Third Lecture
An Example Of The Day Of Resurrection within Our Souls

Since the issue of the afterlife and the great court of the Resurrection would seem strange for someone who has lived inside the prison in this world, God has established a small court inside each one of us which is called the court of conscience.

To explain in more detail: A person will be tried in many courts for the crimes he has done the first court is the usual courts in this world with all its shortcomings.

Although the very presence of such courts would lessen the number of crimes, they are based on such feeble foundations that nobody expects them to act in complete accordance with justice.

If wrong laws are enforced in a court, if judges are busy taking bribes and are subject to nepotism and partisan influences, then we could not expect justice to prevail in such a court.

Even if some courts might be presided over by pious judges, there are still those clever criminals who could escape punishment.

The second type of court, which functions better than the first one, is the court of the consequences of our own deeds. Our acts have consequences which affect us sooner or later.

We have seen many governments that were engaged in tyranny and engaged in all forms of injustice, but were soon caught up in the traps they had made for themselves. They collapsed as a result of their wrong actions, caught in the consequences of what they had done earlier.

Such a court has the shortcoming that it is neither public nor universal. Therefore, it could not make us feel that we do not need the court of the resurrection.

The third court, which is more elaborate than the preceding one is the court of the conscience. In the same way that the solar system, with its wonderful system can be observed in the tiny structure of an atom, we could claim that the court of our conscience is a tiny example of the court of the resurrection.

This is because there is a mysterious force inside our inner self which is called “practical wisdom” by the philosophers, “the reproaching soul” by the Holy Qur’¡n and “conscience” by others.

As soon as man does a good or bad act, this court starts to operate immediately and issues its verdicts in the form of mental punishments or mental rewards.

This court of conscience at times beats the wrongdoer inside with such a force that he or she would prefer death to this life. Such a person would write in his will “if I commit suicide it was because I wanted to get rid of the tortures of my conscience.”

This court of conscience at times encourages man for his good work to the extent that he becomes extremely delighted. He then feels at ease in his soul, and he could never find such a source of delight anywhere in the world.

Such a court has its own characteristics:

1. In this court, the judge, the witness, the officer to carry out the court’s verdict, and the audience are the same person. It is the force of conscience that acts as a witness, that judges and finally carries out the verdict.

2. Contrary to normal judicial procedures which would sometimes take years to complete, the trial here at this court is momentary; it does not take time. Occasionally some time is needed to remove the obscurities from the eyes of the beholder, however, as soon as the documents are in, the verdict will be issued.

3. The verdict of such a court does not require one to go to a court of appeal; it only has one stage.

4. This court will not only punish; it will also reward those who perform their duties. In such a court, both the good-doers and the wrongdoers are tried and receive rewards or punishment accordingly.

5. The punishment of such a court does not have anything in common with ordinary punishment in the sense that they do not require prisons, whips, or executions. However, at times they are so torturous for a person’s soul that no punishment could compare to it.

In sum, such a court does not resemble any worldly court; it rather resembles the court of the Resurrection. The greatness of the court of conscience is so tremendous that the Holy Qur’¡n swears by it, associating it with the court of the Resurrection:

لاَ أُقْسِمُ بِيَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ * وَلاَ أُقْسِمُ بِالنَّفْسِ اللَّوَّامَةِ * أَيَحْسَبُ الإِنسَانُ أَلَّن نَجْمَعَ عِظَامَهُ * بَلَى قَادِرِينَ عَلَى أَن نُّسَوِّيَ بَنَانَهُ.

Nay! I swear by the Day of Resurrection. Nay! I swear by the self-accusing self. Does man think that we shall not gather his bones? Yea! We are able to make complete his very fingertips. [Qur’¡n 75:1-4]

Naturally, such a court, due to its material nature, does not make us feel that we do not need the court of the Resurrection. This is because:

1. The sphere of human conscience is not all-inclusive; rather, it is based on one’s way of thinking.

2. At times, a treacherous man could deceive even his own conscience.

3. At times, the call of a wrongdoer’s conscience is so weak that he cannot hear it.

Here, the significance of the fourth court, i.e., the court of the Resurrection will become clear.

THINK AND ANSWER

Fourth Lecture
Resurrection with Respect to Innate Nature

It is said that theism resides deep inside man’s inner being or nature and if we study the unconscious and sub-conscious aspects of the mind, we will find an interest in a super-natural being who has created the universe.

But this is not true only of Monotheism and Theism. All the major and minor principles of religion should also reside within man’s soul or else the necessary coordination between divine legislation and creation would not occur.

If we examine our hearts and the very depths of our souls and inner being, we will definitely find our conscience telling us that life here does not end with death; rather, death is a window towards the land of eternity.

To uncover this truth, let us observe the following:

1. Love for Survival

If man was created for extinction, he should have been in love with extinction and loved death as the end of his life. However, we see that the face of death (in the sense of extinction) has never been tolerable to man: rather, he has been escaping from it with all his energy.

To chase after a longer life and to search for the elixir of life are signs of this truth. This very love for survival shows that we have been created to be eternal. This love would have been baseless if we had been created to die.

All the basic loves inside us are created to complete our beings; the love to survive is of the same sort.

Remember that we embark on the discussion of resurrection only after we have accepted the Being of God. We believe what He has put inside us has been placed there for a reason. For the same reason that our love of immortality has been given to us, however, this love would not exist without a belief in the other world.

2. Resurrection in History

The history of mankind attests to the fact that in the same way that religion has always existed even among ancient peoples, the belief of a life after death has always been in existence.

The evidence left behind by ancient peoples in pre-historic times, the way they constructed their graves and the way they buried their dead all indicate the fact that they had a firm belief in life after death.

This deeply rooted belief cannot be taken as an easy matter; neither could it be interpreted as simple habitual behavior.

When we observe a deep-rooted belief in a nation of the past, we should look for it in the innate disposition of the people of that nation. This is because it is only man’s nature which could stand against the passage of time, thought and social changes and remain intact; otherwise these customs, rites and indoctrinations would have been forgotten with the passage of time.

Wearing a special mode of dress is a habit; therefore, it changes with time, but a mother’s love towards her baby is an instinct, it is innate nature so it does not change with time, neither will it be forgotten or neglected. Any such force within the human soul has roots within the innate nature of man.

When a scientist says: “In depth research has shown that early man believed in a sort of religion because of the fact that they buried their dead under certain rules and put their vocational instruments beside them, this shows their belief in the existence of the other world,” [The Sociology of Kenning, P 192], we easily become convinced that these peoples had believed in life after death despite the fact that they erroneously assumed that that life resembled this one and that the same vocational instruments would be needed then.

3. The existence of man’s internal court, called conscience, is another way to prove that the concept of resurrection is innate to man.

As we have already discussed, all of us have this convincing feeling that there is a court inside our souls and minds which evaluates our acts, either punishing us for what wrongs we have done, or rewarding us for what good things, we have performed, making us so delighted in this way that we have no means to express it.

It has happened that some people who had committed capital crimes, such as murder, and had escaped, voluntarily submitted themselves to be tried and executed so that they could escape the pangs of conscience.

By observing this innate court, man could ask himself the following question: I am a small, tiny being with a court inside me, how is it therefore possible for the universe and the world of creation to lack such a court?

Therefore, we could prove that our belief in the resurrection and life after this one has its roots in our innate nature in three ways:

1. By way of our love for immortality;

2. By the existence of such a belief in the history of mankind;

3. And through the belief that there exists inside us a small example of the resurrection.

THINK AND ANSWER