an awesome matter. It was like this: just as Paradise bears the crops of all the worlds of existence and produces the eternal shoots of the seeds grown in this world; so in order to display the grievous consequences of the innumerable terrible worlds of non-existence and nothingness, Hell scorches up the products of that non-existence, and among its other functions, that terrible factory cleanses the universe of existence of the filth of the world of non-existence. For now we shall not open the door of this awesome matter; God willing, it shall be elucidated later.
Another particular and example of the fruit of belief in the angels concerns the questioning angels, Munkar and Nakir;1 it is this: in my imagination I entered my grave, telling myself: “I am bound to enter here, the same as everyone else.” While taking fright at the bleakness and despair of the lonely, dark, cold, narrow solitary confinement of the grave, two blessed friends resembling Munkar and Nakir appeared. They began to debate with me. My heart and grave were broadened, illumined, and warmed; windows were opened up onto the world of spirits. I felt truly happy at that situation which I saw in the imagination then, and will see in reality in the future, and I offered thanks.
A medrese student who was studying Arabic grammar died and in replying to Munkar and Nakir’s question of “Who is your Sustainer?”, thought he was in his own medrese and said: “‘Who’ is the subject, ‘your Sustainer’ is its predicate; ask me something difficult; that’s easy.” It made both the angels, and the spirits who were present, and a diviner of graves who witnessed the incident, laugh, and brought a smile to Divine mercy. Being delivered from torment, the late Hafiz Ali, a martyr hero of the Risale-i Nur, died in prison while writing out and enthusiastically studying the treatise of The Fruits of Belief. Just as he replied in the grave to the questioning angels with the truths of The Fruits of Belief —as he had in court here—, so I and the Risale-i Nur students shall reply to those questions with the brilliant and powerful proofs of the Risale-i Nur, in the future in fact and now in meaning, and will cause the angels to confirm them and appreciate them and congratulate them; God willing.
Another small example of belief in the angels leading to worldly happiness is this: an innocent child who had learnt his lesson from the Ilm-i Hal, said to another child who was wailing at the death of his little brother: “Don’t cry, be thankful, because your brother has gone to heaven and is with the angels. He is enjoying himself there and having a better time than us. He is flying around like the angels, and taking a look at everything.” He turned his friend’s woeful tears into happy smiles.
al-Tirmidhi, Jana’iz, 70; Abu Da’ud (in meaning), ii, 540, 541; Ibn Maja, Jana’iz, 65; Musnad, iii, 126; iv, 288.