وَنُفِخَ فِي الصّورِ فَإِذا هُم مِنَ الأَجداثِ إِلىٰ رَبِّهِم يَنسِلونَ
And when the trumpet is blown, behold, there they will be, scrambling from their graves towards their Lord!
EXEGESIS
Nufikha (is blown) is a perfect tense verb which literally means was blown. The reason the past tense is used is to emphasise the inevitability of its occurrence, as if it has happened before. Usually, the Quran uses the past tense for the events that are going to happen at the end and the revival of the world to signify its certainty.
Ṣūr is a trumpet or a horn in which one blows. The use of the term here is definitely metaphorical since it is something related to the angelic realm. Nevertheless, it does not mean that its referent is absolutely non-existent. It refers to something in the external world, in the angelic realm, which would cause the death of all living beings and their revival. And the trumpet will be blown, and whoever is in the heavens will swoon, and whoever is on the earth, except whomever Allah wishes. Then it will be blown a second time, behold, they will rise up, looking on (39:68).
Ajdāth is the plural of jadath, meaning grave, tomb, or a sepulchre. It has been used thrice in the Quran, all indicating graves at the time of resurrection.
Yansilūn (they scramble) is from the verbal noun nusūl, meaning rushing to move out. The use of this verb indicates the swiftness by which the process of return to the Lord will take place. Lisān al-ʿArab indicates that it has the sense of exit from a tight congested place to a vast and open place, and that is why nasl is used to refer to offspring and progeny.
EXPOSITION
After the first destructive heavenly sound of the trumpet, there will be a second resurrecting heavenly sound of the trumpet. This resurrection will be single, rapid, and instantaneous, similar to the end of the world, in which God would need neither extra effort nor prerequisites to resurrect every living being.
The second blow of the trumpet will awaken the dead and make them exit their graves for the reckoning. Nasl means walking in haste towards their Lord, the Lord who created them, nurtured them, and gave them sustenance; therefore, He is always their true Lord, and such status gives Him the right to account them for their deeds on the Day of Resurrection. Going back to the Lord is the final destination of everyone in this world.
Our physical bodies were fashioned in the wombs, our souls were fashioned in this world, and our real life begins by returning to our Creator, which begins after this world is destroyed by the first blowing of the trumpet, and after the souls are revived by its second blowing. It is after the second blowing that they will be, scrambling from their graves towards their Lord. Between the two blasts is absolute blankness and absence of any perception.
Using the word jadath, which signifies the physical grave, in addition to countless other verses of the Quran, implies that there is a physical aspect to the resurrection beside its spiritual aspect, and that man’s newly formed body will be made of the same former materials. Does man think that We shall not reassemble his bones? In fact, We are able to restore his very fingertips! (75:3-4).
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) said: ‘The Messenger of God (s) said to Gabriel: “O Gabriel, show me how God, the blessed and exalted, will resurrect His servants on the Day of Resurrection?” He said: “Yes,” so he went out to the cemetery of Banī Sāʿidah and came to a grave and said toward it: “Come forth, by God’s permission.” So, a man came out, dusting off the dirt from his head, saying: “Woe and doom.” Then he said: “Go back in,” so he went back inside [the grave]. After that, he went with him to another grave and said: “Come forth, by God’s permission.” So, a young man came out, dusting off the dirt from his head, saying: “I bear witness that there is no god but God, the one who has no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, and I bear witness that the hour is coming, there is no doubt in it, and that God will resurrect those in the graves.” Then he said: “This is how they will be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection, O Muhammad.”’
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Since the trumpet is related to the unseen world, a few linguists have questioned its nature; some have considered the blow to signify the breathing of the souls into the forms of the dead bodies in the grave for the resurrection.
Rāzī argues: how can the two blowings be conflicting each other – one brings death, and the other brings life? In response, he states that both are ineffective and are signs of the command of God, for He is the one who makes one a cause of death and the other a cause of life. The incredible sound of the trumpet quakes the living bodies and scatters them into pieces. On the other hand, it quakes the scattered parts of the dead bodies, thus collecting them. Therefore, both blows affect the physical particles of the bodies, either scattering them for death or collecting them for life.
Another issue Rāzī discusses is that since the actual graves would be vanquished by the deformation of the earth and the body parts scattered, God would collect all the scattered parts into the place where the actual grave of a person was; hence, the body would rise from it.
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed, he gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies, but the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another, and star differs from star in splendour. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body … Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last Trumpet. For the Trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
[1] Amthal, 14/207-209.
[2] Lane, p. 389.
[3] Lisan < http://arabiclexicon.hawramani.com/?p=15412#f61bee >.
[4] Lisan; < https://www.almaany.com/ar/dict/ar-ar/%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%91/?c=%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%86%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8 >.
[5] Mizan, 17/98.
[6] Bihar, 7/40.
[7] Lane, p. 1745.
[8] 1 Corinathians 15:35-44, 47-49, 51-54, 58.