A Clamor in Heaven

Lesson 20: The Prophet’s (S) Description of Heaven and Hell

---

What we get is a delightful immersion into tumultuous times: At the beginning of the 16th century in Catholic Poland, Teutonic knights rampaged, bishops intrigued, and Lutherans threatened. In addition to his official duties, however, he also observes the skies, charting the positions of the sun, moon and planets, and precisely refining the startling new heliocentric theory of the universe that he has been working on since his early 30s.

By age 65, Copernicus has completed much of the work on his theory, but, perhaps frightened of the likely consequences of publication, seems to have become resigned to keeping the details to himself. Rheticus stayed, helped Copernicus finish his treatise and, four years later, shepherded it through its first printing.

Clamor Of the Heavens (Percussion, Sing)

What did Rheticus say to convince the reluctant Copernicus to risk the ridicule and censure that the book surely would and did receive? Once again, no one knows.

But this moment in astronomical history is so clearly pivotal and dramatic that Sobel turns to dramatic fiction to help capture how it might have been. Even if setting the earth spinning was too much for some, his meticulous observations and tabulations of the positions of the planets were such an improvement over the year-old work of Ptolemy that had been, up until then, the standard, that no one who cared about the skies could afford to ignore him.

In a coda, Sobel directly traces the influence of Copernicus by describing inscriptions and annotations made by later astronomers in their copies of his treatise.

It is as a result of these very limitations in the perception and comprehension and activities of the brain of man that there is no option for explaining the attributes and qualities of the last world save that they are explicated in forms which are similar to what man perceives in the world, otherwise he will never at all comprehend those qualities.

For this reason, it is possible for those qualities to have occurred a million times for them to reflect and reproduce themselves in the realms of our worldly comprehension and understanding and be effective, otherwise if it is beyond the realm of our perception, it will not be effective in us because it is not perceptible and comprehensible. In this hadith too the Noble Prophet S has selected this same method in order to explain the greatness of heaven and hell. The Noble Prophet S explains a section of the punishments of hell to Abu Dharr stating that if an insignificant amount of it appears in the world, it will have very destructive and disastrous effects.

He also mentions an example from heavenly blessings which are unbearable for earthly man. This elucidation is intended at guiding us lovers of the world and its treasures so that as a result of comparing the world with the hereafter, we may perceive the minuteness and smallness of the world. Even if the last world with all its indescribable largeness and expansiveness is itself a specimen of the ayat s signs of Allah and all have acquired existence with one existential resolution [of Allah] but are themselves evidence of the majesty and power of the divine Essence.

If on that day man had works equal to the works of seventy prophets, he would count his works as few as a result of that which he sees. We do not even have works equivalent to the works of one believer, what with having the acts of adoration and works of the Noble Prophet S and what with performing good works equivalent to the worship of seventy prophets S. Even if, assuming impossibility, we had such aptitude and capacity as to perform works equivalent to the works of seventy prophets S , we would still not consider it equivalent to a minute particle on the Resurrection once we see the greatness and expansiveness of that Day.

For this reason, we always have to have hope in the grace and mercy of Allah and safeguard the outpour of His clemency by means of supplication and imploration and inward attention to His expansive mercy. We ought not to rely on our works, because they do not avail us anything. That water is very fetid and dirty as a result of sucking all the dirt and smell out of the washed items.

Download or Print

In reality, refuse is dirt and contamination which is a result of the filthy and ugly works of man and is so smelly, fetid and chocking that if a pail of it were poured in the eastern part of the cosmos, the brains of those dwelling on the western part of the world would boil. But in the Resurrection, the dwellers of the eternal infernal hell become so thirsty that they become compelled to drink boiling and hot water one pail of which if poured on the eastern part of the earth would boil and wipe out the brains of those dwelling on the western part of it.

The fire of hell and the punishment of the grave and the Resurrection are not comparable to the fire of earth and its punishment. The fire of the world is cold and docile and only burns the surface and is easier to endure than the fire of the eternal inferno but the fire of hell is pure and even conscious.

It is for this reason that no fire in the world burns the soul but the fire of hell burns and melts the heart and soul too in addition to the body. In continuation, the Noble Prophet S explains the intensity of the roaring and clamor of hell stating:. According to the aforementioned commentary, in the same way that man breathes in and out, hell too breathes in and out. By breathing out, the hell takes out the flames and burning heat which embraces all the dwellers of the inferno and by breathing in pulls the dwellers of hell back inside. I am Your friend Abraham. Forget me not and grant me redemption from this great and deadly event.

Why ought I not to be thus when the breaths of hell have been released today? Then, He ordered it to go down for a thousand years until it became white. Then after that too He ordered it to burn for a thousand years until the fire became black and that is the black and dark fire. Without the least doubt, heaven and its blessings are among the greatest creations of Allah and is allotted to people who traverse the path of servitude and obedience to Allah and by means of faith and good works have attained the highest human levels and in the end have got the capacity of ascending the spiritual realms [or celestial world]:.

The truth is that man prepares his heaven and its blessings by means of his righteous deeds and good works. If one of the women of paradise were to appear on a dark and unlit night, she would enlighten the world more than does the moon of the fourteenth night [of the lunar month] and the perfume which will arise from scattering her hair will reach the noses of every creature of the earth and if one of the clothes of the dwellers of the Garden of eternal bliss were spread in the world today, every person who would see that would become unconscious and the eyes of men would not have the ability to see its radiance.

A Clamor in Heaven

The truth is that in heaven aptitudes, amongst them the ability to see and perceive, are very high. The consciousness and perception of existents having the aptitude to perceive and comprehend, such as man, will be increased to more than a million times in the hereafter.

Possible Answers For: Clamor

In the last world, all things have life and in reality true life exists there and under its auspices everything has an intellect and a conscience and the ability to speak; it is for this reason that even the trees and stones speak:. It is natural that when everything has life, and even the herbs and stones speak as well, without the least doubt people will also have life and existence and all the organs of their bodies will be able to speak.

That which has been mentioned in this section in regard to the tortures of hell and the blessings of heaven cannot be measured by standards of this world. What is the nature of substances such as the refuse of hell which are so fetid and dangerous and choking that if a pail of it were poured on the eastern part of the cosmos would boil the brains of those living on the western part of it!?

Now storming fury rose, And clamor such as heard in Heaven till now

Of course, in order for us not to imagine that such a thing is not feasible and is far from conception, Allah has placed and compressed energies in some substances such as atomic energy in uranium which if a small amount of their energy were released, it is so explosive and destructive that it would wipe out and turn upside down the whole city. This is just the energy of elements and materials existent in this world.

Now that world whose power and energy is probably a million times more than the power and energy of this world leaves behind very great effects which are not perceptible to us. That which has been mentioned is intended to make us comprehend our place of abode and circumstances; we ought to know that we have not been created for this limited world, in which we enjoy limited perception and conception.

Our perception and conscience are limited in a world whose pleasures are limited too.

• Esperanza, Ave Maria and more
• Alan Cowgill on Pooling Private Lender Funds
• Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers
• Ionic Liquids: Physicochemical Properties
• Outsourcing IT - Storage & Cloud Computing
• Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than Yo