Your knowledge, which embraces all things, and Your wisdom, which comprehends all things; while by their all being made so beautiful and fine as to be miracles of art and wonders of wisdom, they indicate in innumerable ways the utterly perfect beauty of Your dominical art, which You greatly love and want to exhibit; and through all of them, and particularly their young, being nourished in the finest way, with their wishes and desires being satisfied, to the sweet beauty of Your grace.

O Most Merciful and Compassionate! O One Most True to His Promise! Owner of the Day of Judgement!

Through the instruction of Your Noble Messenger (Peace and blessings be upon him) and the guidance of the All-Wise Qur’an I have understood that since the choicest result of the universe is life, and the choicest essence of life is spirit, and the choicest of beings with spirits are intelligent beings, and of intelligent beings the one with the most comprehensive nature is man; and since all the universe is subjugated to life and works for life, and living beings are subjugated to beings with spirits and they are sent to this world for them, and beings with spirits are subjugated to man and they assist him; and since by nature men earnestly love their Creator and their Creator both loves them, and by every means makes them love Him; and since man’s innate capacity and spiritual faculties look to another, permanent world and everlasting life, and his heart and intelligence desire eternity with all their strength, and his tongue beseeches his Creator for eternity with endless prayers; He surely would not offend men, who love Him greatly and are loved, by causing them to die then not raising them again to life, and while He created them for an eternal love, to make them feel eternal hostility; to do that would not be possible. Men were sent to work in this world in order to live happily in another, eternal world, and to win that life. The Names manifested on man in this brief and fleeting life indicate that men, who will be their mirrors in the eternal realm, will receive their eternal manifestations.

Yes, the true friend of the Eternal One should be eternal, and the conscious mirror of the Enduring One should be enduring.

It is understood from sound narrations that the spirits of animals will live eternally, and that certain individual animals, like the Hudhud of Solomon (PUH) and his ants, Salih’s (PUH) she-