is more numerous than yours. If you wish, go to the graves: count the graves of our people and those of yours, and see which of us has more.” However, this is a weak interpretation, far removed from the context of the verse. The first meaning is the correct one: you continue vying with one another for increase until you die.

Umar ibn Abd al-Azīz—may Allah have mercy on him—cited the words, “until you visit the graves,” as evidence that a visitor must eventually return home and that the graves are not a permanent abode. It is likewise related that a Bedouin heard a reciter read, “Rivalry for increase distracts you until you visit the graves.” He said, “By Allah, a visitor does not remain. By Allah, we shall surely be resurrected!” A visitor, as is well known, visits and then returns; hence he said, “By Allah, we shall surely be resurrected!” This is the truth.

This also shows us that what some people nowadays say in newspapers and elsewhere about a man who dies—“He has gone to his final resting place”—is false and untrue. The graves are not the final resting place. Indeed, if a person believed what this expression signifies, he would become a disbeliever in the Resurrection, and disbelief in the Resurrection constitutes apostasy from Islam. Yet many people adopt expressions without knowing what they mean. Perhaps this expression was inherited from atheists who do not acknowledge resurrection after death. It must therefore be avoided. The grave should not be called the final resting place, for the final abode will be either Paradise or Hellfire on the Day of Resurrection (1).

Allah Most High then says: “No indeed! You will come to know. Again, no indeed! You will come to know.” The particle opening these statements has been interpreted as an expression of rebuke, meaning: desist from this rivalry for increase. It has also been said to mean “truly.” “You will come to know” means that, when you return to the Hereafter, you will come to know the outcome of your affair and that this rivalry for increase will avail you nothing.

A hadith narrated by Muslim reports that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace—said: “The son of Adam says, ‘My wealth! My wealth!’”—meaning that he boasts of it—“Yet nothing of your wealth is truly yours except what