إِنَّهُ هُوَ يُبدِئُ وَيُعيدُ
It is indeed He who originates and brings back again.
EXPOSITION
He has created all things, and brings them back to life after death, like in the verse, Have they not regarded how Allah originates the creation? Then He will bring it back. That is indeed easy for Allah. Say: ‘Travel over the land and then observe how He has originated the creation.’ Then Allah shall bring about the genesis of the hereafter. Indeed Allah has power over all things (29:19-20). The verse is very general in its scope and encompasses all things and how everything will return to its Originator and Master. So there is an allusion here to the Day of Judgement, and how all people must return to God for judgement, as spoken of in the previous surah and declared in the second verse of this one.
Consider too the context of the surah in addressing the vainglorious oppressors, who think themselves mighty and unaccountable. Whatever power they have has been initiated by God and given to them; it will be taken away from them, and they must return to God powerless and weak, just like they began, They will be presented before your Lord in ranks: ‘Certainly you have come to Us just as We created you the first time’ (18:48). Empires rise and fall. History is neither arbitrary nor forgetful and all cycles return to God. It is also a comfort to the believers, who take solace in the fact that their sacrifices have not been in vain, and their Lord will bring them back again so that they may be rewarded.
Finally, let us note how this verse especially – and the rest of the verses till the end of this surah – consists of paired concepts. Here the beginning is paired with the return, then forgiveness and affection, Throne and glory, action and desire, history and nations, Pharaoh and Thamūd, faithlessness and denial, God and His all-encompassing nature, Quran and glory, the heavenly tablet and its preservation.
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
It is attributed to Ibn Abbas that this verse intends that God starts the punishment and then brings it back again, meaning they will be punished once in this world and then again in the next world. The argument for this asserts support from the context of the previous verses where God talks of His severe strike, and how the wicked will have the punishment of hell and the punishment of burning.
Another variant of this is that God will burn them to char in hell, then return them back so that they may be burned again. Tabatabai seems to prefer this opinion, elaborating how God is hereby emphasising the severity of His strike. He quotes other verses such as: As for the faithless there is for them the fire of hell: they will neither be done away with so that they may die, nor shall its punishment be lightened for them (35:36); Indeed those who defy Our signs, We shall soon make them enter a fire: as often as their skins become scorched, We shall replace them with other skins, so that they may taste the punishment (4:56).
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done.
[1] Qummi, 2/414; Tabrisi, 10/710. This opinion has been attributed to al-Ḍaḥḥāk, Hasan al-Baṣrī, and others (Tibyan, 10/320; Tabari, 30/88).
[2] Muhit, 10/445-446.
[3] This is the preferred opinion in Tibyan, 10/320; Tabari, 30/88.
[4] This opinion has also been attributed to Ibn Abbas (Razi, 31/114).
[5] Mizan, 20/253.
[6] Isaiah 46:9-10.