عَلىٰ أَن نُبَدِّلَ أَمثالَكُم وَنُنشِئَكُم في ما لا تَعلَمونَ
From replacing you with your likes and recreating you in what you do not know.
EXEGESIS
Amthāl could be the plural of mithl, meaning ‘your likes’, or the plural of mathal, meaning ‘your traits and attributes’. In the first case, the verse would mean: We can replace you with other people. In the second case, it would mean: We can replace your current form of existence with another (i.e. that of the hereafter), or We can transfigure you (maskh). Though amthāl is sometimes used as the plural of mathal in the Holy Quran, it is more frequently used as the plural of mithl (some examples are cited in Exposition). Given the context of this verse and chapter, it becomes evident that the first meaning is what is meant here.
Note that apparently verse 61 should be read together with verse 60 in order to be complete and meaningful.
EXPOSITION
It is interesting that immediately after the mention of death, this group of verses talks about recreation and replacement. This implicitly implies that death does not mean extermination, but is only a transmission from one form of existence to another. This is a very subtle way of indirectly addressing and correcting a common misconception by a majority of people about death by not stopping at the mention of death, but jumping right away to what happens afterwards.
Death is not the only means of God’s dominance over His creatures. Rather, He is capable of taking away every existent and replacing them by other creatures at any time. In other words, everyone is indebted to God not only for their origination, but also for the continuation of their existence: We are not to be outmanoeuvred from replacing you with your likes and recreating you in what you do not know.
Recreating you in what you do not know is apparently about the next life in the hereafter. Thus, this verse and the one before it can be summed up as follows: We can easily make you die, take you to the next realm, and replace you with another generation. The idea of being replaced by other people is mentioned in several other places in the Quran (4:133, 6:133, 7:129, 9:39, 14:19-20, 24:55, 47:38, 76:30). It serves as a threat, indicating that God is absolutely needless of His creatures: My Lord will make another people succeed you, and you will not hurt Allah in the least (11:57). Overall, what is discussed here can best be summarised by the following verses: O mankind! You are the ones who stand in need of Allah, and Allah – He is the all-sufficient, the all-laudable. If He wishes, He will take you away, and bring about a new creation; and that is not a hard thing for Allah (35:15-17). In addition to His ability to bring a new creation, He can bring a better creation: So I swear by the Lord of the easts and the wests that We are able to replace them by [others] better than them, and We are not to be outmanoeuvred (70:40-41).
Not only are you incapable of stopping God from taking you out of this world, but you do not even know what your future state is going to be. This further emphasises the absolute weakness and desperation of mankind before God, to the extent that they do not really control anything: nor do I know what will be done with me, or with you (46:9). It may also hint at the dreadful punishment of being resurrected in the form of other species according to the reality of one’s identity, determined by his beliefs and actions in this world (see Insights from Hadith under verse 78:18).
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Here are four other meanings for replacing you with your likes:
- We can turn you into other creatures such as animals, as a form of punishment. This is called maskh (transfiguration), and it happened to certain communities before the advent of Islam (2:65, 4:47, 5:60, 7:166). And had We wished We would have deformed them in their place (36:67). This is not undermined by those who have suggested, perhaps based on certain narrations, that a physical transfiguration will not befall anymore as a favour of God on the Prophet. That is because what these narrations apparently deny, if authenticated, is the occurrence of this punishment at a large scale, but it is still possible at the individual level. Also, even if God does not transfigure the sinners and disbelievers anymore due to His mercy, He nevertheless has the ability to do so.
- Replacing you with your likes is not about replacing one group of people with another, but it is about turning a people from one form of creation into another. That is, your likes means your otherworldly creation, which will nevertheless be similar to your current one. In this case, recreating you in what you do not know clarifies what is meant by replacing you with your likes.
- Replacing you with your likes means that We replace your qualities as you grow from infancy to childhood, to adulthood and to old age, and therefore We are capable of recreating you in what you do not know, meaning the afterlife.
- The verse asserts the possibility of two things: We can give you a similar creation to your current one, as We shall do in the hereafter, and We can even give you a totally new and different creation. Therefore, do not be surprised by the notion of coming back to life after death, because We can certainly do that, for We can even turn you into completely different creatures.
Although these points are true, they are unlikely to be the meaning of the verse, because of the following reasons: 1. they are all based on assuming amthāl to be the plural of mathal (trait, attribute) as opposed to mithl (like, similar kind). However, as discussed under Exegesis, this is not a likely meaning. 2. They are against the apparent meaning of nubaddil (to replace and substitute). 3. They do not exactly comply with the trend and context of the verses. 4. There is either no Quranic evidence for them, or what is given in terms of Quranic evidence is inconclusive.
One note to add at the end is that the late Ṣādiqī Tehrānī has made some insightful deductions from these verses concerning physical resurrection (al-maʿād al-jismānī) which we have to skip as they are beyond the scope of this work.
[1] Zamakhshari, 4/465.
[2] Ihtijaj, 2/312; Daylami, 2/414; Tabari, 17/83; Māzandarānī, Sharḥ al-Kāfī, 11/366; Shūshtarī, Iḥqāq al-Ḥaqq, 1/147.
[3] Furqan, 28/89.
[4] Razi, 29/419.
[5] Tabrisi.J, 4/237.
[6] See Furqan, 28/89-93.