Page 822 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

We will continue to undergo such tests as feeling the hardness of a table, seeing our blood when we cut
our hand, pain, suffering, fear and sickness. The fact that we live in a world of nothing but perceptions will
not do away with our close connection to such causes. Even when we die, there will still not be nothingness.
As God has revealed in the Qur’an, we will begin a new life of different dimensions and causes. There is no

reason to think that we will end up in nothingness. Since God has created human beings in this environ-
ment which tests us, He will continue to provide us with perceptions. That is in fact what He reveals in the
Qur’an. When our perceptions in this world cease, perceptions of the hereafter will start, and we will never
feel ourselves to be in nothingness.

Objection: "Can someone who understands that everything is an illusion continue to be tested in this
world?"

Reply: This is a very important subject. Some people suggest that the test will come to an end when this
truth is finally understood. However, that is a dishonest idea. As we have already seen in other replies, the
test will continue as long as we live.

Even though God causes us to live in this world of perceptions, He also links the world to all its many
causes and effects. For instance, when we are hungry we eat something. We do not say, "It is all an illusion,
so it does not matter." If we do not eat, we grow weak and eventually die. God can remove these causes and
effects whenever He wishes, for whoever He wishes, by whatever means He wishes. We can never know

when or why He will do this. However, this is a most important truth: God charges us with abiding by the
whole of the Qur’an, and we continue to live in the sphere of causes in order to abide by the divine com-
mandments in it. For example, God commands people to do good and avoid evil. He orders defenseless
women and children to be spared cruelty and suffering. In the Qur’an God asks "Why are you not fighting

in their name?" It would be completely wrong and dishonest to adopt an attitude rejecting these responsi-
bilities that God has placed on our shoulders.
On the contrary, someone who is aware that it is God Who shows him everything that goes on will feel
an enormous obligation in response to every image he sees. Unlike many people, he will always try to sup-

port good and prevent evil. That responsibility can never be passed on to others, and no excuses to the ef-
fect of "Let someone else do a bit, I've done all I can" are acceptable. Someone who knows the true facts of
the situation will say, "If God is showing me this image, then He wants me to find a solution, and I am re-
sponsible for doing so."

In conclusion, everyone must do all he can to carry out the responsibilities laid on his shoulders in the Qur’an.
Knowing the true nature of matter -and coming by a view of the world in accordance with that nature- further
strengthens all our efforts to gain God's good pleasure, and increases our determination many times over.

Objection: "Is it really true that God is everywhere? Does His sovereignty not lie in the heavens?"
Reply: Some people believe in the existence of themselves, matter, and the world they see around them.

They think of God as an illusion that somehow surrounds this existing matter. (God is surely beyond that)
Or, since they cannot see God with their own eyes, they say "God must be somewhere we cannot see, in
space, or somewhere far away in the sky." That is an enormous mistake.
God is everywhere, not just in the heavens. As the only thing that truly exists, God permeates all the

universe, all people, and all places. Wherever you turn, the face of God is there. It is wrong according to the
Qur’an to say that God's sovereignty lies only in the heavens, because He is everywhere. As we have seen in
earlier sections, it has been revealed in several verses of the Qur’an that God is everywhere, closer to us
than our own bodies, and that wherever we turn we see the face of God. For instance, He says "... His

Footstool encompasses the heavens and the earth..." (Surat al-Baqara: 255) Another verse stresses that
there is no doubt that the Lord encircles all that people do:

"... But my Lord encompasses everything that you do! " (Surah Hud: 92)
As is revealed in the Qur’an, God is not solely in the heavens. God is everywhere. This truth has been
given us by means of the Qur’an.

820 Atlas of Creation Vol. 3