أَيَحسَبُ الإِنسانُ أَلَّن نَجمَعَ عِظامَهُ
Does man suppose that We shall not put together his bones?
EXPOSITION
After its opening oaths, the surah turns its attention immediately to those who would deny resurrection. The question posed in this verse is a rhetorical one, asking man if he really supposes that the all-powerful Creator is not capable of resurrecting man, or that He created man without purpose and plan. The translation suppose facilitates conveying the rhetorical nature of this question.
The usage of the general man (al-insān) clarifies that no specific individual is meant, but rather that such fanciful and misguided notions are commonly held by mankind, rooted in a shared love for this world and desire to evade responsibility.
Bones are specified, even though the whole body is reconstituted, because bones call to mind death. They are also that part of a human body which remains the longest and evoke the image of someone having died a long time ago. This acts to highlight the power of God to bring back even those who have long since passed. The verb najmaʿa (put together) facilitates this further, conjuring in the reader’s mind the image of someone long dead whose bones have been scattered to various far-flung places, or even rotten away into bits of dust which must be once again collected to shape the bones.
The verb put together also indicates the relative ease of recreating man. God – who created man from nothing, then gave him the ability to reproduce with the combination of two microscopic cells – can easily recreate man. It is simply a matter of bringing together once more something that already was in being.
The expression put together his bones also tells us that not only is the resurrection obviously physical, but that apparently the body that we get will be reconstituted in more or less the same form as it is now. Albeit we understand from other verses of the Quran that it will also have significant differences, such as being of a specific age, being impervious to death, decay and ageing, needing food and drink, but not being able to die from lack thereof. Furthermore, physical appearances might differ from what they are now (whilst remaining recognisable), with good people being recreated in a more attractive appearance, whilst the wicked might be brought back deformed.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- It is reported that once, Ubayy ibn Khalaf, one of the hostile polytheists of Mecca, went to the Prophet carrying an aged bone, saying: ‘O Muhammad! Do you claim that God will resurrect this after it has crumbled to dust?’ Then he crushed the bone in his hand and blew its particles towards the Messenger of God. The Prophet replied: ‘Yes, I say that; God will resurrect it, and you, after you have both become like this. Then God will make you enter the fire.’ At this time, God revealed: He draws comparisons for Us, and forgets his own creation. He says: ‘Who shall revive the bones when they have decayed?’ Say: ‘He will revive them who produced them the first time, and He has knowledge of all creation’ (36:78-79).
[1] Ibn Hisham, 1/361.