The Tenth Word

Part One: Introduction

[This introduction consists of two points that briefly expound one of the many spiritual benefits of belief in the Resurrection and one of its vital comprehensive results. They also show how that belief is essential for human life, particularly social life, and summarize one of its many comprehensive proofs. Also included is an explanation of how evident and indubitable a matter is belief in the Resurrection.]

FIRST POINT: We will relate only four of the many arguments for belief in the Hereafter as the very basis and bedrock of human social and individ­ual life, and the foundation of all happiness and achievement.

FIRST ARGUMENT: Children are one-third of humanity. They cannot endure death, which must seem to them an awful tragedy, except via the idea of Paradise, which spiritually strengthens their weak, fragile natures. It gives them the hope to live joyfully, despite the vulnerability of their nature, which can so readily burst into tears. Keeping Paradise in mind, they may say: “My little sister or friend has died and become a bird in Paradise. She is playing there and enjoying a better life.” If they could not do this, their awareness of the deaths of those around them would over­whelm them; crush their powers of resistance and inner strength; cause their eyes and all inner faculties, heart, mind, and spirit to weep; and destroy them or transform them into distraught and crazed animals.

SECOND ARGUMENT: The elderly make up another one-third of humanity. They can endure death only by believing in the afterlife, which consoles them somewhat for the imminent extinction of this life to which they are so attached, for their exclusion from their lovely world. Only the hope of eternal life allows them to counter the pain and despair which the anticipation of death and separation give rise to in their child-like, fragile temperament and spirit. Without such a hope, our venerable elders who are so worthy of compassion, our aged parents who need a serene and steady heart, would become so distraught in spirit and distressed at heart that their world would seem to be a dark prison, their lives a heavy burden of torment.

THIRD ARGUMENT: Young people are the mainspring and foundation of social life. Only the thought of Hell enables them to control the stormy energy of feelings and passions, their tempestuous, evil-commanding souls, from destructiveness and oppression, and divert them into serving the collective interest. Without this fear, and drunk on the energy of youth, they would follow the principle of “might makes right” and give free rein to their passions. This would turn the world into a hell for the weak and powerless, and lower human life to the level of beasts.

FOURTH ARGUMENT: The family is the inclusive core of our worldly life, our most fundamental resource, and the paradise, home, and castle of our worldly happiness. Each person’s home is his or her own miniature world. The vitality and happiness of our homes and families depend upon sincere and devoted respect, true kindness, and self-denying compassion. All of this, in turn, depends upon eternal friendship and companionship, an immortal bond, as well as the belief that feelings and relations between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and husbands and wives will be everlasting.

For example, a man can say: “My wife will be my eternal companion in an eternal world. Even if she is now old and not as beautiful as before, her eternal beauty will show itself in the Hereafter. For the sake of that companionship in eternity, I sacrifice and show her compassion in this world.” Thus he can regard his aged wife with love, care, and compassion, as if she were a gorgeous houri. A companionship that ends in permanent separation after a few hours of bodily togetherness can only be slight, transient, and insecure. It would produce only a superficial love and respect based on physical charm and sexual instinct. Other interests and powerful emotions eventually would arise and, defeating that respect and concern, turn a worldly paradise into a worldly hell.

Thus, one of the numerous benefits of belief in the Resurrection relates to our social life. If the related aspects and benefits are deduced via analogy with these four, it will be clear that the Resurrection’s reality and truth is as certain as our own existence and universal need. It will be even more evident than the argument that food must exist because our stomachs require it. If the Resurrection’s reality and truth, and all the consequences thereof, are sub­tracted from the human state, the meaning of being human—so exalted, vital, and important within creation—is lowered to that of a carcass fed upon by microbes. Let those concerned with humanity’s orderly life, morals, and society focus on this matter. If the Resurrection is denied, with what will they fill the resulting void and cure the deep wounds?

SECOND POINT: Among innumerable proofs of the reality of the Resurrection, we set out, in a compressed and succinct form, the support offered by the other pillars of belief. All miracles affirming Muhammad as Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, all proofs of his Prophethood, and all evidence of his truthfulness bear witness to and establish the Resurrection’s reality and truth. For after the Unity of God Almighty, all the claims that exalted person set forth during his life focused on the Resurrection. Indeed, the miracles and proofs attesting to all Prophets, and urging humanity to attest to them, bear witness to the same truth. Similarly, the requirement for Muslims to believe in God’s Books, which makes completely clear the testimony to His Messengers, bears witness to this truth. It is as follows: All their miracles, proofs, and truths establishing the Qur’an’s truth likewise establish and prove the Resurrection’s reality and truth. About one-third of the Qur’an deals with the Hereafter, most of its short suras begin with powerful verses evoking it, and it proclaims this truth explicitly or implicitly in hundreds of verses, thereby proving it. For example:

When the sun is folded up. (81:1)

O humankind, keep from disobedience to your Lord in piety; the violent convulsion of the Last Hour is an awesome thing. . (22:1)

When the earth quakes with a violent quaking destined for it. (99:1)

When the heaven is cleft open. (82:1)

When the heaven is split asunder. (84:1)

What are they asking each other about? (78:1)

Has the account of the overwhelming event come to you? (88:1)

Just as the initial verses of about 20 suras state that the Resurrection’s truth is a most important and essential reality of creation, many other verses affirm and provide other evidence of the same truth. How can you even con­sider not believing in the Resurrection? Would it be as impossible and absurd as the denial of the sun and the claim of the non-existence of the universe that one would consider belief in the Resurrection false, which emerges like the sun from innumerable arguments and testimonies of a Book, even a verse of which has yielded numerous fruits in Islamic and cosmic sciences?

A sovereign sometimes sends his army into battle merely to prove the truth of one of his statements. Is it, then, even conceivable to contradict the truth of that most solemn and dignified sovereign’s innumerable words, promises, and threats? Is it possible that they should be false? This glorious sovereign (the Qur’an) has ruled, administered, and educated countless spirits, intellects, hearts and souls according to perfect righteousness and truth for more than 13 centuries. While one indication from it suffices to prove the Resurrection’s truth, it proves and demonstrates it with thou­sands of explicit proofs. So, what else can we say than that those who continue to deny this truth are worthy of and deserve punishment in Hellfire?

Furthermore, all Divine Pages or Scrolls and Sacred Books other than the Qur’an, each of which was addressed to a specific age and time, accept the truth of the Resurrection, which the Qur’an, addressing all times, explains and establishes in detail and with explicit arguments. Even their brief and sometimes allusive explanations affirm it so powerfully that they constitute a thousand fold signature of what the Qur’an teaches.

We include an argument drawn from the Treatise on Supplication. This brief argument, including the testimony of belief in the Last Day by the other pillars of belief, mainly belief in God’s Messengers and Books, is forceful and may suffice to end all doubt. In this supplication, we say:

O All-Compassionate Lord. I have understood from the instruction of Your noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, and the teaching of the wise Qur’an that all the Divine Books and Prophets, primarily the Qur’an and Your noblest Messenger, unanimously assert and testify that the manifestations of all Your Names of Majesty and Grace, Whose exemplary manifestations are observed throughout the universe, will continue to manifest themselves in eternity in a more splendid way; that Your gifts, the compassionate manifestations and specimens of which are experienced in this fleeting world, will endure in a more brilliant fashion in the Abode of Eternal Bliss; and that those who are fond of them and who discern them in this brief worldly life with pleasure and seek them in love will accompany them to and through all eternity.

Also, based on the countless proofs of their Prophethood, including their hundreds of evident miracles, and on the promises and threats that You reiterated in all the heavenly Pages or Scrolls and sacred Books; and relying on the dignity of Your Majesty and the dominion of Your Lordship, and on Your sacred Attributes and essential Qualities of Yours such as Power, Mercy, Beneficence, Wisdom, Majesty and Grace, Which require the Hereafter; and through their spiritual unveilings and observations, together with their convictions at the degree of certainty of knowledge and certainty of vision or observation, all of the Prophets with luminous spirits, including first and foremost God’s noblest Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, the saints with illuminated hearts and the pure, saintly scholars with enlightened intellect—all of these give jinn and humankind the glad tidings of eternal happiness for the people of guidance, and warn that there is Hell for the misguided, while being the first to believe in the rewards and punishments to come.

O All-Powerful, O All-Wise! O All-Merciful and All­Compassionate; O All-Munificent One Who is absolutely True to His promises! O All-Overwhelming One of Majesty with Dignity, Grandeur, and Majesty! Failure to bring about the Resurrection would mean contradicting so many truthful friends of Yours. It would mean breaking Your vehemently repeated threats and promises, negating Your sacred Attributes and essential Qualities, and negating the definite requirements of the dominion of Your Lordship; it would mean rejecting the prayers and petitions for the Hereafter of Your innumerable servants whom You love, and who make themselves loved by You by confirming and obeying You. Undoubtedly You are exalted far above such a failure!

You are also exalted far above confirming the people of unbelief and misguidance in their rejection of the Resurrection, who through unbelief and disobedience, and by contradicting You in Your promises, insult Your Grandeur, attack the dignity of Your Majesty, offend the honor of Your Divinity and disparage your Lordship’s Compassion. I declare Your infinite Justice, Grace and Mercy to be absolutely free of such limitless ugliness and evil. We believe with all our power that these numerous truthful Messengers of Yours and hundreds of thousands of Prophets, pure, saintly scholars, and saints, who are heralds of Your dominion, are absolutely true in their testimony to Your eternal treasures of Mercy and Benevolence, and the extraordinarily exquisite manifestations of Your All-Beautiful Names in the world of perma­nence with certainty based on knowledge, and certainty based on vision, and certainty based on experience. They also believe and teach others by Your command that the greatest ray of Your Name, the Ultimate Truth, which is the origin, sun and preserver of all truths, is this greatest truth of Resurrection.

O Lord, for the sake of their instruction and teaching, grant to us and our brothers and sisters perfected belief and a fair ending to our life, and that we may have some share of their intercession. Amin.

All arguments and evidences establishing the truth of the Qur’an and all other Divine Books, as well as the miracles and proofs that establish the Prophethood of the beloved of God—Prophet Muhammad—and of all other Prophets, point to the Hereafter’s reality, which has the greatest place— next to God’s Existence and Unity—in their claim or cause.

Similarly, most arguments and evidences for the Necessarily Existent Being’s Existence and Unity implicitly affirm the existence and opening out of the Abode of Happiness, the Realm of Eternity where God’s Lordship and Divinity will be fully manifested. For both the Existence of the Necessarily Existent Being and most of His Names and all His Attributes and essential Qualities, like Lordship, Divinity, Grace, Wisdom, and Justice, necessitate an eternal realm with utmost certainty and demand the Resurrection and Last Judgment for dispensing absolutely just punishment and reward.

Since God eternally exists, He must have an eternal abode where His Divine Sovereignty will eternally dominate. Since we see that a most magnificent, purposively wise, and caring absolute Lordship exists throughout the universe and animate creation, there must certainly be an eternal realm of happiness to which admission is granted, so that the majesty of that Lordship is not extinguished, Its wisdom not turned into pointlessness, and Its caring not destroyed by betrayal.

Since these visible and infinite bounties, blessings, kindnesses, and instances of generosity and mercy show to alert minds and hearts that an All-Merciful and All-Compassionate Being exists beyond the veil of the Unseen, there must be an eternal life in an eternal world, for only that which will show that His Bounty does not mock, His Benevolence does not deceive, His Favoring does not create enmity, His Mercy does not torment, and His Generosity does not betray. In addition, it is only eternity in an eternal realm which makes all bounties and blessings assume their true and perfect forms.

Since each spring we see a Pen of Power tirelessly inscribe uncount­able interleaved books on the narrow page of the earth without allowing any error, and the Owner of that Pen has promised repeatedly in all His Decrees: “I will write and have you read a beautiful, imperishable book in a place far more spacious than this, and in a fashion far easier than this cramped and intermingled book of spring that is written on such a narrow page,” certainly its origin has been written already, and will be set down in writing with all its marginalia on the Day of Resurrection. The records of all people’s deeds will also be included in that book.

Since by virtue of the multiplicity of its inhabitants and of its being the abode, origin, workshop, and place of display and resurrection of countless constantly changing forms, the earth is given great importance as the universe’s heart, center, choice, core, ultimate end, and very reason for its creation, and despite its small size, the heavenly Decrees hold it equal to the vast heavens, saying, the Lord of the heavens and the earth...

And since there is humanity—we are dominant throughout the earth. We have dominion over most of its creatures, subordinate and gather around ourselves almost all animate beings, and order, display, and ornament created objects according to our need and desire. We catalogue and classify everything in all its wonderful variety, each species in its own place, and in such a way that all people and jinn gaze at it, all dwellers of the heavens and the universe regard it with appreciation, and even the Lord of the universe bestows His appreciative glance upon it. Thus we gain great importance and value and show through our art and science that we are the reason for the universe’s existence, the supreme fruit of creation and serve as God’s vicegerents on the earth. Since we demonstrate and arrange the Maker’s miraculous works here, we are given a respite and granted success despite our rebellion, ingratitude and unbelief and our punishment is postponed.

Since despite being endowed with such qualities, we nevertheless are extremely weak and impotent and have innumerable needs and subject to innumerable pains. However, there is a most powerful, wise, and caring Ruler Who has made the planet a storehouse stocked with every kind of mineral and food we need and with all the merchandise we desire, and Who provides for us in a way altogether beyond our power and will.

Since the Lord Who possesses these qualities, loves us and makes Himself our beloved. He is Eternal and has eternal worlds. He does all things with justice and wisdom. But this Eternal Ruler’s majesty of dominion and eternality of sovereignty cannot be contained in the transient life of this fleeting, temporary world. Furthermore, the enormity of human injustice and rebellion as well as its members’ betrayal, denial, and unbelief toward their Benefactor and Provider, which are hostile to and contradict the universe’s just balance and harmonious beauty, generally go unpun­ished in this world. The cruel and the treacherous live easily, while the oppressed and downcast live in wretchedness. But the whole nature and being of Absolute Justice, signs of which are seen throughout the universe, are totally at odds and irreconcilable with the idea that the cruel and treacherous—who die just like the oppressed and the desperate—should never be resurrected [to account for their cruelty in a supreme tribunal].

Since the Owner of the universe has chosen the earth from the universe and humanity from the earth, giving both a high rank and significance. Out of humanity, He has chosen the Prophets, saints, and pure, saintly scholars, true human beings who conform to His purposes as the Lord of creation and make themselves loved by Him through belief and submission. He has taken them as friends and objects of His address, and ennobles them with miracles and Divine support and punishes their opponents with heavenly blows. Out of these people, He has chosen their leader and fulcrum: Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings. For long centuries He has illumined with his light the half of the globe and one-fifth of humanity. As if creation were created for his sake, all of its high purposes become manifest through him, his Religion, and the Qur’an he brought. Although he deserved and was worthy to infinitely receive an infinite reward for the infinite value of the services he rendered—services that usually would take thousands of years to perform— he was granted a brief life of sixty-three years spent in hardship and struggle. How could we believe that he would not be resurrected, together with all his peers—the other Prophets—and Companions? Or that he should not, even now, be alive in the spirit? Or that they should die and disappear into eter­nal extinction? The entire universe and the truth on which it is based demand his being again, demand his life from the Owner of all that is.

Since it has been established in The 7th Ray, The Supreme Sign, with thirty-three conclusive proofs that the universe is a Single Being’s handicraft. That Being’s Oneness and Unity give rise to all His Perfections and cause creation to obey Him absolutely. By means of a new life, that of the Hereafter, those Perfections remain defect-free;44 His Absolute Justice is not deformed into absolute treachery, His universal Wisdom into foolish pointlessness, His all-inclusive Mercy into frivolous tormenting, and His exalted Power being confounded with impotence.

Out of hundreds of realities which belief in God gives rise, these eight ones described in the paragraphs beginning with “since” demonstrate, the Resurrection will occur.  Only after the abodes of reward and punishment open their gates will the earth’s significance and centrality, and our true significance and value, be truly accomplished; and the All-Wise Ruler’s Justice, Wisdom, Mercy, and Sovereignty, Who is the Creator and Lord of our planet and of us, will be manifested eternally with all their perfections. All true friends and ardent lovers of the Eternal Lord will be delivered from eternal annihilation, and the nearest and dearest of them will be rewarded for the sacred services with which have made the entire universe pleased and indebted. And the Eternal Sovereign’s Perfections will affirm themselves to be without defect, His Power without incompetency, and His Justice without oppressiveness. In sum, the Hereafter exists because God exists.

Just as the above-mentioned three pillars of faith—belief in God, belief in Prophethood, and belief in Divine Books—bear witness to the Resurrection, along with all the evidences testifying to their truth, so also the remaining two pillars of faith—belief in His angels and in Destiny, whatever good or evil happens to us being included in it without excluding human free will and created by God Almighty—require the Resurrection and bear wit­ness to the World of Eternity. It is as follows:

All arguments, testimonies, and conversations held with them, which prove that angels exist and serve God, also attest indirectly to the existence of the World of Spirits, the Unseen, the Hereafter, and the Abode of Bliss (Paradise) and Hell, which in the future will be peopled by humanity and jinn. For angels can see and enter those worlds by God’s leave. All angels nearest to the Divine Throne and who communicate with humanity, such as Gabriel, report their existence and travels therein. Just as we accept America’s existence (which we have never actually seen) from the reports of returning travelers, so do we believe in the existence of the Realm of Eternity, the Hereafter, Paradise and Hell, from the angels’ reports, which have the authority of numerous undisputed narrations.

All arguments contained in The Twenty-sixth Word (about Divine Decree and Destiny), which establish belief in Destiny, attest indirectly to the Resurrection, to the publishing in another world of our recorded deeds (in this world), and their weighing in the Supreme Balance. For the events in the existence of all things are impressed before our eyes and recorded, and the life history of every animate being is inscribed in its memory, its seed, and other tablet-like forms; the deeds of every being endowed with spirit, especially humanity, are registered on preserved tablets. So, such an all-embracing Determination, wise and purposive ordaining, detailed and minutely exact recording and inscribing can exist only to enable the giving of a permanent reward or punishment at the Supreme Judgment after a universal tribunal. Otherwise, such a comprehensive, meticulous recording and registering would have no purpose or meaning, and would be contrary to sense and reality. Moreover, if there were no Resurrection, all exactly established meanings inscribed by the Pen of Divine Destiny in the Book of the Universe would be annihilated. This would be tantamount to denying the universe’s existence.

In short, then, the five pillars of faith and their proofs point to and require, bear witness to and necessitate, the Resurrection and that the Realm of the Hereafter be opened out. Thus, the truth of the Resurrection has such vast and unshakable supports and proofs worthy of its sublimity, and about one-third of the Qur’an is devoted to it. The Qur’an makes it— next to belief in God—the bedrock of all of its truths, and constructs everything on this basis.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

44 The Divine Perfections will be manifested without veil in the Hereafter. The defects referred to are such things as injustice, hardship, cruelty, and all disparities that humanity, having free will, suffers and causes others to suffer. (Ed.)