and the remaining verses of the same sura. The All-Wise Qur’an thus proves the question of resurrection in seven or eight different forms.
It first directs man’s attention to his own origins. It says “you see how you advanced from a drop of sperm to a drop of blood, from a drop of blood 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 of accomplishment for God.” God Almighty also refers to the great bounties He has bestowed on man with phrases such as:
He Who made fire for you from the green tree1
and says to man: “Will the Being Who thus bestowed bounty upon you leave you to your own devices, in such fashion that you enter the grave to sleep without rising again?” He also hints at the following: “You see how dead trees come to life and grow green again. Refusing to regard as a parallel the reanimation of your bones, that resemble dry wood, you dismiss the whole matter as improbable. Now is it at all possible that the One Who creates the heavens and earth should not be empowered over the life and death of man, the fruit of heaven and earth? Do you imagine that He would make fruitless and vain the tree of creation that He has moulded with wisdom in all its parts, by abandoning the supreme result of that tree?”
The Qur’an says further: “The Being That will restore you to life at resurrection is such that the whole cosmos is like an obedient soldier of His. It bows its head submissively whenever it hears the command,
“Be!”, and it is.2
To create a spring is easier for Him than the creation of a flower. To create the whole of the animal realm is as easy for His power as creating a fly. None may belittlingly challenge His power by saying to Him:
Who will give life to the bones?3
Then, from the verse,
Glory be to Him in Whose hand lies the sovereignty of all things,4
we see that the index of all things is in His hand, the key to all things is in His possession; He rotates night and day, winter and summer, with as much ease as if He were turning the pages of a book. He is an All-Powerful, Glorious Being Who closes the door on this world and opens it on the hereafter as if they were two stations. This being the case, as the result of the mentioned evidences,
Qur’an, 36:80.
Qur’an, 2:117.
Qur’an, 36:78.
Qur’an, 36:83.