What if the laws of physics are not what matter is, but what matter is told to become? This treatise proposes a fundamental reconceptualization of physical law, arguing that the properties and regularities observed in nature are not inherent, essential qualities of matter but contingent functional assignments—designated here by the Arabic philosophical term Ja'l (جعل). Drawing on the metaphysics of Mulla Sadra's Substantial Motion (Harakat al-Jawhariyya) and the doctrine of Linked Means (Asbab), we construct an ontological framework in which what modern science calls "laws of nature" are better understood as systematic habits (Sunnatullah) serving a systemic intent, rather than as brute, purposeless necessities. The treatise proceeds through eight chapters, examining the crisis of essentialism in modern physics, the irreducibility of consciousness, the formal Ja'l framework and its dialogue with major Western accounts of natural law (Humean regularity theory, Armstrong's necessitarianism, and the structural realism of Ladyman and Ross), evidence from modern physics (including the Higgs mechanism, quantum superposition, gauge invariance, and the ontological openness of the cosmos), the dissolution of the natural/spiritual binary, spacetime as manifestation, the psychology of worldview construction, and the existential consequences of ontological choice. An epilogue examines the definition of the human as a being in ache (dardmand) through Rumi's Masnavi. A supplementary essay, "About This Book," is included as an accessible introduction to the core ideas of the treatise. This is a preprint under active development. The "Notes on This Draft" section at the end of the manuscript identifies areas for further refinement. Comments and scholarly engagement are welcomed.
Ali Talebi (Fri,) studied this question.