To Disbelieve in God’s Sign is to Disbelieve in God Himself

All of God’s prophets have been plain men, like any other. What distinguished them from others was the divine proof that they brought. It was on people’s acceptance or rejection of this proof that their eternal fate hinged. Such divine proofs represent God on earth. To discover God is to see Him in His proofs, such as are evident in creation. As for those who fail to see Him in His signs, God will disregard them completely on the Day of Resurrection, and they will receive no share in His everlasting blessings. Only clear minds can recognize clear proofs when shown to them, for only a mind free of all pride and prejudice can see truth in a clear light and accept it. The truth may be detrimental to one’s selfinterest, so only a mind clear of worldly attachment will attach value to the truth alone. To see clear proofs of God, and not to recognize them, means that one’s mind is not on God—it is attached to other things; the greatness of mortals is lodged in one’s heart. If one rises above worldly attachments, and sees only God as greater, then one will have no difficulty realizing the truth of clear proofs. In this world God comes before man in the form of clear proofs; in the next world He Himself will be plainly visible, in all His glory. He will be visible to man. Then, people will have no choice but to believe in Him. Even disbelievers will be stunned into submission when God appears in an aura of seraphic splendour. True believers, however, are those who react in this way when He comes before them in the form of clear proofs. They believe in an invisible God, made manifest through His signs in this world, just as others will believe in Him when He becomes visible in the next world. This is the great test of man in this world: to believe in a God who is invisible in Himself, but visible through His signs—both in nature and divine revelation. So categorical and clear are those divine proofs, that one who is sincere in his search for truth cannot fail to recognize them; he will bow before them as if they were God Himself; he will be as certain of their veracity as he would be if God—in all His glory and perfection—were made manifest; he will forget all thoughts of pride and self, and crash down from the heights of self-opinion, submitting humbly to the word of God. This is how a man of truth reacts to God’s word when it comes to him. It is a reaction which the Quran has explained to us, nature has exhibited in the form of landslides, and Umar has demonstrated on a human level when he fell down on hearing Abu Bakr’s recital of a verse of the Quran. □