and spares one the disputations of the scholastic theologians and the deductions of the rationalists; for it sets forth the doctrine of the first creation and the return, God’s oneness, prophethood, and faith in the angels. It speaks of mankind’s division into the doomed and wretched and the triumphant and happy, describing each group in detail. It affirms the attributes of perfection for God and declares Him exalted above every deficiency or flaw that contradicts His perfection. It mentions the two resurrections—the lesser and the greater—and the two realms: the greater realm, which is the Hereafter, and the lesser realm, which is this present world. It recounts man’s creation, his death and re-creation, his condition at death and on the Day of his return, and God’s encompassing knowledge of him from every side, even His awareness of the whispers within the soul. It records that guardians are appointed over him who number every word he utters, and that he will appear on the Day of Resurrection escorted by a driver who urges him forward and a witness who testifies against him. When the driver has presented him he will say, “This one I have ready with me” 23 (Q 50:23), meaning, ‘I have brought the person I was commanded to bring.’ At that moment it will be proclaimed, “Cast into Hell every obstinate disbeliever” 24 (Q 50:24), just as a criminal is brought before a king and it is said, ‘Here is so-and-so whom I have produced,’ whereupon the king orders, ‘Take him to prison and punish him as he deserves!’
Reflect on how clearly the surah indicates that God, exalted be He, will restore this very body that obeyed and sinned, and will bless it or punish it, just as He will bless the very soul that believed and punish the very soul that disbelieved. It is not, as those who are ignorant of the Resurrection proclaimed by the messengers allege, that He creates another soul altogether and rewards or punishes that one. They claim that God creates a body utterly different from this one upon which bliss or torment falls, and that the soul, in their view (1), is merely an accident of the body—so He would create another soul and another body entirely. This runs counter to what is unanimously