What Rule Governs the Advancement, Grandeur, and Vastness of the Hereafter Compared to the World?
You might have asked a child how much he loves his mother, and he may have replied, “ten!” Surely, you would not be surprised by his answer because you know that this number does not indicate the true extent of the child’s love for his mother. In fact, you distinguish between your knowledge of numbers and what a child knows in this regard. You know that the number ten is the utmost love the child can imagine. He does not understand what thousand, million, and billion mean, and ten is the biggest number for him. So if you want to continue your conversation with him, you have to use a language that he can understand. Similarly, some concepts are beyond our understanding. God has used examples or comparisons to bring our minds closer to these concepts and help us understand them better.
The utmost thing we can understand is the world we live in. Except for a few people, the rest of us have been on Earth since birth and have never ventured beyond this earthly sphere; only by using technology and images received via advanced telescopes, we have gotten to know a little about the world around us. Despite spending most of our lives in this world, we still lack a proper understanding of the grandeur of the world in which we live. For example, our minds do not grasp the magnitude of galaxies and the vastness of the universe, and we have no proper understanding of them. It is even very difficult to understand very large numbers like several tens of billions without a tangible example. It is clear that despite these limitations, understanding the grandeur of the hereafter is very difficult for us. The hereafter is a realm infinitely greater, more magnificent, and more advanced than the world in which we live. In order to understand the grandeur of the hereafter, the vastness of the hereafter compared to the world has been likened to the vastness of the world in relation to the vastness of the mother’s womb.
If we consider the limitations of a fetus in the mother’s womb and then compare it to the beautiful, diverse, wide, and advanced world into which the fetus is born, we will also notice the difference in the grandeur and vastness of the hereafter compared to the world. Considering this issue, we understand that concepts such as rivers, trees, fruits, and so on, which are mentioned as the blessings of the hereafter, are just approximations to facilitate our understanding within the confines of our worldly perception. In fact, according to the Law of Proportion, the living conditions and blessings of the hereafter exceed our worldly conception in terms of wonders, diversity, and beauty.
The Vastness of the Hereafter Compared to the World
According to the Law of Proportion, the vastness of the hereafter compared to the world is like the vastness of the world compared to the mother’s womb. Just as our ability in this world is thousands of times greater than in the mother’s womb, the extent of our movement and power in the hereafter also increases by the same amount. In fact, our ability is proportional to the vastness of the place where we are located. After birth and passing the fetal stage, we need at least nine months to stand on our own feet and walk. It is because in the narrow and small environment of the mother’s womb, we did not need to walk, and it can even be said that our feet were useless and restrictive in that small space. But in the world, we have thousands of times more resources[1] and opportunities than our womb life because the vastness and conditions of the world demand such a capacity.
If we compare the structure of the womb with that of the world, we can say that we have come from a confined space, almost the size of a watermelon, into an environment that is approximately 510 million square kilometers. This environment has its complexities, wonders, and unique grandeur in proportion to its vastness. The world is full of mountains, rocks, seas, and places created for our use. In fact, compared to the grandeur and wonders of the hereafter, our world, with all its vastness and wonders, is like a watermelon compared to the world.
After this world, we will go to a realm that is more magnificent and complicated than our world. In fact, our soul is like a closed capsule. By going to Barzakh, some of it will be opened, and on the Day of Judgement, it will be opened to such an extent that the promised heaven will be equal to all the heavens and the earth.[2] Definitely, the vastness of the hereafter must be millions of times greater than that of our world, so that God’s promise about the inhabitants of heaven can be fulfilled. This vastness is currently beyond our understanding. Perhaps the concept of compressed files in software science can help us understand this matter. As long as we save a file in a compressed format, it does not occupy much space in our computer’s memory, but as soon as we open it, we must provide actual storage space for its full size. In fact, the hereafter must be so vast that it can fulfill the needs and potentials of every human soul.
The Advancement of the Hereafter Compared to the World
The Law of Proportion includes all the aspects of our fetal life. Even the degree of advancement of our worldly resources in relation to fetal life is proportional to the degree of advancement of the hereafter compared to this world. All the resources that are available to us in the mother’s womb are just a placenta, bag of waters, and an umbilical cord. But upon entering the world, we face an environment that cannot be compared to the mother’s womb in terms of complexity and resources. In this world, we can not only walk, but we can travel thousands of kilometers in a short period of time. In the mother’s womb, we do not even have the possibility to see outside the womb, while in the world we can distinguish thousands of different colors. Despite the extraordinary advancement of the world compared to the mother’s womb, this advancement is insignificant compared to the wonders of the hereafter. In fact, all the wishes and dreams that are unattainable for us in this world are considered to be part of the necessities and characteristics of the hereafter. This is only a small part of the grandeur and vastness of the hereafter compared to the world, which has become understandable for us through comparison.
In this article, we mentioned the advancement, grandeur, and vastness of the hereafter compared to the world. We realized that just as the fetus in the mother’s womb has no understanding of the greatness and vastness of the world, we also have no understanding of the wonders and grandeur of the hereafter in the womb of this world. To some extent, the Law of Proportion makes it possible for us to understand the vastness of the hereafter compared to the world. This proportion includes not only the grandeur and vastness but also the advancement of the hereafter in relation to the world.
Did you grasp the grandeur of the world that we are going to be born into? How has understanding this vastness affected your view about the world?
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[1]. In these articles, the word “resource” is a concept that encompasses several meanings. At times, it refers to the facilities and tools of providing comfort or increasing growth and well-being. It also denotes the necessary rules for organizing the functions and interactions in a place. Sometimes, it can represent the capabilities of a particular place or the available opportunities and possibilities.
[2]. Quran, 57:21