As for the portrayal of the Greater Resurrection in the Quran and the Sunnah, it is exceedingly abundant, for Muḥammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is the Seal of the Prophets and was sent at the very threshold of the Hour. Consequently, he depicted the Resurrection with details that no one before him had ever given, just as the Messiah described him, saying:
“He will inform you of everything that is to come, and He will make known to you all that belongs to the Lord.”

The second position is that of those who affirm only the return of bodies. This is the stance adopted by many speculative theologians among the Jahmiyyah and the innovating Muʿtazilah of this community. Some writers even attribute this view to the majority of Muslim theologians—or to the majority of Muslims altogether—but that is a mistake. None of the leading imams of the Muslims ever held such an opinion, nor is it the view of the bulk of their scholars. Rather, it is confined to a faction of their innovative mutakallimūn whom the early generations and the great authorities censured.

The third position claims that the return is limited to the rational soul at death and that bodies will not be restored. No adherent of any revealed faith—Muslims, Jews, or Christians—has ever said this. All of them are unanimously agreed on the restoration of bodies and on the Greater Resurrection. Yet those among them who ventured into philosophy adopted the view of their forebears among the Sabians and the pagan philosophers that the return is for the soul alone. Such a person alleges that the prophets addressed the masses with the notion of bodily resurrection, even though, in his view, it has no reality, and that they likewise spoke to them of divine attributes that, he claims, have no true existence, asserting that the prophets did not disclose the realities to creation,