Expansion can be dealt with in two categories: Our relationship with the created, and our relationship with the Creator.

With respect to our relationship with the created, expansion means that we are careful of our connection with God and the Truth; that we live in our communities as one of its inhabitants, being open with and showing respect to everyone; and that we treat people according to their level of understanding.

The noble Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, was sincere and frank with those around him, and avoided ceremony or formality. He spoke according to his listeners’ level of understanding, and sometimes made wise and meaningful jokes. Although he suffered inwardly from the unbelief, injustice, and sins he witnessed, and was anxious about everyone’s end and afterlife, he always smiled and behaved pleasantly. As said in al-Minhaj: “A heart is like a mirror: too much and too frequent solemnity may cause it to steam up, and the only way to remove that steam is to tell pleasant jokes.”

With respect to our relationship with God Almighty, expansion signifies the simultaneous experiencing of fear and hope in our souls. Being states of the soul, fear and hope are usually found in those who have just started to advance on the path to God. Expansion, on the other hand, is a state of those with knowledge of God and, moreover, is a dimension of the heart’s life. The state resembling the expansion of those still striving to reach this level of expansion is an exhilaration coming from knowledge of God. This may lead them to become relaxed in their relationship with God, and thus lose their self-control and self-possession.

Expansion appears when a traveler on the path of God is completely freed from carnal desire and passion, and becomes a bright “mirror” to reflect God’s Names and Attributes. This station, whether called the Station of Combination (where the traveler experiences God’s Existence and Unity) or Annihilation (where the traveler’s annihilation of self causes forgetfulness of self when in the throes of ecstatic love of God and perception of God’s Existence and Unity), is a mysterious point where the traveler directs himself or herself according to the Divine inspirations received and assumes “colors” unknown to everybody else. It is impossible for such people to conceal their expansion, while it is insolent of those who have not attained it to talk about it. How aptly Rumi expresses it:

If the king’s courtier behaves in an affected manner to attract the king’s attention, you must not attempt to do so, for you do not have the document (to justify your doing so). O one who cannot be freed from the restrictions of this transient life, how can you know what (the stations of) annihilation, drunkenness, and expansion mean?

Indeed, servants of the body cannot be aware of the states of the spirit. It is impossible for those imprisoned in the body to be aware of spirituality. We should ask those souls who have burned and been “roasted” many times in the fire of the love of God about the pains of a heart that has been cleft open, and their expansion and contraction.

O God! Endear belief to us and make it appealing to our hearts, and make unbelief, transgression, and rebellion hateful to us; and include us among those with right conduct and sound thinking. And bestow blessings and peace on our Master Muhammad and his Companions, all of them.

Nothing compares to him at abusing certain feelings ingrained in human nature for particular intentions and purposes, which are beneficial for us if used properly. Likewise, he is highly skilled at making beauty seem ugly, and ugliness seem beautiful to those who have been afflicted with the misfortune of entering his dirty atmosphere. He makes his unfortunate prey slaves to physicality with his enticement and propaganda to such a degree that it almost becomes impossible for those poor beings to turn toward the horizon of being true humans afterwards.

Even though humanity recognized this evil creature for the first time on its refusal to prostrate before Adam, the history of this wicked one-God knows-may extend further back into the past in connection with its inner problems and conflicts. Satan is the meanest creature with the potential for jealousy, inclination to deceive, feeling of ego-centrism, spirit of rebellion, and weakness for renown in his nature-his willpower being the trigger-who keeps foaming with a rebellious code of conduct and who is fixed on malice. He keeps whispering the same thing to everyone who enters his orbit, be they human or jinn, since evil feelings keep boiling within the essential elements which constitute his inner world and character. He tries particularly hard to make people with character defects resemble himself, constantly blows devilish considerations into them, and travels through their blood and vessels, always inculcating negative things in those unfortunate ones. These poor beings consider the negativities of the words and expressions formed in their inner worlds or of the way of thinking they put on paper as their own, but it is obvious that there are devilish inculcations behind all of these negativities. In this respect, there are seditious organizations and followers of Satan who hold a grudge against people-particularly against believers-and try to lead them astray. They sometimes trigger the animal feelings in some weak ones and lead them to bohemianism, they attack those who do not think like themselves, sometimes raise a fuss, make the atmosphere tense and make different groups oppose one another, always pursuing hypocrisy and discord. These are the ones-as the Qur’an states-who pretend to have faith while near believers and reveal their true thoughts when they are back near the radical lords of unbelief. These organizations and followers of Satan are also metaphorically regarded as satans; these are the human satans described in the Qur’an as “satans from humankind and the jinn” (An’am 6:112).

Just like Satan who chose rebellion by rejecting the order to prostrate before Adam and went even further by daring to engage in dialectics and argue against God, the modern Mephistos of our time in his footsteps always rebel against good, try to make people forget God and His Prophet, and pave the way for the flourishing of devilish considerations. As Goethe expresses in Faust, the struggle between Satan and man, the controversy between unbelief and faith, has never ceased and will never cease. During this struggle, occasionally circumstances were made suitable for unbelief and apostasy, apostates became completely insolent, at other times believers were intimidated through brute force, sometimes certain spoiled souls adopted the despotism of not letting anyone else but themselves live, and at times they committed or had others commit terrible cruelties-whose many examples appall us today. These tyrants did not even think about the existence of an Omnipotent Power, mightier than themselves. They just ignored the fact that the oppressed has the Almighty to take refuge in, that those who make people suffer today will moan in misery tomorrow. What is worse, the unfortunate ones who led their lives under the hegemony of oppressors and despots understood nothing of what was going on, and they kept serving the goals of the tyrants over them. They failed to realize the situation they had got into and what mean deals they were being pushed toward. The poet Namýk Kemal described them thus:

Helpers of the oppressors in this world are only rogues,
Those who enjoy serving merciless hunters are naught but dogs.

In fact, the ends of such people have always been grim. A proverb says, “The company of Satan lasts to the gallows.” This is how they end up; as they do not enjoy the life of this world, they have never been confident about their future. They could not be, since human and jinn devils have caused their souls to deviate. One more time, they have fallen for the stealthy trick of Mephisto. They have been deceived by enemies disguised as friends, and by alienated souls whom they considered their fellows.

The apostates, unbelievers, bohemians, dealers in lust, tyrants who do not recognize any right or justice nowadays are doing to the unfortunate masses what the satans have not been able to. This reaches such a degree that these networks of evil, whose thoughts are as filthy as can be, who are foul-mouthed, and whose insides boil with grudge and hatred, keep attacking those who do not think like themselves, besmirch everyone, laud those they favor, and easily defame those they do not. The poet Mehmed Akif criticized these strayers thus: “Our literary men are swearing at one another, / Published in different names, a paper always in print, / Disseminating seeds of discord all over!” This was the case the day before yesterday, it was so yesterday, and it is still the same now.

God called us to keep away from Satan as stated in the command, “Do not follow in the footsteps of Satan; indeed he is a manifest enemy to you. He only commands you to evil and indecency” (Baqara 2:168–169).

The Almighty reminds us of the grudge of that accursed one to alert us: “Of Your servants I will surely take a share to be assigned to me (by their following me). I will surely lead them astray and surely engross them in vain desires” (Nisa 4:118–119). God invites us to be sensible and wary of the Satanic grudge and hatred as revealed in “…now that You have allowed me to rebel and go astray, I will surely lie in wait for them on Your Straight Path (to lure them from it). Then I will come upon them from before them and from behind them, and from their right and from their left” (A’raf 7:16–17).

If only we could understand all this!

In Heroes and Hero Worship Thomas Carlyle attempts to draw a picture of the development of the human intellect by using historical figures as coordinates. Some scholars take a perspective of history in terms of “the environment” or “the times” and “causes,” while others, like Carlyle, have the view that human advancement was not continuous, discrete and rather being made up of a series of jumps; these jumps were caused for the most part by specific individuals whom Carlyle calls “Heroes.” This is like the wave/particle duality of the “nature of light.” In some phenomena light behaves like a wave, while in others it behaves like a particle. One can write a history based on the ideas, cultures, and mediums in which people lived; or the same history can be written by focusing on certain individuals and following them and their actions.

The writings of Carlyle and those of many other authors of that time, of course, are very perceptive. Carlyle is not really trying to be objective on the matter. He has an idea, and he wants to tell us about this idea; while telling you what this idea is about he uses whatever his hands and mind can take hold of. Being so passionate about what is being said is probably a good thing. But if one is over-passionate, there cannot help but be wild swings in the appreciation of the historical person in question. If we use an analogy of a drawing, the historical person is no longer a point on the painting, but rather a hair of the brush. But that should not prevent us from benefiting from writing of Thomas Carlyle.

Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, has a special place in the book under the chapter title “Hero as a Prophet.” In the book, Carlyle declares his admiration of God’s Messenger, “… The word of such a man (Muhammad) is a Voice direct from Nature’s own Heart. Men do and must listen to that as to nothing else; all else is wind in comparison.” Carlyle’s answers to pointed questions on Islam and the Prophet show interesting similarities to Said Nursi’s line of answers to similar questions. “…For a wretched Simulacrum, a hungry Imposter without eyes or heart, practicing for a mess of pottage such blasphemous swindlery, forgery of celestial documents, continual high-treason against his Maker and Self, we will not and cannot take him” reads very much like Said Nursi’s “The Addendum to the Fifteenth Word,” where he makes a long imaginary discussion with Satan and shows how people are inclined to unbelief, thinking that they are evaluating divine revelation from a neutral perspective “…O Satan! Objective reasoning means impartial judgment or not taking sides, but the objective reasoning which you and your disciples suggest is, in fact, taking the part of those in opposition to the Qur’an; not impartiality but an attitude of temporary unbelief. This is really so because to suppose the Qur’an the work of a human being and to build an argument on this supposition is to side with unbelief or falsehood…”

Considering the fact that at that time the West and the East were at odds with one another, and that the means of communications were quite inferior to our times, Carlyle having such an open mind to the “other” puts him in a category of his own with thinkers like Swedenborg, Emerson and Thoreau. I think when we are trying to build bridges between the peoples of the West and the East we should not overlook these early historical representatives of dialogue; this is something that Nursi has foreseen in his writings.

Surely We created humanity of the best pattern. Then We reduced humanity to the lowest of the low, except for those who believe and do good deeds. (95:4-5)

In the following five points, we will explain five out of the thousands of virtues of belief.

First point

Through the light of belief, we reach the highest degree of perfection and become worthy of Paradise. On the other hand, the darkness of unbelief reduces us to the lowest level so that we become worthy of Hell. Belief connects us to our Majestic Maker, and our value derives from using our belief to demonstrate the Divine art and manifest the Divine Names. Unbelief breaks this relation, thereby veiling the Divine art and reducing our value to that of a mere and almost valueless physical entity, for we are no more than a perishable thing, a transient animal. We will explain this truth through a parable.

The value of the iron (or any other material) from which a work of art is made differs from the value of the art expressed in it. Sometimes they may have the same value, or else the art’s worth may be far more valuable than its material or vice versa. An antique may fetch as much as a million dollars, while its material is not even worth a few cents. If taken to the antiques market, it may be sold for its true value because of its art and the brilliant artist’s name. If taken to a blacksmith, it would be sold only for the value of its iron.

Similarly, each of us is a unique, priceless work of God Almighty’s art. We are His Power’s most delicate and graceful miracles, beings created to manifest His Names and inscriptions as miniature specimens of the universe. If we are illuminated with belief, these meaningful inscriptions become visible. Believers manifest them through their connection with their Maker, for the Divine art contained in each individual is revealed through such affirmations as: I am the work of the Majestic Maker, the creature and object of His Mercy and Munificence. As a result, and because we gain value in proportion to how well we reflect this art, we move from insignificance (in material terms) to beings ranked above all creatures. We communicate with God, are His guests on Earth, and are qualified for Paradise.(1)

But if unbelief is ingrained in us, all of the Divine Names’ meaningful manifestations are veiled by darkness and therefore non-expressive. If the artist is unknown, how can the aspects expressing the art’s worth be identified? Thus, most meaningful instances of that sublime art and elevated inscriptions are concealed. In material terms, unbelievers attribute them to trivial causes, nature, and chance, thereby reducing them to plain glass instead of sparkling diamonds. They are no more significant than any other material entity, self-condemned to a transient and suffocating life. They are no better than a most impotent, needy, and afflicted animal that eventually turns to dust. Unbelief thus spoils our nature by changing our diamond into coal.

Second point

Just as belief illuminates us and reveals the messages inscribed in our being by the Eternally-Besought-of-All, so does it illuminate the universe and remove darkness from the past and the future. We will explain this truth through what I experienced regarding the meaning of: God is the Protecting Friend of those who believe. He brings them out of the layers of darkness into the light (2:257).

I saw myself standing on an awe-inspiring bridge set over a deep valley between two mountains. The world was completely covered by a thick darkness. Looking to my right, I imagined I saw a huge tomb. Looking to my left, I felt as if I were seeing violent storms and calamities being prepared amid tremendous waves of darkness. Looking down, I imagined I was seeing a very deep precipice.

In that dreadful darkness, my torch’s dim light revealed a horrifying scene. All along the length of the bridge were such horrible dragons, lions, and monsters that I wished I had no torch. Whichever way I directed it, I got the same fright. This torch brings me only trouble, I exclaimed, angrily casting it to the ground and breaking it. All of a sudden, the darkness was replaced by light, as if I had switched on a huge light by breaking my torch. I saw everything in its true nature.

I discovered that the bridge was a highway on a smooth plain. The huge tomb was a green, beautiful garden in which assemblies of worship, prayer, glorification, and discourse were being led by illustrious persons. The turbulent, stormy, frightening precipices now appeared as a banqueting hall, a shaded promenade, a very beautiful resting place behind lovely mountains. The horrible monsters and dragons were, in fact, camels, sheep, and goats. Praise and thanks be to God for the light of belief, I said, and then awoke reciting: God is the Protecting Friend of those who believe. He brings them out of the layers of darkness into the light.

The two mountains are the beginning and end of this life, and the life between death and Resurrection. The bridge is the lifespan, between the two phases of the past (on the right) and the future (on the left). The torch is our conceited ego that, relying on its own achievements, ignores Divine Revelation. The monsters are the world’s events and extraordinary creatures.

Those who have fallen into the darkness of misguidance and heedlessness because of their confidence in their egos resemble me in the former state”in the dim light of a torch. With their inadequate and misguided knowledge, they see the past as a huge tomb in the darkness of extinction, and the future as a stormy scene of terror controlled by coincidence or chance.

The torch shows them events and creatures. In reality, these are subjugated to the All-Wise and All-Merciful, fulfill specific functions, and serve good purposes in submission to His Decree. However, they see such things as harmful monsters. These are the people referred to in: As to those who do not believe, their protecting friends are false deities. They bring them out of light into layers of darkness (2:257).

But if people are favored with Divine guidance so that belief enters their hearts and their Pharaoh-like egos are broken, enabling them to listen to the Book of God, they will resemble me in my later state. Suddenly the universe will fill with Divine Light, demonstrating the meaning of: God is the light of the heavens and the Earth (24:35).

Through the eye of their hearts, such people see that the past is not a huge tomb; rather, each past century is the realm of authority of a Prophet or a saint, where the purified souls, having completed the duties of their lives (worship) with: God is the Greatest, flew to higher abodes on the side of the future.

Looking to the left and through the light of belief, they discern, behind the mountain-like revolutions of the intermediate world and the next life, a feasting place set up by the All-Compassionate One at palaces of bliss in gardens of Paradise. They understand that such events as storms, earthquakes, and epidemics serve a specific function, just as the spring rain and winds, despite their apparent violence, serve many agreeable purposes. They even see death as the beginning of eternal life, and the grave as the gateway to eternal happiness.

Adapted from Bediuzzaman’s Twenty-third Word, First Chapter.

Footnote

1. For example, prayer is a form of communication with God, who speaks to us through Prophets, inspiration, or Scriptures.

[Humanity has been created on the most excellent pattern and given the most comprehensive abilities. As a result, all of us have been cast into an arena of trial and examination in which we may rise from the lowest of beings to the highest, from the Earth to the Divine Throne, from minute particles to the sun. We have been sent here as a miracle of Divine Power, the result of creation, and a wonder of Divine art. Each of us must choose a path leading either to infinite ascent or to infinite descent.]

First Remark

Our needs do not differ markedly from those of all other beings, to which we are connected. Our needs spread throughout the world, and our desires extend to eternity. Just as we want a flower, we want the spring. Just as we desire a garden, we desire everlasting Paradise. Just as we long to see a friend, we long to see the All-Beauteous One of Glory. Just as we travel to visit our beloved, we need our Beloved’s door to be opened. Just as we seek to visit the 99 percent of our friends who have saved themselves from eternal separation by traveling to the intermediate realm, we need to seek refuge at the Absolutely Powerful One’s court. This One will close this world’s door and open that of the Hereafter, which is an exhibition of wonders. He will remove this world and establish the Hereafter in its place.

For those people in this position, the only True Object of Worship will be One Whose hand holds the reins and treasuries of all things; Who sees all things, is omnipresent, beyond space, All-Powerful, and without fault or defect; an All-Powerful One of Glory, an All-Compassionate One of Beauty, and an All-Wise One of Perfection.

O humanity, if you serve Him alone you will earn a place superior to all creatures. If you do not, however, you will become an abased servant to impotent creatures. If you rely on your own ego and power, thereby abandoning reliance on God and supplication, you will deviate into pride and boasting. In such a case, you will fall lower than an ant or bee in regard to goodness and creation, and become weaker than a spider or a fly.

O humanity, you have two aspects. The first one is that of creation, good, acts, and positivity; the other is that of destruction, non-existence, evil, negativity, and passivity. In regard to the first aspect, your capabilities cannot exceed those of a bee or a sparrow, and your talents are weaker than those of a spider or fly.

In regard to the second aspect, you surpass the mountains, Earth, and skies. You agreed to assume a burden after they said they could not do so and so shrank from it. You assumed a sphere that is more extensive and vaster than they are. When you do good, you can do so only to the extent of your own power and strength, and to the degree your hand can reach. When you commit evil and destruction, your evil is overwhelming, and your destruction spreads.

For example, unblief is an evil, a destruction, an absence of affirmation. A single sin as it may seem, it implies an insult to all creation, debasement of all the Divine Names and degradation of the whole of mankind. For the whole of creation has a sublime rank and important task, each being a massive of the Lord, a mirror of His Glory and an official of His Divinity. Unbelief denies them the rank bestowed by those functions, and reduces them to the state of play-things of chance, to the level of being insignificant, unless and worthless objects doomed to decay and decomposition.

Unbelief, through denial, also insults the Divine Names, even though their inscriptions, manifestations, and beauties are seen throughout the universe and in the mirrors of beings. It makes humanity more abased and weaker, more powerless and needy, than the lowliest transient animal. And this despite the fact that humanity is God’s vicegerent on Earth.

Unbelief denies that humanity is a well-composed ode of wisdom proclaiming the Sacred Divine Names’ manifestations; a seed-like self-evident miracle of Divine power containing within itself an entire eternal tree; and that part of creation that assumed the “Supreme Trust” and thus rose to a higher level than the Earth, sky, and mountains-and even gained superiority over the angels. Unbelief reduces this glorious creation a common sign-board without meaning, something confused and decaying swiftly.

In short: The evil-commanding soul may commit infinite harm through its destruction and evil, whereas its power for creativity and good is extremely small and partial. It may destroy in one day what it took 100 days to build.

However, if the soul gives up egoism and seeks good and existence from Divine assistance, foregoes evil and destruction and relying on itself, and seeks forgiveness so that it can become a true servant of God, it will manifest the meaning of the verse: God will change their evil into good (Qur’an 25:70). Its infinite capacity for evil will be transformed into an infinite capacity for good. It will acquire the value of the Most Excellent of Patterns and ascend to the highest of the high.

O heedless humanity, see the Almighty’s munificence and generosity. Although it would be entirely just to regard an evil as 1,000 evils and a good deed as one or perhaps nothing at all, He records one evil as one and a good deed is multiplied by 10, and sometimes by 70 or 700 or even 7,000. You also will understand from this Remark that being sent to Hell, which is so dreadful, is a just retribution for the evil deed, while being sent to Paradise is pure generosity.

Second Remark

Humanity has two faces. One is the human ego, which looks to the life of this world. The other is that which worships and serves God and looks to eternal life. In the first case, we are beings with a partial freedom of choice, a very weak power, a fast-dying flame of life, a very brief and fleeting lifespan, and a swiftly decaying physical body. Thus we are delicate, weak individuals among innumerable other individuals of the various beings inhabiting the universe. In the second case, especially with regard to our impotence and poverty that are turned toward worship, we have a truly great breadth and vast importance. The All-Wise Creator has included in human nature an infinitely vast impotence and boundlessly large poverty. He has done so that we can be extensive mirrors containing the innumerable manifestations of an All-Powerful and Compassionate One with infinite power, an All-Generous and All-Rich One with boundless wealth. Humanity resembles a seed. This seed has been given a great potential by Divine Power, and a subtle, valuable program by Divine Destiny. Using these, it may work underground and, emerging from that narrow world, enter the broad world of the air. At this point, it asks its Creator in its own way to be a tree so that it can find a perfection worthy of it. If, due to bad temperament, the seed uses its potentialities to attract harmful underground substances, soon it will rot and decay in that narrow place without benefit. But if the seed conforms to the creational command of: God is the Splitter of the seed-grain and date-stone (Qur’an 6:95) and uses its potentialities correctly, it will emerge from that narrow world and, by becoming a large fruit-bearing tree, its tiny particular reality and its spirit will assume the form of an extensive, universal reality. Similarly, great potentialities and valuable programs have been deposited in our human nature by Divine Power and Destiny. If we use them to pursue our soul’s desires and on minor pleasures under the soil of this life in the world’s narrow confines, we will decay and decompose amidst difficulties during our brief life in a constricted place, just like the rotten seed. Then we will load the responsibility on our unfortunate spirit and depart from this world. If, however, we nurture the seed of our abilities with the water of the right path and light of belief, and under the soil of worship and servitude to God, and in conformity with His commands and turn our faculties toward their true aims, we will produce branches and buds in the World of Similitudes and the Intermediate Realm. We will be seeds of great value, shining machines containing the members of an everlasting tree and permanent truth that will lead us to innumerable perfections and bounties in Paradise. And, we will be blessed and luminous fruits of the Tree of the Universe. True progress is to turn the faces of the heart, spirit, intellect, and even of the imagination and other subtle human faculties toward eternal life. Each item should be occupied with the particular duty of worship worthy of it. Progress does not consist, as the misguided imagine, of plunging into this material life as deeply as possible to taste every pleasure, even the basest; to allow our evil-commanding soul to command all our subtle faculties, and the heart and intellect, to assist it. This is not progress; it is decline.

Consider the following analogy. I entered a large town that was full of palaces. At the doors of some palaces was merry-making that resembled a brilliant theater. It captured and held everyone’s attention. I looked carefully and saw that the palace owner was at the door playing with a dog. Ladies were flirting with ill-mannered youths, women were organizing children’s games, and the doorkeeper was directing the others. I then realized that the palace’s interior was completely empty, for its refined duties were not being done. The morals of its inhabitants had declined so much that they had taken on these roles at the door. I passed on until I came to another palace. I saw that a faithful dog was stretched out at the door to serve as a stern and taciturn doorkeeper. Its appearance was undistinguished. I wondered what was going on, so I went inside. I saw that the inside was very merry. Its inhabitants were busy with their particular refined duties. The men in the first apartment were overseeing the administration and running of the palace. In the apartment over it, girls were teaching children. Above that, ladies were occupied with fine arts and beautiful embroideries. On the top floor, the owner was exchanging news with the king. In addition, he was busy with his own elevated duties connected with maintaining the peoples’ tranquillity and his own attainments and progress. They did not stop me, since they could not see me, and so I wandered around. Then I came out and looked around.

Everywhere in the town resembled the inhabitants of one or the other palace. I asked about this, and was told: “The palaces that appear happy but are empty inside belong to those foremost in unbelief and misguidance. The others belong to honorable believers.” Then in one corner I came across a palace bearing my name. I was curious. I looked more closely, and it was as if I saw my image on it. Calling out in utter bewilderment, I came to my senses.

And now I shall interpret this for you. The town was humanity’s social life, and civilization. Each palace was a human being with its various inhabitants: such subtle human faculties as eyes, ears, heart, inner heart, spirit, intellect, and things like the carnal soul and passions, desires, and anger. Each human faculty has a different duty of worship, and different pleasures and pains. The carnal soul and passions, desires and anger, are like the doorkeeper and the dog. If you make the elevated subtle faculties subject to the carnal, thereby causing them to forget their fundamental duties, this must be considered decline, not progress. You can interpret the rest for yourself. Adapted from Bediuzzaman”s Twentythird Word, Second Chapter