يَقولونَ أَإِنّا لَمَردودونَ فِي الحافِرَةِ

أَإِذا كُنّا عِظامًا نَخِرَةً

قالوا تِلكَ إِذًا كَرَّةٌ خاسِرَةٌ

They will say: ‘Are we being returned to our earlier state?

What, when we have been decayed bones?!’

They will say: ‘This, then, is a ruinous return!’

EXEGESIS

Al-ḥāfirah in verse 10 can be taken to mean the first of something, its beginning, or its original state.^{‎[1]Mizan‎, 20/18; Zamakhshari, 4/693-694.} It can also mean the grave. Both meanings allude to different arguments used by disbelievers to refute the reality of resurrection. On one hand, some would rhetorically ask: ‘After being dead, will we indeed be returned back to our initial state of being alive again?’ On the other hand, others would rhetorically ask: ‘Will we be returned back to life in our very graves while we are beneath the earth?’

EXPOSITION

Verses 10-12 cut to the description of the events of the Day of Judgement and go back to sceptical questions posed by the disbelievers during their life on earth. It thus ironically points out that those who will be profoundly shaken by the fear and anguish of that day of great regret will be in many cases the very same people who refused to recognise its inevitable occurrence.

Verse 12 is a statement that can hold two dimensions at once. On one hand, it is the disbelievers, like those at the time of the Holy Prophet,^{‎[2]Qummi, 2/403.} going on in their mockery of the idea of the resurrection during their life on earth.^{‎[3]Qummi, 2/403.} Yet, another twist becomes manifest when this very statement is understood to describe what the disbelievers will say with full sincerity when they find themselves resurrected on the Day of Judgement not having prepared for it.^{‎[4]Mizan‎, 20/18.}

Some exegetes have also taken verses 10 and 11 to be part of the first statements of the disbelievers on the Day of Judgement when they are resurrected in a state of shock and great regret.^{‎[5]Qutb, 6/3813.}

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. Qummi relays a narration from Abū al-Jārūd, from Imam al-Bāqir (a), that he said about verse 10 that it means: ‘[Will we be brought] into a new creation?’^{‎[6]Qummi, 2/403.}

[1] Mizan‎, 20/18; Zamakhshari, 4/693-694.
[2] Qummi, 2/403.
[3] Qummi, 2/403.
[4] Mizan‎, 20/18.   
[5] Qutb, 6/3813.
[6] Qummi, 2/403.