فَلَولا إِن كُنتُم غَيرَ مَدينينَ

تَرجِعونَها إِن كُنتُم صادِقينَ

Then why do you not restore it, if you are not subject

[to the divine dispensation], should you be truthful?

EXEGESIS

Madīnīn is from the same root as dīn (religion), which involves an element of being obedient, submitted, and subject to someone or something.^{‎[1]Tahqiq, under d-y-n.} A similar usage of this root is used in 9:29, where it means submitting to religion; and another similar usage is found in 37:53, where it means being subject to retribution. However, the verses here concern returning a dead or dying person back to life. They are about being subject to God’s decree and power (existentially, in takwīn), not about voluntary submission to His commands and legislations (in tashrīʿ). Being unable to return the dead to life proves one’s subjugation to God’s universal and cosmological command, not one’s subjugation to God’s legislative commands. This is a logical point which most exegetes have neglected by drawing the wrong conclusion from the argument posited in these verses. What could clarify their argument is that our subjugation to God’s legislative decrees in the hereafter (as in 37:53) is itself a result of our subjugation to His existential and cosmological decrees.

EXPOSITION

Given the proximity that the Lord has to His servants, no one can have any say, control, or dominance over God’s decree and authority. Thus is the rhetorical question: why do you not restore it, if you are not subject [to the divine dispensation], should you be truthful? The verse is essentially saying: if you are so self-sufficient, if you are at the top of the world, and if you are in charge of the affairs in this world, then try preventing the death of a dying person. Hence, verses 86-87 involve a logical argument based on De Morgan’s law, as follows: 1. If you are not subject to a higher power, then you should be able to restore the dead. 2. But you are not able to restore the dead. 3. Therefore you are subject to a higher power and decree. This is very similar to Prophet Abraham’s (a) argument against Nimrod: Have you not regarded him who argued with Abraham about his Lord, because Allah had given him kingdom? When Abraham said: ‘My Lord is He who gives life and brings death,’ he replied: ‘I [too] give life and bring death.’ Abraham said: ‘Indeed Allah brings the sun from the east; now you bring it from the west.’ Thereat the faithless one was dumbfounded (2:258).

God is the sole owner of life and the only controller of death: Say: ‘… who brings forth the living from the dead and brings forth the dead from the living, and who directs the command?’ They will say: ‘Allah.’ Say: ‘Will you not then be wary [of Him]?’ (10:31). Now that you are so weak, defeated by death, and dominated by God’s decree, you must come to your senses and revise your attitude toward God’s message, the Quran. Therefore, these verses provide an answer to the following mentality of the disbelievers, who thought they can prevail and outdo their Lord: The faithless say: ‘Do not listen to this Quran and hoot it down so that you may prevail’ (41:26).

A very similar set of verses concerning death are found in chapter 75 that complement and provide more insight into these verses: No indeed! When the soul reaches up to the collar bones, and it is said: ‘Where is the medicine man [who can save him now]?’ and he thinks that it is the [time of] parting, and each shank clasps the other shank, that day he shall be driven toward your Lord (75:26-30).

These verses can also serve as a proof for unicity in actions (al-tawḥīd al-afʿālī) discussed in verses 63-73. The common message of those verses was that your strengths, means, and instruments are not the real causes of what occurs in the universe, but it is God’s will and power that act through these means and instruments. Likewise, these verses restate and reemphasise the same message by challenging the readers to return the dead back to life. The argument can be stated as follows: if you are the ones who conduct the affairs of the world, then given that death is one of these affairs, you should be able to prevent death. However, you do not have dominance over death, which shows that you are subject to a higher power. If there is any doubt in the absolute weakness and helplessness of mankind in any aspect of his life, there is no doubt in his utter subjugation to death. Thus, these verses help to clarify that the case of the other affairs and happenings is the same as that of death.^{‎[2]Razi, 29/437.}

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

1. They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever.)^{‎[3]Psalms 49:6-8.}
2. For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.^{‎[4]Ecclesiastes 8:7-8.}

[1] Tahqiq, under d-y-n.
[2] Razi, 29/437.
[3] Psalms 49:6-8.
[4] Ecclesiastes 8:7-8.