According  to  narrations,  some  relying  on  witnessing  and  some on  ‘absolute certainty’,  mankind’s  most eminent  individuals,  the one  hundred  and  twenty-four thousand prophets,3  have unanimously given news of the existence of the hereafter, and that men will be sent there and the universe’s Creator will  bring  it  about  in  accordance  with  His  certain  promise.  Similarly,  affirming through  illumination  and  witnessing  in  the  form  of  ‘certainty  at  the  degree  of knowledge’ the  reports of the prophets, the one hundred  and twenty-four million saints have testified to the hereafter’s existence. And through the manifestations they display in this world, all the names of the universe’s All-Wise Maker self-evidently necessitate  an  everlasting  realm.  So  too  the  infinite  pre-eternal  power  and  the boundless eternal wisdom which allowing nothing to  be vain and purposeless ever y year in the spring, raise to life with the command of “‘Be!’ and it is”(36:83, etc.) the incalculable corpses of the dead trees on the face of the earth, making them manifest life after death, and revivify three hundred thousand species of plants and animals as thousands of samples of the resurrection of the dead. These observedly necessitate the existence of the hereafter, as does the eternal mercy and perpetual favour which with perfect  compassion and in wondrous fashion provide the livelihoods of all living beings  needy for sustenance and in a brief time in spring display their uncountable sorts of adornment and decoration; they too necessitate the existence of the hereafter. Together with man, the most perfect fruit of the universe and its Creator’s most loved creature, who  of all  beings  is the most closely concerned with  the beings  in the universe, and the clear indications and certain evidence of his intense, unshakeable, constant desire for immortality  and his hopes which extend to eternity – all these prove so decisively that after this  transient  world there will be an eternal world, a realm of the hereafter and everlasting  happiness that they self-evidently necessitate acceptance of the hereafter’s existence.4

Since the most important thing the All-Wise Qur’an teaches us is belief in the hereafter, and since this belief is thus powerful and it yields such hope and solace that if  a  person  was  overwhelmed  by  old  age  a  hundred  thousand  times  over,  the consolation arising from this belief would be sufficient to face it; for sure we elderly people should love our old age and say: “All praise be to God for perfect belief!”

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4   The ease of reporting a definite matter and the difficulty in denying it may be seen in the following comparison: if one person says: “There is a wondrous garden on earth whose trees produce fruits which are cans of milk,” and another says: “There isn’t,” the one claiming it only has to point out where it is or some of its fruits in order to easily prove it. Whereas the one denying can only prove his denial by seeing and showing the whole face of the earth. In just the same way, even if one disregards the hundreds of thousands of signs, fruits, and marks of Paradise which those who give news of it have indicated, the testimony of two truthful witnesses to its certain existence is sufficient; while the one

who denies it can only prove his denial after observing the infinite universe and infinite, unending time, and seeing it and investigating it exhaustively; only then can he demonstrate its non-existence. And so, my elderly brothers, you may understand just how powerful is belief in the hereafter.