Author: Abu Ayesha
Resurrection after Death (part 22)
Introduction
One of the methods that the opponents and enemies of Islam have always used to weaken the faith and belief of Muslims regarding resurrection and life after death is the creation of various doubts and the spreading of fabricated objections arising from their own minds. It should be understood that the noble scholars and great researchers of Islam have not left these doubts unanswered; rather, they have attempted to provide both textual and rational proofs in response to each of them. However, since from time to time certain individuals continue to revive such issues, in this section we will address some of the doubts that arise after establishing the reality of both bodily and spiritual resurrection, and we will provide appropriate responses to each of them.
The First Doubt: The Dissolution of Bodies
The deniers of resurrection after death have raised a very weak argument known as the “doubt of bodily dissolution and mixture.” According to them, when a human being dies, his matter is finished forever, and once something perishes, its essence is completely nullified.
Allah the Almighty has mentioned this doubt several times in the Noble Qur’an, as He says: (وَقَالُوا أَإِذَا ضَلَلْنَا فِي الْأَرْضِ أَإِنَّا لَفِي خَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ ۚ بَلْ هُمْ بِلِقَاءِ رَبِّهِمْ كَافِرُونَ) translation: “And they say: ‘When we are lost within the earth, shall we indeed be created anew?’ ” Rather, they disbelieve in the meeting with their Lord.” [1]
Elsewhere He says: (وَقَالُوا أَإِذَا كُنَّا عِظَامًا وَرُفَاتًا أَإِنَّا لَمَبْعُوثُونَ خَلْقًا جَدِيدًا) translation: “And they say: ‘When we have become bones and crumbled particles, shall we truly be resurrected as a new creation?” [2]
The denial of resurrection by the disbelievers revolves around one central doubt: after souls depart from bodies and the bodies become decayed bones and scattered particles completely worn away, how can they possibly be restored and brought back to life?
It should be noted that their statements contain two types of questioning:
One is an interrogative of affirmation, regarding which there is no disagreement about its occurrence.
The second is an interrogative of denial, through which they consider the restoration of creation for a second time—just as they were before death—to be impossible.
Their intended meaning is this: when we have become decayed bones and scattered particles, and the pieces of our bodies have mixed with the soil, shall we once again be created as we were before death?
Response to the Doubt
It must be understood that the power of Allah the Almighty encompasses all things. Allah can very easily restore the parts of a human being after they have been scattered and mixed together. Therefore, the intermingling and blending that occurs among bodies does not prevent Allah from returning everything to its proper place. The One Who was able to create them the first time—without any prior example or pattern—is even more capable of recreating them a second time. [3]
The Noble Qur’an has answered this doubt in a remarkably beautiful and logical manner—a response that leaves the deniers without any answer and before which no sound intellect can take any stance except submission and acknowledgment.
The Qur’an’s position was to command them that if they could, they should transform themselves into stones, iron, or anything else. Bones once possessed life, and restoring life to them is easy, but stones and iron are lifeless objects that never possessed life at all. Let them become any creation they imagine Allah incapable of reviving.
This is what Allah the Almighty commanded His Messenger (PBUH) to proclaim to the deniers of resurrection after death. One may then ask such people, “Do you truly possess the ability to do such a thing?” Certainly, they do not possess such power. They are utterly weak before the Lord of the worlds. They cannot even add a single moment to their lifespan nor reduce it, let alone transform themselves into a creation whose restoration would be difficult for Allah. [4]
How beautifully Allah the Almighty explains this matter in His pure and miraculous speech: (قُلْ كُونُوا حِجَارَةً أَوْ حَدِيدًا أَوْ خَلْقًا مِمَّا يَكْبُرُ فِي صُدُورِكُمْ ۚ فَسَيَقُولُونَ مَنْ يُعِيدُنَا ۖ قُلِ الَّذِي فَطَرَكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ ۚ فَسَيُنْغِضُونَ إِلَيْكَ رُءُوسَهُمْ وَيَقُولُونَ مَتَىٰ هُوَ ۖ قُلْ عَسَىٰ أَنْ يَكُونَ قَرِيبًا يَوْمَ يَدْعُوكُمْ فَتَسْتَجِيبُونَ بِحَمْدِهِ وَتَظُنُّونَ إِنْ لَبِثْتُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا) translation: “Say: ‘Be stones or iron, or any creation that seems great in your minds.'” Then they will say: ‘Who will restore us?’ Say: ‘The One Who created you the first time.’ Then they will shake their heads at you and say: ‘When will that be?’ Say, ‘Perhaps it is near. The Day He will call you, and you will respond with His praise, and you will think that you remained only a little while.’” [5]
To be continued…
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References:
- Surah The Quran Al-Sajdah, verse 10.
- Surah Al-Isrā’, verse 49.
- Al-Muqaddam, Jihan Nur al-Din Muhammad, Al-Ma‘ād Bayna al-Muthbitīn wa al-Munkirīn: Dirāsah Taḥlīliyyah Naqdiyyah (“Resurrection Between the Affirmers and the Deniers: An Analytical and Critical Study”), published in Majallat Kulliyyat al-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyyah wa al-‘Arabiyyah, vol. 37, issue 2, 2019, p. 64.
- Al-Mut‘ani, Dr. Abd al-‘Azim, Samāḥat al-Islām fī al-Da‘wah ilā Allāh wa al-‘Alāqāt al-Insāniyyah Minhājan wa Sīrah, 1414 A.H./1993 CE, pp. 43–44.
- Surah Al-Isrā’, verses 50–51.
