as a pastime” (44:38); and His saying, “We did not create the heaven and the earth and whatever lies between them in vain” (38:27); and His saying, “Does man think that he will be left without purpose?” (75:36); and His saying, “Did you then suppose that We created you in frivolity and that you would not be returned to Us? Exalted is Allah, the True Sovereign” (23:115–116); and His saying, “Or do those who commit evil deeds imagine that We shall make them like those who believe and do righteous deeds—equal in their life and in their death? Evil indeed is the judgment they make” (45:21).

For this reason, the correct view is that the Resurrection is known by reason as well as by revelation, and that the perfection of the Lord—exalted is He—and the perfection of His names and attributes demand and necessitate it. He is far above what its deniers allege, just as His perfection is exalted above every defect and shortcoming.

He, glorified be He, then informed us that when the deniers rejected the truth their affair became confused: “so they are in a confused affair” (50:5)—a muddled state from which they obtain nothing.

Next, He invited them to contemplate the upper world—its structure, loftiness, symmetry, beauty, and harmony;

then the lower world, namely the earth: how He spread it out and made it suitable for what is sought from it, anchored it with mountains, placed within it benefits, and caused to grow therein every pleasing kind of plant, diverse in shape, color, size, utility, and quality.

All of that is an enlightenment: when the penitent servant reflects on it and gains insight thereby, he is reminded of the realities conveyed by the messengers—God’s oneness and the Resurrection. Thus the observer first gains insight, and then recollects. This is granted only to a servant who turns to Allah with both heart and limbs.

He then called them to ponder the source of their provisions, their food, their clothing, and their mounts