TWO WORLDS

Man’s greatest omission is to remain engrossed with the ephemeral world. But the day he leaves for the next world, and his veil is removed, he will regret his negligence.

Sir Arthur Eddington, a well-known scientist, writes in his book, The Nature of the Physical World: “I have drawn up my chairs to my two tables. There are duplicates of every object. One of these tables is comparatively permanent. It is substantial. Table no 2 is my scientific table. My scientific table is mostly empty. Sparsely scattered in that emptiness are numerous electric charges rushing about with great speed.”

This description could be applied equally to the entire universe. However, it is especially true of our world, which has two aspects: appearance and reality.

What we see around us, we call the world. But there is also the other invisible world of the Hereafter. So when death comes, it means leaving the visible or apparent world to enter into the invisible, concealed, but the real world of the Hereafter.

While our present world is visible to everyone, the next world lies behind a veil and is unobservable. That is why man makes the mistake of regarding only the present world as accurate and the other world as imaginary. Therefore, even those who believe in the Hereafter consider it an abstract concept irrelevant to their current life. That is why they do not allow it to influence their material existence despite believing in it as an article of faith.

This is man’s greatest omission. Engrossed with this ephemeral world, he fails to realize that the day he leaves for the next eternal world, it will be as if a veil has been removed. And on that day, he will regret his negligence. But regret will serve no useful purpose. He will have lost his ‘tomorrow’ for his ‘today’.

Just as the true scientist can see ‘two tables’, the faithful servant of God can discover the ‘two worlds.’ And it is he and he alone who, by the grace of God, will enter victoriously into the divine Paradise of the Almighty.