وَضَرَبَ لَنا مَثَلًا وَنَسِيَ خَلقَهُ ۖ قالَ مَن يُحيِي العِظامَ وَهِيَ رَميمٌ

He draws comparisons for Us and forgets his own creation. He says: ‘Who shall revive the bones when they have decayed?’

EXEGESIS

Nasiya (forgot), according to Rāghib, is a verb that indicates that a person fails to protect trust given to him intentionally after being aware of it due to the weakness of his heart or ability. It could also be unintentional, by becoming heedless of it.

EXPOSITION

The creation of every single human being is a miracle in itself. Is it not a miracle enough that we see a drop of fluid after ten or fifteen years become a rational entity with all those faculties, feelings, emotions, thoughts, speech, etc.? It just needs a little contemplation about ourselves; however, the problem is that we forget our own creation. Man forgets about himself, that Allah created him from an insignificant fluid and brought him into existence from nought.

One of the Prophet’s contemporaries brought a decayed bone, crushed and scattered it on the ground in front of the Prophet to prove that the dead cannot be brought back to life after bones have become like ashes. He wanted to prove God’s inability to resurrect, questioning who could revive this decayed fragile bone, forgetting that his own initial creation was more wondrous than giving life to decayed bones. Naturally, an immediate logical response was that the one who created it in the first place could revive it. Man is continuously in a state of death and resurrection, his spirit moves on in various stages of his body from a state of the clot to an embryo, then to a human being, then back into dust, and the human originated from dust.

Several names have been narrated for the person who crushed the decayed bone in front of the Prophet, such as Umayyah ibn Khalaf and ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil. However, according to the narration from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a), it was Ubayy ibn Khalaf. He challenged the Prophet with an arrogant air, saying: ‘I will dispute Muhammad vehemently,’ and when he came to him, he shouted: ‘Who can give life to this rotten bone?’^{‎[1]Amthal, 14/247.}

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) said: ‘Ubayy ibn Khalaf [a polytheists] came [to Prophet Muhammad (s)] with a decayed bone he had picked up from a wall and crushed it, saying: What, when we have become bones and dust, shall we really be raised in a new creation? (17:49). So God revealed: Say: ‘He will revive them who produced them the first time, and He has knowledge of all creation [verse 79].’^{‎[2]Mizan, 17/118.}
2. A person asked Imam al-Ṣādiq (a): ‘Does the spirit become extinct after leaving its body, or does it remain?’ The Imam said: ‘Rather, it remains until the time when the trumpet is blown. At that time, everything perishes and becomes extinct when there will be no sense or sensible thing remaining. After that, things will be brought back into existence, as the Originator originated it in the beginning …’ The person asked: ‘How can a human be resurrected while the body has been worn out, the body parts have been scattered, where one part is in a city eaten by beasts, and the other part is in another city torn by insects and small creatures, while one of the parts has become dust mixed with clay to build a wall?’ The Imam replied: ‘He who created it without anything and formed it without any prior example can revive it as He originated it … Thus, the dust of every single body is collected. The bodies are recreated with God’s permission, who can move them to where the spirits are. Then, the forms are redesigned in their original forms with the permission of the Designer, and the spirit is injected into them. Once he is recreated, he would not deny anything from himself.’^{‎[3]Mizan, 17/117-119.}
3. When someone asked Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) about the decaying of a dead body, Imam responded: ‘Yes, it does, until there is no flesh or bone left, except his [particle of] clay from which he was created, for it does not decay and it remains in the grave [shelled] in a circle, until God creates from it as He created the first time.’^{‎[4]Bihar, 57/358.}

Note: Nowadays, scientists can clone a whole human out of his microscopic genetic particles, so the last narration can easily be understood in the light of science.

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

1. But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies, but the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another, and star differs from star in splendour. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

[1] Amthal, 14/247.
[2] Mizan, 17/118.
[3] Mizan, 17/117-119.
[4] Bihar, 57/358.