Allah the Exalted has employed three methods so that we may understand the nature of the time just mentioned above. Firstly, God has granted man with an intellect and if he makes use of this faculty even slightly and reflects, the mind is able to grasp very clearly that the brief life of man sits between two kinds of non-existence and can never be everlasting. Analogical reasoning can enable one to learn about things which are not present.
If an individual reflects, for example, as to the whereabouts of their forefathers, they are left with no choice but to accept that everyone must follow the same course. Foolish is the one who has thousands of examples before them but they do not take a lesson therefrom and fail to understand.
It is generally observed and this is an accepted fact that in any village or city, the number of graves outnumbers the living population – some graves are hidden while others are visible. It has often been observed that when a water well is dug in a particular city, bones are excavated as well.
Generally, there are graves everywhere on earth beneath us. It is another matter if these graves are not physically visible. Nevertheless, from this we learn that a vast number of people are no longer with us.
There is another logical argument in support of the existence of the Hereafter. The manner in which vegetation grows in a field is a beautiful sight. A time comes when it turns yellow and dries. Then it is reduced to broken straw, and when this loss begins to occur, the farmer who has sown the crop begins to cut the crop himself, so that the crop is not wasted away in the wind.
The world is the tilth of God Almighty. On account of certain points of wisdom and in view of the best final outcome, just as a farmer harvests his crop before it ripens on certain occasions, and waits for it to mature to an extent on other occasions, so too, we are nurtured, whereafter we are cut at precisely the appropriate time by divine will and desire.
One ought to take a lesson from the practice of a farmer, that the life of man follows exactly the same course. Just as certain seeds do not even sprout and rot away in the ground, in the same manner certain children are lost in their mother’s womb and other infants die a few days after they are born.
In short, precisely in accordance with this law and phenomenon a human being goes through the stages of infancy and adulthood, and finally reaches old age. The scythe of God’s will cuts them at different stages from time to time in view of various points of wisdom. Sometimes children die young and people refer to this as a case of athra [recurrent miscarriage]. Then, adults who possess a healthy body, strong and well, also die. The elderly also pass away after reaching a state of feebleness and old age.
In short, this process of being cut and severed operates throughout the world to teach man the lesson at every moment that the world is not an everlasting abode. Hence, this is also an argument which establishes the existence of the Hereafter.
In addition to this, there is another argument which God Almighty has presented to establish the reality of the time which is to come; in other words, those miracles of the Prophets, peace be upon them, which manifest divine wrath and due to which the earth was overturned at once and almost all signs of creation were erased. Man is at the mercy of God’s wrath, He can destroy him whenever He pleases.
Allah the Exalted presents this as an argument that certain illnesses spread in such a terrifying and forceful manner that those people who have witnessed such epidemics would say that they resemble the Day of Judgement. From among such severe illnesses, there is the plague, which runs rampant in our land at present. It has ravaged Karachi and Bombay. We have also received terrifying news of the spread of the plague in the hill station of Palampur and even in Kolkata. And so a grave danger confronts us at this hour.
The reason that I address you is because man is met with enormous trials, as God Almighty states Himself:
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَىْءٍ
Allah says: “We shall continue to try you, at times with fear, at times by a loss of wealth, and at other times still by a loss of fruits.”
(Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Malfuzat, Vol. 1, pp. 248-250)