of wisdom—which is the final end and ultimate purpose—back upon the decrees that constitute the first origin and beginning, and the return of its branches to their roots and of its beginnings to their destined ends, until it is as though he beholds with his very eyes the origins of wisdom itself and the laying down of every matter in perfect accord with wisdom, justice, benefit, mercy, and benevolence. Not a single decree falls outside this pattern until the created realms come to an end and the judgments are separated on the Day the servants are distinguished, when His justice and wisdom will be laid bare, together with the truthfulness of His messengers and all that they conveyed about Him to the whole of creation—humankind and jinn, believer and unbeliever alike. On that Day there will become manifest to the creatures facets of His majesty and tokens of His perfection that they had never known before: even the most knowledgeable of Him in this world will then praise Him with attributes of perfection and descriptions of majesty that he could not properly articulate while in this world (1).
As these realities are unveiled to His creatures, so too will the reasons by which the deviators swerved, the misguided went astray, and the severed were cut off become evident. The difference between one’s knowledge on that Day of the realities of the divine names and attributes and one’s knowledge of them in this life will be like the difference between merely knowing of Paradise and Hell and actually seeing them—and greater still.
Likewise, from the covenant he understands how His names and attributes required the existence of prophethood and the revealed laws, and that He would never leave His creation without purpose; how they required the commands and prohibitions they contain; how they required the occurrence of reward, punishment, and the ultimate Return—all of which flow necessarily from His very names and attributes, so He is utterly transcendent above what His enemies have claimed in denying these truths.
He perceives, moreover, the all-embracing reach of His power, encompassing every created thing so that not even the weight of an atom escapes it. He sees that, had there been another deity beside Him, this universe would have been ruined—the heavens, the earth, and all who dwell within them would have collapsed—and that, were slumber or death conceivable for Him—glorified is He—this entire world would disintegrate altogether and not endure for the blink of an eye.