a noble messenger, his disbelieving son, against whom the decree had been pronounced. He drowned him and forbade Noah to intercede for him. The Emigrants and the Helpers were created from their disbelieving fathers and mothers.

If the immediate substance from which the prophets and the righteous are created need not equal their bodies in excellence—for Allah brings forth the living from the dead, bringing forth a believer’s body from a disbeliever’s semen—then the more remote substance, namely earth, has even less claim to equal the bodies of the prophets and the righteous. These bodies worshipped Allah and strove in His cause, and their final abode is Paradise.

As for the substances from which these bodies were created, whatever was transformed into the body shares the body’s status, whereas whatever remained over has the same status as other matter of its kind. Herein lies the error of those who fail to distinguish between substances that were transformed into a body and those that underwent no transformation, but remained earth or lifeless matter.

Thus, regarding the earth of graves, if we suppose that the deceased was created from that earth, then whatever of it was transformed into his body is his body, whose excellence is known. As for what remains in the grave, it has the same status as other earth of its kind. Indeed, the earth that touched their foreheads during prostration—when the servant is closest to his Lord, whom he worships—is superior to the earth of graves and burial niches. A fuller discussion of this belongs elsewhere.