The Twenty-ninth Word

Second aim

[This is about Doomsday, the world’s destruction, and the afterlife. This Aim consists of an Introduction and four Fundamentals.]

INTRODUCTION: If one were to claim that a city or a palace will be destroyed and then reconstructed firmly, one would be asked the following six questions:

• Why will it be destroyed, and is its destruction necessary?
• Can its destroyer and its rebuilder really do these things?
• Is such destruction possible?
• If possible, will it really be destroyed?
• Is such rebuilding possible?
• If possible, will it actually be rebuilt?

There is a necessary cause for the destruction and re-building of this palace of the world and the city of the universe. Both can and will be destroyed and re-built. Their destroyer and rebuilder can do both.

FIRST FUNDAMENTAL: The spirit is undoubtedly eternal. All the proofs for the existence of angels and other spirit beings prove its eternity as well. We are too close to the souls of the dead, who are waiting in the Intermediate Realm to go to the Hereafter, to require proof of their existence. It is commonly known that people of spiritual unveiling get in con tact with them, and the saints who have insight into the reality of the life of grave can see them; some people can communicate with them, and almost everyone encounter them in true dreams. As modern materialism causes doubt in such obvious matters, we provide an Introduction and four Sources from which persuasive knowledge can be obtained.

Introduction: An eternal, matchless beauty requires an eternal lover through whom it will be reflected permanently. A faultless, eternal, and perfect art demands a permanent contemplative herald. An infinite mercy and benevolence require the continued sustenance and happiness of needy ones who thank it. The human soul is the foremost of those lovers, contemplative heralds, and needy thankful ones. Given this, it will accompany that beauty, perfection, and mercy on the way to eternity.

Not only human spirits, all creatures, even the most primitive, are created for some kind of eternity. Even the spiritless flower has a sort of post death immortality in countless ways: its form is preserved in memories, and the law of its formation and life gains permanence via new flowers growing from its seeds. Since this law, which has the same significance for it as our spirit has for us, and the model of its form are preserved amidst turbulent events through its seeds by the All-Preserving, All-Wise One, the human spirit, which has a sublime comprehensive nature and consciousness and has been clothed with external existence, is far more deserving of being eternal. How could an All-Wise One of Majesty, an All-Preserving One of Eternity, Who maintains a huge tree’s life-cycle and the law of its formation through a tiny seed, not preserve the spirits or souls of dead people?

First source: This concerns us as individuals and relates to our inner world. Look carefully into your life and inner aspect, and you will discern the existence of an eternal spirit. Every person changes his or her body at least annually through a complete renewal, but the spirit remains unchanged.

Since this is so and the body is ephemeral, the spirit inhabiting it is permanent. The formation or deformation of your body’s molecules, or its com position and decomposition, does not affect the spirit, which annually changes or renews its bodily garment. When it strips off this garment at death, neither its permanence nor its essential nature is affected because, as established through experiences and observation, the spirit does not depend upon the body for its life. The body is only its dwelling place, not its cover. The spirit has a subtle cover, its “energetic or ethereal envelope,” and leaves its dwelling place at death and is dressed in this ethereal cover.

Second source: This relates to the outer world. Repeated observations, and countless incidents and experiences indicate the spirit’s eternity. If a single spirit’s permanence is established in the afterlife, this confirms the spirit’s perpetuation after death. For the science of logic says that an essential or intrinsic quality an individual has is common to the whole species, for qualities originating in the essence are shared by all individuals. There are so many observations, incidents, signs and experiences indicating the permanence of the spirit that it is as certain as the existence of a continent that we have never visited. So there are numberless spirits which have left their corporeal bodies and continue to exist in the Intermediate Realm. They have a relationship with us; our prayers for them and acts of charity on their behalf reach them and we receive their blessing in return.

It is also commonly perceived that an essential aspect of each person exists after physical death: his or her spirit. As the spirit is a simple unitary entity, it is not subject to disintegration or decomposition like composite material things. Life ensures a form of unity within multiplicity and causes a sort of permanence. In other words, unity and permanence are essential to the spirit, through which multiplicity gains some sort of unity and permanence.

The spirit’s mortality would be due either to its decomposition and disintegration or its annihilation. The first option is impossible, for the spirit has a simple unitary essence. The second option also is impossible, for it is contrary to the Absolutely All-Generous One’s infinite Mercy. His boundless Munificence and Mercy would not allow the human spirit to be deprived of the blessing of existence that He has bestowed on it, for it ardently desires and is worthy of this blessing.

Third source: The spirit is a living, conscious, luminous entity; a comprehensive, substantial law or command of God furnished with external existence and has the potential to achieve universality. Even “natural” laws, which are insubstantial when compared to the spirit, have stability and permanence. For all kinds of existence, although subject to change, possess a permanent dimension that remains unaltered through all stages of life. Thus each person is an individual and, on account of his or her comprehensive nature, universal consciousness and far-reaching powers of conception, like a species. A law that operates upon humanity also applies to the individual. Since the All-Majestic Creator endowed us with a sublime nature, caused us to be comprehensive mirrors through which His Names and Attributes are reflected, and charged us with a universal duty of worship, then each individual’s spiritual reality remains alive forever by Divine permission, even though its form undergoes countless changes. Thus the human spirit, which constitutes our conscious, living element, is eternal and has been made so by God’s command and permission.

Fourth source: The Divine laws of “nature” resemble the spirit, for they also belong to the world of the Divine Will and Command. However, they operate upon categories that do not have a perceptive existence. When we analyze these laws, we see that they would have been the spirits of the categories themselves if they had been given external existence. As they are permanent and unchanging, their unity and simplicity (uncompositeness) is not affected by any alteration or transformation. For example, the seeds of a dead fig tree still contain the permanent, spirit-like law relating to its formation.

Since insubstantial and ordinary laws have such sort of permanence and continuance, the human spirit must not only have permanence in the world but also be immortal and eternal. According to: The spirit is of My Lord’s Command (17:85), the spirit is a conscious and living law from the world of Divine Command and has been endowed with external existence by Eternal Power. Since unconscious laws issuing from the Divine Attribute of Will and the World of Divine Command are permanent, the spirit is even worthier of such permanence, for it comes from the same source and, additionally, has an external reality. Furthermore, it is more sublime and powerful because it has consciousness, and more permanent and valuable because it is living.

SECOND FUNDAMENTAL: Eternal happiness is necessary, and the All Majestic One is absolutely able to create it. Both the destruction of our universe and the resurrection of everything are possible and will occur. Addressing the reason or intellect, we will explain these realities briefly.

There is a necessary cause for the eternal happiness. Consider the following ten points:

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. As testified by their fruits or results, everything and every event displays a light of purpose, intention, and will; every movement, a gleam of choice and preference; and every compound and composition, a ray of wisdom. If creation were not meant to produce eternal happiness, its harmony and order would be a deceit. All meanings, relations, and connections, which are the spirit of order, would come to nothing. It is eternal happiness which underlies this order. In which case, the order of the universe points to eternal happiness.

Second point: The universe’s creation displays perfect wisdom. Divine Wisdom, the representation of eternal Divine Favoring, proclaims the coming of eternal happiness through the tongue of the benefits and purposes that It observes 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. For the universe’s All-Majestic Maker chooses the best and easiest way in creation, and apportions many duties, purposes and results to each creature, no matter how insignificant it may appear. This indicates the existence of eternal happiness. 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 human body, as testified to by several sciences, 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 an eternal happiness awaits us. If this were not so, all the basic features of our existence and nature and all our sublime aspirations would be wasteful and lose their essential meaning.

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 renew al. Seconds forecast a minute, minutes predicts an hour, and hours anticipate a day. The dials of God’s great clock—the 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; 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.

The human individual is like a species in animal kingdom. For the light of intellect has given such breath to the aspirations and ideas of humanity that they encompass both the past and the future. Even if they consumed the entire world, they would not be satisfied. 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 conceptions. All of these, as confirmed by thinkers and scholars, indicate the existence of a world of eternal happiness beyond this material world. Our very nature, which is the origin of 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, All-Compassionate Maker requires eternal happiness, which gives Divine bounty and grace their true nature. 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 requital, and Divine compassion would be negated. However, Divine mercy is a substantial reality and more evident than the sun in the universe. Observe the three manifestations of Divine Mercy: 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 and observable pleasure-giving experiences, beauties, perfections, attractions, ardent yearnings, and feelings of compassion are spiritual articulations and manifestations of the All Majestic Creator’s Favor, Mercy, and Munificence made known to the intellect. Since there is a substantial reality underlying the 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 their alert conscience 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: Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, 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 forty 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 has created you by stages (71:14), and, Say: “He Who has originated them the first time will bring them to life again” (36:79), which contains a comparison and an analogy, and, Your Lord does not wrong His servants (41:46), which indicates God’s justice, provide us with telescopes to see the Resurrection and everlasting happiness. I have discussed the proofs within the first two verses in my treatise Nuqta (The Point: included in al Mathnawi an-Nuri) as follows:

Each human being undergoes ordered and systematic changes during the process of development, which goes through the stages of a fertilized ovum, blood-clot, a chew of lump, bones, the flesh, and another creation or (distinct) human-shaped being. Each of these stages follows precise principles particular to it. This development and the principles it follows indicate the exercise of a definite 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-Providing One’s provision of food according to the needs of each bodily part.

If we observe the atoms of the food 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 sub stances, 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 following the principles established by the All-Munificent Providing.

All of these processes take place in accordance with the All-Providing 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 All-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 dispersed to rest come together again at a bugle call more readily and easily than when they had been collected to form the battalion. Similarly, the mind will conclude that it is easier than their original creation that a body’s essential particles, which had established mutual close relations and familiarity during their worldly life, are assembled when the angel Israfil blows the Trumpet. 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.

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. However, Divine Wisdom and Justice never allow any wrongdoing to go unnoticed and forbid injustice, and therefore 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 we have an extremely comprehensive nature, we can commit tremendous crime and wrongdoing. Therefore, we cannot be left to our own devices without an order and discipline, nor can we left to deteriorate into non-existence. Hell is waiting for us with a wide-open mouth, and Paradise is expecting us with open arms.

Study the verses like those mentioned above, which contain rational arguments for the Resurrection. Also, the Ten Points you have been following give you a clear insight and strong evidence for the absolute necessity of the Resurrection. Moreover, most of the All-Majestic Maker’s Beautiful Names such as the 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.

THIRD FUNDAMENTAL: Just as the Resurrection’s necessity and requirement is certain, so the One Who will bring it about can do so. His Power is absolute and has no deficiency. Everything is the same in relation to His Power. He creates the spring as easily as a flower. All suns, stars, worlds, and atoms bear witness to His Power and Majesty. Given this, how can one doubt that He can raise the dead for the Last Judgment? It is observed that an All Powerful One of Majesty causes a new environment to come into existence each century, renews the universe every year, and creates a new world every day. He hangs many transient worlds upon the string of time as centuries, years, or even days pass for a perfect, definite purpose. He displays His Wisdom’s perfection and His Art’s beauty by clothing the earth in the garment of spring as if it were a single flower, and then decorating and embellishing it with countless examples of Resurrection.

The verse: Your creation and resurrection are as but a single soul (31:28) announces that creating and resurrecting the greatest thing or countless things is easy for God’s Power as the least, single thing. This is so because Divine Power is intrinsic in the Divine Essence and inseparable from Him, so there can be no incapacity connected with It. Divine Power operates (in) the inner, immaterial dimension of existence, so no obstacle can interfere with Its operation. Divine Power operates like a law that has the same relationship with everything, so particulars are equal to universals in relation to It. Now we will explain these three arguments:

First argument: Divine Power is intrinsic in the Divine Essence and inseparable from Him, so there can be no incapacity connected with It. Otherwise, the simultaneous existence of two opposites would have to be supposed. Since impotence cannot be involved with Divine Power, It can have no degrees, for degrees in a thing’s existence come about only through the intervention of opposites. Degrees of temperature occur because of cold’s intervention, and degrees of beauty exist because of ugliness’ intervention. This is true of all qualities in the universe. Since contingent things and beings do not exist essentially of themselves and have no absolute qualities intrinsic in and inseparable from and originating in themselves, they contain opposites and degrees. Because of this, the contingent world is subject to change and transformation.

Since Eternal Divine Power contains no degrees, it is equally easy for It to create and operate particles and galaxies. Resurrecting humanity is as easy for It as reviving one person, and creating spring is as easy as creating a flower. If creation or resurrection were ascribed to causes, creating a flower would be as difficult as creating spring. But when attributed to the One of Unity, creating everything is as easy as creating one thing.

Second argument: Divine Power operates in the inner, incorporeal dimension of things (the metaphysical kingdom). Like a mirror, the universe has two sides: corporeal (resembling a mirror’s colored face) and incorporeal (resembling the mirror’s shining face and looking to the Creator). Opposites exist in the corporeal side, which manifests beauty and ugliness, good and bad, big and small, difficulty and ease. The All-Majestic Creator of the universe veils His Power’s acts behind the veil of observed causes in this side so that those who lack understanding do not regard His Power’s relation to simple things as unbecoming to Him. His Dignity and Majesty require this. Causes have no real effect upon creation, for that would violate His Oneness and Unity. The incorporeal world, absolutely clear and transparent, contains none of the physical world’s grossness. As Divine Power operates directly there, cause and effect have no effect, obstacles cannot interfere, and creating a particle is as easy as creating a sun.

To conclude, Divine Power is simple, infinite, and an indispensable Attribute of Divine “Essence.” This Power operates directly in a realm that is clear, refined, and transparent, one in which there is nothing to oppose or intervene in it. Thus there is no difference between a community and an individual, particular and universal or big and small in relation to Power.

Third argument: Divine Power operates like a law that has the same relationship with everything. We will make this subtle matter comprehensible through several features of creation. Transparency, correspondence and reciprocity, balance, orderliness, abstraction, and obedience are the phenomena in the universe that render many equal to few, and great equal to small.

First feature: Transparency. The reflection of the same sun on both the ocean’s surface and in a drop of water has the same identity. If the earth consisted of pieces of glass, each one would reflect the sun without hindrance and without one interfering with the other. If the sun were a conscious independent being with willpower that could reflect its own light knowingly or consciously, its giving of light to or being reflected in one particle or on the whole of the earth would be equally easy.

Second feature: Correspondence and reciprocity. If we stand with a lit candle in the center of a large circle of people, each of whom is holding a mirror, each mirror will hold the same reflection without any one hindering any other.

Third feature: Balance. If we weigh a pair of things—two stars or two eggs or two atoms—with a balance that measures each item with perfect precision, any extra force exerted upon either scale would disturb the balance.

Fourth feature: Orderliness. We can steer a huge ship as easily as a small toy, for all the parts of its orderly system are interrelated.

Fifth feature: Abstraction or Incorporeality. A living creature’s size has no bearing on its real essence or nature, for these abstract and incorporeal features are the same for every creature. Differences in individualized forms do not cause confusion. For example, a minnow has the same essence or nature as a basking-shark (both are fish), and a micro-organism has the same essence as a rhinoceros (both are living animals).

Sixth feature: Obedience. A commander moves an army as easily as a single soldier by ordering it to march. The reality of obedience in the universe is as follows: Everything inclines toward its own perfection. An inclination grows into a need, an increased need becomes a yearning, and an increased yearning becomes an attraction. Inclination, need, yearning, and attraction work as Divine laws and operate in ways designed to lead things to realize their perfection. Creation’s final, absolute perfection occurs when it grows into absolute existence. A thing’s relative perfection is the relative existence that gives effect to all its potentialities. This is why the universe’s obedience to the Divine Command of “Be!” and it is (36: 82) does not differ from that of a particle.

Creation obeys this Divine Command, coming from the Creator’s Eternal Will, via the same forces of inclination, need, yearning, and attraction. All of these are urged to operate on all creatures by the same Divine Will. Delicate water, which cracks or even shatters iron when ordered to freeze, shows the power of this obedience.

If defective, limited, weak, and non-creative contingencies display such effects in the face of these six features or phenomena, for sure, everything is equally susceptible to the Divine Power’s order. This Power, Which brought the universe into existence from non-existences and shows Itself through Its amazing works, is infinite, eternal, and absolutely perfect. Nothing is difficult for It. Note that Divine Power cannot be measured in the scales of these features; they are mentioned only to have some grasp of the matter.

In conclusion: The eternal Divine Power is infinite; It is intrinsic in and inseparable from the All-Sacred Being; It operates in the pure, incorporeal dimension of existence. This dimension is directly turned to It. In the face of or in relation to Divine Power, this dimension’s material existence or non existence is equally possible. Also, it is free from any impediments before the operation of Divine Power and having different, confusing characteristics. Besides, it obeys all Divine laws of creation. Thus Divine Power can create everything with equal ease. It can revive all the dead people on Resurrection Day as easily as It revives an insect in spring. Given this, the Divine announcement of: Your creation and resurrection are as but a single soul is true and unexaggerated. This proves that the Agent Who will destroy and re-create the universe on the Last Day can do this.

FOURTH FUNDAMENTAL: As there is a necessary cause for the Resurrection and the One Who will bring it about can do this, so also the world is exposed to the Resurrection. There are four related matters here: The world can perish, it will perish, the destroyed world can be rebuilt as the Hereafter, and it will be resurrected and rebuilt.

First matter: The death of the universe is possible. For if something is subject to the law of development, it must evolve to a final end. That which develops to a final end must have a limited lifetime and, therefore, a fixed natural end. That which has a fixed end inevitably dies. Just as humanity is a microcosm subject to death, so the universe, a macro-human being, is also subject to death. Accordingly, it will perish and be resurrected on the morning of the Resurrection. Just as a living tree (a miniature universe) cannot save itself from annihilation, the universe (the branch of creation growing from the tree of creation) can neither be saved from destruction and disintegration to be repaired and renewed.

If the universe is not destroyed by an external destructive event, with the Eternal Will’s permission, it eventually will begin to die. Even scientists say this. Begin to suffer death agonies, it will give a sharp cry and what the following verses pronounce will happen: When the sun is folded up, and when the stars fall, and when the mountains are set moving (81:1-3); and When heaven is cleft open, and when the stars fall in disorder and are scattered, and when the seas burst forth (82:1-3).

A significant subtle point: Water freezes to its detriment (loses its essential liquid form); ice melts to its detriment (loses its essential solid state); an item’s essence becomes stronger at the expense of its material form; a language becomes coarse to the detriment of the meaning; the spirit weakens as the flesh becomes more substantial, and the flesh weakens as the spirit becomes more illuminated. Similarly, the solid world is refined through life in favor of the afterlife. The Creative Power breathes life into dense, solid, and inanimate substances through an astonishing activity. This suggests that It melts, refines and illuminates that solid world to the advantage of the Hereafter through the light of life.

Unlike forms, no truth, even though weak, ever perishes. Rather, it assumes various forms in the corporeal world. A truth flourishes and expands, while forms grow weaker and gains greater refinement to be able to become suitable for the stable, developed truth. The truth that constitutes an item’s essence is inversely proportional to its form’s strength: the form grows denser as the truth weakens, and the truth becomes stronger as the form weakens. This law is common to whatever develops and evolves. Given this, the corporeal world, which is a form containing the great truth of the universe, will shatter, with the All-Majestic Creator’s permission, and be rebuilt more beautifully. One day, On the day the earth is changed into another earth (14:48) will be realized. In short, the death of the world is possible and it will certainly die.

Second matter: The world’s eventual death is confirmed by all God revealed religions, supported by all pure and saintly persons, and indicated by the universe’s changes, transformations, and alterations. The constant replacement of this guest-house’s living inhabitants, all of whom are welcomed and then leave at their appointed time (through death) so that they can be replaced by newcomers, also indicates this world’s death.

If you want to imagine the death of the world as the Qur’an describes it, consider how and in what minute and precise interrelationship the constituent parts of the universe have been organized into a sublime and delicate system. If any heavenly body were told to leave its axis, the universe would be thrown into the throes of death. Stars would collide, planets would be scattered, and the sound of exploding spheres would fill space. Mountains would fly, oceans would burst forth in masses of fire and the earth would be flattened. The Eternal Power will shake and refine the universe, with the result that the elements of Paradise and Hell will be separated from each other.

Third matter: The universe can be resurrected, for as proved in the Second Fundamental, Divine Power is not defective. Moreover, there is a strong necessity for it and it is possible. If there is a strong necessity that something possible should occur, it comes to be regarded as something that will certainly occur.

Another significant point: A close examination of what occurs in the universe shows that two opposite elements in it have spread everywhere and become rooted. Their clash accounts for good and evil, benefit and harm, perfection and defect, light and darkness, guidance and misguidance, belief and unbelief, obedience and rebellion, and fear and love, and so on. Such ongoing conflict causes the universe to manifest a continuous alteration and transformation in order to produce the elements of a new world.

These opposed elements eventually will lead to eternity in two different directions and materialize as Paradise and Hell. The eternal world will be made up of this transitory world’s essential elements, which will be given permanence. Paradise and Hell are the two opposite fruits growing on the tree of creation’s two branches, the two results of the chain of creation, the two cisterns being filled by the two streams of things and events, the two poles to which beings flow in waves, and the places where Divine Grace and Divine Wrath manifest themselves. They will be filled with their particular inhabitants when Divine Power shakes up the universe.

This is so because God, the Eternal All-Wise and as the requirement of His Eternal Grace and Wisdom, has created this world as a testing arena, a mirror to reflect His All-Beautiful Names, a vast page upon which to write with the Pen of His Destiny and Power. People are tested here to develop their potentialities, and the development of potentialities causes the manifestation of their abilities. The manifestation of abilities gives rise to the emergence of relative truths, which, in turn, causes the All-Majestic Maker’s All-Beautiful Names to manifest their inscriptions and make the universe a missive of the Eternally Besought One. It is through this testing that the diamond-like essences of sublime souls to be separated from the coal-like matter of base ones.

For many other subtle, sublime instances of wisdom like these, God willed that creation, as well as its change and alteration, should take place. He made opposites confront one another—mingling benefit with harm, good with evil, and beauty with ugliness. Kneading them together like dough, He subjected the universe to the law of alteration and the principle of perfection. The day when the abode of testing has been closed, the time of testing and trial has ended, the All-Beautiful Names have fulfilled their mission, the Pen of Divine Destiny has finished its writing, Divine Power has completed the inscriptions of Its art, creatures have fulfilled their duties and services, seeds have been sown in the field of the afterlife, the earth has displayed all the miracles of Divine Power’s miracles, this transitory world has hung all eternal scenes upon the picture-rail of time, and the All-Majestic Maker’s eternal Wisdom and Favor has required that the test’s results be announced, the truths of the Divine All-Beautiful Names’ manifestations and the Pen of Divine Destiny’s missives be unveiled, the originals of the sample-like inscriptions of the Power’s art be exhibited, the benefits and purposes of the duties performed by creatures be displayed and their services be paid, the truths of the meanings expressed by the Book of the Universe’s words be seen, the seeds of potentialities be developed fully, a supreme court be established, the scenes bearing the meanings of whatever belongs to and has occurred in the world be displayed, and the veil of “natural” apparent causes be removed so that everything is submitted directly to the All-Majestic Creator—on that day the Eternal All-Wise will destroy the universe in order to save it from change and transience and eternalize it and to separate its opposites. This separation will cause Hell to appear with all its awfulness, and Paradise to appear with all its beauty and splendor. The people of Hell will be threatened with: Now keep yourselves apart, you sinners, upon this day (36:59), while the people of Paradise will be welcomed with: Peace be upon you. Well you have fared; enter in, to dwell forever (39:73). By means of His perfect Power, the Eternal All-Wise will give an everlasting, unchanging existence to the inhabitants of both dwelling places. They will not age or suffer bodily disintegration or decomposition, for there will be nothing to cause any change.

Fourth matter: After destroying this world, the One Who created it will re-form it more beautifully and convert it into a mansion of the Hereafter. The Qur’an, which contains thousands of rational evidences, and other Divine Scriptures agree on this, as do the All-Majestic One’s Attributes of Majesty and Grace as well as His Beautiful Names. Moreover, He promised that He would bring about the Resurrection and the Supreme Gathering through all of His heavenly decrees sent to His Prophets, all of whom agree that He carries out His promises. Prophet Muhammad is the foremost to confirm this, along with the strength of his one thousand miracles. All saints and righteous scholars confirm this as well. Lastly, the universe predicts it with all the evidence it contains.

In short, it is as certain as the sun’s rising the next morning after set ting this evening that the “sun of truth” will appear in the form of the Hereafter’s life after this world’s life sets.

Inspired by the Divine Name the All-Wise and the Qur’an’s grace, I have elaborated the proofs of this truth to convince the intellect and ready the heart to accept it. But the words of the Creator of the universe have the greatest right to speak in this matter. So, listen to the Eternal Discourse of the All-Wise Maker, in which He addresses everyone regardless of time and place. In response, we must believe and affirm what He says:

When the earth quakes with a violent quaking destined for it and throws up its burdens, and human cries out: “What is the matter with it?” That day it will proclaim its tidings because Your Lord has inspired it. That day humans will come forth in scattered groups to be shown their deeds. Whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it, whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it. (99:1–8)

Give glad tidings to those who believe and do good, righteous deeds: for them are Gardens through which rivers flow. Every time they are provided with fruits therefrom, they say, “This is what we were provided with before.” For they are given to them in resemblance (to what was given to them both in the world, and just before in the Gardens). Furthermore, for them are spouses eternally purified. They will abide there (forever). (2:25)

All-Glorified are You. We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

Our Lord, take us not to task if we forget or make mistakes. O God, bestow blessings on our master Muhammad and on his Family, as You bestowed blessings on our master Abraham and his family. You are the All-Praiseworthy, the All-Sublime.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi