Introduction
[Two
Points comprising a concise explanation of one comprehensive
result of the numerous spiritual benefits of belief in resurrection
and of its vital consequences; a demonstration of how essential
it is for human life and especially for the life of society;
a summary of one universal proof out of numerous proofs of the
tenet of belief in the resurrection of the dead; and a statement
of how indubitable and self-evident is that tenet of belief.]
FIRST POINT
We
shall indicate, as a measure, only four out of hundreds of proofs
that belief in the hereafter is fundamental to the life of society
and to man’s personal life, and is the basis of his happiness,
prosperity, and achievement.
T h e F i r s t : It is only with the thought of Paradise
that children, who form almost a half of mankind, can endure
all the deaths around them, which appear to them to be grievous
and frightening, and strengthen the morale of their weak and
delicate beings. With the thought of Paradise they find hope
in their vulnerable spirits, prone to weeping, and may live
happily. For example, thinking of Paradise, a child may say:
“My little brother or friend has died and become a bird in Paradise.
He is flying around Paradise and living more happily than us.”
The frequent deaths before their unhappy eyes of other children
like themselves or of grown-ups will otherwise destroy all their
resistance and morale, making their subtle faculties, such as
their spirits, hearts, and minds, weep together with their eyes;
they will either decline utterly or become crazy, wretched animals.
S e c o n d P r o o f : It is only through the life of the hereafter
that the elderly, who form half of mankind, can endure the proximity
of the grave, and be consoled at the thought that their lives,
to which they are firmly attached, will soon be extinguished
and their fine worlds come to an end. It is only with the hope
of eternal life that they can respond to the grievous despair
they feel in their emotional childlike spirits at the thought
of death. Those worthy, anxious fathers and mothers, so deserving
of compassion and in need of tranquillity and peace of mind,
will otherwise feel a terrible spiritual turmoil and distress
in their hearts, and this world will become a dark prison for
them, and life even, grievous torment.
T h i r d P r o o f : It is only the thought of Hell-fire that
checks the turbulent emotions of youths, the most vigorous element
in the life of society, and their violent excesses, restraining
them from aggression, oppression, and destruction, and ensuring
that the life of society continues tranquilly. If not for fear
of Hell, in accordance with the rule ‘Might is right,’ in pursuing
their desires, those drunken youths would turn the worlds of
the wretched weak and powerless into Hell, and elevated humanity
into base animality.
F o u r t h P r o o f : The most comprehensive centre of man’s worldly
life, and its mainspring, and a paradise, refuge, and fortress
of worldly happiness, is the life of the family. Everyone’s
home is a small world for him. And the life and happiness of
his home and family are possible through genuine, earnest, and
loyal respect and true, tender, and self-sacrificing compassion.
This true respect and genuine kindness may be felt due to the
idea of the members of the family having an everlasting companionship
and friendship and togetherness, and their parental, filial,
brotherly, and friendly relations continuing for all eternity
in a limitless life, and their believing this. One says, for
example: “My wife will be my constant companion in an everlasting
world and eternal life. It does not matter if she is now old
and ugly, for she will have an immortal beauty.” He will tell
himself that he will be as kind and devoted as he can for the
sake of that permanent companionship, and treat his elderly
wife lovingly and kindly as though she was a beautiful houri.
A companionship that was to end in eternal separation after
an hour or two of brief, apparent friendship would otherwise
afford only superficial, temporary, feigned, animal-like feelings,
and false compassion and artificial respect. As with animals,
self-interest and other overpowering emotions would prevail
over the respect and compassion, transforming that worldly paradise
into Hell.
Thus,
one of the hundreds of results of belief in resurrection is
connected with the life of society. If a comparison is made
between the above four proofs out of the hundreds of aspects
and benefits of this single consequence and the rest, it will
be understood that the realization of the truth of resurrection
and its occurrence, are as certain as the elevated reality of
humanity and its universal need. It is clearer even than the
evidence for the existence of food offered by the existence
of need in man’s stomach, and tells of its existence more clearly.
It proves too that if the consequences of the truth of resurrection
were to quit humanity, whose nature is extremely significant,
lofty, and living, it would descend to being a corrupt corpse
fed on by microbes.
The
sociologists, politicians, and moralists who govern mankind
and are concerned with its social and moral questions should
be aware of this! How do they propose to fill this vacuum? With
what can they cure these deep wounds?
SECOND POINT
This
explains in summary form a proof —one of many— proceeding from
the testimony to the truth of resurrection of the other pillars
of belief. It is as follows:
All
the miracles indicating the messengership of Muhammad (Peace
and blessings be upon him) and the evidences for his prophethood,
and all the proofs of his veracity, together testify to the
occurrence of the resurrection and prove it. For after Divine
unity, everything he claimed throughout his life was centred
on the resurrection of the dead. Also, all his miracles and
proofs affirming, and making affirmed, all the previous prophets
attest to the same truth. Also, the testimony of the phrase
“and in His Scriptures,” which makes completely clear the testimony
of the phrase “and in His Prophets,” testifies to the same truth.
Like this:
All
the miracles, truths, and proofs proving foremost the veracity
of the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition, testify to and prove
the realization and occurrence of resurrection. For almost a
third of the Qur’an is about resurrection, and at the beginning
of most of its short suras are powerful verses about it. It
expresses the same truth explicitly and implicitly with thousands
of its verses, and proves and demonstrates it. For example:
When the sun is
folded up.3 * O men, fear your Sustainer;
the trembling of the Hour is an awesome event;4
* When the earth is convulsed;5 * When
the heavens are torn asunder;6 * When the
heavens are torn apart;7 * Concerning what
they dispute;8 * Has the story reached you,
of the overwhelming event?9
Besides
demonstrating with complete certainty at the beginning of thirty
or forty suras that resurrection is the most important and necessary
truth in the universe, it sets forth various persuasive evidences
for that truth in others of its verses.
Is
there any possibility that belief in the hereafter should be
false, which emerges like the sun from the thousands of declarations
and statements of a Book a single indication of one of the verses
of which has yielded before our eyes the fruits of numerous
learned and cosmic truths in the Islamic sciences? Is there
any possibility of denying the sun, or the existence of the
universe? Would it not be impossible and absurd? Is it at all
possible that although an army may sometimes be plunged into
battle so that a mere sign of the king should not be given the
lie, to show as false the thousands of words, promises, and
threats of that most serious, proud monarch? Is it possible
that they should be false?
Although
a single sign of that glorious spiritual monarch who for thirteen
centuries without break has ruled over innumerable spirits,
minds, hearts, and souls within the bounds of truth and reality,
and trained and educated them, would be sufficient to prove
the truth of resurrection, it has demonstrated it with thousands
of explicit statements. Is the torment of Hell-fire not necessary
then for the compounded idiot who does not recognize this fact?
Is it not pure justice?
Moreover,
by their definite acceptance of the truth of resurrection, which
the Qur’an —prevailing over the future and all times— repeatedly
proves in detail and elucidates, all the revealed scriptures
and sacred books, each of which dominated a particular period,
proved it according to their own times and centuries, but in
undetailed, veiled, and summary manner, confirming with a thousand
signatures what the Qur’an teaches.
Included
here since it is related to this discussion is the testimony
at the end of the Third Ray of the other pillars of faith, and
particularly “the Prophets” and “Holy Scriptures,” to
“belief in the Last Day.” It forms a convincing proof
of resurrection, and is in the form of a powerful yet succinct
supplication which dispels all doubts. It says in the supplication:
“O My Compassionate
Sustainer!
“I
have understood from the instruction of Your Noble Messenger
(PBUH) and the teaching of the Qur’an, that foremost the Qur’an
and the Messenger, and all the sacred scriptures and prophets,
have unanimously testified and pointed out that the manifestations
of the Names related to Your beauty and glory, examples of which
are to be seen in this world, will continue even more radiantly
for all eternity, and that Your bounties, samples of which are
to be observed in this transitory world, will persist in the
abode of bliss in still more glittering fashion, and that those
who long for them in this world will accompany them for all
eternity.
“Also,
relying on hundreds of evident miracles and decisive signs,
foremost Your Most Noble Messenger (Peace and blessings
be upon him) and the
All-Wise Qur’an, and the
prophets with their luminous spirits, and the saints, who are spiritual poles
with their light-filled hearts, and the
purified scholars with their enlightened intellects,
relying on Your repeated threats and promises in all the sacred
scriptures, and trusting in Your sacred attributes such as power,
mercy, favour, wisdom, glory, and beauty, and on Your qualities,
and the dignity of Your glory, and the sovereignty of Your dominicality,
and in consequence of their illuminations and visions and beliefs
at the degree of ‘the knowledge of certainty,’ give the glad
tidings to men and jinn of eternal happiness and inform them
of Hell for the people of misguidance; they firmly believe this
and testify to it.
“O All-Powerful and Wise
One! O Most Merciful and Compassionate! O Munificent One True
to His Promise! O All-Compelling One of Glory, One of Dignity,
Grandeur, and Wrath!
“You
are utterly exempt from and exalted above giving the lie to
so many loyal friends, and so many promises, and attributes
and qualities, and denying the certain demands of the sovereignty
of Your dominicality and the endless prayers and supplications
of Your innumerable acceptable servants, whom You love and who
attract Your love by assenting to You and obeying You; and You
are exempt from confirming the denial of resurrection by the
people of misguidance and unbelief, who through their disbelief
and rebellion and denial of Your promises, offend the magnificence
of Your grandeur and affront Your dignity and glory and the
honour of Your Allahhead, and sadden the compassion of Your
dominicality. We declare Your justice, beauty, and mercy to
be exempt from such infinite tyranny, such ugliness. We believe
with all our strength that the testimony of the prophets, purified
scholars, and saints, who are those truthful envoys of Yours,
those heralds of Your sovereignty, at the degrees of ‘absolute
certainty,’ ‘knowledge of certainty,’ and ‘the vision of certainty,’
to the treasuries of Your mercy in the hereafter and the stores
of Your bounties in the everlasting realm, and to the wondrously
beautiful manifestations of Your Beautiful Names, which will
be manifested totally in the abode of bliss, are absolutely
true and veracious, and what they have indicated conforms absolutely
with reality, and that what they have given glad tidings of
is true and will occur. Believing that the supreme ray of Your
Name of Truth, which is the source, sun, and protector of all
realities, is this truth of the resurrection and Great Gathering,
they teach it to Your servants.”
O
Allah! For the sake of what they teach and in veneration of
it, grant us and all students of the Risale-i Nur perfect belief
and a happy death. And allow us to receive their intercession.
Amen!
Moreover,
just as all the proofs demonstrating the veracity of the revealed
scriptures, and all the miracles and evidences proving the prophethood
of Allah’s Beloved (PBUH) and of all the prophets, indirectly
prove the reality of the hereafter, which is what they teach
above all else; so most of the evidences for the existence and
unity of the Necessary Existent testify indirectly to the existence
and opening up of an eternal realm of bliss, which will be the
supreme manifestation of dominicality and divinity. For as is
explained and proved in the following paragraphs, both the existence
of the Necessarily Existent One, and most of His attributes,
qualities and Names, such as dominicality, Allahhead, mercy,
grace, wisdom, and justice, necessitate the hereafter with the
utmost certainty, and demand an eternal realm and the resurrection
of the dead and Last Judgement for the granting of reward and
punishment.
Since
there is a pre-eternal and post-eternal Allah, most certainly
there is the hereafter, the everlasting sphere of the sovereignty
of His Allahhead.
And
since there is in the universe and in living beings a most majestic
and wise, a most compassionate and absolute dominicality, and
it is apparent; there is certain to be an eternal realm of happiness
which will save the majesty of that dominicality from abasement,
its wisdom from purposelessness, and its compassion from cruelty;
and that realm shall be entered.
And
since the unlimited bestowals, bounties, favours, gifts, and
instances of grace and mercy which are to be seen, show to minds
that are not extinguished and hearts that are not dead that
behind the veil of the Unseen is One All-Merciful and Compassionate;
surely there is an immortal life in an eternal realm which will
save the bestowal from mockery, the bounties from deception,
the favours from enmity, the mercy from torment, the grace and
gifts from treachery, and will make the bounties bounty and
the bestowal bestowal.
And
since in the springtime on the narrow page of the earth, a pen
of power writes a hundred thousand books without error tirelessly
before our eyes; and since the Holder of the pen has promised
a hundred thousand times: “I am going to write a fine, immortal
book in a broad realm, easier than this book of the spring written
in this narrow realm, confused and intermingled, and I shall
allow you to read it;”
since He mentions the book in all his decrees; certainly,
the main part of the book has been written, and with the resurrection
and Last Judgement its footnotes shall be added, and all the
notebooks of people’s actions shall be recorded in it.
And since, with its multiplicity of creatures,
the earth is the dwelling, source, factory, exhibition, and
gathering place of hundreds of thousands of constantly changing
species of living beings and beings with spirits, and is the
heart, centre, summary, and result of the universe, and the
reason for its creation; it has supreme importance, and is held
equal to the mighty heavens despite its smallness;in the heavenly
decrees, it is always said:
Sustainer of the Heavens and Earth...
And since there is man, who rules over the
earth, which is thus, has disposal over most creatures, and
subjects most living beings gathering them around himself; and
since he so orders, displays, and gathers each remarkable species
together in one place like a list, adorning them, that he attracts
not only the attention and admiration of men and jinn, but of
the dwellers of the heavens and the universe, and the appreciative
gaze of the universe’s Owner, thus gaining great importance
and high worth; and since he shows through his sciences and
arts that he is the purpose of the universe’s creation, and
its most important result, and most precious fruit, and the
Divine vicegerent on earth; and since because with respect to
this world, he has ordered and displayed excellently the miraculous
arts of the world’s Maker, he is left in this world despite
his rebellion and disbelief, and his punishment is postponed,
and because of this work of his, his term is prolonged and is
allowed success...
And since there is an extremely powerful,
wise, and compassionate Disposer Who makes the mighty globe
into a treasury of every sort of metal and mineral that man
needs in a way entirely beyond his strength and will —who despite
being weak, impotent, and wanting by nature and creation, has
innumerable needs and is subject to innumerable pains— and since
He makes it into a store of every sort of food, and a shop stocking
goods of every kind that pleases man, and looks to man in this
way, and nurtures him, and gives him what he wants...
And since there is a Sustainer Who is thus,
Who both loves man and causes man to love Him, and Who is enduring
and has eternal worlds, and Who performs every work with justice
and carries out everything with wisdom; and since the splendour
of that Pre-Eternal Sovereign’s rule and His eternal dominion
cannot be contained in this brief worldly life, and in man’s
fleeting span, and in the temporary and transient earth; and
since the excessive wrongdoing and rebellion that occur among
men, which are contrary to and opposed to the universe’s order,
justice, balance, and beauty, and their denial, treachery, and
disbelief towards their Benefactor, Who nurtures them tenderly,
since they are not punished in this world, and the cruel oppressor
passes his life in ease while the unhappy oppressed live in
hardship; and since the absolute justice whose traces are to
be seen throughout the universe is entirely opposed to the cruel
tyrant and despairing oppressed being equal in death, and would
in no way permit it...
And since just as the
universe’s Owner has chosen the earth from the universe, and
man from the earth and bestowed on him a high rank and importance;
so out of mankind He has chosen the prophets, saints, and purified
ones, true human beings who conform to the aims of His dominicality
and through their belief and submission make Him love them;
He has taken them as friends and addresses, and bestowed miracles
and success on them and punished their enemies with heavenly
blows. And out of these worthy and lovable friends He has chosen
their leader and source of pride, Muhammad (Peace and blessings
be upon him), and for long centuries has illuminated with his
Light half the globe and a fifth of humanity; as though the
universe was created for him, all its purposes become apparent
through him and his religion and the Qur’an. And although he
deserved to live for an infinite time in recompense for his
infinitely valuable service, for millions of years, he only
lived a brief sixty-three years of great hardship and striving.
Is there any possibility then that he should not be resurrected
together with all his peers and friends? That they should not
now be living in the spirit? That they should have been annihilated
eternally? Allah forbid, a hundred thousand times! Yes, all
the universe and the reality of the world demand that he should
be resurrected and they beseech the universe’s Owner that he
should be living...
And since in the Seventh Ray, The Supreme
Sign, each with the strength of a mountain, the thirty-three
powerful consensuses have proved that the universe emerged from
a single hand and is the property of a single being; and have
demonstrated self-evidently His unity and oneness, the means
of the Divine perfections; and through unity and oneness all
beings become like soldiers under orders and subservient officials;
and with the coming of the hereafter, perfections are saved
from decline, absolute justice from mocking cruelty, universal
wisdom from foolish absurdity, all-embracing mercy from jeering
torment, and the dignity of power from abased impotence, and
they are exonerated from this...
Certainly
and without any doubt, as necessitated by the truths in these
six ‘sinces’ —six out of hundreds of points of belief in Allah—
the end of the world shall come and the resurrection of the
dead occur. Abodes of reward and punishment shall be thrown
open so that the above mentioned importance of the earth, and
its centrality, and man’s importance and value shall be realized,
and the above-mentioned justice, wisdom, mercy, and sovereignty
of the All-Wise Disposer, Who is the Creator of the earth and
of man, and their Sustainer, shall be established; and the true
and yearning friends of that eternal Sustainer shall be saved
from eternal annihilation; and the most eminent and worthy of
those friends receive the recompense for his sacred services,
which have made all beings pleased and indebted; and the perfections
of the Eternal Sovereign should be exempted and exonerated from
all fault and deficiency, and His power from impotence, and
His wisdom from foolishness, and His justice from tyranny.
In Short: Since Allah exists, so does the hereafter
certainly exist.
Moreover,
just as with all the evidences that prove them, the above three
pillars of belief testify to and indicate resurrection; so do
the two pillars
“and in the angels,
and in Divine Determining, that both the good of it and the
evil of it are from Allah Almighty” also necessitate resurrection
and testify in powerful fashion to the eternal realm. It is
like this:
All
the evidences proving the existence of the angels and their
duties of worship, and innumerable observations of them and
conversations with them, prove indirectly the existence of the
Spirit World, and the World of the Unseen, and the eternal realm
and world of the hereafter, and the existence of an abode of
happiness and Paradise and Hell, which in the future shall be
populated with men and jinn. For with Divine permission, the
angels can see these worlds and enter them. And all the high-ranking
angels who meet with humans, like Gabriel, tell unanimously
of the existence of these worlds and of their travelling round
them. Just as we are certain, due to the information of those
coming from there, that the continent of America exists, although
we have not seen it, so due to information about the angels,
which has the strength of a hundredfold consensus, we should
believe with the same certainty in the existence of the world
of eternity, the realm of the hereafter, and Paradise and Hell.
And so we do believe in it.
Furthermore, all the evidences proving the
pillar of “belief in Divine Determining,” included in the Treatise
On Divine Determining, the Twenty-Sixth Word, prove indirectly
the resurrection of the dead, the balancing of deeds on the
supreme scales, and the publishing of the pages of deeds. For
the recording before our eyes of the appointed courses of all
things on the tablets of order and balance, and the inscribing
of the life-stories of all living beings in their faculties
of memory, and the transcribing of the notebooks of deeds of
all beings with spirits, and especially men, on the Preserved
Tablet, such a comprehensive determining and wise apportioning
and precise recording and preserving inscription could surely
only be the result of a general judgement in a supreme tribunal
set up to deal out permanent reward and punishment. That comprehensive
and precise recording and preservation would otherwise be completely
meaningless and purposeless, and contrary to wisdom and reality.
Also,
if there was no resurrection, all the certain meanings of the
book of the universe, written with the pen of Divine Determining,
would be nullified, which is completely impossible. It is as
impossible as denying the universe’s existence, indeed, is a
delirium.
In Short: With all their evidences the five pillars
of belief demand the occurrence of the resurrection and Last
Judgement, and their existence, and the existence and opening
up of the realm of the hereafter, and they testify to these
and necessitate them.
Thus, it is because there are such vast and unshakeable supports
and proofs of the resurrection, completely in conformity with
its vastness, that almost one third of the Qur’an of Miraculous
Exposition is formed by resurrection and the hereafter, and
it makes it the basis and foundation stone of all its truths,
and constructs everything on it.
(The
end of the Introduction)