SECOND FUNDAMENTAL
SECOND FUNDAMENTAL: An eternal World of Happiness is necessary, and the Majestic One can create it. Both the destruction of our universe as well as the resurrection of everything are possible and will occur. The following remarks remove all doubt concerning the Resurrection, and the following 10 points explain the purpose and necessary cause for an eternal World of Happiness:
First point: Creation displays a perfect harmony and a purposeful order, and every aspect of the universe shows signs of a will and indications of a purpose. It is impossible not to discern a wisdom and choice in each thing and event, intention and will, and in each composition through the testimony of its fruits or results. If creation were not meant to produce eternal happiness, its harmony and order would be a deceit. In addition, all meanings, relations, and connections (the spirit of order) would come to nothing, for only eternal happiness causes this order to be established.
Second point: The universe’s creation displays perfect wisdom. Divine Wisdom, the representation of eternal favor, proclaims the coming of eternal happiness through the tongue of observing benefits and purposes throughout the universe. If there were no eternal happiness, all benefits and purposes observed in the universe would have to be denied.
Third point: Human intellect, wisdom, experience, and deductive reasoning point out that nothing superfluous or vain occurs in creation. This indicates the existence of eternal happiness. The universe’s Majestic Maker chooses the best and easiest way in creation, and apportions many duties and purposes to each creature, no matter how insignificant it may appear. Since there is no waste and nothing in vain, there must be eternal happiness, for eternal non-existence would make everything futile and wasteful. The absence of waste in creation, particularly in humanity, demonstrates that our countless spiritual potentialities, limitless aspirations and ideas, and inclinations will never go to waste. Our basic inclination toward perfection indicates perfection’s existence, and our desire for happiness proclaims that we are destined for eternal happiness. If this were not so, all basic spiritual features and sublime aspirations constituting our true nature would be wasteful and futile.
Fourth point: The alternation of day and night, as well as spring and winter, atmospheric changes, our body’s annual renewal, and our awakening and rising every morning after sleep all indicate a complete rising and renewal. Seconds forecast a minute, a minute predicts an hour, and an hour anticipates a day. The dials of God’s great clock—Earth—point, in succession, to the day, the year, our lifetime, and the ages through which the world passes. As they show morning after night and spring after winter, they intimate that the morning of the Resurrection will follow the death of creation.
A person’s life contains many cycles that can be regarded as a kind of death and resurrection (e.g., daily, seasonal, and annual changes; sleeping and waking; and various revivals and renewals). Nature’s revival every spring is a promise of the final Resurrection, for during that season countless kinds of resurrection take place among animals and plants. Thus the All-Wise Creator reminds us of the Resurrection to come.
All people are equal in value and comprehensiveness to any other animate species, because the light of their intellect has endowed them with comprehensive aspirations and ideas encompassing the past and the future. In all other species, an individual’s nature is particular, its value is personal, its view is restricted, its qualities are limited, and its pleasure and pain are instantaneous. Human beings, however, have a sublime nature and the greatest value, limitless perfection, and a more permanent spiritual pleasure and pain. Given this, the kinds of resurrection experienced by other species suggest that every human being will be resurrected completely on the Day of Judgment.
Fifth point: Humanity is endowed with unlimited potentialities that develop into unrestricted abilities. These, in turn, give rise to countless inclinations that generate limitless desires, which are the source of infinite ideas and concepts. All of these, as observed and confirmed by scholars of profound knowledge, indicate the existence of a World of Eternal Happiness beyond this material world. Our innate inclination toward eternal happiness makes one sure that such a world will be established.
Sixth point: The all-encompassing mercy of the universe’s All-Merciful Maker requires a World of Eternal Happiness. Were it not for this happiness, God’s chief grace for humanity, all people would raise lamentations over eternal separation, acts of favor would turn into vengeance, and Divine Compassion would be negated. But Divine Mercy is found throughout creation and is more evident than the sun. Observe the three manifestations of Divine Compassion: love, affection, and intellect. If human life resulted in eternal separation with unending pangs of parting, that gracious love would turn into the greatest affliction, affection into a most painful ailment, and the light-giving intellect into an unmitigated evil. Divine Compassion, however, (for it is Compassion) never inflicts the agony of eternal separation upon true love.
Seventh point: All known pleasure-giving experiences, beauties, perfections, attractions, ardent yearnings, and feelings of compassion are spiritual articulations and manifestations of the Majestic Creator’s Favor, Mercy, and Munificence made known to the intellect. Since there is a truth and a reality in this universe, there is true Mercy; since there is true Mercy, there will be eternal happiness.
Eighth point: Our conscience (conscious nature) indicates eternal happiness. Whoever listens to it hears it saying eternity over and over again. Even if we were given the entire universe, we would not be compensated for the lack of eternity, for we have an innate longing and were created for it. Thus our natural inclination toward eternal happiness comes from an objective reality—eternity’s existence and our desire for eternity.
Ninth point: The Prophet, who spoke the truth and whose words have been confirmed throughout the centuries, preached and promised the coming of everlasting life and eternal happiness. His message concentrated almost as much on the Resurrection as on Divine Unity, referring to the consensus of all Prophets and saints.
Tenth point: The Qur’an, a matchless miracle with 40 aspects, announces the Resurrection and the coming of eternal happiness. It unveils creation’s mystery and offers uncountable rational arguments for the Resurrection. Such verses as: He created you by stages (71:14) and Say: “He Who has originated them the first time shall bring them to life again” (36:79) contain a comparison and an analogy. And, Your Lord does not wrong His servants (41:46) indicates God’s justice. These provide us with a view of the Resurrection and everlasting happiness. I have discussed the proofs within these verses in my treatise Nukta (The Point) as follows:
Each human being undergoes ordered and systematic changes during the process of development. Each sperm, blood-clot, tissue, bone, and flesh that develops (in stages) into another (distinct) human shaped being must adhere to precise principles that, particular to the successive stages of development, indicate the exercise of purpose, will, and wisdom. The All-Wise Creator, Who creates human beings by these stages, also causes the body to renew itself each year. This renewal demands the replacement of decomposed cells by new ones produced by the All-Provident One’s provision of food according to the needs of each bodily part.
If we observe the atoms used to renew or repair the body, we see them come together from the atmosphere, soil, and water. Their motions are so precise that it seems they have received marching orders to go to a certain place. In addition, their manner of going indicates the operation of the Real Agent. Starting from the inanimate world of elements and chemical substances, they pass into the animated world of vegetables and animals. Having developed into sustenance in agreement with definite principles, they enter the body as food. After being “cooked” in different “kitchens” and transformed and passed through some “filters,” they are distributed to the body’s parts according to need.48
All of these processes take place in accordance with the All-Provident One’s laws and without the intervention of blind chance, lawless coincidence, deaf nature, and unconscious causes. They display perfect knowledge, wisdom, and insight. At whatever stage an atom enters the body’s cell from the surrounding element, it does so in an orderly fashion and conforms to that stage’s specified laws. To whichever level it travels, it steps with such order that it appears self-evidently to be proceeding at an All-Wise Mover’s command. Never deviating from its aim and object, it gradually advances from stage to stage and from level to level until, at the command of its Sustainer, it reaches its appropriate position. Once there, it establishes itself and begins to work.
The provision of food and its reaching the cells for which it is destined show Divine Will and Divine Determination. So perfect is this process’ order and arrangement that each particle seems to have its final destination written on its “forehead.” Is it conceivable that the Majestic Creator, Who exercises Lordship over creation with boundless power and all-encompassing wisdom, from particles of matter to planets, and spins them with order and balance, could fail to revive creation? Qur’anic verses open our eyes to this revival by comparing it with our first creation:
Say: “He Who has originated them the first time (with definite purpose) will bring them to life again (in the Hereafter).” (36:79)
He originates creation, then brings it back again, and it is easier for Him. (30:27)
Soldiers of a battalion come together again at a bugle call more rapidly than when they had dispersed to rest. Such a feat is as easy and possible for a body’s essential particles, which had established mutual close relations and familiarity during their worldly life, when the angel Israfil blows his trumpet. In fact, they can do so more readily than at the first creation. Not all of the component parts even have to be present; rather, the fundamental parts and essential particles, which are like nuclei and seeds and which a Prophetic Tradition calls “the root of the tail” (the os coccyx), may suffice for the second creation’s basis and foundation. The All-Wise Creator will rebuild the human body upon this foundation.
The following section summarizes the truth expressed by the analogy of justice in such verses as: Your Lord does not wrong His servants (41:46).
We observe that cruel, sinful, and tyrannical persons usually lead a comfortable and luxurious life while godly, oppressed people live in poverty and difficulty. Death makes them equal, for both would have departed forever with their deeds unquestioned if there were no supreme tribunal. Divine Wisdom and Justice, which allow no wrongdoing to go unnoticed and forbid injustice, require the establishment of a supreme tribunal to punish evil and reward good.
As this world is not exactly propitious for a complete development of human potentialities, we are destined to find realization in another world. Our essence is comprehensive and is bound for eternity. As our nature is basically sublime, we can accomplish important things, whether good or evil. Order and discipline are essential, and we should not be left to ourselves to deteriorate into nonexistence. Hell is waiting for us with a wide-open mouth, and Paradise is expecting us with open arms.
Study the verses like the two mentioned above, which contain rational arguments for the Resurrection, and see what a great truth is contained in eternal life. The Ten Points you have been following also give you a clear insight and strong evidence for the Resurrection. Moreover, the Majestic Creator’s Beautiful Names (e.g., All-Wise, All-Compassionate, All-Preserver, and All-Just) actually require that the Resurrection should occur, that eternal life should come, and that eternal happiness should be realized. Consequently, the Resurrection’s necessity and requirement is so strong that there is no room for doubt or uncertainty.
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
48 A reference to the organs and systems involved in digesting, breathing, and filtering what is consumed. (Tr.)