The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Al-Ḥadīd – Verse 17

اعلَموا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُحيِي الأَرضَ بَعدَ مَوتِها ۚ قَد بَيَّنّا لَكُمُ الآياتِ لَعَلَّكُم تَعقِلونَ

Know that Allah revives the earth after its death. We have certainly made the signs clear for you so that you may apply reason.

EXEGESIS

The opening word iʿlamū (know) is for emphasis and to bring a realisation into the listener of what is said after. This form of address repeats in verse 20. And that which God wishes to call man’s attention to is the fact that every year and every season, man witnesses the death of the earth and its revival. When spring comes around and the earth is bursting with colour and vegetation, it is hard to believe all this will ever die and vanish. And yet it does. And when winter comes around and the earth is barren and the trees are all bare, it is difficult to imagine that the earth will ever come to life again. And yet, miraculously, Allah revives the earth after its death.

Given the context, most exegetes agree the words Know that Allah revives the earth after its death is also a simile for God reviving the dead hearts of the faithful and replacing their hard-heartedness with humility (verse 16).[1]

And as is common with verses that offer parables and analogies, this verse too concludes: We have certainly made the signs clear for you so that you may apply reason.

EXPOSITION

Tabatabai sees the assertiveness in this verse (Know that) as hope-giving to the faithful, whose hearts are hardened, encouraging them to seek its revival. But it is also a warning that if they remain hard-hearted then God revives the earth nonetheless, even if it means replacing them with others whose hearts are humbled for Allah’s remembrance and to the truth which has come down (verse 16).[2] And if you turn away He will replace you with another people, and they will not be like you (47:38).

Other possible meanings of this revival of the earth after its death could be the replacing of faithlessness and polytheism with faith in God, or the revival of justice in society when it replaces oppression (see Insights from Hadith). The Quran, also, often uses the image of a dead land coming to life as an analogy for the Resurrection, even if it may seem impossible to man (22:5, 35:9). Indeed He who revives it is the reviver of the dead (41:39).

But the similitude of dead hearts being revived is most appealing in this verse because a dead earth is also hard until it is softened with rain – a symbol of God’s mercy. And dead hearts that have become hard are also softened with God’s mercy – the guidance He sends through His Apostle (10:57, 17:82, 27:77).

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

  1. From the Prophet: ‘The difference between one who remembers God and one who does not is like the difference between the living and the dead.’[3]

Note: This tradition is given in light of the explanation given for this verse, that the words Know that Allah revives the earth after its death alludes to God reviving the hearts of the faithful, and the clearest sign of this revival is the constant remembrance of God. Another version of this prophetic tradition reads: ‘The similitude of the house in which God is remembered and the house in which God is not remembered is like that of the living and the dead.’[4]

  1. From Imam al-Bāqir (a), who said in explaining this verse: ‘God will revive the earth with the Qāʾim after its death, meaning its death caused by the faithlessness (kufr) of its inhabitants; for one who is faithless is [as good as one who is] dead.’[5]
  2. Imam al-Ṣādiq (a), in explaining the words revives the earth after its death, said: ‘[It means] with justice after tyranny.’[6]

Note: Traditions such as the two above are from taʾwīl – an esoteric interpretation of the verse and not the exegesis (tafsīr) of the verse.

  1. From Imam al-Kāẓim (a): ‘For indeed God gives life to dead hearts with the light of wisdom just as the dead earth is revived with a heavy downpour of rain.’[7]
[1] Zamakhshari, 4/478; Mizan, 19/162; Ibn Kathir, 8/54; Jalalayn, p. 542; Razi, 29/461; Suyuti, 6/175.
[2] Mizan, 19/162.
[3] Bukhari, 7/168.
[4] Muslim, 2/188.
[5] Bihar, 51/54.
[6] Kafi, 8/267, h. 390.
[7] Bihar, 78/308.