by Dr. Ali Shehata
The Islamic Belief in the Afterlife
Although belief in the afterlife is a matter of the unseen as described in the Quran, God never asks the believer to have “blind faith,” as has been frequently “required” in other religions. Instead, God continually provides logical evidence throughout the Quran for everything that He asks us to accept.
Then did you think that We created you uselessly and that to Us you would not be returned (for account)? {23:115}
And not equal are the blind and the seeing, nor are those who believe and do righteous deeds and the evildoer. Little do you remember. {40:58}
Or do those who commit evils think We will make them like those who have believed and done righteous deeds—that they will both be equal in their life and their death? How poor is the judgment that they make. {45:21}
And We did not create the heaven and the earth and that between them aimlessly. That is the assumption of those who disbelieve, so woe to those who disbelieve from the Fire. {37:27}
These verses are all indicative that seeking and implementing justice is an innate human sense found throughout all societies from the dawn of time till today. Indeed, the level of civilization of a people is often directly correlated to their implementation of justice in their society. How then can the manifestation of all Perfection, God, allow such injustice to occur by allowing the righteous and the corrupt to both have the same end?
A Resurrection that We Witness Every Year
And Allah has sent down rain from the sky and given life thereby to the earth after its lifelessness. Indeed in that is a sign for a people who listen. {16:65}
He brings the living out of the dead and brings the dead out of the living and brings to life the earth after its lifelessness. And thus will you be brought out. {30:19}
Throughout time, people of doubt have questioned how the Creator would be able to bring them back to life for judgment after they had decayed into dust and bones. Once again, God answers such questions with logical answers, one of which can be seen over and over again every year – the death of the earth every winter, and its return to life in the spring. This is a resurrection that all people have witnessed and likewise a great sign from God.
Is it So Strange that the Creation will be Repeated?
And he presents for Us an example and forgets his [own] creation. He says, “Who will give life to bones while they are disintegrated?” Say, “He who produced them the first time will again give them life, and He is, of all creation, Knowing.” {36:78-79}
The next compelling argument presented above asks why this resurrection should be so difficult when indeed it was God that brought both mankind and the entire universe into existence from nothing. In fact, it should be far easier for Him to bring us back into existence with actual working materials, be they bones or dust, as opposed to nothing at all, as was done with the first creation.
A Sign from Prehistoric Times
Yet, the evidences don’t stop there. God engages His creation on yet a higher level, and that it is the realm of scientific understanding. Using verses in the Quran reinforced with scientific knowledge, He drives the point even further to those who still have doubts.
God states that He would bring them back to life even if mankind were stones, as seen in the following passage from the Quran:
And they say, “When we are bones and crumbled particles, will we really be resurrected as a new creation?” Say, “Be you stones or iron or any creation which is great within your estimation.” And they will say, “Who will restore us?” Say, “He who brought you forth the first time.” Then they will nod their heads toward you and say, “When is that?” Say, “Perhaps it will be soon.” {17:49-51}
Why would God tell the disbelieving people that He would resurrect them even if they were stones? The amazing answer comes with the discovery of fossils.
A fossil is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, “a remnant, impression, or trace of an organism of past geologic ages that has been preserved in the earth's crust”. One of the few ways that we know anything at all about prehistoric life is through such fossils. Some people refer to specimens of dinosaurs as "dinosaur bones", but in fact, they are not. No organic material can remain unchanged for millions of years. That is why many of the artifacts of the past that survive to be looked upon and studied by human eyes do so as stones, or fossils.
How do things turn to stone, or become fossilized? First of all, only a very small amount of prehistoric life was fossilized. In order for this phenomenon to take place, conditions had to be exactly right. Only the hard parts of an organism can become fossilized, such as teeth, claws, shells, and bones. The soft body parts are usually lost, except for in very special conditions.
Specifically though, an animal would die and be buried in sand or earth that over the next few centuries would continue to pack harder and harder, partly preserving the bone or shell and also infusing it with rock-like minerals in a process called permineralization. Over millions of years, the original bone or shell is completely replaced by the minerals and what remains is a rock-like copy of the original shell. The fossil has the same shape as the original object, but is actually rock.
Amber too has been recently found to preserve species from millions of years ago. Amber, in fact, creates the world's most perfect fossils. It's an unusual stone that begins as sap flowing from some types of trees. Sometimes insects, plants or other small animals become trapped in that sap, and go on to become preserved in near-perfect, three-dimensional condition. Over millions of years of hardening and fossilization, the resin eventually becomes the stone amber and can be found in very few areas around the world where the conditions were just right for its formation and preservation.
How does all of this information then relate to the resurrection? The disbelieving peoples found it difficult to believe that God would resurrect them from dust and bones, so God shows them how even if they were to have turned to stone – stone here being even more difficult than actual bones as a substrate from which to recreate - that He is well capable to resurrect them with ease and thus the stone fossils that remain show His power to easily preserve the remnants of past life even under very challenging circumstances.
Again, another example of the use of scientific knowledge not discovered for over one thousand years after the revelation of the Quran is a miracle for you and me, people of the twenty-first century. God is telling you that, as the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, He is well acquainted with our make-up and composition. He is the One that takes our souls away, and He is the One well capable of giving us life again. And from His immense Mercy and concern for us, He answers every doubt – for example, here about the idea of the resurrection - so as to give us every chance to accept Him and submit to Him, thereby achieving success, both in this life and the hereafter.
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