Resurrection: Islamic
& Scientific Perspectives
Islamic Perspective
Every living creature is destined to die. This is the
natural law. Or everything that is born will die. To the Muslims this is the
law of Allah (swt). Hence human beings are no exception. Death is the cessation
of ordinary human existence. Questions concerning the origin of death and the
destiny of the dead, as well as rituals regarding the dead, are elements in all
religions.
In Islam, death is the common destiny willed by Allah (swt)
for all living things. Death is a passing state for human beings between earthly
existence and immortal life in the hereafter (Aakhirah). The onset of death is
traditionally conceived in terms of a personal encounter with an angel of death
dispatched by Allah (swt). Prevailing Islamic doctrine conceives death as a
disengagement of the soul from the body, the outward sign of which is the
cessation of breathing. This event marks the end of the predetermined period of
mundane life that is to be accounted for at the last judgment, the Day of
Judgment (Qiyamah), when the body and soul are again reunited and resurrected
for consignment to the splendid gardens of paradise or torturous fires of hell.
Between death and resurrection, individuals are subjected to a preliminary
trial in the grave by the angels Munkar and Nakir and given a preview of their
destiny in the Hereafter (Aakhirah).
Aqeeda (Muslim Creed)
The principal points of the Muslim Creed are: Belief in
Allah (the God), God's Angels, God's Messengers, God's Books, Belief in life
after death (Aakhirah); the
Day of Resurrection (Qiyamah) and Qadr.
The fifth point in Muslim creed is to believe in life after
death; to believe in the Day of Resurrection. This is the most important
article of faith in Islam. It is in fact, the basis upon which Islam builds its
whole philosophy of Life. A person cannot be a Muslim until after he/she
accepts this principle. The advent of resurrection or Qiyamah is
more frequently mentioned in the Noble Quran than any other happening. On the
day of Qiyamah, all
human beings will be resurrected and will have to pass through God's judgment
on their actions during this ephemeral life on earth. All this is vividly
described in the Noble Quran. The word, Qiyamah, occurs 68 times in the
Quran, and the word Hereafter occurs 118 times in Yusuf Ali's translation of
the Quran. The Quran argues that resurrection is rationally possible.
"O
mankind! if you have a doubt about the Resurrection (consider) that We created
you out of dust then out of sperm then out of a leech-like clot then out of a
morsel of flesh partly formed and partly unformed in order that We may manifest
(Our Power) to you; And We cause whom We will to rest in the wombs for an
appointed term then do We bring you out as babes then (foster you) that you may
reach your age of full strength; and some of you are called to die and some are
sent back to the feeblest old age so that they know nothing after having known (much).
And (further) you see the earth barren and lifeless but when We pour down rain
on it, it is stirred (to life) it swells and it puts forth every kind of
beautiful growth (in pairs)."
(Quran, 22.:5)
Commenting on this verse, Allama Yusuf
Ali says "If they really have doubts in their minds about the life after
death, they have only to turn their attention either to their own nature, or to
the nature around. How wonderful is their own physical growth, from lifeless
matter, to seed, fertilized ovum, fetus, child, youth, aged, and death! How can
they doubt that the Author of all these wonderful stages in their life here can
also give them another kind of life after the end of this life?
Or, if they look at external nature, they see the earth dead
and barren and Allah's fertilizing showers bring it in to life, growth and
beauty in various forms. The Creator of this great pageant of Beauty can surely
create yet another and a newer world. The stages of man's physical growth from
nothing till he completes the cycle of this life are described in words whose
accuracy, beauty, and comprehensiveness can only be fully understood by
biologists. Parallel to the physical growth, may be understood man's inner
growth, also by stages and by Allah's creative artistry."
Temptations of this world and its transitory pleasures often
make man forget that the life hereafter is an impending actuality. Many of
those who claim to believe in the life to come, act and behave as if it
belonged to a distant future, and had no bearing to their present activities
and manner of living. The Quran repeatedly reminds men that the Hour of
Reckoning is not a distant possibility, but very close to man, and could come
to pass any moment. Some possibilities are: Nuclear warfare, huge meteors/
asteroids striking the earth, deadly epidemics, natural disasters: tornadoes,
earth quakes, volcanoes, etc., Ozone hole, pollution, depletion of fuel in the
sun, etc.
The wisest course for man, therefore, is to be always alert
and guard and navigate clear of all forms of sin and impiety, for when the
Promised Hour comes it will come and without any prior notice. Hence in the
Quran almost every Surah mentions who moves and acts of his own free will;
protects himself and ensures the preservation of the species. Most importantly,
there is the moral aspect of man's being, which is endowed with the
consciousness of good and evil, the faculty to discriminate between the two,
and the power to do good as well as malevolence. Man's nature demands that good
deeds should have good results and evil deeds should lead to evil consequences.
Man is endowed with the faculty to discriminate justice from tyranny; truth
from falsehood; right from wrong; mercy from cruelty; kindness from
malevolence; generosity from meanness; trustworthiness from breach of trust,
etc. These qualities are not abstract ideas but are actually experienced in
human life and have a deep and far-reaching effect on human civilization. Hence
man's nature demands that his acts should lead relentlessly to their moral
consequences; in the same way as they lead to their physical effects.
If a man kills another human being, the moral consequence of
the act should be the punishment of the criminal commensurate with the damage
that he has caused to the family whose member was killed. It is possible that
the offender may go scot free and even remain happy and become prosperous after
having killed another human being. Justice demands that the offender must be
punished. Since this has not happened in this world, it has to take place in
the life Hereafter (Aakhirah).
Genghis (Changez) Khan, Hitler and
others caused grave harm to millions of people for countless generations. Under
the natural laws that govern the system of the Universe they could not possibly
be awarded punishment commensurate with their crimes and acts of senselessness.
Even if Genghis Khan or Hitler were to be torn to pieces, this punishment would
not be commensurate with the wrongs they perpetrated on humanity. Between 1974
and 1979 Pol Pot killed millions of Cambodians. Thus we see killing, adversity
and suffering at the hands of the vested interests. Is it possible to make restitution
to such men and women adequately in this short span of life, within the limits
of the physical laws that govern the world? The laws that govern the present
system of the Universe do not allow an opportunity for complete retribution for
the killings of millions of Cambodians.
On the other hand, great prophets, the sages and the pious
and virtuous men and women called mankind to the truth and the right path, and
guided them out of darkness into light. Their ideas and teachings and practical
examples have benefited millions of men and women for centuries; doing good for
mankind, bracing against the tempest of consequences of human actions.
Also the actions of humans during their short span of life
on earth often have effects so widespread and lasting that their full
consequences take thousands of years to unfold and manifest themselves fully.
And it is impossible for any person, under the present laws of nature to attain
such a long longevity on earth. It is logical to argue that while the present
physical world and its natural laws are enough for the material and animal
constituents of man, they are quite inadequate for the moral elements of his
being. Hence there is a need for another world where the law of ethics is the
governing law and the laws of nature are subservient to it; where life is
eternal; where the moral consequences of human actions in the material world
that could not manifest themselves there, should manifest themselves fully and
in proper form. It demands a world where truth and righteousness, and not
materialistic things, carry weight; where fire burns only such things as
deserve to be burned according to the moral law; where happiness and comfort
are the lot of the virtuous, and pain and misery the plight of the wicked. Both
nature and reason demand such an order. The Quran assures us that the world
that our natures as well as our reason demand, shall be a reality one day.
There is no instrument to determine with certainty whether
there is any life beyond death. Science can neither affirm nor deny Aakhirah. The
question of whether there is any life after death lies completely outside the
realm of scientific knowledge. Anyone who declares, in the name of science,
that there is no life after death, therefore, makes a very unscientific
statement. If a person is of the view that the life of this world is the only
life and that there is no life of any kind after this, that person will develop
a moral attitude without any accountability for his/her actions in this world.
A radically different kind of attitude and approach is bound to result if
he/she believes that this life is to be followed by another life where one will
have to render account for all of one's acts in this world and that one's
ultimate fate in the Hereafter will depend upon one's conduct in this life.
The Quran reveals
that this Universe, which was created in accordance with the physical laws,
will be demolished at one stroke; and it will be replaced by another world. God
Almighty will then resurrect all the human beings who were born from the
beginning of creation down to its end, and will make them appear (resurrect)
before Himself on the day of Qiyamah. The records of all the
deeds of individuals, communities, and mankind at large, will be there without
the slightest error or omission. Also there will be complete reports of the
effects and consequences of all human actions in the material world. All of the
generations of men affected by them, will be present in the witness box. Every
particle affected, in any way, by the deeds or words of men will tell its own
story. And the limbs, the ears, eyes and all other parts of the human body will
stand witness as to how they were used or abused in life. On the basis of this
unimpeachable evidence and those complete records, Allah (swt), the Supreme
Sovereign of the Universe, will decide each case with perfect justice and
pronounce the reward or penalty as the case may be. The reward, as well as the
punishment, will be of a magnitude that cannot even be estimated by the limited
standards of the material world. The virtues whose beneficent effects extend
over several centuries in this world will be fully rewarded there, and neither
death nor illness, nor old age, will be to cut short the enjoyment of the
reward. On the other hand, the evil deeds whose effects and consequences blight
the lives of millions in this world for hundreds of years will be punished
fully, and neither death nor coma will be able to relieve the pain and
suffering of the guilty.
The Noble Prophet (SallAllaahu alayHi wa
AaliHii Wasallam) has said the following in one of
his moving sermons thus:
I swear by Allah that all of you will certainly die, just as
you go to sleep at night. Then surely you will all be raised again as you wake
up in the morning. Then you will definitely be judged for the deeds you had
been doing. You will get rewards for good deeds and punishment for the evil
ones; it will either be the everlasting life of Paradise or the endless torment
of Hell-fire.
(Cf. Sermons of the Holy Prophet, reproduced in Nahajul
Balagha)
To the Quraish, the concept of Aakhirah and Qiyamah were
way above their heads.
One may ask why Allah should not be able to recreate the
form of man which came into being out of scattered particles of clay and was
then again turned into earth.
The Quran makes repeated references to this matter, saying
for example:
"We
created you from earth and return you to earth and then bring you forth once
more."
(Quran, 20:55)
In this verse, our attention is drawn to the creative power
of the Creator. Through the presentation of the past and future of man in this
world and the Hereafter, in a single panorama, solace and assurance are given
to man's unquiet and sceptical soul.
The dismayed people who imagine that the body of man
disintegrates as a result of chemical and microbial actions within the soil,
and that it cannot be restored to life, to them the Quran says:
"The
unbelievers say: Is this not strange that we should be brought back after dying
and turning to dust? Such a return is impossible. But We are fully Aware of
what the earth takes from them and it is We Who possess the Preserved
Tablet."
(Quran, 50:2-4)
This verse refers, then, to a group of unbelievers who deny
the resurrection of the dead. It reminds them that Allah knows full well where
the elements are that once made up their bodies before being dispersed and
returned to the storehouse of nature. He will reassemble those elements on the
plain of resurrection, thus reconstructing the body in a way the unbelievers
thought impossible. This reconstruction will follow entirely the structure and
contents of the body as it previously existed, and be based entirely upon it
The convincing logic of the Quran
When the Prophet of Islam (SallAllaahu alayHi wa
AaliHii Wasallam) expounded the topic of Qiyamah (resurrection)
to the pagan Arabs, a Bedouin named Ubayy bin
Khalaf picked up a decayed bone and set out for Madinah to
visit the Prophet (SallAllaahu alayHi wa AaliHii Wasallam). In
the hope of refuting the arguments of the Prophet and the logic of the Quran on
which they were based, he raised up the bone, as if it were a valuable and
convincing piece of evidence, and crumbled it to dust, scattering the pieces in
the air. Then he addressed the Prophet Muhammad (SallAllaahu alayHi wa
AaliHii Wasallam) these crude, unadorned words
inspired by his rebelliousness and ignorance: "Who will restore to life
the scattered particles of this rotten bone?"
He believed that he would thus be able to refute the
arguments of the Prophet (SallAllaahu alayHi wa AaliHii Wasallam) and to
destroy the belief of others in resurrection of the dead. His ignorant mode of
thought prevented him from having any correct notion of the creation of being,
so that he imagined that the scattered particles of a decayed bone could not
possibly be brought back to life. He adamantly maintained that the reassembling
of the countless particles of the body was unacceptable to man's reason.
We know that Ubayy bin
Khalaf was cursed by the Prophet (SallAllaahu alayHi wa
AaliHii Wasallam) for putting the intestines of a
camel on the back of the Prophet (SallAllaahu alayHi wa
AaliHii Wasallam). He was killed in the battle of
Badr and his body parts were mutilated but he was not thrown in the well. (Sahih
Bukhari Hadith 5.193)
The Noble Quran replied with this persuading argument based
on convincing logic:
"(O
Messenger) say: "Who first brought them to life will restore them to life.
He has knowledge of all His creation. .. Is the Creator Who brought into being
the heavens and the earth, incapable of creating the like thereof? Certainly He
is the Creator and All-Knowing."
(Quran, 36:79-81)
The Quran invites man to contemplate the whole vast
structure of creation together with the innumerable phenomena and minutiae it
contains, using his wisdom and the intelligence which are his means for recognizing
the principles underlying the universe. Thus cloning enables man to realize
that the restoration of life to man through resurrection is not more difficult
than the initial creation out of a mass of different materials that were
compounded together.
Man may well ask himself how the breath of life may be
infused anew into the particles of his body once they have been scattered in
the recesses of the earth, and how lifeless matter may be brought back to life
although its constituent elements have been dispersed. But the dispersal does
not result in their permanent alienation from each other, and the human
intellect can well understand that the infinite and eternal creative power of
God has no difficulty whatsoever in compounding afresh those scattered elements
so that they begin pulsating with life anew.
The Noble Quran reminds man of Allah's unlimited power to
restore all the minute qualities and precise details of man's limbs with the
following words:
"Does
man imagine that We are not capable of reassembling his decayed bones? We are
able even to restore his fingers to their previous state."
(Quran, 75:3-4)
In this verse Allah selects to mention out of all the marvels
of man's composition the lines in his fingers as an example of His power. In
the whole world, two people cannot be found with exactly identical
fingerprints. This unique quality of fingerprints, first indicated in the Quran
remained unknown until their discovery by British scientists in 1884.
In February 1997 it was publicized that a Scottish scientist
cloned a lamb. The western scientists speculated the possibility of cloning a
human being. Some Muslim scholars think that it is impossible to clone a human
being. Because the human being is different from all of God's creations in that
the human being has a soul. The argument is since science cannot clone a soul,
a human being cannot be cloned. Looking at the past history of science, it is
possible to clone a human being in our life-time. A clone is like a photocopy
of the original or an identical twin who is much younger in age. If an identical
twin has a soul, then a human clone will also have a soul. A clone cannot be
grown in a laboratory but in a surrogate mother's womb. The surrogate mother
provides all the nutrients for the cloned cell to grow to become an embryo, a fetus
and then after delivery a human child, just like the lamb Dolly. The only
difference between a normal child and a cloned child is in the genes. The
normal child has 23 chromosomes from the mother and 23 chromosomes from the
father or 23 pairs in every cell of the body except the germ cells or gametes
(sperm or ova). The clone child will have 23 pairs of chromosomes of one
parent.
Muslims should welcome the technology of cloning of humans.
Because this scientific accomplishment is in itself an indication of the reality
of resurrection; it provides a method which joined together with reflection,
may permit us to understand Qiyamah (resurrection) and
prove it scientifically.
Reference: http://www.irfi.org/articles/articles_1_50/resurrection.htm
Very Thankful to Mr. Ibrahim B. Syed, Ph. D. President, Islamic Research
Foundation International, Inc .7102 W. Shefford Lane, Louisville, KY
40242-6462, USA
,
Who provided
so much knowledgeable stuff for the mankind
God
bless the entire humanity
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