...true humanity starts to unfold...

[In the Seventh Topic, we questioned numerous levels of beings about the resurrection of the dead, but curtailed the discussion because since the replies given by the Creator's Names afforded such powerful certainty, they left no need for further questions. Now in this Topic are summarized a hundredth of the benefits of belief in the hereafter, including those which result in happiness in this world and in the next. The Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition leaves no need for further explanation concerning the happiness of the hereafter, so we refer the subject to the Qur'an. And leaving the explanations of worldly happiness to the Risale-i Nur, here we shall describe in summary form three or four out of hundreds of results of belief in the hereafter which look to man's individual life and social life. ]

The First

Just as, contrary to other living beings, man has relations with his home, so he has relations with the world, and just as he has relations with his relatives, so by nature he has earnest relations with mankind. And just as he desires temporary permanence in this world, so he passionately desires immortality in the realm of eternity. And just as he strives to meet the need of his stomach for food, so he is by nature compelled to strive to provide for the stomachs of his mind, heart, spirit, and humanity. He has such hopes and desires that nothing apart from eternal happiness can satisfy them. As is mentioned in the Tenth Word, even, when small, I asked my imagination: "Do you want to live for a million years and rule the world but then cease to exist, or to live for ever but have an ordinary and difficult existence?" I saw that my imagination wanted the latter, feeling pain at the first, and said: "I want to live for ever, even if in Hell!"

Thus, since the pleasures of this world do not satisfy the imaginative faculty, which is a servant of human nature, man's comprehensive nature is certainly attached to eternity. For man, therefore, who despite being afflicted with these boundless hopes and desires as capital has only an insignificant faculty of will and absolute poverty, belief in the hereafter is a treasury of such strength and sufficiency; is such a means of pleasure and happiness, source of help, refuge, and means of consolation in the face of the endless sorrows of this world, and is such a fruit and benefit that if the life of this world were to be sacrificed on the way of gaining it, it would still be cheap.

Its second fruit and benefit, which looks to man's personal life

This is a consequence of great importance which is explained in the Third Topic, and about which is a footnote in A Guide For Youth.

Man's greatest and most constant anxiety is his entering the place of execution that is the graveyard, the same as his friends and relations have entered it. Wretched man, who is ready to sacrifice his very soul for a single friend, thinks of the thousands, millions, or thousands of millions of friends who have been eliminated and have parted for all eternity, and suffers torments worse than Hell. Just at that point belief in the hereafter comes, opens his eyes, and raises the veil. It tells him: "Look!" He looks with belief, and seeing that those friends have been saved from eternal death and decay and are awaiting him happily in a luminous world, he receives a pleasure of the spirit that intimates the pleasures of Paradise. Sufficing with the explanations and proofs of this consequence in the Risale-i Nur, we cut this short here.

A third benefit pertaining to personal life

Man's superiority over other living beings and his high rank are in respect of his elevated qualities, comprehensive abilities, universal worship, and his extensive spheres of existence. However, the virtues he acquires like zeal, love, brotherhood, and humanity are to the extent of the fleeting present, which is squeezed between the past and the future, which are both non-existent, and dead, and black.

For example, he loves and serves his father, brother, wife, nation, and country, whom he formerly did not know and after parting from them, will never see again. He would very rarely be able to achieve complete loyalty and sincerity, and his virtues and perfections would diminish proportionately. Then, just as because of his intelligence, he is about to fall headlong from being the highest of the animals to the lowest and most wretched, belief in the hereafter comes to his assistance. It expands the present, as constricting as the grave, so that it encompasses the past and future and is as broad as the world, and shows the bounds of existence to stretch from pre-eternity to post-eternity. Thinking of his father being in the realm of bliss and world of spirits and the fraternity of his brothers continuing to eternity, and knowing that his wife will be a beautiful companion in Paradise also, he will love and respect them, be kindly and assist them. He will not exploit the important duties which are for relationships in that broad sphere of life and existence for the worthless matters of this world, with its petty hatreds and interests. His good qualities and attainments will advance to the degree he is successful in being earnestly loyal and truly sincere, and his humanity will increase. Although he does not receive the pleasure from life that a sparrow receives, he becomes the most eminent and happy guest in the universe, superior to all the animals, and the best loved and most acceptable servant of the universe's Owner. This consequence has also been elucidated with proofs in the Risale-i Nur, so here we suffice with this.

A fourth benefit of belief in the hereafter, which looks to man's social life

A summary of this result is set forth in the Ninth Ray of the Risale-i Nur, it is as follows:

Children, which form a quarter of mankind, can live a human existence only through belief in the hereafter, and sustain their human capacity. They otherwise live only childish, empty existences, blunting their grievous pains with trifling playthings. For the effect of the constant deaths around them of children like themselves on their sensitive minds, and weak hearts which in the future will nurture far-reaching desires, and their vulnerable spirits, makes their minds and lives into instruments of torture. But then, through instruction in belief in the hereafter, in place of their anxieties, and the playthings behind which they hid so as not to see those deaths, they feel a joy and expansion, and say: "My brother or my friend has died and become a bird in Paradise. He is flying around and enjoying himself better than we are. And my mother has died, but she has gone to Divine mercy. She will again take me into her embrace in Paradise and I shall see her again." They may live in a state befitting humanity.

It is only in belief in the hereafter that the elderly, who form another quarter of mankind, can find consolation, in the face of the close extinction of their lives and their entering the soil, and their fine and lovable worlds coming to an end. Those kindly, venerable fathers and devoted, tender mothers would otherwise feel such a disturbance of the spirit and tumult of the heart that the world would become a despairing prison for them and life, a ghastly torture. But then belief in the hereafter says to them: "Don't worry! You have an immortal youth; a shining, endless life awaits you. You will be joyfully reunited with the children and relatives you have lost.   All your good deeds have been preserved and you will receive your reward." It affords them such solace and joy that were they to experience old age a hundred times over all at the same time, it would not cause them despair.

One third of mankind is formed by the youth. With their turbulent emotions, the youths are not always able to control their bold intelligences and are overcome by their passions. If then they lose their faith in the hereafter and do not recall the torments of Hell, it puts in danger the property and honour of the upright people in society, and the peace and self-respect of the weak and elderly. One youth may destroy the happiness of a contented home for one minute's pleasure, then pay the penalty in prison for four or five years, degenerating into a wild animal. If belief in the hereafter comes to his assistance and he swiftly comes to his senses, saying: "It's true the government informers can't see me and I can hide from them, but the angels of a Glorious Monarch who has a prison like Hell see me and are recording all my evil deeds. I am not free and independent; I am a traveller charged with duties. One day I too will be old and weak." He suddenly starts to feel a sympathy and respect for those he wanted to cruelly assault. This too is explained with proofs in the Risale-i Nur, so deeming that sufficient, we here cut it short.

Another important section of mankind are the sick, the oppressed, the disaster-stricken like us, the poor and the life prisoners; if belief in the hereafter does not come to their aid, death, of which they are continuously reminded by illness, unavenged wrongs, the arrogant treachery of the oppressor, from whom they cannot save their honour, the terrible despair of having lost their property or children in serious disasters, the distress at having to suffer the torments of prison for five or ten years because of a minute or two, or an hour or two, of pleasure - these surely make the world into a prison for such unfortunates, and life into agonizing torment. But if belief in the hereafter comes to their assistance, they suddenly breathe freely, and according to the degree of their belief, their distress, despair, anxiety, anger, and desire for vengeance abate, sometimes partially, sometimes entirely.

I can even say that if belief in the hereafter had not helped me and some of my brothers in this fearsome calamity of our being imprisoned for no reason, to stand it for one day would have been as grievous as death and driven us to resign from life. But endless thanks be to God, despite suffering the distress of my brothers, whom I love as much as my life, as well as my own, in addition to the weeping and sorrow of thousands of copies of the Risale-i Nur and my gilded, decorated, valuable books, which I love as much as my eyes, and although I could never stand the slightest insult or to be dominated, I swear that the light and strength of belief in the hereafter afforded me the patience, endurance, solace, and steadfastness; indeed, it filled me with enthusiasm to gain greater reward in the profitable, instructive exertions of this ordeal, for as I said at the beginning of this treatise, I knew myself to be in a good medrese or school worthy of the title of 'Medrese-i Yusufiye' (School of Joseph). If it were not for the occasional sickness and irritability arising from old age, I would have worked at my lessons even better and with greater ease of mind. However, we have strayed from the subject; I hope it will be forgiven.

Also, everyone's home is a small world for him, and even a small Paradise. If belief in the hereafter is not at the basis of the happiness of that home, the members of the family will suffer anguish and anxiety to the extent of their compassion, love, and attachment. Their paradise will either turn into Hell, or it will numb their minds with amusements and dissipation. Like the ostrich, who sees the hunter but can neither fly nor escape and sticks its head in the sand so as not to be seen, they plunge their heads into heedlessness so that death, decline, and separation do not spot them. They find a way out by temporarily blocking out their feelings in lunatic fashion. Because, for example, the mother trembles constantly at seeing her children, for whom she would sacrifice her soul, exposed to dangers. While the children all the time feel sorrow and fear at being unable to save their father and brother from unceasing calamities. Thus, in the upheavals of this worldly life, the supposedly happy life of the family loses its happiness in many respects, and the relations and closeness in this brief life do not result in true loyalty, heartfelt sincerity, disinterested service and love. Good character declines proportionately, and is even lost. Whereas if belief in the hereafter enters that home, it illuminates it completely, and its members have sincere respect, love, and compassion for each other, are loyal and disregard each other's faults, in the measure not of their relations, closeness, kindness, and love in this brief life, but of their continuation in the realm of the hereafter, in everlasting happiness, and their good character increases accordingly. The happiness of true humanity starts to unfold in that home. Since this too is elucidated with proofs in the Risale-i Nur, we cut this short here.

Towns are also households for their inhabitants. If belief in the hereafter does not govern among the members of that large family vices like malice, self-interest, false pretences, selfishness, artificiality, hypocrisy, bribery, and deception will dominate, displacing sincerity, cordiality, virtue, zeal, self-sacrifice, seeking God's pleasure and the reward of the hereafter, which are bases of good conduct and morality. Anarchy and savagery will govern under the superficial order and humanity, poisoning the life of the town. The children will become troublemakers, the youth will take to drink, the strong will embark on oppression, and the elderly start to weep.

  By analogy, the country is also a household, and the fatherland, the home of the national family. If belief in the hereafter rules in these broad homes, true respect, earnest compassion, disinterested love, mutual assistance, honest service and social relations, unhypocritical charity, virtue, modest greatness, and excellence will all start to develop.

It says to the children: "Give up messing around; there is Paradise to be won!", and teaches them self-control through instruction in the Qur'an.

It says to the youth: "There is Hell-fire; give up your drunkenness!", and brings them to their senses.

It says to the oppressor: "There is severe torment; you will receive a blow!", and makes them bow to justice.

It says to the elderly: "Awaiting you is everlasting happiness in the hereafter far greater than all the happiness you have lost here, and immortal youth; try to win them!" It turns their tears into laughter.

It shows its favourable effects in every group, particular and universal, and illuminates them. Sociologists and moralists, who are concerned with the social life of mankind, should take special note. If the rest of the thousands of benefits and advantages of belief in the hereafter are compared with the five or six we have alluded to, it will be understood that it is only belief that is the means of happiness in this world and the next, and in the lives of both.

Deeming sufficient the powerful replies to the flimsy doubts concerning bodily resurrection described in the Twenty-Eighth Word of the Risale-i Nur and in others of its treatises, we merely make the following brief indication:

The most comprehensive mirror of the Divine Names lies in corporeality. The richest and most active centre of the Divine aims in the creation of the universe lies in corporeality. The greatest variety of the multifarious dominical bounties lies in corporeality. The greatest multiplicity of the seeds of the supplications and thanks man offers to his Creator through the tongues of his needs again lies in corporeality. And the greatest diversity of the seeds of the non-physical and spirit worlds also lies in corporeality.

By analogy with this, since hundreds of universal truths are centred in corporeality, in order to multiply corporeality and make it manifest the above truths on the face of the earth, with awesome activity and speed, the All-Wise Creator clothes the successive caravans of beings in existence and sends them to that exhibition. Then he discharges them and sends others in their place, constantly making the factory of the universe run. Weaving corporeal products, He makes the earth into a seed-bed of the hereafter and Paradise. In fact, in order to gratify man's physical stomach, he listens to and accepts the prayer for immortality his stomach makes through the tongue of disposition, affording it the greatest importance, and in order to answer it, prepares in corporeality incalculable numbers of innumerable sorts and kinds of artistic foods and precious bounties, all affording different pleasures. This demonstrates self-evidently and without doubt that in the hereafter, the most numerous and various of the pleasures of Paradise will be corporeal, and that the bounties of the eternal abode of bliss, which everyone wants and is familiar with, will be corporeal.

Is it at all possible that the Most Compassionate Ail-Powerful One, the All-Knowing and Munificent One, Who accepts the prayer offered through the tongue of disposition by the common stomach, and gratifying it with infinitely miraculous physical foods, always replies in fact, intentionally and without chance, would not accept the numerous, general prayers of man - who is the most important result of the universe, the Divine vicegerent on earth, and the Creator's choice being and worshipper- which he offers through the supreme stomach of humanity for universal, elevated corporeal pleasures in the eternal realm, which he always desires and with which he is familiar and which by nature he wants; that He should not respond in fact with bodily resurrection, and not gratify him eternally? Should He hear the buzz of the fly, and not hear the crashing thunder? Should He equip a common soldier to perfection, and ignore the army, giving it no importance? To do so would be impossible and absurd.

Yes, in accordance with the explicit statement of the verse:

There will be there all that the souls could desire, all that the eyes could delight in, {Qur'an, 43:71.}

man will experience in Paradise in fitting form the physical pleasures with which he is most familiar and samples of which he has tasted in this world. The rewards for the sincere thanks and particular worship each of his members, like the tongue, eye, and ear, offers, will be given through physical pleasures particular to those members. The Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition describes the physical pleasures so explicitly, it is impossible not to accept the apparent meaning, and to make forced interpretations of them.

The fruits and results of belief in the hereafter, then, show that just as the reality and needs of the stomach, one of the human members, are decisive evidence for the existence of food; so the reality and perfections of man, and his innate needs and desire for eternity, and his abilities and potentialities, which demand the above-mentioned consequences and benefits of belief in the hereafter, are certain evidence for the hereafter and Paradise and eternal physical pleasures, and they testify to their certain existence. Similarly, the reality of the universe's perfections and its meaningful creational signs, and all its truths connected with the above human truths are evidence for the certain existence of the realm of the hereafter, the resurrection of the dead, and the opening up of Heaven and Hell. This has been proved so brilliantly in the Risale-i Nur, and particularly in the Tenth, Twenty-Eighth (both Stations), and Twenty-Ninth Words, and the Ninth Ray, and the Supplication of the Third Ray, that they leave no room for doubt. Referring readers to them, we cut short this long story here.

The Qur'anic descriptions of Hell are also so clear and explicit they leave no need for further description. Only, referring to the Risale-i Nur detailed explanation of one or two points which dispel one or two feeble doubts, we shall set forth a very brief summary.

First Point: The thought of Hell and the fear it induces does not dispel the pleasures of the above fruits of belief. For boundless Divine mercy says to the fearful man: Come to me! Enter the door of repentance, then the existence of Hell will not frighten you, but make known completely the pleasures of Paradise, and avenge you and all creatures whose rights have been transgressed, and give you enjoyment. If you are so submerged in misguidance you cannot extricate yourself, the existence of Hell is still immeasurably better than eternal annihilation, and is also a sort of kindness for the disbelievers. For man, and even animals with young, receive pleasure at the pleasure and happiness of their relatives, offspring, and friends, and in one respect are happy.

Therefore, O atheist! Because of your misguidance, you will either tumble into non-being at your eternal execution, or you will enter Hell! As for non-existence, which is absolute evil, since it consists of the annihilation together with yourself of all your relatives, forbears and descendants, whom you love and at whose happiness you are to an extent happy, it causes pain to your spirit, heart, and inner nature severer than a thousand Hells. For if there was no Hell, there would be no Paradise. Through your disbelief, everything falls into non-existence. If you go to Hell and remain within the sphere of existence, those you love and your relatives will be happy in Paradise, or will be the recipients of compassion in some respects within the spheres of existence. This means you should support the idea of Hell existing. To oppose it is to support non-existence, which is to support the elimination of innumerable friends' happiness.

Yes, Hell is an awesome, majestic, existent land which performs the wise and just function of being the place of incarceration of the Glorious Sovereign of the sphere of existence, which is pure good. It performs numerous other functions, besides that of prison, and fulfils many purposes and carries out many duties connected with the eternal realm. It is also the awe-inspiring habitation of many living creatures like the Angels of Hell.

Second Point: There is no contradiction between the existence and ghastly torments of Hell, and infinite mercy, true justice, and wisdom with its balance and absence of waste. Indeed, mercy, justice, and wisdom require its existence. For to punish a tyrant who tramples the rights of a thousand innocents and to kill a savage animal who tears to pieces a hundred cowed animals, is for the oppressed a thousandfold mercy within justice. While to pardon the tyrant and leave the savage beast free, is for hundreds of wretches a hundredfold pitilessness in place of that single act of misplaced mercy.

Similarly, among those who will enter Hell is the absolute disbeliever. For through his disbelief and denial he both transgresses the rights of the Divine Names, and through denying the testimony of beings to those Names, he transgresses their rights, and by denying the elevated duties of glorification of creatures before the Divine Names he violates their rights, and through denying their being mirrors to and responding with worship to the manifestation of Divine dominicality, which is the purpose of the universe's creation and a reason for its existence and continuance, he transgresses their rights in a way. His disbelief is therefore a crime and wrong of such vast proportions it may not be forgiven, and deserves the threat of the verse,

God forgives not [the sin of] joining other gods with Him {Qur'an, 4:48, 116.}

Not to cast him into Hell would comprise innumerable instances of mercilessness to innumerable claimants whose rights had been transgressed, in place of a single misplaced act of mercy. Just as those claimants demand the existence of Hell, so do Divine dignity and majesty, and tremendousness and perfection most certainly demand it.

Yes, if a worthless rebel who assaults the people says to the proud ruler of the place: "You can't put me in prison!", affronting his dignity, if there is not a prison in the town, the ruler will have one made just to throw the ill-mannered wretch into it. In just the same way, through his disbelief the absolute disbeliever affronts seriously the dignity of Divine glory, and through his denial offends the splendour of His power, and through his aggression disturbs the perfection of His dominicality. Even if there were not many things necessitating the functions of Hell and many reasons for and instances of wisdom in its existence, it is the mark of that dignity and glory to create a Hell for disbelievers such as that, and to cast them into it.

Moreover, even the nature of disbelief makes known Hell. Yes, just as if the true nature of belief was to be embodied, it could with its pleasures take on the form of a private paradise, and in this respect gives secret news of Paradise; so, as is proved with evidences in the Risale-i Nur and is also alluded to in the previous Topics, disbelief, and especially absolute disbelief, and dissembling, and apostasy, are the cause of such dark and awful pains and spiritual torment that if they were to be embodied, they would become a private Hell for the apostate, and in this way tell of the greater Hell in concealed manner. The tiny truths in the seed-bed of this world produce shoots in the hereafter. Thus, this poisonous seed indicates that particular tree of Zaqqum, saying: "I am its origin. For the unfortunate who bears me in his heart, my fruit is a private sample of that Zaqqum-tree."

Since disbelief is aggression against innumerable rights, it is certainly an infinite crime and deserves infinite punishment. Human justice considers a sentence of fifteen years imprisonment (nearly eight million minutes) to be justice for a one minute's murder, and conformable with general rights and interests. Therefore, since one instance of disbelief is the equivalent of a thousand murders, to suffer torments for nearly eight thousand million minutes for one minute's absolute disbelief, is in conformity with that law of justice. A person who passes a year of his life in disbelief deserves punishment for close on two million million eight hundred eighty thousand million minutes, and manifests the meaning of the verse,

  They will dwell therein for ever. {Qur'an,93:8, etc.}

However...

The All-Wise Qur'an's miraculous descriptions of Heaven and Hell, and the proofs of their existence in the Risale-i Nur, a Qur'anic commentary which proceeds from the Qur'an, leave no need for others.

As is shown by numerous verses like,

They reflect on the creation of the heavens and earth, saying:

"O our Sustainer! Indeed You have not created this in vain; glory be unto You; and protect us from the torment of the Fire!" {Qur'an,3:191.}

"O our Sustainer! Avert from us the torment of Hell; indeed its torment is a grievous affliction, * And evil it is as a resting-place and abode," {Qur'an, 25:65-6.}

and indicated by foremost God's Noble Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) and all the prophets and people of reality always repeating in their supplications, "Preserve us from Hell-fire! Deliver us from Hell-fire! Save us from Hell-fire!", which due to their revelations and illuminations for them was certain, the most momentous question facing mankind is to be saved from Hell. Hell is a vast, awesome, and supremely important cosmic truth, which some of the people of illumination and witnessing and those who investigate the realities have observed, and seeing some of its distillations and shadows, have cried out in terror: "Preserve us from the Fire!"

Yes, the confrontation and interpenetration of good and evil in the universe, and pain and pleasure, light and darkness, heat and cold, beauty and ugliness, and guidance and misguidance are for a vast instance of wisdom. For if there were no evil, good would not be known. If there were no pain, pleasure would not be understood. Light without darkness would lack all importance. The degrees of heat are realized through cold. Through ugliness, a single instance of beauty becomes a thousand in-stances, and thousands of varying degrees of beauty come into existence. If there were no Hell, many of the pleasures of Paradise would remain concealed. By analogy with these, in one respect everything may be known through its opposite and a single truth produce numerous shoots and become numerous truths. Since these intermingled beings pour from this transitory realm into the eternal realm, surely just as things like good, pleasure, light, beauty, and belief are poured into Paradise; so harmful matters like evil, pain, darkness, ugliness, and disbelief flow into Hell, and the floods of this continuously agitated universe are emptied into those two pools. Referring you to the 'Allusive Points' at the end of the wondrous Twenty-Ninth Word, we curtail this discussion here.

My fellow students here in this School of Joseph! The easiest way to be saved from that dreadful, everlasting prison is to profit from our worldly prison, and besides being saved from the many sins we are bound to refrain from, by repenting for our former sins and performing the obligatory worship, to make every hour of our prison life here the equivalent of a day's worship. This is the best opportunity we may have to be saved from that eternal prison and to win luminous Paradise. If we miss this opportunity, our lives in the hereafter will weep the same as our lives here are weeping, and we shall receive the slap of the verse,

  He has lost this world and the hereafter {Qur'an, 22:11.}

It was the Feast of Sacrifices while this 'station' was being written

One fifth of mankind, three hundred million people, together declaring: "God is Most Great! God is Most Great! God is Most Great"; and in relation to its size the globe broadcasting to its fellow planets in the skies the sacred words of God is Most Great! ; and the more than twenty thousand pilgrims performing the Hajj, on 'Arafat and at the Festival, together declaring: "God is Most Great!" are all a response in the form of extensive, universal worship to the universal manifestation of Divine dominicality through God's sublime titles of Sustainer of the Earth and Sustainer of All The Worlds, and are a sort of echo of the God is Most Great! spoken and commanded one thousand three hundred years ago by God's Noble Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) and his Family and Companions. This I imagined and felt and was certain about.

Then I wondered if the sacred phrase has any connection with our matter. It suddenly occurred to me that foremost this phrase and many others of these marks of Islam like There is no god but God, All praise be to God! , and Glory be to God! , which bear the title of "enduring good works," recall particular and universal points about the matter we are discussing, and infer its realization.

For example, one aspect of the meaning of God is Most Great! is that Divine power and knowledge are greater than everything; nothing at all can quit the bounds of God's knowledge, nor escape or be saved from the disposals of His power. He is greater than the things we fear most. This means He is greater than bringing about the resurrection of the dead, saving us from non-existence, and bestowing eternal happiness. He is greater than any strange or unimaginable thing, so that, as explicitly stated by the verse,

Your creation and your resurrection are but as a single soul, {Qur'an, 31:28.}

the resurrection of mankind is as easy for His power as the creation of a single soul. It is in connection with this meaning that when faced by serious disasters or important undertakings, everyone says: "God is Most Great! God is Most Great!", making it a source of consolation, strength, and support for themselves.   As is shown in the Ninth Word, the above phrase and its two fellows, that is, God is Most Great!, and Glory be to God!, and All praise be to God!, form the seeds and summaries of the ritual prayers -the index of all worship- and in order to corroborate the meaning of the prayers, are repeated in the tesbihat following them. They provide the powerful answers to the questions arising from the wonderment, pleasure, and awe man feels at the strange, beautiful, extraordinary things he sees in the universe, which cause him to offer thanks and to feel awe at their grandeur. Moreover, at the end of the Sixteenth Word, it is described how at the festival a private soldier and a field marshal enter the king's presence together, whereas at other times the soldier has contact with the field marshal only through his commanding officer. Similarly, somewhat resembling the saints, a person making the Hajj begins to know God through His titles of Sustainer of the Earth and Sustainer of All the Worlds. With its repetition, it is again God is Most Great that answers all the feverish bewildered questions that overwhelm his spirit as the levels of grandeur unfold in his heart. Furthermore, at the end of the Thirteenth Flash, it is described how it is again God is Most Great that replies most effectively to Satan's cunning wiles, cutting them at the root, as well as answering succinctly but powerfully our question about the hereafter.

The phrase All praise be to God also reminds us of resurrection. It says to us: "I would have no meaning if there was no hereafter. For I say: to God is due all the praise and thanks that have been offered from preeternity to post-eternity, whoever they have been offered by and to whom, for the chief of all bounties and the only thing that makes bounty true bounty and saves all conscious creatures from the endless calamities of non-existence, is eternal happiness; it is only eternal happiness that can be equal to that universal meaning of mine."

Yes, every day all believers saying at least one hundred and fifty times after the obligatory prayers: All praise be to God! All praise be to God! , as enjoined by the Shari'a, and its being the expression of praise and thanks which extend from pre-eternity to post-eternity, can only be the advance price and immediate fee for Paradise and eternal happiness. They offer thanks since bounties are not restricted to the fleeting bounties of this world, which are tainted by the pains of transience, and see them as the means to eternal bounties.

As for the sacred phrase, Glory be to God! with its meaning of declaring God free of all partner, fault, defect, tyranny, impotence, unkindness, need, and deception, and all faults opposed to His perfection, beauty, and glory, it recalls eternal happiness and the realm of the hereafter and Paradise within it, which are the means to His glory and beauty and the majesty and perfection of His sovereignty; the phrase alludes to them and indicates them. For, as has been proved previously, if there was no eternal happiness, both His sovereignty, and His perfection, glory, beauty, and mercy would be stained by fault and defect.

Like these three sacred phrases, In the Name of God and There is no god but God and other blessed phrases are all seeds to the pillars of faith. Like the meat essences and sugar concentrates that have been discovered recently, they are summaries of both the pillars of belief, and the truths of the Qur'an. The three mentioned above are both the seeds of the five daily prayers, and they are the seeds of the Qur'an, sparkling like brilliants at the beginning of a number of shining suras. So too are they the true sources and bases of the Risale-i Nur, many of whose inspirations first came while I was reciting the tesbihat following the prayers; they are the seeds of its truths. In respect of the sainthood and worship of Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him), these phrases are the invocations of the Muhammadan (PBUH) way which, following each of the five daily prayers, more than one hundred million believers repeat together in a vast circle of remembrance. Their beads in their hands, they declare Glory be to God! thirty-three times, All praise be to God! thirty-three times, and God is Most Great! thirty-three times.

You have surely understood now the great value of reciting thirty-three times after the five daily prayers, in such a splendid circle for the remembrance of God, each of those three blessed phrases, which as explained above, are the summaries and seeds of both the Qur'an, and belief, and the prayers. You have understood too the great reward they yield.

[The First Topic at the beginning of this treatise forms an excellent lesson about the obligatory five daily prayers. Then, although I did not think of it, involuntarily the end here became an important lesson about the tesbihat following the prayers.]

  Praise be to God for His bounties.

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed You are All-Knowing, All-Wise {Qur'an, 2:32.}

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