Fourth Point: It is related to the Day of Judgement and Gathering Place.

FOURTH POINT

In your first question, you ask five or six questions: “What will the Great Gathering at the Last Judgement be like, and will everyone be naked? How shall we find our friends there, and how shall we find Allah’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) in order to avail ourselves of his intercession? How shall innumerable people meet with a single person? What shall the garments of the people of Paradise and those of Hell be like? And who will show us the way?”

T h e A n s w e r : The answers to these questions are given most clearly and explicitly in the books of Hadith. Here we shall mention only one or two points connected with our way and method. As follows:

Firstly: It is explained in a letter that the field of the resurrection is within the earth’s annual orbit, and like it now sends its immaterial produce to the tablets of that field, so with its annual rotation it defines a circle, and through the produce of that existent circle, is a source for the formation of the field of the resurrection. The Lesser Hell at the centre of this dominical ship known as the earth will be emptied into the Greater Hell, as its inhabitants will be emptied into the field of the resurrection.

Secondly: Chiefly in the Tenth and Twenty-Ninth Words, and in others of the Words, the occurrence of the resurrection, as well as the existence of the field where it will take place, have been proved most decisively.

Thirdly: As for meeting with people, it is proved conclusively in the Sixteenth, Thirty-First, and Thirty-Second Words that through the mystery of luminosity, a person may be present in thousands of places at the same instant, and may meet with millions of people.

Fourthly: It is required by the Name of All-Wise that stripped of artificial clothes, Almighty Allah will clothe men in natural garments at the Great Gathering and resurrection of the dead, just as He now clothes beings with spirits, other than man, in natural garments. In this world, the wisdom in artificial clothes is not restricted to protection against heat and cold, adornment, and covering the private parts; another important instance of wisdom is their being like an index or list indicating man’s power of disposal over the other species of beings, and his relationship with them, and commandership over them. He might otherwise have been clothed in cheap and easy natural dress. For if it had not been for this wisdom, man would have draped himself in various rags, becoming a laughing-stock in the view of conscious animals and in relation to them; he would have make them laugh. At the resurrection of the dead this relation will not be present, nor will the instance of wisdom, so neither should the list be present.

Fifthly: When it comes to someone to show the way, for those like yourself who have entered under the light of the Qur’an, it is the Qur’an. Look at the start of the Suras which begin Alif. Lam. Mim., and Alif. Lam. Ra., and Ha. Mim.; you will see and understand how acceptable an intercessor is the Qur’an, how true a guide, how sacred a light!

Sixthly: As for the garments of the people of Paradise and the people of Hell, the principle in the Twenty-Eighth Word explaining the houris’ wearing of seventy dresses is applicable here too. It is as follows:

A person from among the people of Paradise will of course want to benefit continuously from all the varieties of beings in Paradise. The good things of Paradise will vary greatly. He will all the time communicate with every sort of being in Paradise. In which case, he will clothe himself and his houris in samples, in small amount, of the good things of Paradise, and they will each become like small Paradises.

For example, a person collects together in his garden samples of all the species of flowers spread throughout the country, making it a miniature specimen of it; and a shopkeeper collects samples of all his wares in a list; and a man makes for himself a garment and everything necessary for his house from samples of all the species of creatures in the world, which he governs, has disposal over, and with which he is connected.

Similarly, a person whose place is Paradise -especially if he used all his senses and non-physical faculties in worship and has gained the right to experience the pleasures of Paradise- will himself and his houris be clothed by Divine mercy in a sort of garment which will show every one of all the varieties of the wonders of Paradise, so as to gratify all his senses, please all his members, and delight all his subtle faculties.

Evidence that those numerous garments will not all be of the same kind or sort is the Hadith the meaning of which is: “The houris will be dressed in seventy garments, yet the marrow in their leg bones will still be visible.”1 That is to say, from the top garment to the innermost one, there will be degrees gratifying and delighting all the senses and members with different subtle wonders in different ways.

As for the people of Hell, since they committed sins in this world with their eyes, their ears, their hearts, their hands, and their minds, and so on, it does not appear to be contrary to wisdom and justice that in Hell they will be made to wear a garment made up of various differing pieces that will be like a small Hell, and will cause them torment and pain in accordance with their sins.

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1. Bukhari, Bad’ al-Khalq 8; Tirmidhi, Qiyama 60; Janna 5; Darimi, Riqaq 108; Musnad ii, 345; iii, 16.