The Resurrection

Indeed, Allah is the One Who gives life and brings death to this vast earth, just as He does with the smallest creature. He makes the earth a pleasant cradle and a beautiful ship for human beings and animals, makes the sun serve as a lamp giving light and warmth for this guesthouse, this world, and makes the planets function as aircraft for the angels. Truly, such a magnificent and everlasting rubūbiyya and such a vast and all-encompassing sovereignty cannot be founded upon temporary, passing, unstable, insignificant, changing, perishable, deficient, and imperfect worldly affairs, nor can they be limited to this world itself.

This means that there is another, enduring, stable, imperishable, and magnificent realm worthy of His rubūbiyya and sovereignty. He sets us to work here for that everlasting land and invites us to enter it. All people with illuminated souls, all spiritual leaders with enlightened hearts, and all guides with enlightened intellects—who behold in all things the manifestations of the Divine Names and have been honored with nearness to Allah—testify unanimously that everyone will be taken to that eternal realm. They unanimously report that He has prepared rewards or punishments for us there, and they inform us that He has repeatedly made powerful promises and issued severe warnings concerning it.

Indeed, breaking a promise leads to humiliation and abasement, something utterly incompatible with His sacred greatness. As for not carrying out a warning of punishment, this may arise from forgiveness or powerlessness. Since unbelief is a grave crime of the highest degree and is unforgivable, and since Qadīr-i Mutlaq is utterly far from powerlessness, He will most certainly fulfill His warning of punishment.^[1] Although those who bear witness to this and inform us of it differ in their methods and paths, they are united regarding the reality of the resurrection. In terms of their great number, their report has significant force and value. Each of them is a shining example for humanity, the foremost figure of a people, and the honored one of a community. Moreover, in this matter they are experts whose statements carry evidentiary weight.

Indeed, in the world of science and art, the statements of two experts are preferred over those of thousands of others. Their testimonies outweigh the denials of many others. Take, for example, the sighting of the new moon at the beginning of Ramadan. The testimony of only two people who have seen the new moon is enough to outweigh the denials of thousands of others and render those denials powerless.

In short, in this world there is no truer message, no more reliable proclamation, and no clearer truth than the truth of the resurrection. Thus, without doubt, the world serves as a field, the place of resurrection as a threshing floor, and Paradise and Hell as storehouses.

Indeed, unbelief reduces the value of all of creation to something meaningless and purposeless, and thus constitutes an insult to all created beings. Since it denies the manifestations of Allah's Divine Names reflected in the mirrors of creation, it is an affront to all of His Divine Names. Since it rejects the testimony that all created beings bear to the Oneness of Allah, it amounts to a denial of all of creation. Thus, unbelief so corrupts human nature that a person is no longer fit to receive guidance or goodness. Moreover, unbelief is a most grievous injustice, for it violates the rights of all creation and of all the Divine Names. The preservation of these rights, together with the unbeliever's loss of the capacity for goodness, makes unbelief unforgivable. This is the meaning expressed in the following verse:

اِنَّ الشِّرْكَ لَظُلْمٌ عَظٖيمٌ ↩︎