Tag: resurrection of the dead

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For if the Creator has given the spirit existence… And if the Creator wills its permanence… Then what power could compel it to perish? – 29th WORD 4th SOURCE

This text and video are based on an excerpt from The Twenty-Ninth Word in the Risale-i Nur Collection and explore the immortality (eternity) of the human spirit and its relationship with the World of Divine Command (Ālam al-Amr).

The main ideas and key points of the text are as follows:

The Nature and Origin of the Spirit: As expressed in Verse 85 of Surah Al-Isra (“Say: The spirit is of the command of my Lord”), the spirit originates from the World of Divine Command and the Divine Will. It is a living and conscious law to which Eternal Power has bestowed an external, tangible existence.

A Comparison with the Laws of Nature: The laws governing nature, which seemingly possess no independent external existence, also originate from the World of Divine Command. For example, when a fig tree dies, the law governing its formation remains preserved in its seed. These unconscious laws endure without corruption or alteration, even when the physical structures they govern disintegrate.

The Spirit’s Attainment of Eternity: If even the weakest and unconscious laws of Divine Command can preserve their existence and continuity, then it is all the more certain and necessary that the human spirit—which is stronger, more exalted, living, and conscious—should attain eternity.

THE TWENTY-NINTH WORD

SECOND AIM

FIRST FUNDAMENTAL POINT

FOURTH SOURCE

Look closely at the laws that govern life.

They are everywhere.

Silent.
Constant.
And remarkably enduring.

They shape the living world.
They guide the development of countless forms.
And they preserve the essential patterns of creation.

In a certain sense, these laws resemble the human spirit.

They originate from the World of Divine Command and Will.

Their nature is suited to the spirit.
Yet they lack one thing.

A visible, external existence.

Imagine, for a moment, that these laws were given such an existence.

What would happen?

Each law would become, in effect, the spirit of a species.

And here we discover something remarkable.

These laws endure.

They remain constant.
They preserve their unity.
They are not destroyed by change or transformation.

Consider a fig tree.

One day, the tree may wither.
Its branches may fall.
Its physical form may disappear.

Yet something remains.

The law of its formation continues within its tiny seeds.

The tree itself may be gone.

But the principle that shapes it lives on.

It has not perished.

Now consider what this means.

Even simple and seemingly insignificant laws can possess such continuity.

Even laws without consciousness can endure beyond the forms they govern.

Then what of the human spirit?

Could it be destined for something less?

Something that merely continues?

Or does its nature point toward a far greater reality?

The Qur’an offers a profound insight.

It declares:

“Say: The Spirit is of the command of my Sustainer.”

Qur’an, 17:85.

The spirit, then, is not merely a product of physical matter.

It belongs to a different order of existence.

It is a living and conscious law.

It comes from the World of Divine Command.

And through the power of the Eternal Creator, it has been given an external existence.

Here, the argument takes a deeper turn.

If unconscious laws, proceeding from Divine Will, can endure through change…

Then surely the human spirit has an even stronger claim to permanence.

For it shares their origin.

It emerges from the same World of Command.

And it is connected to the same Divine Will.

But the spirit possesses qualities that these laws do not.

It has a real, external existence.

It is conscious.

And it is alive.

Think about that for a moment.

A law may preserve a pattern.

But the human spirit possesses awareness.

A law may continue without knowing that it exists.

But the spirit experiences life.

It knows.
It perceives.
It reflects.

And this gives the human spirit a special place among the realities of creation.

If even unconscious laws can endure…

Then the conscious human spirit has an even greater reason to be connected with permanence.

Not merely survival.

Not merely continuation.

But a destiny that reaches beyond the limits of this world.

And perhaps this is the essential point.

The human spirit is not simply something that exists for a moment and then disappears.

Its origin points beyond the temporary.

Its nature suggests continuity.

And its consciousness opens the door to a deeper understanding of eternity.

For if the Creator has given the spirit existence…

And if the Creator wills its permanence…

Then what power could compel it to perish?

The question is no longer simply whether the human spirit can endure.

The deeper question is this:

Why should a spirit, created with such a nature, be destined for extinction?

Perhaps the signs of eternity are already written into the very nature of our existence.

We need only learn how to see them.

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THE TWENTY-NINTH WORD
…


SECOND AIM
…


FIRST FUNDAMENTAL POINT
…

FOURTH SOURCE: 

Consider the laws that govern in species, for they resemble the spirit to a degree: since they issue from the World of the Divine Command and Will, by virtue of their source, they are to some extent appropriate for the spirit and only lack a perceptible existence. Study them and it will be seen that if those commanding laws were clothed in external existence, each of them would become the spirit of a species. Moreover, the laws are always permanent; they are perpetual and constant. No change or transformation affects their unity, or spoils them.
   For example, should a fig tree die and be dispersed, the law of its formation, which is like its spirit, will persist in its tiny seeds; it will not die. Therefore, since even commonplace and weak commanding laws are thus connected to permanence and continuance, the human spirit must be connected not only with permanence and immortality, but with all eternity. For according to the Qur’an’s glorious decree of:
   Say: The Spirit (comes) by command of my Sustainer, (17:85)
spirit too is a conscious and living law which proceeds from the World of the Divine Command and which pre-eternal power has clothed with external existence. That is to say, just as the unconscious laws which proceed from the divine attribute of will and the World of the Divine Command are always, or mostly, enduring, so it is even more definite that the spirit, which is a sort of brother to them, and like them is a manifestation of the attribute of will and comes from the World of the Command, manifests immortality. It is also more worthy of it, because it is existent, it has an external reality. And it is more potent, more elevated, because it possesses consciousness. It is also more enduring than them, and more valuable, because it is living.

SOURCES
Risale-i Nur Okuma Programı 2.1.0, Words[2021] – 551, 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://www.erisale.com/tr/sozler/yirmidokuzuncu-soz-ikinci-maksad#4222

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Think of the New World. America. We may never have seen it with our own eyes. Yet we do not doubt that it exists. – 29th WORD – Bediüzzaman Said Nursi

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://www.erisale.com/en/words/the-twenty-ninth-word-second-aim#4218

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