أَوَلَيسَ الَّذي خَلَقَ السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضَ بِقادِرٍ عَلىٰ أَن يَخلُقَ مِثلَهُم ۚ بَلىٰ وَهُوَ الخَلّاقُ العَليمُ

Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like of them? Yes indeed! He is the all-creator, the all-knowing.

EXEGESIS

Mithlahum (like of them); the suffixed pronoun hum in the like of them, refers to humans.^{‎[1]Amthal, 14/255.} However, it may be argued that it refers to the heavens and the earth. What weakens this argument, however, is that the pronoun hum is usually used for sentient beings. 

Khallāq (the all-creator) is the hyperbole of khāliq, which may imply intensive creating at a time or timelessly ever creating.

ʿAlīm (the all-knowing) is the hyperbole of ʿālim (knowledgeable); it signifies God’s omniscience, knowing what has been, what is, and what will be. The combination of khallāq and ʿalīm conveys a sense of an omni-creator who has the power to create anything He wishes; indeed, Allah has power over all things (2:20).

EXPOSITION

The rhetorical question in this verse acts as proof for the arguments mentioned in the previous verses, which is another compelling argument for the possibility of resurrection to a new life. God created life once, so why can He not create it again? He set up this firmament, why can He not set it up again?^{‎[2]Mizan, 17/113.}

The argument for resurrection is reinforced here by presenting something greater than the recreation of man who is a tiny part of the universe, very small and simple compared to the creation of the mind-boggling vast and enormous heavens and earth. Surely the creation of the heavens and the earth is more prodigious than the creation of humankind, but most people do not know (40:57). He is capable of recreating the human because He is the all-creator, the all-knowing.

Regarding the like of them, Ṭabrisī mentions that humans are composed of body and soul. After the body dies, it decays and continues to go through changes and alterations, so it does not remain precisely the identical particles of the original body. Even in this life, since birth, the body keeps changing, and its particles do not remain exactly as they were in the original body of birth. However, a human’s spirit and core personality remain unaffected by changes of matter, it is secure from death, decay, and alteration. Hence, the recreated body will not be the exact body that died; it will be the like of it and will look like it. Furthermore, it indicates the recreation of the body and not the soul because the soul, unlike the body, does not deteriorate, decay, or die. Souls are secured with God unaltered and unchanged and will be inserted back into their new, resurrected bodies, which are similar to the bodies before death.^{‎[3]Mizan, 17/113.}

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. Imam Ali (a) said: ‘Look at the sun and the moon, the plants and the trees, the water and the stone, the rotation of the night and day, the gushing of the seas, the large number of these mountains and the height of their peaks, the diversity of these languages and the variety of tongues; therefore, woe is to one who rejected the Designer and denied the Organiser. They claim they are like a plant with no cultivator or maker for their diverse shapes. They did not rely on any proof for what they claimed, nor on any investigation for what they understood. Can there be any construction without a constructor or any offence without an offender?’^{‎[4]Nahj, sermon 185.}

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

The human body is like a brick made out of clay, which deteriorates after time and breaks down into dust. After that, it is recollected as a paste or a dough of clay and kept in the mould to cast out a new brick from the same old material. Thus, the new brick is the same old one, but since it is newly formed, it is thought to be different.^{‎[5]Amthal, 14/257.}

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

1. See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create.^{‎[6]Isaiah 65:17-18.}
2. You alone are the LORD. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all things, and the host of heaven worships You.^{‎[7]Nehemiah 9:4, 6.}

[1] Amthal, 14/255.
[2] Mizan, 17/113.
[3] Mizan, 17/113.
[4] Nahj, sermon 185.
[5] Amthal, 14/257.
[6] Isaiah 65:17-18.
[7] Nehemiah 9:4, 6.