“Your creation and your resurrection are but like that of a single soul” (31:28). In other words, the creation and revival of all creatures are, to Him, as effortless as that of one being. Concerning the Resurrection He also says: “It will be but one blast, and suddenly they will be upon the plain” (79:13–14).

You can observe a sign of Allah in your everyday life: when a person falls asleep, Allah takes his soul, as He says, “It is He who takes you by night” (6:60). This, however, is not a complete death in which the soul is wholly severed from the body; rather, the soul departs while maintaining a residual connection. Allah then returns the sleeper to wakefulness, and he feels as though granted a new lease on life.

Before the advent of electric lighting this reality was even more palpable. As night descended, people felt the darkness, the loneliness, and the stillness; when dawn broke they sensed the spreading brightness, relief, and cheerfulness, tasting the pleasure of night’s retreat and day’s arrival. Today, with nights resembling days, that earlier delight has largely vanished—yet a person still senses, upon waking, that he has risen to a fresh life. This, too, is part of Allah’s mercy and wisdom.

We likewise believe that Allah is All-Hearing and All-Seeing. He hears everything we say, even the faintest whisper. Allah says: “Do they think that We do not hear their secrets and their private counsel? Indeed, Our messengers are with them, recording” (43:80). And He says: “He knows the secret and what is even more hidden” (20:7)—that is, what lies deeper than a secret, the very thoughts a person conceals within himself. As He states elsewhere: “We created man, and We know what his soul whispers to him” (50:16), meaning the inner conversation he holds with himself.