and making you human beings as you were before being brought to death, recognizing one another upon your resurrection and at your gathering (1).
As for the aspect of the Interpretation of the one who interpreted that as the death that is the departure of the soul from the body: he must have taken His statement, "and you were dead," to be an address to the dwellers of the graves after their being brought to life in their graves. That is a remote meaning, because the rebuke there is only a rebuke for what had passed and been committed of their crimes, not an opportunity to seek amends or return (2). And His statement, Exalted be His Mention, "How can you disbelieve in God while you were dead," is the rebuke of one seeking amends from His servants, and the reprimand of one calling His creation back from disobedience to obedience, and from error to turning back [to Him]; and there is no turning back in the graves after death, nor any Repentance (Tawba) therein after demise.
As for the aspect of the Interpretation of Qatāda's statement regarding that—that they were dead in the loins of their fathers—he meant by it that they were sperm-drops with no souls in them, so they were in the sense of all other inanimate things that have no souls in them. And His bringing them to life, Exalted be His Mention, is His blowing the souls into them; His causing them to die after that is His taking their souls; and His bringing them to life after that is the blowing of the souls into their bodies on the Day the Trumpet is blown and creation is resurrected for the promised [Day].
As for Ibn Zayd, he clarified what he intended by his Interpretation of that: that the first causing to die occurred when God, Exalted be His Praise, returned His servants into the loins of their fathers after He had extracted them from the loin of Adam; that the next bringing to life was the blowing of the souls into them in their mothers' wombs; and that the second causing to die was the taking of their souls to return to dust (3), and the destiny in the Isthmus until the Day
This translation was produced with AI assistance and is part of an ongoing human-review process. Found a mistake? Use the feedback option in the reader menu.
