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li-yundhira man kāna ḥayyan wa-yaḥiqqa l-qawlu ʿalā l-kāfirīna
so that anyone who is alive may be warned, and that the word may come due against the faithless.
— Ali Quli Qarai
36Yā-SīnيسVerse 70 of 83
Ya-Sin36. Yā-Sīnيس
Yā Sīn
Ya Sin
MeccanVerse 70 of 83
Surah Ya-Sin - Verse 70
70. “That it may warn him who is alive and the Word may be proved against the disbelievers.”
A sign for the heart to be alive is the acceptance of the warnings of the Qur’an, because the appointment of the prophets and the revelation to them are the source of awareness and spiritual intelligence of the godly people, and it is to complete the argument for the dead-hearted ones. The aim of this verse is:
Yes, these verses are as a Reminder which is the source of remembrance and is the means of awareness. These verses are from ‘the manifesting Qur’an’ which states the truth without any curtain and with conclusiveness and explicitness, and it is why it is the factor of awareness, life and living. Once more here we see that the Qur’an has considered the faith as ‘life’ and the believers as ‘the living ones’ and the disbelievers as ‘the dead’. From one side, it mentions ‘living’ and on the other side opposite to it, it mentions ‘disbelievers’.
This is that very spiritual ‘life’ and ‘death’ which is more significant than the apparent life and death, and their effects are vaster and more expanded. If life and living mean ‘to breathe’, ‘to eat’, and ‘to walk’ these are those which are common in all animals. This is not the human life. Human life is the appearance of the effects of intellect, the outstanding good habits of man’s spirit, piety, donation, self-sacrifice, controlling the self, virtue, and morality; and the Qur’an grows this life in man’s self.
However, concerning the invitation of the Qur’an, human beings are divided in two groups. A group of them are alive and alert. These are those who answer its invitation positively and hearken to its warnings and admonishments. The next group are the dead-hearted disbelievers who never show any positive reaction to it. But this warning works to complete the argument upon them and makes the command of punishment certain on them. However, man has several kinds of life and death. The first is ‘the vegetation life’ which is the manifestation of the very growth, eating, and reproduction, and from this point of view he is rather similar to all of plants.
The next is the animal life and death, the clear sign of which is ‘feeling’ and ‘motion’, and in these two qualities he is the same as other animals. The third kind of life is specific to human beings. This life separates them from plants and other animals. This is the human and spiritual life. This is the same thing which has been rendered as ‘the life of the hearts’ in the Islamic narrations; and the objective meaning of ‘heart’ here, is the man’s spirit, mind, and emotions.
Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as) in his sermons and sayings has emphasized on this matter very much. Concerning the Holy Qur’an, in a sermon in Nahj-ul-Balaqah he says:
“…and understand it thoroughly for it is the best blossoming of the hearts…” 2
In another place, concerning wisdom and knowledge, he (as) says:
“Wisdom is a life for the dead hearts.” 3
Sometimes the sickness of the heart is compared with the sickness of the body. Ali (as) says:
“…while worse than bodily ailment is the disease of the heart…” 4
And one time he (as) says:
“…He whose fear of Allah (his piety) is less, his heart dies…” 5
There are many other expressions of this kind. Imam Zayn-ul-‘Abidin (as) in one of his supplications says:
“A great crime has caused my heart to die” 6
On the other side, the Qur’an has considered a special kind of apparent insight, hearing, apprehension, and perception, for man as about the disbelievers it says:
In another occurrence, Qur’an calls the hypocrites as some diseased-hearted people that Allah increases their disease:
It introduces those who do not fear Allah as stone-hearted ones whose heart is harder than stone:
In another place the Qur’an says:
From all these meanings, and from some abundant other expressions which are similar to them, it is clearly understood that the Qur’an counts the pivot of life and death that very pivot of human and wisdom, because the whole value of man has also been put in this very section.
Footnotes