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!]
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:
- 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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