al-Dukhān

وَمَا خَلَقْنَا السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا لاعِبِينَ

مَا خَلَقْنَاهُمَا إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لا يَعْلَمُونَ

38. And We created not the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, for merely play.
39. We created them not except with truth, but most of them [polytheists] know not.

The word la’b is used in the sense of “merely play, anything done in vain,” like childish plays. These two blessed Verses serve as a prelude to the following Verses on Resurrection. It is as if they indicate that if there were no Resurrection, creation would be purposeless, since the world of existence has been created for man and if man becomes non-existent by death, the world of existence would also be in vain. It is for the same grounds that God Almighty says:

Logical arguments are being produced for proving Resurrection to the effect that any sensible person may use his intellection to perceive that God Almighty created not the heavens and the earth and what is between them in vain but they were created with truth as per Divine Wisdom and Omniscience. The Verses in question and the following Ones indicate that the purpose behind creating the heavens and the earth is the creation of man and the purpose behind creating man is to raise him up on the Day of Resurrection, or else the creation of the heavens and the earth would be in vain.