Ma'at is the foundational neter-principle of truth, justice, and cosmic order upon which all Egyptian civilization rests. She is both goddess and abstract concept: her feather (shut) is the measure against which every heart is weighed in the Hall of Two Truths, as depicted in the Papyrus of Ani and throughout the Book of the Dead. The Instruction of Ptahhotep teaches that ma'at is the proper conduct that sustains the social and cosmic order, while isfet (chaos, falsehood) is its negation โ pharaoh's primary duty was 'presenting ma'at' to the gods, maintaining the equilibrium between heaven and earth. Without ma'at, the Egyptians understood, the inundation would fail, the sun would not rise, and creation would collapse back into the waters of Nun.