ثُمَّ أَماتَهُ فَأَقبَرَهُ
Then He made him die and buried him.
EXEGESIS
Aqbara (buried) has the same meaning as qabara which signifies the act of preparing a grave and placing the deceased within it.
Some linguists distinguish aqbara from qabara, noting that while both relate to burial, qabara generally refers to the physical act of interring the dead, whereas aqbara may imply causing or facilitating the burial. Accordingly, qābir denotes the one who performs the manual task of placing the body in the grave, often understood as the gravedigger.
The grave itself is called qabr (pl. qubūr).
EXPOSITION
This verse now turns its attention to the final stage of man’s worldly life, death, which is the separation of the soul from the body. Because death is a matter of divine decree, it is attributed to God: Allah takes the souls at the time of their death (39:42). Man does not decide the time of his own death, no soul knows in what land it will die (31:34). Even a person who tries to rebel against divine decree and commit suicide, would not die except by the leave of God, No soul may die except by Allah’s leave, at an appointed time (3:145). There are abundant examples of people who tried to take their own life but survived, some of them bordering on the miraculous. The same applies to murderous or accidental deaths.
However, death is certain and inescapable, Every soul shall taste death (3:185). This verse is not providing anyone with new information, rather, it confronts man’s cognitive dissonance; he lives as though immortal, while knowing full well his end is certain. No indeed! These [verses of the Quran] are a reminder – so let anyone who wishes remember (verses 11-12). How strange it is that man insists on behaving in a manner that ignores a reality that he is intimately aware of.
The verb aqbara, as was discussed in the exegesis, denotes facilitating or causing someone’s burial. It is a causative expression, meaning: God has rendered him one confined in a grave (ṣayyarahu dhā qabr).
This usage follows logically from the preceding statement (Then He made him die), forming a sequential inevitability declaring that death necessarily leads to burial. The role it serves in this verse is to emphasise the inevitability of death and the final destination of everyone in this world. It would be functionally similar to the English phrase ‘dead and buried’, which seeks to highlight that the person is well and truly dead.
Naturally, not every person is buried after death, however the verse is speaking of what is usually the case,
or what should be the case. Indeed some scholars have pointed to this verse as evidence that the deceased should be buried.
The institution of burial not only serves the purpose of respect for the dead, but graves themselves act as a reminder to the living of the temporality of life and the inevitability of death. This is part of the philosophy of constructing and visiting graves. See the commentary on 102:1-2 for more.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- From Faḍl ibn Shādhān, that Imam al-Riḍā (a) said regarding why people are buried: ‘So that people would not see the corruption of their body, the ugliness of their appearance, and the change of their smell, and so that the living would not be beset by their odour or by what brings affliction, impurity, and corruption. And so that they would be concealed from both friends and enemies, that no enemy may rejoice, nor any friend be grieved.’
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Other suggestions for the meaning of aqbara are:
- It implies divine benediction in the sense that man’s body is not left out to be picked apart and eaten as carrion.
- It implies a command of God although in declarative form. In other words, it means: then He commanded you to bury him.
- God has guided and inspired man to do this.
This would be similar to the story of Abel and Cain, where God teaches Cain to bury his brother by showing him the behaviour of the crow (5:31). - God has given man the intellect and the tools and means necessary to bury their dead, so the action is attributed to Him.
All of these can be considered to be included in the meaning, as God caused a person to be buried, not just because He took his life, but because He facilitated and ordained the ritual of burial. The phrase hence includes both divine decree and societal norm (which results from divine guidance in this case, as per 5:31).
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- ‘The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.’
[1] Tibyan, 10/273.
[2] Razi, 31/58; Qurtubi, 19/219.
[3] Tabari, 30/36; Thalabi, 10/132.
[4] Mizan, 20/207.
[5] Alusi, 15/247.
[6] Ilal, 1/251; Wasail, 3/141; Nur, 5/510-511.
[7] Baghawi, 5/211; Zamakhshari, 4/703; related in Tabrisi, 10/666; Thalabi, 10/132; Qurtubi, 19/219.
[8] Related in Tabrisi, 10/666; Thalabi, 10/132.
[9] Mizan, 20/207-208.
[10] Nemuneh, 26/139.
[11] 1 Samuel 2:6.