Transliteration:( Wa qaalooo 'a-izaa dalalnaa fil ardi 'a-innaa lafee khalqin jadeed; bal hum biliqaaa'i rabbihim kaafiroon )
20. It means that this enquiry of the infidels from the Holy Prophet ? was not for the purpose of belief, but for obstinately rejecting it.
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10. And they say: “When we are lost in the earth, shall we indeed be created anew” Nay, but they deny the meeting with their Lord! 11. Say: “The angel of death, who is set over you, will take your souls. Then you shall be brought to your Lord.”
Allah tells us how the idolators thought it unlikely that the resurrection would ever come to pass, and how they said:
(When we are lost in the earth,) meaning, `when our bodies have been scattered and have disintegrated and dispersed in the earth,’
(shall we indeed be created anew) means, `after that, will we come back again’ They thought it unlikely that this would happen, and in terms of their own feeble abilities it is indeed unlikely, but this is not the case with regard to the power of the One Who created them from nothing, Who when He wills a thing merely says to it, “Be!” and it is. Allah says:
(Nay, but they deny the meeting with their Lord!) Then Allah says:
(Say: “The angel of death, who is set over you, will take your souls…”) The apparent meaning of this Ayah is that the angel of death is a specific personality among the angels, as is also apparent from the Hadith of Al-Bara’ which we quoted in (our Tafsir of) Surah Ibrahim. In some reports he (the angel of death) is called `Izra’il, which is well known. This is the view of Qatadah and others. The angel of death has helpers. It was reported in the Hadith that his helpers draw out the soul from the rest of the body until it reaches the throat, then the angel of death takes it. Mujahid said, “The earth is brought together for him and it is like a platter from which he takes whenever he wants.”
(Then you shall be brought to your Lord.) means, on the Day when you are resurrected and brought forth from your graves to receive your reward or punishment.
(32:10) They say:[19] “Shall we be created afresh after we have become lost in the earth?” Nay, the fact is that they deny that they will meet their Lord.[20]
19. After answering the disbelievers’ objections about the prophethood and Tauhid, now their objection about the Hereafter, which is the third basic belief of Islam, is being dealt with. The conjunction waw (and) in the beginning of the verse connects this paragraph with the foregoing theme, as if the sequence were like this: “They say: Muhammad is not Allah’s Messenger,” They say: “Allah is not One and the only Deity,” and They say: “We shall not be raised back to life after death.”
20. The gap between the preceding and this sentence has been left for the listener to fill. The objection of the disbelievers as cited in the first sentence is so absurd that no need has been felt to refute it. Only its citation was regarded as enough to show its absurdity. For the two parts which make up the objection are both unreasonable. Their saying: “When we have become dust” is meaningless for that which is “we” can never become dust. Dust is the destiny of the body after it has become devoid of the “we”. The body itself is not the “we”. When alive, limbs and other parts of the body may be cut off one by one, but the “we” remains intact. No part of it is cut off with the cut off limb. And when the “we” has vacated a body, the “we” remains no longer applicable even in its remotest sense although the body still remains intact. That is why a sincere lover goes and buries the body of his beloved, because the beloved is no more in the body. He buries not the beloved but the empty body, which was once the home of his beloved. Thus, the very first premise of the disbelievers’ objection is baseless. As for its second part, “Shall we be recreated?” this question containing surprise and denial would not have arisen, had the objectors considered and taken into account the meaning of the “we” and its creation. The present existence of this “we” is nothing more than that a little of coal and iron and lime and some other earthly substances got together from here and there to combine themselves into a body, which became the home of the “we”. Then what happens when it dies? When the “we” has left the body, the constituent substances of its abode which had been gathered together from different parts of the earth go back to the same earth. The question is: He who had made this home for the “we”, can He not make the same home from the same substances once again and settle the “we” in it? When this was possible before and has in actual fact existed, what can hinder its possibility and its existing as an actual fact once again? These are such things as can be understood by the application of a little of the common sense. But why doesn’t man allow his mind to think on these lines? Why does he raise the meaningless objections about the life of Hereafter? Leaving out all these details, Allah has answered this question in the second sentence, saying: “The fact is that they disbelieve in the meeting with their Lord.” That is, “The real thing is not this that the recreation of man is something odd and remote in possibility, which they cannot understand, but in fact, what prevents them from understanding this is their desire to live freely and independently in the world and commit any sin, any excess that they please and then escape free from here: they should not be held accountable for anything, nor answerable for any of their misdeeds.”
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