The Eternity of the Human Spirit and Why God Will Not Destroy It
The presented text and video explain the immortality of the human spirit and its existence after death through rational and philosophical arguments.
The author argues that, because the spirit is simple and indivisible in its nature, it cannot be fragmented or destroyed. Therefore, unlike the physical body, the spirit possesses an inherent nature suited to eternity.
Using a logical deductive approach, the text emphasizes that the continued existence of a single spirit points to a universal principle applicable to all humanity, and that the connection between us and the spiritual realms is not severed.
It is also stated that the Creator’s infinite mercy would not abandon the human spirit—the being most in need of the blessing of existence—to non-existence.
As part of the Risale-i Nur Collection, this work presents death not as an end, but as a doorway through which the spirit passes on its way back to its original homeland.
Gemini Notebook
THE TWENTY-NINTH WORD
The Immortality of Man’s Spirit
The Angels, and the Resurrection of the Dead
SECOND AIM
FIRST FUNDAMENTAL POINT
SECOND SOURCE
There is another way to understand this.
It is objective.
It is based on observation.
On experience.
And on events repeated throughout human history.
Consider this.
If even one spirit continues to exist after death…
then the existence of spirits as a whole cannot simply be dismissed.
Why?
Because when a quality belongs to something by its very nature…
that quality is not limited to one individual.
It belongs to the whole category.
If immortality belongs to one human spirit…
then the possibility of immortality belongs to human spirits themselves.
And there is something more.
The evidence is not based on a single observation.
It is not based on one story.
Or one unusual event.
There are countless indications.
Countless experiences.
Countless signs pointing toward the continued existence of the spirit.
So many…
that denying them entirely becomes difficult to justify.
Think of the New World.
America.
We may never have seen it with our own eyes.
Yet we do not doubt that it exists.
And we do not doubt that human beings live there.
Why?
Because the evidence is overwhelming.
In much the same way…
there is reason to believe that the spirits of those who have died…
continue to exist.
They belong to another dimension of existence.
A world beyond what our eyes can see.
A spiritual realm.
And perhaps…
there is still a relationship between that world and ours.
Our immaterial gifts may reach them.
And their luminous influences may reach us.
There is another sign.
One that does not come from the outside.
It comes from within.
Deep within the human conscience…
there is an intuitive certainty.
Something essential in a human being continues after death.
That essential reality…
is the spirit.
The body changes.
The body grows old.
The body eventually returns to the earth.
But the spirit is different.
It is not something that can simply be broken apart.
Or dissolved.
Or decomposed.
Why?
Because the spirit is simple.
It is not a compound structure.
It possesses unity.
And destruction through decomposition belongs to things made of parts.
Things that can be separated.
Things that can be broken down.
But the spirit is not like that.
Life itself gives us a glimpse of this mystery.
Within the countless changes of the body…
there remains a unity.
A continuity.
A sense of permanence.
The body changes.
Yet the person remains.
The years pass.
Yet something remains constant.
That something belongs to the spirit.
Unity belongs to the spirit.
And permanence flows from that unity.
So how could the spirit become mortal?
There would seem to be only two possibilities.
Either the spirit could be destroyed.
Or it could simply cease to exist.
But destruction and dissolution have no proper place in something that possesses such unity and simplicity.
The spirit cannot be decomposed like a physical substance.
And annihilation presents another problem.
For the Creator is described as the Absolutely Generous One.
His mercy is limitless.
His generosity is without end.
Would such boundless generosity…
give the human spirit the gift of existence…
only to take that gift away completely?
The human spirit longs for existence.
It desires permanence.
It reaches toward eternity.
And it possesses a nature suited to that desire.
So the question remains.
Why would the One who gave existence…
take it back through absolute annihilation?
Perhaps the deeper lesson is this.
The human spirit is not merely a temporary visitor in existence.
It carries within itself…
a longing for permanence.
A longing that points beyond the limits of the body.
And beyond the limits of this world.
The body has a beginning.
The body has an end.
But the spirit…
may belong to a different order of existence.
An order where death is not the final word.
And where existence…
does not simply disappear.
It continues.
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Original text
THE TWENTY-NINTH WORD
The Immortality of Man’s Spirit
The Angels, and the Resurrection of the Dead
…
SECOND AIM
…
FIRST FUNDAMENTAL POINT
…
SECOND SOURCE:
This is objective. That is to say, it is a sort of empirical judgement which has been formed through repeated observations and numerous occurrences of events. Indeed, when it is understood that a single spirit continues to exist after death, this necessitates the continued existence of all spirits as a category of being. For according to the science of logic it is certain that if an intrinsic quality is observed in a single individual, the existence of that quality may be assumed in all individuals. Because it is intrinsic. If it is intrinsic, it will be present in each individual. Whereas the indications based on not one observation but on observations beyond calculation and count and the signs pointing to the immortality of spirits, are so definite that we can in no way doubt their existence. Just as for us there is a place called the New World, that is, America, and we cannot doubt that human beings are found there. In the same way, it is unacceptable to doubt that the spirits of the dead are now present in great numbers in the World of the Inner Dimension of Things and in the Spirit World, and that they have relations with us. Our immaterial gifts go to them and their luminous emanations come to us.
Moreover, one may perceive intuitively and certainly with one’s conscience that a fundamental aspect of man continues after his death. And that fundamental aspect is spirit. As for spirit, it is not subject to destruction and dissolution. This is because it is simple and uncompounded, it has unity. As for destruction, dissolution, and decomposition, they are the function of complex and compound substances. As we explained above, life ensures a form of unity within multiplicity; it causes a sort of permanence. That is to say, unity and permanence are fundamental to spirit, from which they spread to multiplicity.
The mortality of man’s spirit would occur either through destruction and dissolution, whereas unity provides no opportunity for these, and its simple nature disallows decomposition; or it would be through annihilation. But the limitless compassion of the Absolutely Generous One would not permit annihilation, and His boundless munificence would not allow that He should take back from the human spirit the bounty of existence which He has bestowed on it, which it ardently desires and of which it is worthy.
SOURCES
Risale-i Nur Okuma Programı 2.1.0, Words[2021] – 550, email: syesilova72@gmail.com
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Words – The Twenty-Ninth Word – About the Immortality of Man’s Spirit, the Angels, and the Resurrection of the Dead, The English translations of the Risale-i Nur Collection, translated by Şükran Vahide and published by Sözler Neşriyat, are an exact printed version of the original text. (erisale.com)
https://erisale.com/index.jsp?locale=en#content.en.201.536