Principles of Faith (Usul al-Din)

The Return (Ma’ad)

The faith in the Return is based on logical and textual proofs.

Logical Proofs

First Proof

Every sane person perceives that the learned and the ignorant, the moral and the immoral, the good in words and actions, and the evil in them, are not alike. To treat these two groups equally is injustice and nonsensical. Moreover, it is favouring the least deserving without any logic.

We see that the doers of good as well as the doers of evil do not attain their return in this world like they deserve. Justice and wisdom necessitate that raising, reckoning, reward and punishment must exist

so that every soul may be rewarded for what it has earned.[^1]

Since people do not get the recompense of their actions in this world, their actions demand a reward. Therefore, if there was no other world where reckoning would take place and appropriate reward or punishment would be given to the people based on their beliefs and their deeds, then that would be injustice.

The Justice of Allah, the Exalted, demands the existence of raising, reckoning, reward and punishment.

Shall We treat those who believe and do good like the mischief-makers in the earth? Or shall We make those who guard (against evil) like the wicked?[^2]

On that day men shall come forth in sundry bodies that they may be shown their works. So, he who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it and he who has done an atom's weight of evil shall see it.[^3]

Second Proof

Indeed, Allah, the Exalted, is All-Wise. Therefore, foolishness and nonsense do not occur from Him. He did not limit the human creation by giving them only the powers of the plants and the animals, like attraction, repulsion, desire and anger. Rather, He gave them other powers to evolve and accomplish knowledgeable and practical qualities with which they can attain higher levels. Thus, they would not stop at any level. In fact, each time they accomplish something, they would feel the thirst for that which is higher. Allah sent the Prophets (as) for guidance to perfection, which humanity would be seeking due to their nature that they will not stop at any limit until they reach what the Glorified has described:

And that to your Lord is the goal.[^4]

Hence, if the human beings were created only for animalistic life, then His bestowing of intellect would be futile, for it is not content except with perceiving the secrets of existence. His creating them on nature would be ineffective, for it is not satisfied with any perfection except by reaching the Beginning of the perfection that does not have any limit.

Therefore, Godly wisdom requires that the human life should not be a materialistic and animalistic one. Rather, human beings should accomplish and reach the goal for which they were given intellectual and spiritual powers.

What! Did you then think that We had created you in vain and that you shall not be returned to Us?[^5]

Third Proof

Indeed, human nature ordains that every deserving person should be given what he deserves and that every oppressed must seize the oppressor. Despite the difference in their faiths, thinking and what they worshipped, nature drove human beings in all eras to form justice systems and courts for the implementation of justice.

We see that many oppressors and criminals die without punishment and we see the oppressed dying under the scourge of the oppressors and the conflagration of their suppression. Thus, the Wisdom of Allah, the Exalted, His Justice, Might and Mercy demand that there be another life where the oppressors take what they deserve from the oppressors.

And do not think Allah to be heedless of what the unjust do; He only respites them to a day on which the eyes shall be fixedly open.[^6]

Fourth Proof

The Wisdom of Allah, the Exalted, facilitates a means for human beings to accomplish the objective of their existence and the aim of their creation, and this cannot occur without the command of Allah to do that which necessitates privilege and to stop them from that which results in adversity.

Implementation of divine dos and don’ts against human desires is not possible without the presence of two factors: fear and hope. These two are not achieved except by the giving of glad tidings and warning. Giving of glad tidings and warning necessitate the existence of reward and punishment, and Paradise and Hell after this world. Otherwise, the giving of glad tidings and warning would be false. Allah, the Exalted, is higher than lying and evil.

Textual Proofs

The divine religions all agree on the existence of the Return and the life Hereafter. All Prophets (as) have informed about the Return, and the followers of the Divine religions have given credence to them. The infallibility and protection of the revelation from mistake requires the belief in the Return.

As for the rejecters of the Return and Resurrection, in opposition of the Prophets (as), they do not have any proof for its nonexistence apart from unlikelihood. They believe it is unlikely that Allah will give life to bones when they have become powder, and bring together the parts of the human being after his death and perishing, and raise them again.

They have ignored, or they pretend to ignore, that the living things were created from different things of dead material. The Omniscient, the All-Wise and the Omnipotent, Who created them the first time and composed them from different dead parts that accept life, and shaped them into human form without any prior example, has the power to repeat the creation a second time from the same parts, wherever they may be and whatever they may have become.

Because wherever and however the parts of the body may be, they are not outside of Allah’s knowledge and omnipotence, with which He created the human beings without prior example. In fact, the second creation is easier than the first one:

They say: What! When we are dead and become dust and bones, shall we then be raised?[^7] Is not He Who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like of them? Yea! And He is the Creator (of all), the Knower.[^8]

Indeed, the One who has the power to make fire from the green tree and has the power to give life to the earth in every spring after its death in every autumn, surely has the power to give life to the dead:

He Who has made for you the fire (to burn) from the green tree, so that with it you kindle (fire).[^9]

Know that Allah gives life to the earth after its death; indeed, We have made the communications clear to you that you may understand.[^10]

Verily the Omnipotent, Who extinguishes the torch of human perception, knowledge and will every night and gives it death by taking away his power and will, and then wakes him up and returns to him what He had taken away, is certainly All-Powerful to give him light, life and raise him again to be a complete human after giving him death. He has the power to return to him the information which he lost:

You will surely die like you go to sleep and you will certainly be raised like you wake up.[^11]

Glory be to Him, Who made the sleep an awakening to understand the Return and the Beginning, Whom the slumber takes Him not and nor sleep:

And one of His signs is your sleeping and your seeking of His grace by night and (by) day.[^12]

[^1]: Holy Qur’an, 45: 22.

[^2]: Holy Qur’an, 38: 28.

[^3]: Holy Qur’an, 99: 6-8.

[^4]: Holy Qur’an, 53: 42.

[^5]: Holy Qur’an, 23: 115.

[^6]: Holy Qur’an, 14: 42.

[^7]: Holy Qur’an, 23: 82.

[^8]: Holy Qur’an, 36: 81.

[^9]: Holy Qur’an, 36: 80.

[^10]: Holy Qur’an, 57: 17.

[^11]: Rawdat al-Wa’izin: pp 53; Al-I’tiqadat by Saduq: pp 64.

[^12]: Holy Qur’an, 30: 23.