Can the Universe Be Rebuilt After its Overall Death?

 

The universe can be resurrected after its death because, first, as proved in the Second Fundamental, the Divine Power is not in any way defective. Next, there is a strong necessity for it, and, in addition, it is possible. Consequently, if there is a strong necessity that something possible should occur, then it comes to be regarded as something that will inevitably occur.

 

Another significant point

A close examination of what goes on in the universe will make it clear that within it are two opposed elements that have spread everywhere and become rooted: with their results like good and evil, benefit and harm, perfection and defect, light and darkness, guidance and misguidance, belief and unbelief, obedience and rebellion, and fear and love, the opposed elements clash with one another in the universe. The universe manifests, through such continuous conflict of opposites, incessant alterations and transformations so as to produce the elements of a new world. These opposed elements will eventually lead to eternity in two different directions and materialize as Paradise and Hell. The Eternal World will be made up of the essential elements of this transitory world, and these elements will then be given permanence. Paradise and Hell are in fact the two opposite fruits which grow on the two branches of the tree of creation; or they are the two results of the chain of creation. They are the two cisterns which are being filled by the two streams of things and events, and the two poles to which beings are flowing in waves. They are the places where Divine Grace and Divine Wrath manifest themselves, and they will be filled up with their particular inhabitants when the Divine Power shakes up the universe with a violent motion.

This point is really significant because God, the Eternal All-Wise, as the requirement of His Eternal Grace and Wisdom, has created this world as the place where men are tested. This world is also a mirror where His Beautiful Names are reflected, and a vast page where He is writing with the Pen of His Destiny and Power. People are being tested here so that their potentialities can develop and their abilities manifest themselves. This emergence of the abilities causes the appearance of relative truths in the universe, which in turn, causes the Beautiful Names of the Majestic Maker to manifest their inscriptions and make the universe a missive of the Eternally Besought-of-all. It is also by virtue of this testing that the diamond-like essences of sublime souls are separated from the coal-like matter of the base ones.

For whatever sublime purposes other than those we are aware of God willed that the creation should take place, He also willed the change and alteration of this world for the same purposes. He mixed together opposites and made them confront one another--mingling harm with benefit, including evil with good, and combining ugliness with beauty, He kneaded them together like dough, and made the universe subject to the law of alteration and to the principle of perfection. The time will arrive when the trial and testing come to an end, and the Pen of Divine Destiny will have written what it has to write. The Divine Power will have completed its work, all the creatures will have fulfilled their duties and services, and the seeds will have been sown in the field of the Afterlife. The earth will have displayed the miracles of Divine Power, and this transitory world will have hung all the eternal scenes upon the picture-rail of time, and the eternal Wisdom and Favor of the Majestic Maker will require that the results of the test be announced, the truths of the manifestations of the Divine Beautiful Names and the missives of the Pen of Divine Destiny be unveiled, the duties performed by the creatures be repaid, the truths of the meanings expressed by the words of the book of the universe be seen, the fruits of potentialities be yielded, a supreme court be established, and the veil of natural causes be removed so that everything is submitted directly to the Divine Will and Power. On that day, the Majestic Creator will destroy the universe to eternalize it, and He will separate the opposites from each other. This separation will result in the appearance of Hell with all its awfulness, and of Paradise with all its beauty and splendor; the people of Hell will be threatened with the words, Now keep yourselves apart, you sinners, upon this day, whilst the People of Paradise will be welcomed with the words, Peace be upon you! Well you have fared; enter in, to dwell forever.

The Eternal All-Wise will give, through His perfect Power, an everlasting, unchanging existence to the inhabitants of both of these dwelling-places. They will never grow old, nor will their bodies suffer any disintegration or decomposition because there will be nothing to cause any changes leading to disintegration.

 

This article has been adapted from Risale- i Nur Collection.