ilayhi turja‘ūn).” This is the final node in this sequence, so consider the following:
The Creator manifested His power, combining opposites in this world of change (‘ālam al-kawn wa’l-fasād) for [many] subtle instances of wisdom, and He placed apparent causes and intermediaries to display His dignity, and determined the chains of cause and effect. Then, at the resurrection of the dead when the universe is purified and [opposites] are separated out and join forces, causes will be removed and intermediaries will fall away and the veil shall be raised, and each person will see his Maker and recognize his true Owner.
An Appendix Summarizing the Positioning of the Phrases
Consider this: having rebutted the disbelief implied by the rhetorical question “How? (kayfa),” and having prompted the peoples’s amazement at it, the Most High offers [them] proof with what follows the circumstantial “and” (al-wāw al-ḥāliyya); that is, the four mighty transformations, all of which and each of which testify to the necessity of belief. Each transformation comprises numerous stages and degrees, and each is the preliminary and ‘stomach’ of the one that follows it. From the first stage of the first transformation till the last stage of the last transformation the fundament of the living body is constantly renewed. It casts away one shell and is clothed in one more perfect, then it discards that and is dressed in one finer, then it throws that away and puts on a better form, and so on and so forth. It continuously swaps its form for one more perfect till it reaches the acme of perfection and there it comes to rest on the establishment of eternal happiness. And all this is in accordance with a specified order and regular laws.
With “seeing that you were lifeless” it indicates the first transformation, which comprises [numerous] stages the last of which leads to “and He gave you life,” which points to the second transformation, which is the most wondrous of the truths of the world. It too comprises many stages the last of which concludes in the transformation of “then will He cause you to die,” which also has many stages pertaining to the Intermediate Realm. This finishes in the transformation of “and then will bring you again to life,” which comprises many stages pertaining to the grave and then to the resurrection of the dead, and is concluded with [the truth of] “and again to Him will you return.” How can anyone who studies these transformations attentively be so audacious as to deny [them]?