As-Sajdah 32:11 - Linguistic Miracle

Say, ‘The angel of death, entrusted over you, will take you. Then to your Rabb, will you be returned.

Again, Allah does not address them directly. He orders His prophet ﷺ to respond to their useless claims.

He does not simply say You will die and then be returned to your Master; rather, He brings to attention the angel of death.

Allah defines what death is. Death is not simply the stoppage of existence. Death is the angel of death taking your spirits out of your bodies. Allah mentioned the rūḥ in the previous verses and now He defines death as the removal of this rūḥ from our

bodies. Which means that it is the rūḥ that gives us life. Take it out and our bodies stop functioning. After the angel of death removes the spirit from our bodies they go to Allah. We covered earlier how it is the amr, that gives life to khalq. Allah is correcting the notion of death that the disbelievers have. Death is not the cessation of existence and you being buried and forgotten forever. It is the removal of the spirits inside your bodies (the very spirits that you reject) to be returned to Allah. Upon death, it goes to Allah to be judged as righteous or evil. Then it is returned back to the grave. Then on judgment day, the body is recreated, joined with the spirit and taken out of the grave. What this means is that we do not remain unconscious when dead. Even inside the grave, our spirit is inside the body. We just live in a

different

state

of

existence.

This

Ḥadīth

describes

the

whole

process.

، عَنْ سَعِيدِ بْنِ يَسَارٍ ، عَنْ مُ مَّحَ دِ بْنِ عَمْرِو بْنِ عَطَاءٍ ، عَنِ ابْنِ أَبِي ذِئْبٍ ، حَدَّ ثَنَا شَ بَابَةُ ، حَدَّ ثَنَا أَبُو بَكْرِ بْنُ أَبِي شَيْبَةَ

: ” الْمَيِّتُ تَحْضُرُهُ الْمَلاَئِكَةُ فَإِ ذَا كَانَ الرَّ جُلُ صَالِ حًا قَالُوا : عَنِ النَّ بِيِّ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ قَالَ ، عَنْ أَ بِي هُرَيْرَةَ

اخْرُجِي أَيَّ تُهَا النَّفْسُ الطَّيِّبَةُ كَانَتْ فِي الْجَسَدِ الطَّيِّبِ اخْرُجِي حَمِيدَةً وَأَبْشِرِي بِرَوْحٍ وَرَيْ حَانٍ وَرَبٍّ غَيْرِ غَضْ بَانَ فَيُقَالُ . فُلاَنٌ : مَنْ هَذَا فَيَقُولُونَ : فَلاَ يَزَالُ يُقَالُ لَهَا ذَلِكَ حَتَّى تَخْرُجَ ثُمَّ يُعْرَجُ بِهَا إِلَى السَّمَاءِ فَيُفْ تَحُ لَهَا فَيُقَالُ

. وَأَبْشِرِي بِرَوْحٍ وَرَيْ حَانٍ وَرَبٍّ غَيْرِ غَضْ بَانَ ، كَانَتْ فِي الْجَسَدِ الطَّيِّبِ ادْخُلِي حَمِيدَةً ، مَرْ حَبًا بِالنَّ فْ سِ الطَّيِّبَةِ :

يَّ تُهَا F فَلاَيَزَالُ يُقَالُ لَهَا ذَلِكَ حَتَّى يُنْتَهَى بِهَا إِلَى السَّمَاءِ الَّ تِي فِيهَا اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ إِوَ ذَا كَانَ الرَّجُلُ السُّوءُ قَالَ اخْرُجِي أَ

فَلاَ . وَآخَرَ مِنْ شَكْ لِهِ أَ زْوَاجٌ . النَّ فْسُ الْ خَبِيثَةُ كَانَتْ فِي الْ جَسَدِ الْ خَبِيثِ اخْرُجِي ذَمِيمَةً وَأَ بْشِرِي بِحَمِيمٍ وَغَسَّ اقٍ : فَيُقَالُ . فُلاَنٌ : مَنْ هَذَا فَيُقَالُ : يَزَالُ يُقَالُ لَهَا ذَلِكَ حَتَّى تَخْرُجَ ثُمَّ يُعْرَجُ بِهَا إِلَى السَّمَاءِ فَلاَ يُفْ تَحُ لَهَا فَيُقَالُ لاَمَرْ حَ بًا بِالنَّ فْ سِ الْخَبِيثَةِ كَانَتْ فِي الْجَسَدِ الْخَبِيثِ ارْجِعِي ذَمِيمَةً فَإِنَّ هَا لاَتُفْ تَحُ لَكِ أَبْوَابُ السَّمَاءِ فَيُرْسَلُ بِهَا مِنَ

” السَّ مَاءِ ثُمَّ تَصِ يرُ إِ لَى الْقَبْرِ

Angels come to the dying person, and if the man was righteous, they say: ‘Come out, O good soul that was in a good body, come out praiseworthy and receive glad tidings of mercy and fragrance and a Lord Who is not angry.’ And this is repeated until it comes out, then it is taken up to heaven, and it is opened for it, and it is asked: ‘Who is this?’ They say: ‘So-and-so.’ It is said: ‘Welcome to the good soul that was in a good body. Enter praiseworthy and receive the glad tidings of mercy and fragrance and a Lord Who is not angry.’ And this is repeated until it is brought to the heaven above which is Allah. But if the man was evil, they say: ‘Come out O evil soul that was in an evil body. Come out blameworthy, and receive the tidings of boiling water and the discharge of dirty wounds,’ and other torments of similar kind, all together. And this is repeated until it comes out, then it is taken up to heaven and it is not opened for it. And it is asked: ‘Who is this?’ It is said: ‘So-and-so.’ And it is said: ‘No welcome to the evil soul that was in an evil body. Go back blameworthy, for the gates of heaven will not be opened to you.’ So it is sent back down from heaven, then it goes to the grave.” (Ibn Majah 4262) Therefore, death is not being buried and to be forgotten. No, you will pay for what you did. The spirit is returned to your grave, where it experiences a new form of life. The body may decompose but the spirit does not. Then on judgment day, Allah will recreate the physical body and the spirit will be put inside the body again as in this

world, and brought before Allah for the ultimate judgment. As it happened inside the womb of our mother, so shall it happen again inside the womb of the earth - the grave. Just as our mothers acted as our womb in this life, the earth will act as our second womb for the next life.

This also shows that it is the spirit that experiences life. Because when the spirit is removed from the body, it stops functioning and dies. Inside the grave the bodies will rot and decompose but the spirit inside the grave will experience a new life. The prophet ﷺ said: “....There is nothing of the human body that does not decay except one bone; that is the little

bone at the end of the coccyx from which the human body will be recreated on the Day of Resurrection.” (Narrated by al-Bukhārī, 4651; Muslim, 2955).

Therefore, the body is not life. It is the rūḥ that experiences it. The disbelievers need to understand this.

Now this is perfectly tied to what has come before. We mentioned that the main role of the prophet ﷺ was to be a constant source of warning to people that their actions have binding consequences attached to them. What you do so shall you receive. If death is the end and there is nothing after death, then this falls on its head because people get away with what they do in this life many times. The Qurʾān itself maintains that people will be repaid in full to what they did. Notice the words ‘ in

full’, they are critical to understand. You may get some parts of what you earned here in this world, not everything. On judgment day, you will receive in full due, the exact recompense of what you did as Allah says

يَوْمَ تَأْتِى كُلُّ نَفْسٍۢ تُجَٰدِلُ عَن نَّفْسِهَا وَتُوَفَّىٰ كُلُّ نَفْسٍۢ مَّا عَمِلَتْ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ

A day each soul comes disputing for itself. Every soul was given in full what it willingly committed. Hence, they shall not be wronged.

Therefore, death cannot be the end. If actions have binding consequences attached to them, then death cannot be the end. There must be a final reckoning after death if this is true.

The disbelievers deny the amr of Allah, which in this case refers to the spirit inside us, yet it is this very spirit that gives us life. Remove it and death occurs. There is simply no denying the amr of Allah. If death is the end of it all, then amr really has no bearing. This is not a small fact. The Jews have wrestled with it just as they continue to do so. Judaism does not have a concept of a final reckoning except for vague texts that are expounded on by the rabbis. What even is the point of life if death is the end? If there is no hereafter, and this world is all there is, then why do the righteous suffer? If this world is all there is, then should the righteous not be rewarded for their

righteousness and the wicked punished in this world? Yet does this happen? The righteous suffer more than anyone. The book of Job wrestles with this question. David wrestles with this question in the book of Psalms. Without the concept of hereafter, righteousness has no merit and evil, no condemnation.