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qālū yā-waylanā man baʿathanā min marqadinā hādhā mā waʿada r-raḥmānu wa-ṣadaqa l-mursalūna
They will say, ‘Woe to us! Who raised us from our place of sleep?’ ‘This is what the All-beneficent had promised, and the apostles had spoken the truth!’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Ya-Sin - Verses 51-53
51. “And the Trumpet shall be blown, then behold, from their graves they shall hasten on to their Lord.”
52. “They shall say: ‘Oh! woe to us! Who has raised us up from our sleeping-place? This is what the Beneficent (Allah) promised; and the apostles told the truth.”
53. “There would be naught but a single Blast, when they shall all brought before Us.”
Hereafter is a scene of awareness, acknowledgement and confession. The establishment of Hereafter and reckoning is the requisite of the Attribute of Allah Who is Beneficent. That which the disbelievers denied in the world, they will confess it on That Day. (When the name of Rahman was mentioned in the world they used to say:
but on that Day they will say:
In this verse, the Qur’an points to another stage which is the stage of life after death. It says:
By the command of Allah, the dust and the rotten bones will have life again and come out from their graves and attend that wonderful court for trial and reckoning. They will have life again and will be quickened by a single Blast, in the same manner that all of them died with a single Blast (blown in the Trumpet). Neither their death nor their being quickened is difficult for Allah. Just like the trumpet which is blown for the soldiers of the army to gather and be ready, and then, in a short time, they all get up and come out from their tents and attend in the row, the act of raising the dead is, like that, quick for Allah, too.
The Qur’anic word /’ajdath/ is the plural form of /jadath/ in the sense of ‘grave’. This meaning shows well that resurrection, besides having the spiritual aspect, has the bodily aspect, too, and the man’s new body will be made from the same former materials. The application of the Arabic term /nufixa/ (shall be blown) in the past tense form is for the sake that in the Arabic language the certain future affairs are stated in past verb form indicating that there is no doubt in it, as if it had happened before.
The Arabic term /yansilun/ is derived from /nasl/ in the sense of ‘walking quickly’. Raqib in Mufradat says: this word originally means: ‘to separate from something’, and that a person’s children in Arabic are called /nasl/ (offspring) it is for the sake that they have separated from father and mother. Therefore, when a person quickly gets away and separates, this word is used. The application of the Arabic term /rabbihim/ (their Lord) seems that it refers to this fact that the Lordship, ownership and training of Allah require that there should be a reckoning and Resurrection for the affairs.
However, it is clearly understood from the verses of the Holy Qur’an that ending of this world and the beginning of the next world both will happen suddenly and with a revolutionary movement and each of them has been rendered into ‘blowing in the Tempest’, the full explanation of which will be mentioned in the commentary of Surah Az-Zumar, No. 39, verse 68. In the next verse, the Qur’an adds:
Yes, the scene is so expressive and terrible that man forgets all the false and superstitious matters, and he will not have any way except confessing the facts explicitly. It likens the graves to sleeping-places, and the Resurrection to getting up from sleep. This has also been mentioned in a famous tradition which says:
“You will pass away like that you sleep, and you will be raised as you get up from sleep.” 1
Here they terrify and cry that woe to us! Who did awaken us from sleeping, and rose up from our sleeping-place? But soon they will realize and remember that the true prophets in the world have given them promise of this Day from the side of Allah. They answer themselves that this is the promise of the Beneficent, Allah; the Lord Whose general mercy has enveloped all and Whose prophets told the truth and made us aware of this Day, but alas we mocked them all.
Therefore, the Qur’anic sentence:
is the continuation of the statement of the rejecters of Resurrection, but some commentators have considered it as the statement of the angels or the believers, which contrasts the apparent of the verse, and there is no necessity upon it, because the confusion of the rejecters on the fact on that Day is not a matter that is mentioned only in this verse. Surah Al-’Anbiya’, No. 21, verse 97 says:
However, the application of the Arabic term /marqad/, which is used in the sense of ‘sleeping-place’ and ‘sleep’, denotes to this fact that in the world of purgatory they are in a state similar to sleep, and as it is said in the commentary of Surah Al-Mu’minun, No. 23, verse 100, due to the majority of people, who are in a status between infidelity and faith, ‘purgatory’ is not unlike to the state of sleeping, where both the excellent believers and extraordinary vice disbelievers are completely aware and enjoy the blessings or are faced with kinds of chastisement.
Some of the commentators have given this probability that the terror and grief in Hereafter is so much that the purgatory chastisement, compared with it, is like naught but a peaceful sleep. Then, in order to explain the speed of the occurrence of the blast of the trumpet, in the third verse the Qur’an says:
Therefore, there will not need a long time for the dead to be quickened and that they rise from their graves and attend in the just court of Allah, in the same manner that there needs not a long time for the death of individuals. The first Blast is a cry for death and the second Blast is a cry for life and attending in the court of Allah, the Just. The application of the word ‘Blast’ (a cry) and emphasizing it with the word ‘single’ and then the application of the Arabic term /’iŏa/, which in such instances informs of the sudden occurrence of something, and the application of:
in the form of a nominal sentence all are as evidence to the quick occurrence of this part of Resurrection. The conclusive tone of these verses and the piercing influence of them in the men’s hearts is so effective that as if they hear this cry with their ears saying: O’ men who are asleep! O’ the scattered dusts! And O’ rotten bones! Stand up! Stand up! And be ready for Reckoning and recompense! How beautiful the verses of the Qur’an are, and how expressive their warnings are!
Footnotes