What wisdom does it spring from, Adam (Upon whom be peace) being expelled from Paradise and some of mankind, the sons of Adam, being sent to Hell?
T h e A n s w e r : The wisdom of it concerns the charging of duties; Adam was sent charged with such a duty that the unfolding of all mankind’s spiritual progress and the revealing of all mankind’s potentialities and man’s essential nature being a comprehensive mirror to all the Divine Names, are the results of it. If Adam had remained in Paradise, his rank would have been fixed like that of the angels; man’s potentialities would not have unfolded. In any case, the angels, whose rank is fixed, are numerous, and there is no need for man to perform that sort of worship. Indeed, since Divine wisdom required a realm of responsibility appropriate to the potentialities of man, who would traverse infinite degrees, he was expelled from Paradise for his well-known sin - sin being the requirement of man’s nature and contrary to that of the angels. That is to say, just as Adam being expelled from Paradise was pure wisdom and pure mercy, so too is it just and right that the unbelievers should be sent to Hell.
As is mentioned in the Third Indication in the Tenth Word, the unbeliever only committed one sin in a short life, but within the sin was infinite wrongdoing. For unbelief is an insult to the whole universe, it reduces the value of all beings, it denies the testimony to Divine Unity of all creatures, and is contempt towards the Divine Names the manifestations of which are to be seen in the mirrors of beings. Therefore, in order to avenge the rights of beings on the unbeliever, the beings' monarch, the All-Compelling One of Glory, casts the unbelievers into Hell, and this is pure right and justice. For an infinite crime demands infinite punishment.
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