that occurs in the body — the rest of the body's organs are governed by it and it sends to them the faculties they need for their acts through its motion — so too the sphere is constantly in motion and is the principle of every motion in the world.
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Know that the faculties that reach this world from the sphere — as has been made clear — are four: a faculty that causes mixing and composition, and this is certainly sufficient for the production of minerals; a faculty that gives the vegetative soul to every plant; a faculty that gives the animal soul to every animal; and a faculty that gives the rational soul to the human being.
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Just as if the heart were to cease for an instant the person would die and all his motions and all his faculties would be annulled — so too if the spheres were to cease, that would be the death of the entire world and the annulment of everything in it.
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Just as the living being is alive as a whole through the motion of its heart — even though it contains organs at rest that have no sensation, such as bones and cartilage and the like — so too this entire existent is a single individual, alive through the motion of the sphere, which stands in it in the position of the heart.
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Thus you should conceive of the totality of this sphere as a single individual, alive, in motion, possessed of a soul — for this manner of conception is very necessary, or very beneficial, in the demonstration of God's oneness, as I shall explain.
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Just as it is impossible for the organs of a human being to exist in isolation and be truly human organs — I mean for the liver to be isolated, or the heart isolated, or flesh isolated — so too it is impossible for the parts of the world to exist some in separation from others in the reality of the matter.
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Just as in this human individual there is a certain faculty that binds his organs to one another, governs them, and gives to each organ what it needs to preserve its fitness and repels what is harmful to it — this is what the physicians explicitly named 'the governing faculty.'
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Just as in the human individual's body there are things aimed at some of which are aimed at the preservation of his individual — such as the organs of nutrition — and some are aimed at the preservation of his species — such as the organs of generation — and some are aimed at his needs that he is compelled by in his nourishment and the like.
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Just as in the human being there are bodies whose individuals are permanent — such as the principal organs — and bodies that persist by species, not by individual — such as the four humors — so too in the totality of existence there are bodies permanent and persisting as individuals — which is the fifth body — and bodies that do not persist as individuals but only by species — which is the world of generation and corruption.
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Just as the faculties of the human being that necessitate his formation and persistence for the duration of his persistence are themselves the ones that necessitate his corruption and dissolution — so too the causes of generation are themselves the causes of corruption throughout the entire world of generation and corruption.
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Know that all this we said — the comparison of the world as a whole to a human individual — is not the reason it was said that the human being is a 'small world,' for this entire comparison holds for every individual from among the individuals of perfect animals.
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Similarly in existence there is a certain thing that is the Governor of its totality — the Mover of the first governing member to which it gave the faculty of motion, and by means of which it governs everything else.
Know that this analogy in which we compared the entire world to a human individual does not differ from what we described except in three things.
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The first: the governing organ of every animal that has a heart benefits from the governed organs and their benefit returns to it. But in the entire existent there is nothing like that — rather everyone who emanates governance or gives a faculty receives no benefit whatsoever in return from the composite.
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The second: the heart of every animal that has a heart is at its center, and the rest of the governed organs surround it so that their benefit reaches it in protecting and guarding it. But matters in the entire world are the reverse — the uppermost sphere surrounds everything that is in the world.
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The third: this rational faculty is a faculty in a body and is not separate from it; but God, exalted be He, is not a force in the body of the world — rather He is separate from all the parts of the world; and His governance, exalted be He, and His providence accompanies the entire world as accompaniment.
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Know that it would be appropriate to compare God's relation to the world to the relation of the acquired intellect to the human being — for it is not a force in a body and it is genuinely separate from the body and overflows upon it.
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After this preamble, I now proceed to mention what I promised to mention and clarify.