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— well-known. They comprise three other questions: The first — can those who dwell in reward in the World to Come transgress or not? The second — can the prophets add to the message or diminish from it or not? The third — can the angels disobey their Lord or not?
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The answer to all three of those questions, together with this fourth, is one and the same: since reason has established that the Creator of things knows what will occur before it occurs,
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we must believe that He creates no angel except one of whom He knew it would obey and not disobey Him; and He chooses no prophet except one of whom He knew he would choose faithfulness in the message and not falsehood;
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and He has promised the reward of the World to Come to those who will be resurrected only because He knows they will choose obedience and not transgression at that time;
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and He has promised resurrection to this nation at the time of the Redemption only because He knows they will choose His obedience and not His transgression after the resurrection — since nothing of what will truly occur is hidden from Him.
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If one asks: do they receive reward for the acts of obedience they acquire at the time of the Redemption? We say: Yes — just as reason has established that the inhabitants of the World of Reward receive reward for the acts of obedience they acquire in the World to Come,
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— and that reward is an addition granted on top of what they had earned before. There is no shame in saying that there is acquisition of obedience in the World to Come; how much less shame is there in saying there is acquisition of reward in the World to Come.
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Chapter 9. If one asks about the people for whom the Redemption comes while they are still alive — what will be their fate? Will they die or not? We say: when rational thinkers applied themselves to this, they arrived at three positions.
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Some say they will live and not die — rather they will be transferred to the World to Come just as the resurrected are transferred.
Others say they will live a short time and then die, and then be resurrected at the time of the Redemption so that they equal those others