Resurrectiion - Myth or Reality?

By Habib Siddiqui

Muslims believe in resurrection on the Day of Judgement when people will ultimately end up in either heaven  or hell to account for their faith and worldly deeds. Several Qur'anic verses were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (S) to answer the doubts and questions posed by the pagan Arabs of his time who did not believe in resurrection and falsely assumed that this life on earth is the only life that they have to live through. I cite below some verses of the Qur'an starting with Surah al-Qiyamah (meaning Resurrection) on this subject (by no means a comprehensive collection though):

A. Surah al-Qiyamah (Resurrection)

In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.

1. I swear by the Day of Resurrection. 2. And I swear by the blaming soul. 3. Does man think that We will not reassemble his bones? 4. Yes indeed; We are Able to reconstruct his fingertips. 5. But man wants to deny what is ahead of him. 6. He asks, “When is the Day of Resurrection?” 7. When vision is dazzled. 8. And the moon is eclipsed. 9. And the sun and the moon are joined together. 10. On that Day, man will say, “Where is the escape?” 11. No indeed! There is no refuge. 12. To your Lord on that Day is the settlement. 13. On that Day man will be informed of everything he put forward, and everything he left behind. 14. And man will be evidence against himself. 15. Even as he presents his excuses.

[Note that everyone's fingertips is unique that distinguishes us from each other. This is a knowledge that only became known to us in the last two centuries. And yet the Qur'an says it 14 centuries ago!]

Some other relevant verses from the Qur’an on Resurrection:

B. (79:10-14) They say: “Shall we indeed be restored to life, even after we have been reduced to bones, hollow and rotten?” They say: “That will then be a return with a great loss!” Surely they will need no more than a single stern blast, and lo, they will all be awakened.

C. (17:49-51) And they say, "When we are bones and crumbled particles, will we [truly] be resurrected as a new creation?" Say, "Be you stones or iron, Or [any] creation of that which is great within your breasts." And they will say, "Who will restore us?" Say, "He who brought you forth the first time." Then they will nod their heads toward you and say, "When is that?" Say, "Perhaps it will be soon - On the Day He will call you and you will respond with praise of Him and think that you had not remained [in the world] except for a little."

D. (16:38) They swear most solemnly in the name of Allah and say: "Allah shall not raise to life any who dies." (Yes, He will do so); that is a promise by which He is bound, even though most people do not know that.

E. (19:66-70) Man is prone to say: "Shall I be raised to life after I die?" Does man not remember that We created him before when he was nothing? By your Lord, We will surely muster them and the devils together. Then We will surely bring them all, on their knees, around Hell, and then We will draw aside from each party those who were most rebellious against the Most Compassionate Lord, and then We shall know well all those most worthy to be cast in Hell.

F. (22:5) O mankind! If you have any doubt concerning Resurrection, then know that it is surely We Who created you from dust, then from a drop of sperm, then from a clot of blood, then from a little lump of flesh, some of it shapely and other shapeless. (We are rehearsing this) that We may make the reality clear to you. We cause (the drop of sperm) that We please to remain in the wombs till an appointed time. We bring you forth as infants (and nurture you) that you may come of age. Among you is he that dies (at a young age) and he who is kept back to the most abject age so that after once having known, he reaches a stage when he knows nothing. You see the earth dry and barren and then no sooner than We send down water upon it, it begins to quiver and swell and brings forth every kind of beauteous vegetation.

Many non-Muslims of our time don't believe in resurrection and imagine, much like the pagan Arabs of Muhammad's (S) time, that there is no way human beings will be resurrected in human flesh, esp. if their bodies are cremated. Islam considers such an assertion as a false one, and says that Allah will resurrect the body no matter how it decays. They ask: how will it be possible to recreate?

With the advancement in studies about the DNA, now we know that one's cell's DNA cannot be obliterated by any means. There are some hadith on the mystery of tailbone on this matter that are worth citing. 

Hadith on Tailbone:

1)      Abu Huraira narrated, that the Prophet (S) said: "All of the Sons of Adam will decay except for the bone of coccyx (tailbone). From it he was created and by it he will be reconstructed."

2)     Abu Huraira narrated, that the Prophet (S) said: "There is nothing of the human body that does not decay except one bone; that is the little bone at the end of the coccyx of which the human body will be recreated on the Day of Resurrection." [Al-Bukhari, Al Nisa’i, Abu Daoud, Ibn Majah and Ahmad in his book Musnad and Malik in his book Al Mu’atta].

In those Hadith are some unambiguous statements and facts:
- Man is created from the tailbone

- The tailbone will not decompose
- On Judgment Day the resurrection of human beings will be from the tailbone.

Let us consider the scientific findings which confirm these statements:

Hans Spemann was a German embryologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935 for his discovery of the effect now known as embryonic induction, an influence, exercised by various parts of the embryo, that directs the development of groups of cells into particular tissues and organs. His studies showed that Tailbone cells cannot be degraded or destroyed.

Later scientific studies also confirmed  the same result.

Bottom line: No matter how one’s body decays or decomposes - buried or burned, eaten or destroyed by animals or earth or liquid or fire, vaporized or pulverized (as in a nuclear bomb) - it will be resurrected as a human being on the Day of Judgment. For God everything is possible no matter how our mind with the little knowledge that we possess fails to comprehend such mysteries of creation. He is the One who created things out of nothing. For Him it is all easy to redo the same!

Resurrection in human body is certain.

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