The Seventh Issue

The Seventh Issue

This is the fruit of a Friday in Denizli Prison.

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ (a)

وَمَا أَمْرُ السَّاعَةِ إِلاَّ كَلَمْحِ البَصَرِ أَوْ هُوَ أَقْرَبُ (b)

مَا خَلْقُكُمْ وَلاَ بَعْثُكُمْ إِلاَّ كَنَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ (c)

فَانْظُرْ إِلىَ آثَارِ رَحْمَتِ اللهِ كَيْفَ يُحْيِي الأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا إِنَّ ذَلِكَ لَمُحْيِي المَوْتَى وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ (d)

The prisoners in Denizli Prison who were able to reach me read the lesson, mentioned in the foregoing Sixth Issue, that I once gave in Kastamonu to the secondary school students in the languages of the sciences of the modern schools, who said [to me] ‘acquaint us with our Creator.’

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a. In the Name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

b. The matter of the Hour is as the twinkle of an eye, or even closer (Qur’ān: an-Nahl, 16:77)

c. The creation and resurrection of all of you is as that of a single soul (Qur’ān: Luqmān, 31:28)

d. Look then to the effects of Allāh's Mercy, how He brings the earth to life after its death. That certainly is the Raiser of the dead, and He is capable of doing all things (Qur’ān:Ar-Rūm, 30:50)

[Thereafter,] the prisoners felt a yearning for the hereafter stemming from their having become further convinced in their faith and they said, ‘acquaint us fully with our hereafter as well, so that our own lower self (nafs) (28) and the devils of this time do not misguide us and so that we are not imprisoned again as is our state now’.

In accordance then with the desire both of the students of The Book of Light in Denizli Prison and that of those who read the previous six issues, it became necessary to write an exposition of an encapsulation of the fundamental article of ‘faith in the hereafter’. Thus do I say the following, in a short encapsulation from The Book of Light:

Just as we asked the earth and the heavens about our Creator, and in the languages of the sciences in The Sixth Issue, they made our Creator known to us as clearly as the clarity of the sun, in the same way, we will further ask about our Hereafter; first from our Lord, Whom we have just come to know, and then from our Prophet (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām), then from our Qur’ān, and then from the rest of the Prophets and the Holy Scriptures, followed by the angels and the very cosmos itself. Now, in the first stage, we ask Allāh about the hereafter. He decrees with all of the Prophets that He sent and all the Divine decrees, and with all of His Names and attributes, ‘Yes; the Hereafter exists and I am driving you all unto it.’

The Tenth Word has established and explained the answers given by some of the Beautiful Names concerning the Hereafter in its dazzling, conclusive ‘Twelve Realities’. Since we are contented with that exposition, we will very briefly point to it here.

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28. Nafs - the lower self. In common parlance the word refers to the human 'self' in general, but it is here used in its capacity as a term in practical spirituality as the lower self, or literally the 'self that commands to evil'. The term is Qur’ānic, originating from the words of the Prophet Yūsuf [Joseph], (Qur’ān: Yūsuf, 12:53). It is the lower, animalistic self that potentially dominates man, before he is able to overcome its evil promptings through opposing his whims, engaging in religious knowledge and ma‘rifatullāh (gnosis of Allāh), ascetic exercises, self-purification, and prayer. It is 'the self that inclines to the human being's bodily nature, ordering the indulgence in lower pleasures and the gratification of sensory lusts.' 

Yes, since there is no kingdom that does not hold up a recompense for those obedient to it and a punishment for those who rebel against it, there is no doubt that the eternal sultanate, which is in the station of absolute lordship and sovereignty, has a recompense befitting that mercy and beauty for all those such as affiliate themselves to that sultanate by means of faith and who submit to its decrees in obedience. It further has a punishment befitting that might and majesty for all those such as reject, in disbelief and rebellion, that mighty sultanate. This is how Divine Names Rabbu’l-‘Ālamīn (The Lord of the Worlds) and As-Sulṭānu’d-Dayyān (The Judging Sultan Who fully repays due recompense and punishment) answer.

[Consider the fact that] we see with our own eyes as clearly as the sun and the day, a universal mercy; an all-embracing compassion and generosity on the face of the earth.

An example of this is the indubitable fact of mercy and compassion’s clothing and decorating all trees and fruit-bearing plants in spring as if they were houris, and placing every type of fruit in their hands. That mercy and compassion [engenders their] saying, hands outstretched ‘Here you come, pick and eat!’ Mercy and compassion feed us healing and sweet honey from the hands of a poisonous insect and dress us in the softest silk at the hands of a handless bug.

The very mercy and compassion hide tonnes of food within a handful of tiny kernels and seeds, incorporating all of this in such tiny little repositories as a reserve of food for us. This Divine mercy and compassion would certainly and without any doubt 

never wipe out and obliterate these believers who are His beloved, thankful [servants] and adorers that He feeds so gently and lovingly. Rather, Divine mercy and compassion will release them from the vocation of this worldly life, in order to cover them in much brighter mercy. That is the answer of the Names Ar-Raḥīm (the Compassionate) and Al-Karīm (the Generous) to our question - and they both say الجنة حقٌّ ‘paradise is real’.

And [consider the fact that] with our own eyes we see that such an [extraordinary] hand of wisdom works within all creatures, and upon the face of the earth, and that these operations are directed by such [wonderful] balances of justice that the human intellect cannot imagine any further than that. An example of this is beginningless wisdom’s writing the entire history of man’s life and limitless incidents that happen to him, within the wisdoms attached to the thousands of human physical systems one of which is man’s power of memory that is only the size of a tiny seed. It writes on that memory and makes man’s mind into a type of library.

And [the beginningless wisdom] then delivers this library into man’s hands [by recording] each moment in order to remind man [of his each moment and that he will be brought to account], and places it into the pocket of his memory, like a little note for the logbook of his actions, which will be opened at his trial during the Gathering (al-ḥashr).

[Consider] the eternal justice that we see, that incorporates all of the organs of all artfully created beings with so sensitive a balance, and that manifests, from germs to rhinoceros 

and flies to phoenixes (29) and from a single flowering plant to the flower of spring during which blooms billions and trillions of types of flowers, proportionality, balance, harmonious order, beauty and fine artistry in which nothing is wasted.

[Consider] the eternal justice that gives each living creature its rights of life in perfect balance, and that makes good work to yield good outcomes, just as it makes bad works to yield ugly outcomes. This eternal justice clearly manifests itself in the blows by which it has always struck despotic, oppressive nations, right down from the time of Ādam (‘alayhissalām).

Certainly and there can be no possible doubt that this eternal wisdom and this eternal justice simply cannot exist without the hereafter, just like morning cannot be without the sun. They can under no circumstances allow the continuation of a potentially endless, severe oppression. Nor can they allow the unfairness, injustice and pointlessness entailed in considering the most tyrannical oppressor at his death to be equal to those he has oppressed at their deaths. Thus do the Names, al-Ḥakīm (the Wise), al-Ḥakam (the Judicious Apportioner), al-‘Adl (the Equitable) and al-‘Ādil (the Just) answer our question conclusively.

[Volitional and non-volitional supplications]

[Consider the fact that] the needs of all living creatures are given them; all the innate requirements that are not within the range of their capacities, neither within their own power nor their reach to obtain. All that they ask for they are given at the moment they request it, in the language of innate capacity (al-isti‘dādu’l-fiṭrī) (30) and necessary requirement (al-ikhtiyāju’ḍ-ḍarūri), (31)

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29. The word “phoenixes” is used by the author possibly to mean peacocks.

30. Innate capacity (al-isti‘dādu’l-fiṭrī): An individual’s abilities that are inherited from birth. The du‘ā of seeds is the du‘ā of al-isti‘dādu’lfiṭrī, that is, they say `drop us to earth, bury us so that we grow and let us reach our capacity because we have that within us`.

31. Necessary requirement (al-ikhtiyāju’ḍ-ḍarūri): The du‘ās of animals that they do in order to sustain their lives. All animals are given their sustenance by Allāh in a way in which no one would expect.

both of which are a type of supplication. They are given it by an unseen hand of consummate mercy, hearing and pity. Contrary to what one would expect, six or seven out of every ten of man’s volitional supplications are accepted, especially in the case of the elect of mankind, and the Prophets.

From all this, it is understood that behind the veils there exists a Hearer and an Answerer Who listens to all of the grievances and worries of every distressed being and to the supplication of each one in need. This to such an extent that He satisfies even the most insignificant of the needs of the least of living creatures, and hears their most hidden laments and sighs, and He has pity on them, and answers them through action, setting their minds at rest.

It is incontrovertibly the case that no doubt whatsoever remains that Muḥammad (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) is of all creatures the most important. He brought together the weightiest and most universal of man’s supplications concerning eternal life - supplications that concern the whole universe and all the Divine Names and Attributes. He made all of the Prophets to support him, those suns, stars and leaders of mankind, saying ‘āmīn! āmīn!’ to his prayers.

Every day, every devout member of his nation says ‘āmīn!’ to his prayer by means of their abundantly sending blessings upon him. And indeed, all creatures take part in his prayer, saying ‘O yes our Lord, give him what he asked, we too ask you that for which he asked’. Only a single prayer for eternal life and endless bliss by Muḥammad (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) realising as it does all the conditions of a prayer that ensure that it cannot go unanswered, is, amongst the unrejectable innumerable grounds necessitating the Resurrection, 

a sufficient ground for the existence of paradise and the existentiation of the hereafter, which is as easy for His power as the existentiation of the spring.

In this way do the Names al-Mujīb (the Answerer), as-Sami‘ (the Hearer) and ar-Raḥīm (the Compassionate) answer our question.

[Consider now] the way in which the universal death and resurrection and the alternation of the seasons upon the face of the earth reveal an Agent acting therein behind the veil - as self-evidently as the existence of the day reveals the existence of the sun. [That Agent] creates the vast globe of the earth like a garden of perfect orderliness, indeed, with the ease and orderliness with which He creates a single tree.

He creates the expansive, sublime spring as easily as He creates a single flower and with the same carefully balanced decoration. [This Agent] reveals the fact that a pen of power inscribes all of the different groups of plant and animal upon the page of the earth, like three hundred thousand books, embodying three hundred thousand models and examples of the Gathering and the Resurrection.

This pen of power writes them such that they are artful, harmoniously ordered, and overflowing with meanings, all together and overlapping without error, and without being mixed up though they are mixed with one another, and without confusion, omission, nor mistake, although they are all similar to one another. In these sublime Divine operations, it works with mercy that has no end and wisdom of which there is no limit. [The pen of power conferred upon man a station most high], in its having subjected the great universe to him, and in its having ornamented it and fitted it out as if it is man’s house. 

In its having made him the guardian (khalīfa) of the earth by bestowing the greatest trust (32) upon him - the trust that the mountains and the heavens and the earth feared to take on. In its honouring him by making him, to a certain extent, the governor of all other living creatures, and by conferring upon him its Divine addresses and its speech, and its promising and pledging to him eternal bliss and eternal life in the hereafter in a promise and a pledge that are absolute in every single heavenly scripture.

Certainly there is no doubt nor dubiety whatsoever then that He will create and open an abode of bliss for these praised and honoured human beings, and will bring about the Resurrection and the doomsday, (33) and that for His power, this is as easy as [creating and existentiating] the spring.

Thus do the Names al-Muḥyī (the Giver of Life), al-Mumīt (the Giver of Death), al-Ḥayy (the Living), al-Qayyūm (the Self-subsistent Sustainer), al-Qadīr (the Omnipotent) and al-‘Alīm (the All-knowing) answer this question of ours concerning our Creator.

Yes, the power that gives life each spring to all of the trees and to the roots of each and every plant and that existentiates three hundred thousand animals and plants which are exemplars of the Gathering and Resurrection, will be seen to manifest in two thousand springs (Footnote) if we are to imagine one thousand exemplars and one thousand proofs of the Gathering and Resurrection corresponding to the thousand years of the nation of Muḥammad (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) and to the thousand years of the nation of Mūsā (‘alayhissalām).

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Footnote: Each and every spring that has passed has seen its doomsday and died, and every following spring is like its resurrection. 

32. The greatest trust: “Indeed We did offer the Trust (amānah) to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear its burden and (they) feared from it, and man picked it up. Indeed he is very unjust (ẓālim) and unaware (jāhil)”. (Qur’ān: al-Ahzāb, 33:72) The Qur’ānic scholars who wrote exegesis of the Qur’ān (mufassirīn) interpreted the word ‘Trust’ in various ways such as: the entirety of religious obligations, farāiḍ, commands of Islām, every blessing that is bestowed on mankind, the ability of being the khalīfa (vicegerent) on earth, ‘aql (intelligence) etc; yet the most popular meaning of ‘the Trust’ is the responsibilities and obligations of humankind. (For more information on the Trust, please see The Thirtieth Word of Imām Nursī where he mentions comprehensively two issues: Ana wa Dharra.)

33. Yawmu’l-Qiyāmah: Doomsday or Apocalypse

Given this, deeming the bodily resurrection to be improbable for such a power like this would be a thousand-fold blindness and great folly.

And consider the fact that one hundred and twenty four thousand prophets, who are the most illustrious of human beings, announced in agreement the reality of eternal bliss and endless life in the hereafter, based upon Allāhu Ta‘ālā’s thousands of promises and pledges in this regard, and it being the case that they proved their truthfulness with their miracles; and since illimitable numbers of the people of sainthood (walāyat) endorse and uphold the same reality through their mystical unveilings and spiritual experience, there can be no doubt that that reality is as manifest as the sun and that he who has doubts concerning it is a crazed lunatic.

Yes, the judgements and opinions of even one or two specialists in a scholarly or artistic field invalidate the contrary opinions of a thousand non-specialists in that field, even though those non-specialists be specialists and scholars in other fields. By the same token, two affirmers of an issue take precedence over a thousand deniers and negators thereof, and win the case. Take for example the issue of establishing that the new moon has appeared on the day on which this is in doubt, or establishing the claim that there exists somewhere on earth a garden of coconuts resembling cans of milk. The affirmers here can easily win the case by simply displaying a single coconut fruit or by pointing out the coconut garden. The negator and denier on the other hand is only able to establish his case after long investigation, and 

after conducting a survey of the entire face of the earth, and by way of indicating that no such thing exists anywhere.

Likewise, the one, who brings news about paradise and the abode of bliss and establishes their existence, wins the case just simply by showing people, by means of mystical unveiling (kashf), only a single one of their traces and a single of their shadows and a seepage of light like the one on a cinema screen. On the other hand, it is only by establishing the validity of his denial and negation that the one wishing to negate and deny their existence can win the case, and this entails himself seeing and showing the evidence required by that denial and negation, which would need to be from every part of the universe and from every single period of time, from beginningless to endless eternity.

And it is because of this important secret that the people of scholarly verification have in agreement accepted, as a fundamental principle, that negation and denial, whether they be undirected towards a particular locus, and directed towards the entire universe as in the case of the denial of the realities of faith, cannot be established - this as long as the things concerned are not in their essences impossible.

Now based on this certain reality, thousands of philosophers’ opponent ideas must not cause even the slightest of doubts nor an anxiety against a single trustworthy reporter concerning the matters of faith. Compare how very much stupidity and insanity is committed by those who fall into doubt engendered by the denials of only a few number of philosophers, the intellects of whom have sunken down unto only that which their eyes can see, who are heartless, 

who have been blinded in spirituality and distanced from the spiritual concerning the fundamental principles of faith, the truth of which has been agreed upon by a hundred and twenty thousand trustworthy reporters, people who agree with one another and specialised [in this issue], as well as an illimitable and endless number of the people of reality and verificationist scholars, who are authenticators and specialists.

[Consider] then the universal mercy, all-embracing wisdom and perpetual favour that we witness with our own eyes within ourselves and around us as clearly as we witness the day and the effects and the manifestations of the astonishing sultanate of lordship and the lofty, precise justice, and the majestic, mighty [Divine] operations that we see.

Indeed, the wisdom that adorns a single tree with as many wisdoms as it has fruits and flowers, and the mercy that bestowed as many benefactions and blessings upon each human being as he has physical systems, senses and capabilities, the mighty, solicitous justice that dealt blows to rebellious peoples, like that of Nūḥ (‘alayhissalām), Hūd (‘alayhissalām) and Ṣāliḥ (‘alayhissalām), the people of ‘Ād, Thamūd, and Fir‘awn, and that protected the rights of even the smallest living creature, and the verse with its magnificent concision says:

وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ أَنْ تَقُومَ السَّمَاءُ وَالأَرْضُ بِأَمْرِهِ ثُمَّ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ دَعْوَةً مِنَ الأَرْضِ إِذَا أَنْتُمْ تَخْرُجُونَ  (a)

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a And of His signs is that the heaven and the earth stand firm at His bidding: when with one call He summons you out of the earth, you shall come forth. (Qur’ān: Ar-Rūm, 30:25)

‘Just as obedient soldiers, who live and lie down to rest in two barracks take up arms by the call of the commander and hasten to their duties on hearing the mobilising blow of a trumpet, just so do the vast, immense heavens and the expansive earth, in their obedience to commands, resemble the two barracks. When the soldiers of the Beginninglessly Eternal Sultan lying in death in these barracks are summoned by the Trumpet of Isrāfīl (‘alayhissalām) they will immediately garb themselves in the uniform of their bodies and betake themselves out [of the grave].’

Every spring establishes and points to this [reality] that the barracks of the earth reveal these same circumstances at the blow of the trumpet of the angel of thunder. Absolutely and certainly, it is incontrovertibly the case that no doubt whatsoever remains (34) that the sultanate of lordship - the endless absolute sublimity of which is beheld and perceived [when the earth exhibits the same circumstances every spring] - would not accept for the abode of the hereafter to never be opened - the abode of resurrection and gathering that is necessarily and conclusively entailed by that mercy, wisdom, favour, justice and eternal sultanate.

This is all built upon that which has been established in The Tenth Word, whence it also follows that [the endless sultanate] would not accept the endless beauty of mercy turning into a most heinous harshness, nor the limitless perfection of wisdom transforming into a most faulty futility and a useless wastefulness, nor that surpassingly gentle favour being replaced by a most painful and bitter treachery, nor that justice of singular balance, equity turning into terribly odious instances of oppression,

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34. Literal: surely and surely, and in under any circumstances and no doubt remains 

nor, indeed, the collapse of the eternal sultanate that is of tremendous sublimity and power.

For the sublimity of the eternal sultanate would then entirely pass away and its perfect lordship would become contaminated with the powerlessness and deficiency entailed by the Resurrection having not come about. Its not coming about is not in any way possible, and no intellect can consider it a possibility, and there are one hundred impossibilities within this. It is absurd and impossible, quite outside the realm of possibility. For how singularly, oppressively merciless it would be for mercy, wisdom, favour, justice and eternal sublimity to obliterate man for all eternity, especially after man has been brought up most tenderly and kindly, and inspired [in his intellect and his heart] with longing for eternal bliss and abiding forever in the hereafter.

How opposed to wisdom it would be to let all of his faculties and capabilities, each of which comprises thousands of benefits, go completely to waste uselessly, without purpose and without wisdom in an absolute death after which no resurrection lies, despite the fact that hundreds of wisdoms and benefits are attached to his mind alone! How inconsonant with the sublimity of that sultanate and its perfect lordship would the appearance of the powerlessness and ignorance - far be they from Allāh - entailed by unfaithfulness to thousands of promises and pledges that it had promised and pledged with! All conscious beings will understand this!

Now, you apply favour and justice yourselves by drawing analogies from these matters. By means of this reality do the Names ar-Raḥmān (the Merciful), al-Ḥakīm (the Wise), al-‘Adl (the Equitable), 

al-Karīm (the Generous) and al-Ḥākim (the Judge) answer our question to our Creator concerning the hereafter, and by this mentioned reality, the hereafter becomes as indubitably and clearly established as the sun.

[Consider] the fact that with our own eyes, we see that a sublime all-encompassing Divine protectorship (ḥafīẓiyyah) rules [and puts into effect its laws]. This ḥafīẓiyyah records and inscribes many images of every living creature and every incident, the book of innate duty that they perform, the scroll of deeds regarding the glorifying litanies (tasbiḥāt) that they recite through the language of state (lisānu’l-ḥāl) (35) for the Divine Names.

All of this is recorded and written on [virtual] tablets of similitudes, and upon the kernels and little seeds [of each plant], and upon their memories each of which is a sample of al-Lawḥu’l-Maḥfūẓ (the Preserved Tablet), and most especially upon the memory of man, which is his personal library, simultaneously vast and tiny within his brain and upon other material and spiritual mirrors of reflection. By way of recording [with precision and exactitude], the Divine protectorship preserves them all. Then, when the time is right, in front of our very eyes it manifests all of these spiritual writings into material forms, too. Every spring - spring, one of the flowers of Divine power - proclaims to the world by means of its supreme flower and on the strength of millions of examples, proofs and exemplars and upon billions of tongues, the most wondrous reality of the Resurrection contained in the verse وَإِذَا الصُّحُفُ نُشِرَتْ . (a)

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35. Lisānu’l-ḥāl: All of the beings in the universe have languages particular to them - this is lisānu’l-ḥāl, or the 'language of state'. Just as meaningful communication with human beings depends on our learning the language that they speak, so too is our learning the language of the universe a prerequisite to our understanding its 'speaking'. The universe is a book written by the pen of the might of Allāh, that describes His Holy Names and Attributes. Reading this book enables us to acquire knowledge or 'gnosis' of Allāh (ma‘rifatullāh), as in, for example, each being's particular form of speaking, in the language of its state, of the Name al-Muṣawwir, 'the Shaper', and in the life in all creatures' speaking of the Name al-Muḥyī, 'the Giver of Life'.

a When the pages are spread out (Qur’ān: at-Takwīr, 81:10) 

It powerfully establishes the fact that all things, and foremost amongst them man, were not created in order to merely descend into nonexistence and perish into nothingness. It also proves that living creatures and especially man were not created to be executed. Rather, they were created for the sake of entering into eternal life by means of [spiritual] ascension, perpetuality by means of purification, and to take on their innate duty according to their innate capacity.

Yes, every spring, we witness that the limitless number of plants that had died during the doomsday of the season of autumn, every tree, every root, every kernel and every seed in the resurrection of spring, recites the verse وَإِذَا الصُّحُفُ نُشِرَتْ and each one provides a commentary for one of its meanings and one of its particular individuals in its own language, and by means of examples of the duties it has carried out in the past years. In this, it is testifying to that sublime protectorship.

They manifest, in all beings, the four extraordinary realities contained in the verse هُوَ الأَوَّلُ وَالآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالبَاطِنُ (a) and they instruct us in the highest degree of this protectorship, teaching us that the occurrence of the Resurrection will come as easily and inevitably as that of spring.

Yes, the manifestations of these four Names continuously operate [and are apparent] in all creatures, from the smallest particular to the greatest universal.

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a He is the First and the Last, and the Outward and the Inward (Qur’ān: al-Hadīd, 57:3) 

For example: The seed that is the wellspring of this tree constitutes, through the Name الأَوَّلُ al-Awwal (the First) becoming manifest in it, a little box comprising the singularly exquisite blueprint of this tree, the faultless structure by which it comes into existence, and all of the conditions governing its formation and it establishes the sublimity of protectorship. Its fruit, that the Name وَالآخِرُ al-Ākhir (the Last) becomes manifest in, is also a little box comprising the seeds contained within each fruit, an index of all of the duties of its innate nature that this tree has carried out, a list of its actions, and a detailing of the principles governing its second life - and they too testify to Divine protectorship in the most supreme degree.

The material form of that tree, into which becomes manifest the Name الظَّاهِرُ aẓ-Ẓāhir (the Outward) is as if the garb of a houri in seventy hues - a harmonious, artful and decorated raiment and clothing, brocaded with divers motifs of embroidery, distinct ornaments and myriad gilded medals - and through this, the sublimity of [Divine] power and the perfection of the [Divine] wisdom and the beauty of the [Divine] mercy within [Divine] protectorship become revealed for all eyes to see.

The apparatus within the tree is a mirror of the Name البَاطِنُ al-Bāṭin (the Inward) - it is a well organised, an artfully designed, perfect, miraculous factory, a workshop and a chemical laboratory, a balanced receptacle of sustenance that leaves no branch nor fruit nor leaf without nourishment.

Through the Divine protectorship, this establishes like the sun, 

the perfection of power and justice, the beauty of mercy and wisdom. Now, in the same way as all that we have just mentioned, the globe of the earth is also a tree with respect to the seasons of the year.

All of the seeds and kernels stored in the season of autumn as a trust of Divine protectorship through the manifestation of the Name هُوَ الأَوَّلُ al-Awwal (the First), are little amalgamations of Divine commands concerning the fashioning of the shape of the tree on the face of the earth, wrapped in the cloak of spring that has brought forth billions of branches and offshoots, and yielded billions of fruits, and flowered billions of flowers.

They are rosters of the principles coming from the Divine predestining, and a little scroll of actions, and a logbook of the services that the past summer had fulfilled, that [seeds and kernels] evidently show that the Protector [of deeds], the Possessor of Majesty and Bounty (Al-Ḥafīẓu Dhu’l-Jalāli wa’l-ikrām) is operating all things with limitless power, justice, wisdom and mercy.

The end of the annual tree of the earth deposits all of the duties that that tree has fulfilled into the following autumn, and all of the litanies it has recited to the Divine Names that arise from its innate disposition, and all the scrolls of its actions that will be distributed in the resurrection of the coming spring into tiny and little boxes, and [then] entrusts it into the hand of wisdom of The Protector [of deeds], the Possessor of Majesty. It recites the Name هُوَ الآخِر (a) in limitless tongues on the face of the earth. 

The outward form of this tree blooms three hundred thousand universal flowers of great diversity, that reveal three hundred thousand exemplars and signs of the Resurrection. It unfurls and stretches out limitless tables of mercy, provision, compassion and generosity, putting on thereby banquets for all living creatures. [By means of all this,] it remembers the Name هُوَ الظَّاهِرُ (b) in as many languages as it has fruits, flowers and foods, glorifying and extolling Him with praise, it shows the reality of the verse وَإِذَا الصُّحُفُ نُشِرَتْ (c) as [bright] as the day[light].

This great and towering tree is in its inward reality a receptacle and workshop that puts to work countless and limitless well-ordered machines and carefully balanced factories within which it cooks from one gram’s weight one thousand tonnes of food, that it then serves to the hungry. And it works with so fine a balance and precision that it leaves not space for even an atom’s width of chance to interfere. In a hundred thousand different ways [and forms], it proclaims and establishes by means of the inner face of the earth the Name هُوَ البَاطِنُ (d) just as certain of the angels glorify Allāh with one hundred thousand tongues.

The earth is a tree with respect to the yearly cycle of its life and it reveals the Divine protectorship within these four Names. [By way of showing the Divine protectorship] it makes it into a key to the hereafter.

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a He is the Last.

b He is the Outward.

c When the pages are spread out (Qur’ān: at-Takwīr, 81:10)

d He is the Inward.

Just as it is so, similarly, it is an artful and well designed tree, the fruits of which are sent on to the market of the hereafter - this in terms of its life within time and its life within this world.

And this tree is a locus of the manifestation of these four Names and a mirror thereof that cleaves open a road extending on into the hereafter, such that our intellect falls short of fully comprehending its scope and of being able to properly express it in words. All we can say is this:

Just as the hands of a clock, that count the seconds, minutes, hours and days resemble one another, establish one another, and anyone who sees the movement of the seconds is forced to assent to the movements of the rest of the hands, so too do the days that count the seconds of this world that is a great clock of the Majestic Creator of the heavens and the earth, the years that calculate its minutes, the ages that reveal its hours and the cycles that report its days resemble one another and establish one another. They each give news of the coming of a perpetual spring and an eternal morning after the dark winter of the transient world with limitless signs and in the certainty of this night [will be followed] by a morning and this winter by a spring. It is by way of this reality then, that the Names هُوَ الأَوَّلُ وَالآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالبَاطِنُ (a) in conjunction] with the Name al-Ḥafīẓ (the Preserver) answer our question to our Creator concerning the matter of the Resurrection.

[Consider] now that fact that we both see with our own eyes and perceive with our intellect that man is the ultimate,

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a He is the First and the Last, and the Outward and the Inward. 

most comprehensive fruit of the tree of this universe, and in terms of the Reality of Muḥammad (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām), the original seed of the universe; man is the supreme sign of the Qur’ān of the universe and its Throne Verse which bears the Supreme Name (Al-Ismu’l-A‘ẓam).

He is the most honoured guest in the palace of the universe, and the most enterprising official therein who is authorised to dispose of the rest of the inhabitants of that palace, and he has thus been charged with overseeing incomings and outgoings, and with the cultivation of the garden and the field of the earth district within the city of the universe, and he is the most vocal and responsible overseer who has been decorated with hundreds of sciences and thousands of arts. He is the inspector working under the supervision of the Sultan of Beginningless and Endless Eternity (Sulṭānu’l-Azali wa’l-Abad) within the homeland of the earth within the country of the universe.

Man is, in a certain way, His vicegerent (khalīfa) and His disposer [of affairs], the particular and universal movements of whom are recorded. He is the universal servant, charged with the religious obligation of an all-embracing worship and servanthood, who shoulders the responsibility of carrying the greatest trust that the heavens and the earth and the mountains feared to take on.

He is [the universal servant] to whom two extraordinary paths lie open, on one of which he is the most wretched of all living creatures, and on the other the most blissful. He is favoured with [being the locus of] the manifestation of the Sultan of the Universe’s Supreme Name and he is the most all-embracing mirror of all of His Names. 

He is His privileged addressee, and becomes thereby [of all creatures] the one who best understands His Lordly addresses and speeches. Yet he is of all the universe’s living creatures the one most in need and the most destitute. Despite his endless powerlessness and poverty, he has a limitless number of aims and desires, and numberless enemies, and countless harmful things that hurt him. He is of all living creatures the richest in capabilities and the most pained by his life’s pleasures. All of his enjoyment is tainted by severe pains, and he is of all of them the one who most yearns for and is in most need of eternal life, and the one most suited to and worthy of it. It is he who limitlessly prays for perpetuity and eternal bliss and begs for this request of his. If man were to be given every type of pleasure existing in this world, it would not in any way quench his desire for eternal life.

He is a singularly marvellous miracle of the Independent and Eternally Besought power, and is an extremely artistic marvel of Divine creation, who loves one who shows him beneficence almost to the degree that he worships him. He endears the one who shows him beneficence to others and he is loved by him. He encompasses the entire universe and all of the faculties of his humanity testify to the fact that he has been created for the journey to endless eternity. It is he who is linked to the Name al-Ḥaqq (the Truth) of Allāh Most High, by means of twenty universal realities like this one.

Man is favoured, more than any other being, with the close attention of the Name al-Ḥafīẓ (the Preserver) of the Majestic Preserver (Al-Ḥafiẓu Dhu’l-Jalāl) - which sees the most insignificant need of the tiniest living creature,

and listens to its supplication and its request, and actively answers its prayer, and records its actions - by way of perpetually dictating the Noble Scribes (Kirāman Kātibīn) (36) of that Name with his important deeds that will affect the universe.

As required by the foregoing twenty realities, absolutely and certainly, it is incontrovertibly the case that no doubt whatsoever remains that a Gathering and Resurrection will take place for all humanity. And man will be recompensed for his former services and punished for his sins, in accordance with the Name al-Ḥaqq (the Truth). He will be judged and asked to answer for all of his recorded actions, be they particular or universal, in accordance with the Name al-Ḥafīẓ. The doors both of the guest houses of endless happiness in the realm of eternity as well as those of the dungeons of endless deprivation from happiness will be opened to him. An officer who leads many of the species of this world and interferes with them, corrupts them and confuses their lives at times, will not simply disappear into the earth, reclining therein, never to be woken nor asked about all of his actions.

Otherwise, should it be imagined that Allāh does not hear the illimitable thunder-like prayers of man resonating all throughout existence concerning eternal life that are lifted up on the tongues of the twenty realities of man’s limitless rights that we have just mentioned, and [should it be imagined that Allāh] will neglect those limitless rights, whereas He hears the voice of a fly and actively responds to its prayer by bestowing its life rights upon it; [and] should it be imagined that the wisdom that wastes nothing even

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36. Kirāman Kātibīn (Honourable Recorders or Noble Scribes) are two angels who record each person's good and bad deeds. The Qur’ān refers to them in two places, in 50:16-18 and by name as 'Noble Recorders' in 82:10-12. 

to the breadth of a fly’s wing, as indeed is testified to by the harmonious ordering of the wing of a fly, should totally waste all of man’s capabilities connected to every one of the foregoing realities - all his desires and hopes, stretching into endless eternity, and the many interrelationships and realities of the universe that nourish those capabilities and desires; [we say] neglecting and wasting all of these matters would be simply ugly and unjust in an oppression outside of the realm of possibility.

For all of the existent beings bearing witness to the Names al-Ḥaqq (the Truth), al-Ḥafīz (the Preserver), al-Ḥakīm (the Wise), al-Jamīl (the Beautiful) and ar-Raḥīm (the Compassionate) rebuke this [imagination] and say ‘this is one hundred percent unattainable and ever-impossible from one thousand different points of view’.

Thus do the Names al-Ḥaqq (the Truth), al-Ḥafīz (the Preserver), al-Ḥakīm (the Wise), al-Jamīl (the Beautiful) and ar-Raḥīm (the Compassionate) answer the question we have asked our Creator concerning the Resurrection saying, ‘just as we are true and a reality, so too is the existence of the Resurrection as conclusively verified as that of the beings who bear witness to us.’

And consider the fact that …

I had envisaged writing more examples, but I have cut short, for the matter is now as clear as the sun.

For just as every one of the aspects of one hundred Names, and indeed one thousand Names of Allāh that are oriented towards the universe self-evidently prove [the existence of] the Owner of each Name, 

by means of the mirrors of these Names and their manifestation in existing beings, in a way analogous to the realities mentioned in the foregoing examples and instances of ‘consider the fact that’, so too do they point to the Resurrection and the realm of the hereafter and conclusively establish that they will occur.

And just as our Lord gives an answer both holy and conclusive to the question we asked our Creator, in all of His [Divine] decrees and the scriptures that He revealed and through a majority of His Names of which He is the Named, so too does He answer through the angels and the tongues of the angels, and [that is] He makes them speak in another manner by which they answer our question saying ‘Since the time of Ādam (‘alayhissalām), there have been a great number of events in which you have come into contact with spirits and with us that are reported on the strength of a hundred instances of unanimous testimony. There are limitless signs and proofs that point to our existence and our servanthood as well as that of the spirits. When we met your [spiritual] leaders we said, and we constantly say and we are all in agreement, [surely] do we roam in the halls and some dwelling-places of the hereafter. It is certainly the case then that those eternal and exquisite halls within which we roam, as well as the ornamented and decorated palaces and pavilions behind them, are awaiting the arrival of very honourable guests whom they will [eternally] host - we have no doubt whatsoever in this. We announce this to you conclusively.’ 

Consider the fact that our Creator appointed the Prophet Muḥammad (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām), as the greatest teacher, most perfect master, and most truthful guide who neither misleads nor is he misled, and sent him as the seal of all of the Prophets; it is incumbent upon us to ask our teacher before all else the question about which we asked our Creator. In doing this we may ascend from Certainty by Knowledge (‘ilm al-yaqīn) unto Certainty by Vision (‘ayn al-yaqīn) and unto Certainty by Reality (ḥaqq al-yaqīn) itself, thereby reaching perfection.

For, that Personage himself as a miracle of the Qur’ān, establishes by means of his one thousand miracles, each a sign of his truthfulness from his Creator, that the Qur’ān is truth and that it is the Speech of Allāh (Kalāmullāh). Likewise, the Qur’ān - a great miracle of that Personage - establishes through the forty different types of its miraculous inimitability that he is truthful and trustworthy, and that he is the messenger of Allāh. The reality of the Resurrection claimed and established with thousands of evidences by these two together - one being the language of the observed world, with the assent of all of the prophets and saints throughout their lives, and the other being the language of the unseen world, with the assent of all of the heavenly scriptures and cosmic realities - is as certain as the sun and the day.

Yes, a matter like the Resurrection, which is of all questions [one of the] most wondrous and astonishing, and which is outside of the reach of the intellect, is only resolved and understood by means of lessons taken from the like of these two great masters. 

The reason why the prophets of past times did not explain this reality to their nations in the manner of the Qur’ān was that those ages of humanity were the stage of nomadism and nascence for humanity. There are less explanations in rudimentary lessons.

The upshot: It being the case that the majority of the Divine Names necessarily entail and require the existence of the hereafter, there can be no doubt that all of the proofs that point to these Names also point in a way to the occurrence of the hereafter. And since the angels report that they have seen the dwelling-places of the hereafter and the eternal world, there is no doubt that the proofs pointing to the existence of the angels and spirits and their servanthood also point indirectly to the existence of the hereafter.

And just as the fundamental and ongoing claim in the entire life of Muḥammad (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām) was, after Divine unity (waḥdāniyyah), the existence of the hereafter, there is no doubt that all of the miracles and proofs that point to the prophethood of that Personage and to his truthfulness also indirectly bear witness to the occurrence and coming of the hereafter.

And since one quarter of the Qur’ān concerns the Resurrection and the hereafter, and since it strives to establish them in thousands of its verses and gives news of them, there is no doubt that all of the proofs and evidence bearing witness and pointing to the Qur’ān’s being true are also indirectly pointing and bearing witness to the existence, occurrence and the opening of the hereafter. Look then how strong and conclusive is this fundamental article of faith! Behold this!