And when We made people taste of mercy after adversity that had afflicted them: it has already been mentioned how different types of trials in the way of adversities and hardships and all kinds of severe distress [serve to] break the soul's enthusiasm for evil (shirra) and make the heart more tender by removing the veils of the soul's attributes, thinning the densities of nature and lifting of the coverings of vain desire. That is why their hearts incline by nature to their point of origin when in that state [of tasting mercy], since they are then returning to the entailments of their primordial nature, their original luminosity and their primordial faculty, and they are inclining to ascending, something which is rooted in them, once the impediment has been eliminated. Nay to incline to the upper aspect and to the luminous points of origin is a predisposition created in the nature of all spiritual faculties, even the animal soul, if it should cleanse itself of dark corporeal configurations. For to tend to what is low belongs to corporeal accidents. So much so that even beasts and wild animals when in hardship during times of scarcity and days of drought, [you see them] gather in groups with their heads raised towards the heaven as though their spiritual connection senses the coming down of an effusion from the upper aspect so that they might then draw on it [for relief]. Similarly, when outward graces are plentiful for people, the resources of nature in full supply for them and [their] corporeal needs [satisfied], the soul is strengthened [and emboldened] by the reinforcement of the lower aspect and its faculties become arrogant and overbearing towards the heart, the veil becomes denser and harsher, vain desire acquires mastery and becomes victory such that corporeal nature holds sway and dark corporeal configurations pile up. And thus the heart becomes shaped by the configuration of the soul, hardening, becoming harsher and insolent, made recklessly arrogant by [the plentifulness of] grace to the extent that it becomes ungrateful, blind and inclines to the lower aspect remote as it is to luminous configuration in such instances. In the measure that the soul acquires mastery over the heart, so too does the estimative faculty acquire mastery over the intellect, whereupon devilry becomes master, given that the rational faculty is now captive in the shackles of estimation and under its command, exploited by it for its own pursuits and rendering its goals palatable to it as it actualises the pleasures of the soul, reinforcing it [the rational faculty] from the world of abomination and strengthening its attributes with equipment from the world of natural character and tools of the substrata of [worldly] shares through reflection, such that the heart becomes veiled through [the accumulation of] rust to the receptivity of the attributes of the Truth totally. That is the significance of His words: behold! they have some plot concerning Our signs. Say: 'God is swifter at plotting, by concealing the true vanquishing power within this formal graciousness, while [simultaneously] preparing the chastisement of the fires of privation, the snakes and the black scorpions of the configurations of vices, as well as the garment of boiling pitch within this outward mercy. Surely Our messengers are writing down that which you are plotting': you have already come to know that heavenly spiritual realm is engraved with every event that occurs in this world. Thus every good or vile deed that issues from someone has already been inscribed for him in those Tablets. The spiritual realm for every body has been connected to those spiritual (malakūtiyya) points of origin. Consequently, whenever we aspire to do a good thing or a wicked thing, its form is etched out in the spiritual realm of our bodies as an incoming thought initially whereafter we reflect upon it. Once the engraving is firmly established and resolve issues forth from it so that we live up to the initial thought [itself] with unequivocal will, it becomes imprinted as we embark on that act; except that if it is a good deed it is instantly imprinted in the direction of the heart, which is adjacent to the spirit and the tablet of the inner heart illumined by its light. The practical rational faculty, which is the angel of the right-hand side, from the two [guardian] angels charged [with every human being] - the ones alluded to in His saying: on the right and on the left [there is one] seated [Q. 50:17] - then records this [act]. For the inner heart is the stronger of the two sides. If it is an evil deed, it does not become imprinted immediately because of the remoteness of the dark configuration from the heart and its non-correspondence to it in essence. If that the divine granting of success overtakes that person and one of the lights of spiritual guidance shines over him and he is remorseful and seeks forgiveness, that [evil thought] will be erased and he will be pardoned; but if it does not reach him, that [thought] will keep repeating itself until the soul reinforces it by the darkness of its attributes whereupon it will be come to reside in the tablet of the breast which is that aspect of the heart that is adjacent to the soul and which is dark because of the darkness of the soul that overwhelmed it when that act issued forth from it. The imaginative faculty, which is the angel of the left, since this is the weaker of the two sides, will record that [deed]. This is what they mean when they say that the angel on the left does not record an evil deed until six hours have passed: if during this that person seeks forgiveness it is not recorded, but if he persists it is recorded. From this statement one is able to understand the [meaning of the] bringing of the book to the Muslim by his right hand and to the unbeliever by his left. As for the [actual] form of this bringing and its modality, this will be mentioned in the relevant place, God willing.