Istanbul Foundation for Science and Culture
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Twenty-Fourth Window

Twenty-Fourth Window

There is no God but He, everything will perish save His countenance, His is the command and to Him shall you return.(28:88)

Death is a proof of dominicality as much as life is a proof of it; it is a tuly powerful proof of divine unity. As indicated by the verse,

Who creates death and life,(67:2)

death is not non-existence, annihilation, non-being, an authorless extinction; rather, as is shown in the First Letter, it is a being discharged from service by an All-Wise Author, a change of residence, an exchange of bodies, a rest from duty, a being freed from the prison of the body; it is a purposeful, orderly work of wisdom. Indeed, just as the living face of the earth and the well fashioned, living creatures upon it testify to the necessary existence and unity of an All-Wise Maker, so too with their deaths do those living beings bear witness to the eternity and unity of an Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One. It is proved and elucidated in the Twenty-Second Word that death is an extremely powerful proof of divine unity and eternity, so we refer the discussion to that Word and here only explain one important point. It is as follows:

Both with their existences living beings point to the existence of a Necessarily Existent One, and with their deaths they testify to the eternity and unity of an Ever-Living Eternal One. For example, the face of the earth, which is a single living creature, points to its Maker with its order and circumstances; so too it points to Him when it dies. That is, when winter conceals the earth’s face with its white shroud, it turns men’s gazes away from itself – their gaze moves to the past behind the corpse of that departing spring – and it shows them a far wider scene. That is to say, the past springs of the earth, which were all miracles of power, inform them that new living springtime creatures of the earth will appear, and since they all testify to the existence of those future wonders of divine power, each a living earth, they testify brilliantly and powerfully and on a vast scale to the necessary existence, unity, everlastingness, and eternity of an All-Glorious Maker, an All-Powerful One of Perfection, an Ever-Living Eternal One; they demonstrate such brilliant proofs that whether one wants to or not they make one declare: “I believe in God, the One, the Unique!”

In Short: According to the meaning of the verse,

And gives life to the earth after its death,(30:19)

4–6 October 2026 · Istanbul

13th International Bediuzzaman Symposium

Visit the symposium website for the programme, papers and registration.