al-Zumar

إِنَّكَ مَيِّتٌ وَإِنَّهُمْ مَيِّتُونَ

ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ عِنْدَ رَبِّكُمْ تَخْتَصِمُونَ

30. Verily you will die and indeed they will die [too].
31. Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will be disputing before your Lord.

Prophets are like ordinary people in their daily life. Being a Favorite [of God] may not hinder the execution of Divine Ordainments like death:

Proceeding with the foregoing discussion on monotheism and polytheism, the blessed Verse in question treats of the consequences of monotheism and polytheism on the Day of Resurrection. The Verse begins with the question of death, the gate to Resurrection, and treats of the general applicability of the law to all humanity, saying:

Death is one of the questions as to which all men are alike. That is the way of all the flesh. There is neither any exception nor any difference in death.

apparently indicates the death of everyone in the present tense, but is in the real present tense that is at times used in the senses of past and present. Some exegets maintain that the Noble Prophet’s (S) foes awaited his death and were happy that he would die some day. The Holy Qur’an raises a question to them,

Verse 31 treats of the Last Judgment depicting servants’ disputations on the Day of Resurrection, saying:

The verbal form:

is taken from ikhtisam denoting “disputation” between two individuals or two groups, each of whom makes attempts at the nullification of the words of the other; in which case, either or both of them may err, an instance of which is the disputations of the people in error. Exegets differ as to the generality of the issue, some of whom maintain that the disputation in question concerns Muslims and disbelievers, but some also hold that the disputation may be between Muslims and the people of their tribes.

In this vein, a tradition is narrated on the authority of Abu Sa’id Khudri to the effect that Muslims contemporaneous with the Noble Prophet of Islam (S) could never imagine that disputations might occur between Muslims holding that they share the same Creator and religion. It was on the Day of Siffin that two apparently Muslim parties waged war against each other that Abu Sa’id learned that the Verse concerns them as well.¹ Nonetheless, the following Verses demonstrate that the disputation occurred between the Noble Prophet (S) and believers on the one hand and the polytheists and liars on the other.

It is well known in the history of Islam that following the sad demise of the Noble Prophet of Islam (S), ‘Umar denied his death saying that the Prophet (S) might not die but he had gone to his Lord in the same manner that Moses had been in occultation away from his people for forty days but had returned to them. Likewise, the Messenger of God (S) would return and the hands and feet of those believing in his death was to be severed! Upon hearing the news, Abu Bakr went to him and recited a number of the Qur’anic Verses concerning the demise of the Prophet (S) as a consequence of which ‘Umar became silent and said that it was the first time that he heard them.²