Belief in the Hereafter # 2: The Proof of Mercy
The Proof of Mercy
Is it at all possible that the Lord of this realm, who has endless mercy and compassion with the witnessing of His visible activities, will not reward His genuine slaves in a way that fits His mercy and compassion? Reward is virtually non-existent here; there must be a place of reward somewhere else so that His mercy will be manifest there.
We will examine this proof under two headings: Under the first heading, our eyes will make a small trip in this visible realm and see the mercy and compassion that rule the world; and we will prove the existence of the being, who is “ar-Rahim” (the All Compassionate); under the second heading, we will show that the mercy and compassion necessitate the hereafter.
1st STEP: WHO IS THE OWNER OF THE MERCY MANIFEST IN THIS REALM?
God is ar-Rahim. Ar-Rahim means the one who shows mercy, feels pity for and shows compassion to the creatures that He created. He has encompassed all of the realms with His mercy.
• He created this realm out of nothing with His mercy,
• He clothed each being with a dress peculiar to each being,
• He educated each being in different forms,
• He taught them their duties,
• He equipped them with the tools that are necessary for them to maintain their lives,
• He met their material and spiritual needs with compassion.
Let us see some drops from that sea of mercy together!
If you saw a great fire being extinguished by water coming out of a hose but if you did not see the hand that held the hose, would you think the hose itself extinguished the fire? Of course not! The doer of the deed of extinguishing must have attributes like life, knowledge and power. A being that is lifeless, that does not know what fire is and that cannot hold the hose cannot extinguish the fire. Above all, extinguishing originates from mercy; a being without mercy cannot be the doer of that deed. If everybody came together, they could not make us believe that the hose itself extinguished that fire.
Who sends water down in drops from the clouds that are like a hose in order to extinguish the fire of the earth and to soothe the temperature of life?
Doubtlessly, lifeless and unconscious clouds cannot be the doer of the deed that make us feel this mercy and compassion. Then, who is holding the hose? Let the Quran answer the question:
“He is the One that sends down rain (even) after (men) have given up all hope and scatters His Mercy (far and wide). And He is the Protector Worthy Of all Praise.” (ash-Shura 28)
Each drop that comes down in the form of rain is the manifestation of the name ar-Rahim. And other manifestations of mercy!
To make curative and sweet honey in the abdomen of a poisonous insect and to serve that honey with the hands of that insect cannot be the deed of that insect. That is, what makes honey is not the insect but the mercy of God.
In the season of spring, to clothe all of the trees in the best clothes like the houris of Paradise and to decorate them with flowers and fruits and to feed us through dry branches that are like hands with fruits of different flavors, colors, aromas and shapes is definitely a manifestation of mercy. Otherwise, those dry trees would not know us and would not show mercy on us.
To clothe us in a very soft dress like silk through a handless insect is the outcome of mercy. Otherwise, that handless insect would not eat the green mulberry leaves and produce white silk for us.
What about animals like cows, camels, sheep and goats? It is the deed of mercy to make them eat green grass and produce white nourishing milk out of blood and flesh and to make those animals like a milk plant.
And to make that huge sun a stove and lamp for the world, to make the moon a candle and a calendar and to decorate the sky with stars is definitely a manifestation of mercy.
Now, let us have a look at a partial manifestation of mercy in man:
What would we do if we did not have eyes? A completely dark realm!
What if we did not have ears? A silent realm!
What if we did not have a tongue and it did not have the sense of tasting? A realm with no speech and flavor!
What if we did not have a nose? A realm with no smell!
Of course, it would be very difficult to live in a realm like that. What would we do if we did not have material gifts like hands, feet and fingers and spiritual gifts like the mind, fear, compassion and love? It means a manifestation of mercy is visible in the grant of every organ.
God, who decorated man with such material and spiritual organs and feelings, equipped animals with the organs that are necessary for them in order to be able make use of this realm. He equipped birds with wings and taught them to fly; He equipped fish with fins and taught them to swim; He gave each being a body and organs that are necessary for them to maintain their lives, treating them with His mercy. The mercy of God has encompassed everything like that.
In short: If the affairs of this world are observed closely, it will be seen that every living being, from the weakest one to the strongest one, is given the sustenance they need. Not even one of them is forgotten. Every needy creature is unexpectedly given what he needs. Such feasts and grants are given to creatures that it is obviously seen that an endless hand of mercy is in question.
Tens of volumes of books can be written regarding the mercy and compassion seen in the universe. As the saying goes, “A word to the wise is enough”, we do not want to add anything else and refer the other manifestations of mercy to your meditation and we move to the second step, “mercy and compassion necessitate the hereafter.”
2nd STEP: THE NAME AR-RAHIM NECESSITATES THE HEREAFTER
This is the question: What do endless mercy and limitless compassion necessitate?
The answer: Endless mercy and limitless compassion necessitate grant and mercy that fit it. However, only one part out of millions of parts like a drop in the ocean of that mercy and compassion will take place and be manifest in this ephemeral world and short life.
It means this world is not a place enough for that limitless mercy. It proves that there must be a place that deserves and is suitable for that mercy and compassion; and there is such a place.
To deny the existence of this mercy, which is visible by the eye, is like to deny the existence of the sun that fills the day with its light. If the hereafter does not occur, the mercy and compassion that we see will be meaningless. Not only will it be meaningless but it will also be transformed into its opposite.
For instance, the mind is a gift of mercy. However, if the hereafter does not occur, the mind will not be a gift but a trouble. It will gather the sorrows of the past and the fears of the future at present and bites its owner like a snake.
The feeling of mercy and compassion in man is also a gift. However, if the hereafter does not occur, and if death becomes the end, this feeling ceases to be a gift and becomes a trouble. Is it necessary to explain how the feeling of compassion will burn man, who always loses his beloved ones and buries them in non-existence?
All of the bounties like that will be transformed into torture and mockery if the hereafter does not occur. Therefore, the hereafter is necessary so that the mercy and compassion will not be transformed into its opposite. There is no doubt that the Owner of Beauty, who owns this mercy, will not let mercy and compassion be transferred into their opposites and He will create Paradise, which is as easy as creating a flower for Him.
In addition, imagine this now:
A poor person has rolled down a high mountain and has clutched at a tree just as he is about to fall into a precipice.
If we throw a rope to him and pull him upwards and, just as he is about to be saved, let the rope go and cause him to fall into precipice, will our previous compassionate deeds be of any importance? Does that compassion not turn to mocking? And does the feeling of compassion that encourages us to save him let us release the rope? Definitely not!
Just like this example, we clutched at the rope of power of God, came to existence out of non-existence, and were saved from falling into the realms of non-existence? Yes, God gave us this body and sent us to this realm. He bestowed many grants on us. If the hereafter does not occur and we go to non-existence with death, will it not be like releasing the rope?
There is no doubt that the divine mercy will not send us to the darkness of non-existence, which is similar to letting the rope go. If he wanted to send us to non-existence, he would not bring us to this world and he would not treat us with compassion.
If the hereafter does not occur, the compassion will be transformed to mocking. Will it be a favor and grant if we send a table full of food to the cell of a person whom we sentenced to death? Definitely not.
If the hereafter does not come, there will be no difference between that prisoner and us. Will God ever let this incident happen, which will deny His compassion and mercy? Definitely, not!
Let us look at the fact that mercy necessitates the hereafter with the binoculars of that example:
If we see someone drowning in the sea, we will jump into the sea and save that person if we have a bit of mercy and if we know how to swim.
Now the question is this: Will we hang this man after saving him by facing thousands of difficulties? Or will we send him into fire?
Definitely not! Our mercy will net let us do it. If it did, we would not save him from the sea and let him die there.
Saving him from the sea proves the mercy in us; the mercy in us proves that we will not hang him and will not throw him into fire.
Similarly, God Almighty saved us from the sea of non-existence and brought us to this realm. He fed us with His compassion in this realm like a baby. Is it at all possible for God, who is the owner of this mercy, to kill man and not to resurrect him and make him deny His mercy? Definitely not!
If He were so merciless as to kill us and not to resurrect us, He would not have created us out of nothing and would not have fed us like a delicate baby.
Now let us summarize this proof in items:
1.Endless mercy and compassion are visible in this realm. This mercy and compassion have encompassed everything everywhere, from a fly to planets.
2.Since deeds cannot be without doers, this mercy and compassion must have an owner. Blind power, unconscious nature, fictitious laws and lifeless causes cannot be the doer of this mercy and compassion. The doer of those deeds can only be God Almighty, who is ar-Rahim and al-Karim (the Generous).
3.Since God Almighty has endless mercy, there must be the hereafter, too. Endless mercy wants to grant and show mercy that fits it. However, this mercy is too big for this ephemeral world and this mercy cannot be manifest fully in this world. That is, eternal places and houses are necessary for this mercy to be manifest fully. Those eternal places are present only in the hereafter and in Paradise.
4.It is necessary to deny God, who is ar-Rahim, in order to be able to deny the hereafter. A person who cannot deny God and His name ar-Rahim cannot deny the hereafter because the existence of mercy and compassion necessitate the existence of the hereafter as we have proved.
5.A person who cannot deny God cannot deny the hereafter; similarly, a person who cannot deny the mercy and compassion visible in this realm cannot deny God. A name cannot exist without a being and an attribute cannot exist without the thing to be attributed. The visible attributes of mercy and compassion prove the existence of a Being who is ar-Rahim and al-Karim. Since the unconscious nature and blind coincidence cannot own those attributes, the owner of those attributes is God and nobody else can be the owner of them.
6.Since the hereafter can only be denied through denying God and since God can only be denied by denying the visible mercy and compassion, which is impossible to deny, we can say that it is necessary to deny the visible mercy in order to be able to deny the hereafter. And nobody who is sane can do it.
7.If the hereafter does not occur, the visible mercy and compassion will be transformed into their opposites, that is, into mercilessness and ruthlessness, and the mercy and compassion will be transformed into mockery. Since we have given the examples related to the issue, we will be brief and complete this proof by attracting the attention to this point:
The Being who has endless mercy and generosity will never transform His mercy into mercilessness and His compassion into ruthlessness; He will not transform those manifestations into mocking. The only way to do it is through the hereafter. As it will be proved later, to bring the hereafter and to create Paradise is as easy as to create a flower for His power.
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