general mercifulness makes known His dominicality, should deny all His wisdom and mercy, and even His dominicality and perfection, by not bringing about the resurrection, which is as easy for His power as the spring? Is it at all possible that he should not open up an abode of happiness and everlasting realm, and make His wisdom and mercy, dominicality and perfection denied, and condemn to eternal annihilation all His beloved creatures whom He loves? God forbid, a hundred thousand times! That Absolutely Beauteous One is utterly exempt from such an absolute abomination.

A Lengthy Note

A question related to the resurrection of the dead:

The frequently repeated verse,

It will be naught but a single cry,17

and the verse,

The command of the Hour will be like the glance of the eye,18

show that the resurrection of the dead and Great Gathering will occur instantaneously, in a flash. But man’s narrow reason requires some tangible example so that it can conceive of this wondrous, extraordinary, and unparalleled event, and accept it.

T h e A n s w e r : At the resurrection there will be the return of spirits to their bodies, the revivification of the bodies, and the remaking of the bodies. It consists of three matters.

THE FIRST MATTER: An example for the return of spirits to their bodies is the mustering, at a loud bugle call, of the members of a disciplined army after they have dispersed to rest. Yes, the Sur of the Angel Israfil is no less powerful than an army bugle. The spirits, too, who while in post-eternity, reply with “Yes, we accept” to the question “Am I not your Sustainer?”,19 which comes from pre-eternity, are infinitely more subjugated, disciplined,