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Maamar IX: On Reward and Punishment in the World to Come. Chapter 1.
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Our Lord (blessed and exalted) has made known to us that He has prepared a time for the recompense of the righteous,
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and in it He will distinguish between them and the unbelievers — as it says: וְהָיוּ לִי אָמַר ה' צְבָאוֹת ["they shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, on the day I make them My treasure"] ... וְשַׁבְתֶּם וּרְאִיתֶם בֵּין צַדִּיק לְרָשָׁע ["you shall return and see the distinction between righteous and wicked"] etc.
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He has established for us the signs and proofs of this, and we have accepted it.
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It is therefore fitting that I mention the necessitating arguments for this era — called the World to Come — from the rational, the scriptural, and the transmitted proofs,
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following the method I laid out at the opening of the book — that prophetic matters find their grounding in rational argument.
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I say first: it has been established by what was argued in the Third, Fourth, and Sixth Maamarim that the heavens, the earth, and all between them were created entirely on account of the human being,
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and for that reason He placed him at the center with all things surrounding him, and for that reason He endowed the soul with the distinction of honor through intellect and wisdom,
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and for that reason He bound it with command and prohibition, and presented it through them with the path to eternal life,
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and that this life shall occur when the number of rational beings whose creation Wisdom has necessitated is complete — and He will settle them in a second abode to recompense them therein —
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and we established there the rational, scriptural, and transmitted proofs for this — sufficient as groundwork and foundation for this maamar.
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I shall follow that here with what confirms and strengthens it and elaborates beyond the three sources mentioned.
Among what reason also necessitates — given what has become clear to us of His wisdom, His power, and His beneficence toward His creatures —
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is that the measure of felicity intended for this soul cannot be what it finds in this world — the pleasures and delights of earthly life —
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because every pleasure in this world is paired with its corruption, every happiness with misery, every delight with pain, every joy with sorrow,
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so that the weighing of these compensations shows them either balanced, or with the painful side prevailing over the pleasant.
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Since this is beyond doubt, it is inconceivable that the Wise One (may His glory be exalted) made the ultimate benefit for this soul consist in these contradictory conditions.
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Rather, He must have prepared for it a place containing pure life and unmixed felicity — and He will bring it to that.
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Among these arguments too: I find that all souls of creatures I have come to know are not at rest in this abode, nor settled,
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even if they attain the highest kingship and the most exalted rank within it. This restlessness is not in their nature, but because they know that they have an abode superior to all the excellences of this place,
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so they are drawn toward it and their gaze is set upon it; were it not for that, they would be at rest and settled.
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Among these arguments too: the human intellect finds ugly certain things that human nature desires — adultery, theft, frivolity, satisfaction in killing —
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and when he does these things, he is struck by regrets, dejections, and griefs that pain him and wound his heart — and this would not befall him were it not that he is to be compensated for it.
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Likewise, when one's intellect regards justice, equity, commanding right, and forbidding wrong as admirable and he practices these — enmity and hatred pursue him,
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from those whom he judged fairly and from those over whom he commanded or issued prohibitions — for he stood between them and their desires — and he may even be cursed, struck, or killed,
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and this would not have befallen him through his intellect's moral approval, were it not that he shall be richly rewarded for it.
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Among these arguments too: we observe people wronging one another — the wrongdoer and the wronged may live in comfort or in misery — then both die,
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and since He (may His glory be exalted) is committed to justice, He must have prepared for them both a second abode in which He will judge equitably between them,
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directing to the wronged one a reward commensurate with the pain he suffered, and bringing upon the oppressor a punishment commensurate with the pleasure his nature derived from his transgression and injustice.
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Among these arguments too: we observe unbelievers who are blessed in this world, and believers who have suffered in this world —
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and it is indispensable that there be for the former and the latter a second abode in which they are recompensed with truth and equity.
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Among these arguments too: we find that one who kills a single person is put to death, and one who kills ten persons is also put to death —
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and likewise one who commits adultery once is punished once with the ruler's penalty, while one who commits adultery twenty times is punished with flogging or a monetary fine —
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so the remaining portion of what each transgressor deserves must be settled in another abode.
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Chapter 2: I shall select from the scriptural arguments for this