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REVIVAL
OF ROTTED BONES DURING
THE RESURRECTION
He
said: ‘Who shall
revive the bones
when they are rotted
away?’ Say: ‘He
shall revive them,
Who originated them
the first time.’
He is Knower of all
creation.
(36:78)
An
analogy: some individual
assembles a huge army
within one day before
your eyes. If someone
then said: ‘That
individual has the power
to re-assemble the
troops in his army who
dispersed them to their
different rest, and
re-order them in
battalions’, and you
answered: ‘I don’t
believe it’, you know
very well that your
saying so would appear
crazy. So too, the All-
Powerful and
All-Knowing, by His
command ‘Be!’ and it
is, out of nothing
recorded and assigned to
their places, as if they
were an army, all the
particles and the subtle
constituents of the
bodies of all animals
and other animate
creatures, and did so
with perfect orderliness
and balance; and He
creates in every age,
rather in every
springtime, the hundreds
of thousands of
different species and
groups of animate
creatures that populate
the face of the earth,
each like an army.
Surely such a Being can
re-gather, with a single
blast on the trumpet of
Israfil, all the
fundamental particles
and original components
that enjoy mutual
acquaintance through
their collective
submission to the order
of the body-which
exceeds the order of any
battalion. Were you then
to say, ‘How is this
possible?’, or were
you to consider it
improbable, would it not
be irrational on your
part?
In
some places in the Quran,
in order to impress upon
the heart the wonder of
that which He will
accomplish in the
Hereafter and to prepare
the mind to accept and
understand it, the
All-Mighty presents to
us the wonder of that
which He accomplishes in
this world by way of
preparing us. In other
places, He sometimes
alludes to the wonderful
deeds He will perform in
the future and the
Hereafter in such a
fashion that we are
convinced of them by
analogy with the similar
deeds we observe in this
world. One example is
furnished by the verse,
Has
not man seen that
We have created
him from a
sperm-drop? Then
lo, he is a
manifest adversary.
(36:77)
and
the succeeding verses of
the same sura.
The Wise Quran thus
establishes the matter
of resurrection in seven
or eight different
forms.
It
first directs man’s
attention to his own
origin, arguing: ‘You
see how you
progressed-from a drop
of sperm to a drop of
blood, to a blood clot
suspended on the wall of
the womb, from a
suspended blood clot to
a formless lump of
flesh, and from a
formless lump of flesh
to human form-how, then,
can you deny your second
creation? It is just the
same as the first, or
even easier [for God to
accomplish].’
God
also refers to the great
bounties He has granted
to man, for example:
He
Who made fire for
you from the green
tree.
(36:80)
And
He says to man: ‘Will
the One Who has thus
bestowed His bounty upon
you, leave you free to
behave in whatever way
you wish and then enter
in the grave to sleep
permanently without
rising again?’
The
Quran also teaches us by
the following
similitude:
You
see that trees come to
life again and grow
green. Your bones
resemble dry branches,
yet you refuse to
recognize the likeness
in the reanimation of
those bones and regard
their reanimation as
utterly improbable.
The
Quran also asks:
Is
it conceivable that the
One Who creates the
heavens and earth should
not have power over the
life and death of man,
the fruit of the heavens
and earth? Do you
seriously suppose that
He would render futile
and fruitless the tree
of creation that He
shaped with purposive
wisdom in all its parts,
by forsaking the high
purpose and issue of
that tree, man?
The
Quran also says:
The
One Who will restore you
to life at the
Resurrection is the One
before Whom the whole
creation together is
like His obedient
soldier: it bows its
head submissively
whenever it hears the
command ‘Be!’ and it
is.’
To
create the whole spring
is as easy for Him as to
create an individual
flower. To create all
animals is as easy for
His Power as to create a
fly. None should defy or
diminish His Power by
daring to say: ‘Who
will revive the bones?’
Then,
by the verse,
Glory
be to Him in Whose
hand is the
dominion over all
things.
(36:83)
the
Quran affirms that He
controls everything and
the key to all things is
in His possession. He
turns over night and
day, winter and summer,
with as much ease as if
He were turning a page
in a book. He is
All-Powerful, Majestic.
As if two stations, He
closes up the world and
opens the Hereafter. So,
following from the
arguments mentioned, To
Him you shall be
returned65, that is, He
will bring you back to
life from your graves,
take you to the Plain of
Resurrection, and judge
you in His majestic
Presence.
Examples
in the world of God’s
actions in the Hereafter
By
making analogies to the
Resurrection in worldly
processes, these verses
ready the heart and mind
to accept the reality of
the Resurrection.
However, the Qur’an
sometimes alludes to God’s
actions in the Hereafter
in a manner that draws
attention to their
worldly parallels-in
this way no room may be
left for doubt and
denial. Examples are to
be found in the suras
initiated by the verses,
When
the sun is rolled
up.
(81:1)
When
the heaven is
cleft asunder.
(82:1)
When
the heaven is torn
asunder.
(84:1)
In
these suras, the
All-Mighty alludes to
the Resurrection and to
the vast revolutions and
Lordly deeds that shall
take place at that time,
in images that enable
man to recall their
worldly analogies-scenes
that he has witnessed in
autumn or spring-and
then, with awe in his
heart, man easily
accepts what the
intellect might
otherwise refuse. Even
to indicate the general
meaning of the three suras
just mentioned would
take very long. Let us,
then, simply take one
verse as a specimen of
the whole. The verse, When
the pages are spread out,
(81:10) implies:
The
earthly example of the
verse “When the
pages are spread out”
With
the Resurrection,
everyone’s deeds will
be revealed on a written
page.’ This at first
strikes one as very
strange and quite
incomprehensible. But as
the sura
indicates, just as the
renewal of spring is a
parallel to another
resurrection, so too the
‘spreading out of the
pages’ has a very
clear parallel. Every
fruit-bearing tree,
every flowering plant
has its properties and
functions and deeds. It
performs its worship
according to the kind of
its glorification of God
and that is its
manifesting His Names.
Now, all of its deeds
and the record of its
life are inscribed in
each of the seeds that
is to emerge next spring
in another plot of soil.
With the tongue of shape
and form, the trees or
flowering plants
[growing from the seeds
that were buried in
earth in the previous
autumn] make eloquent
exposition of the life
and deeds of their
origin, that is, the
original tree or
flowering plant, and
through the branches,
twigs, leaves, flowers
and fruits they produce,
they spread out the page
of its deeds. He Who
says ‘When the pages
are spread out’ is the
same Being Who, before
our eyes, achieves these
feats in a very wise,
prudent, efficient and
subtle way, as is
dictated by His Names
the All-Wise, the
All-Preserving, the
All-Sustaining and
Training, and the
All-Subtle.1
Follow
up other issues of the
Resurrection by analogy
with this, and deduce
the truth if you are
able. However, in order
to help you reach the
truth, I will add the
following:
“When
the sun is folded up.”
The
verse When the sun is
folded up, in
addition to referring to
a brilliant image by the
phrasal verb ‘fold up’,
also alludes to its
parallel in the world.
First:
The All-Mighty drew
aside the veils of
non-being, then of ether
and the heavens to bring
forth from His treasury
of Mercy and show to the
world a jewel-like
lamp-the sun-to lighten
that world. After
closing the world, He
will wrap that jewel
again in its veils and
remove it.
Second:
The sun may be
considered as an
official charged with
the task of diffusing
light and alternately
winding light and
darkness round the head
of the earth. Every
evening that official is
ordered to gather up his
commodity-the light-and
be concealed. That
official sometimes does
little business because
of a veil of cloud and
sometimes the moon also
forms a veil before him,
preventing him from
carrying out his task
completely. Just as that
official regularly has
his goods and ledgers
gathered up in this
world, so also one day
will come when he will
be relieved of his
duties. Even if there
were no reason for his
dismissal, the two spots
on his face-now small
and liable to grow-may
grow to the point that
he-the sun-will take
back, by the command of
his Lord, the light that
he wraps round the head
of earth by God’s
leave, and God will wrap
that light round his own
head, saying: ‘Come,
you have no more duty to
do concerning the earth.
Journey to Hell, and
burn there those who
have worshipped you and
thus mocked with
faithlessness an
obedient servant like
you.’
With
its dark, scarred face,
the sun announces the
decree: When the sun is
rolled up.
1.
Since the Quran
addresses all
times and peoples
of different level
of understanding,
it could naturally
not be expected to
explicitly mention
the recording of
sounds and images
on tapes and their
being reproduced
on
cassette-players
or TV screens.
However, the
recording of
sounds and images
and their
reproduction on
either
cassette-players
or TV screens are
a decisive
argument for the
‘spreading out
of the pages of
people’s deeds
on the Day of
Judgment.
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