Al-Bāʿith - The Resurrector
Al-Bāʿith is the one who will bring people to life on the day of resurrection, the one who will resurrect those in the graves and will cull what is in the breast (i.e. man’s secrets). Resurrection is the other (or “second”) coming to life. The knowledge of this name is dependent upon the knowledge of the real nature of the resurrection, and that is one of the more obscure knowledges (known to man). The majority of people know about it only in terms of general suppositions and obscure imagination. Their utmost capacity in this respect lies in their imagining that death is non-existence and that the resurrection is (actually another) bringing into existence initiated after the (period of) non-existence, as was the case with the first creation. But their notion that death is (equivalent) to non-existence is mistaken, and their thinking that the second (act of) bringing into existence will be like the first one is (also) mistaken.
As for their thinking that death is non-existence, this is invalid. Rather the grave is either one of the pits of the fires (of Hell), or one of the bowers of the gardens of Paradise. As for the dead, either they are happy and such are not dead – and “think not of those who are slain in the way of God as dead. Nay, they are living. With their Lord they have provision.
Jubilant (are they) because of that which God hath bestowed upon them of His bounty” – or they are wretched, and these also are alive. For this reason the messenger of God – may the blessings of God and peace be upon him – called out to them in the battle of Badr and said, “Certainly I have found that which my Lord has promised me to be true. Have you also found that which your Lord has promised you to be true?”. And when someone said to him, “But how do you call people who have died?” he answered, “You do not hear what I say any more clearly that they do, only they are not able to answer”.
As for their thinking that the resurrection is a second creation which is just like the first creation, this is not correct. Rather is the resurrection another bringing into being not related to the first coming into being at all. For man there are numerous stages of coming into being and not only two. Therefore God Most High said after the creation of the little lump (of flesh) and the clot (of blood), etcetera, “then we bring (all) this into being (anshaʾnāhu) as another (stage of) creation”. Then He created the sensory perceptions – another stage of bringing into being. Then He created discernment (tamyīz) which became apparent after the age of seven years – another stage of bringing into being. Then He created the reason ʿaql after the age of fifteen years or so – another formation. Every formation is a stage. “He has created you in successive stages” (i.e. by process of gradual evolution in the mother’s womb) and in life time after birth. Then the appearance of the characteristics of saintliness in such as have this characteristic bestowed upon them – that is another stage of bringing into being. Then the appearance of the characteristic of prophethood after that – it is another stage of bringing into being and a type of resurrection. God Most High is the one who raises the messengers even as He is the one who raises the day of resurrection.
Even as it is difficult for an infant to understand the real nature of discernment before attaining discernment (so also) is it difficult for one possessing discernment to understand the real nature of reason and those marvels that are revealed in this state before one attains (the stage) of reason. Likewise it is difficult for one to understand the state of saintliness and prophethood while still in the stage of reason.
Even as it is one of the peculiarities of people to deny that which they have not seen and that which has not happened to them so that (eventually) everyone denies that which he cannot see nor attain and disbelieves that which is hidden from his eyes, so also one of their peculiarities is to deny saintliness and its wonders, as well as prophethood and its marvels. Indeed, among their peculiarities is (also) the denial of the second formation and the life in the hereafter because they have not yet reached it. (This is comparable to the fact that) if the state of reason and its realm and the wonders that appear therein were expounded to the one who has reached (no more than) discernment, he would deny and reject it and declare its existence impossible. The one who believes in any of the things that he (himself) has not reached (certainly) believes in the existence of that which is beyond the reach of human perception. That (i.e. belief in the existence) is the key of all happiness.
Ignorance is the greatest death, and knowledge is the most sublime life. God has mentioned knowledge and ignorance in the Book and called them (respectively), life and death. Now to raise someone from ignorance to knowledge is tantamount to forming him a second time and bringing him to a pleasant life. If man has a possibility of conferring knowledge upon people and calling them to God Most High, then that is a kind of revival.
This (role) belongs to the rank of the prophets and the thinkers and their heirs.
