Tenth truth: The gate of Wisdom, Grace, Mercy, and Justice, the manifestation of the Names the All-Wise, Munificent, Just, and Merciful. The Majestic Owner of all existence displays such manifest wisdom, pervasive grace, overwhelming justice, and comprehensive mercy in this impermanent world, transitory testing ground, and unstable display hall of Earth. Is it conceivable that among His realms, in the worlds of existence’s outer and inner dimensions, that there would be no permanent abodes with immortal inhabitants residing in everlasting stations? Is it conceivable that even if they did not exist, that all the truths of wisdom, grace, mercy, and justice that we witness should decline into nothingness?

Would the All-Wise choose us to receive His direct and universal address; make us a comprehensive mirror to Himself; let us taste, measure, and get to know the contents of His treasuries of Mercy; make Himself known to us with all His Names; love us and make Himself beloved by us—and then not send us to an eternal realm, an abode of permanent bliss, and make us happy therein? Would He lay on every being, even a seed, a burden as heavy as a tree, charge it with duties as numerous as flowers, and appoint to it beneficial consequences as numerous as fruits, while assigning to them purposes that are relevant only here?

Why would He restrict His purpose to this worldly life, something less valuable than a grain of a mustard seed? Would it not be more reasonable for Him to make beings in this world as seeds for the immaterial world of meanings and essences, where the true meanings of everything here will be manifested, and as a tillage for the Hereafter, where they will yield their true and worthy produce? Would He really allow such significant alterations (as we witness) to be purposeless, void, and futile? Why would He not turn their faces toward the Immaterial World of Meanings and Essences (where true meanings lie) and the Hereafter, so that they might reveal their true purposes and fitting results there?

If He were to cause things to contradict their own nature, how could He allow His own truthful Names—All-Wise, Munificent, Just and Merciful—to be characterized by their opposites? How could He deny the true essences of all beings that indicate His Wisdom, Munificence, Justice, and Mercy, and yet rebut all things’ testimony and negate the indications made by them? Can reason support the conjecture that God would impose innumerable duties upon us and our senses, and then give us only a worldly reward worth less than a hair, or that He could act absurdly and thereby contradict His true Justice and true Wisdom?

God shows Himself to be absolutely All-Wise in attaching infinite purposes and benefits to every living being (or to each of its members) and creature. Given this, would He not bestow the greatest purpose, the most significant beneficial result, the most necessary effects upon us? All of these make His Wisdom, blessings, and Mercy into what they are, and are the origin and goal of all those purposes, blessings, imprints of Mercy and beneficial results—namely, eternality, meeting with Him in the Hereafter, and everlasting bliss. If He abandoned these, all of His acts would be pointlessness. He would be like a builder who built a palace consisting of stones bearing thousands of designs, corners holding thousands of adornments, and parts providing thousands of valuable tools and instruments—but forgot to cover it with a roof, so that everything therein rotted and became useless. Just as goodness comes from Absolute Goodness, and beauty comes from Absolute Beauty, a wise purpose must come from Absolute Wisdom.

Whoever studies history sees countless dead stages, places, exhibitions, and worlds, each of which is like this present world. Although different from each other in form and quality, they resemble each other in their perfect arrangement, exquisiteness, and how they display the Maker’s Power and Wisdom. In those impermanent halting-places, transient arenas, and fleeting places of exhibition, we see only well-arranged works of manifest wisdom, signs of evident favoring, indications of overwhelming justice, and fruits of comprehensive mercy. Those with any perception understand that there cannot be a more perfect wisdom, gracious favoring, glorious justice, or comprehensive mercy.

Consider this: If there were no permanent abodes, elevated places, everlasting residences, eternal mansions, and no eternal residents (God’s blissful servants) in the Eternal Sovereign’s realm, Who does all those things and continuously changes those hostelries and their guests, we would have to reject the true essences of Wisdom, Justice, Favoring, and Mercy. However, these four spiritual elements are as powerful and pervasive as light, air, water, and soil. Their existence, as clear as these visible elements, cannot be denied. This fleeting world and its contents cannot manifest their true essences fully. Therefore, if there were no other place wherein they could be manifested fully, we would have to deny the wisdom apparent in what we see, the favoring we observe manifested on us and all other things, the justice indicated by its signs that appear so effectively, and the mercy we witness everywhere.[1]

We also would have to regard God as a foolish trickster and a pitiless tyrant, even though He is the source of all wise processes, munificent deeds, and merciful gifts that we see in the universe. Can such a reversal of the truth even be considered reasonable? Even Sophists who deny the existence of everything, including their own selves, would not readily contemplate such a proposition.

In short, the world’s universal fusions of life and swift separations of death, imposing gatherings and rapid dispersions, splendid parades, performances, ceremonies, and mighty manifestations are irreconcilable with their negligible results and insignificant, temporary purposes in this fleeting world. [If there were no Hereafter], this would mean giving a great mountain a purpose as insignificant as a small stone. This is utterly unreasonable and pointless.

Such a large disparity between beings and those affairs on the one hand, and the purposes they serve in this world on the other, testifies that they basically work on behalf of the Immaterial World of Meanings, where their true meanings will be manifested fully. They send the fruits appropriate for them to that other world, and fix their eyes on the Sacred Divine Names. Implanted in this world’s soil, they flourish in the World of Symbols or Immaterial, Essential Forms.

According to our capacity, we sow and are sown here to harvest in the Hereafter. If you look at the aspects of things pertaining to the Divine Names and the Hereafter, you will see that each seed (a miracle of Power) has aims as vast as a tree, that each blossom (a word of Divine Wisdom) has as many meanings as a tree’s blossoms.[2]·Each fruit, a marvel of Divine art and a composition of Divine Mercy, has as many purposes as a tree’s fruits. Serving us as foods is only one of its countless purposes.

After it fulfills that service and expresses its meaning, it dies and is “buried” in our stomachs. These transient things yield everlasting fruits in another place, where they leave permanent forms of themselves, express eternal meanings of different aspects, and constantly glorify God. We can attain true humanity by approaching things from these aspects and thereby find a way to eternity through this ephemeral world. Since this is true, all these creatures that move between life and death, that are first integrated and gathered together and then dispersed and dissolved, must serve some other purposes.

This state of affairs resembles arrangements made for imitation and representation. Brief gatherings and dispersions are arranged, at great expense, so that pictures can be taken and shown later. One reason for our brief individual and social lives is so that pictures may be taken and the results of our deeds recorded and preserved. They then will be judged in a vast place of gathering and shown in a great place of exhibition, so that all may understand that they have the potential to yield supreme happiness. The Prophet expressed this: “This world is the tillage for the Hereafter.”

[1] There are two forms of justice, one affirmative and the other negative. The affirmative one consists in giving the right to the one who deserves it. [Except for the injustices we commit in the realm where our free wills have a part], this form of justice is clearly observed throughout the world. For, as discussed in the Third Truth, the Majestic Originator gives in definite measures and according to definite criteria everything that is asked for in the tongues of natural need and absolute necessity. In other words, He meets all the requirements of its life and existence. Therefore, this form of justice is as certain as existence and life.
The negative form of justice involves punishing the unjust, and so giving the wrong-doers their due via requital and chastisement. Even though this form is not manifested fully here, countless signs suggest its existence. For example, the blows of chastisement striking the rebellious ‘Ad and Thamud peoples in the past to those of the present age show that a very exalted justice dominates the world.

[2] I choose examples chiefly among seeds, flowers, and fruits because they are the most marvelous and delicate miracles of Divine Power. Despite this, since misguided naturalists and scientists cannot “read” the subtle designs inscribed in them by the Pen of the Divine Destiny and Power, they have drowned in them and fallen into the swamp of naturalism.