Exploring the Qur'an by Exploring the Qur'an. Context & Impact (2017)

Author:Exploring the Qur'an. Context & Impact (2017) [Retail]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786721655
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2017-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

Warning of the Resurrection was a fundamental function of the Prophet. Resurrection and Judgement are the pinnacle of the Islamic belief in the One God who creates, sends scriptures and will call people to account in the end. Without the Resurrection, the creation of people would be in vain (‘abath) and contrary to the attributes of God as al-malik al-ḥaqq (‘the true King’, Q. 23:115–16) and aḥkam al-ḥākimīn (‘the fairest of judges’, Q. 95:8), who would not treat in the same way those who believe and do righteous deeds and those who corrupt the earth (Q. 38:28 and Q. 68:35–6). For this reason, the Resurrection and Judgement are referred to directly or indirectly in every page of the Qur’an.

Most of the Arabs first addressed by the Qur’an could not accept the Resurrection and fiercely argued against it. As stated earlier, their arguments were based on the decay of the human body, which they thought could not be brought together and revived again. This was their sole argument for the Resurrection being ‘ajīb (‘strange’). The Prophet who warned about it was seen as either a poet or a madman or someone who invented lies about God. Against this the Qur’an marshalled the numerous arguments we have seen in Sūrat Yā Sīn, which give strong refutations of the disbelievers’ own arguments. The Qur’an notes the disbelievers accepted that it was God who created the heavens and earth and who created them in the first place. With this in mind, it argues that recreating the human being is an easy task for the one who created what is greater and more complex than a human being. Indeed, God is capable of creating things from their opposite. This shows the Meccan disbelievers’ logic to be weak and inconsistent. Had they not believed in God’s creation, they would have been harder to convince. It is true that they asked the Prophet to prove the Resurrection on the spot by bringing back some of their ancestors:

They say, ‘There is only our life in this world: we die, we live, nothing but time destroys us.’ They have no knowledge of this; they only follow guesswork. Their only argument, when Our clear revelations are recited to them, is to say, ‘Bring back our forefathers if what you say is true.’

Q. 45:25

From the Prophet’s point of view the answer was easy; it was not he who could do this but God, who created them: ‘[Prophet,] say, “It is God who gives you life, then causes you to die, and then He gathers you all to the Day of Resurrection of which there is no doubt, though most people do not comprehend’” (Q. 45:25–6). The Resurrection comes only at the appointed time (al-ajal al-musammā), known only to God.

The disbelievers, in spite of all their obduracy, were aware that they were not in a very strong position. The Qur’an produces arguments for the Resurrection from two areas: first, what people can see and feel around them in the realm of plants,

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