Al-Saffārīnī said: “In al-Thaʿlabī’s Tafsīr, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), in his commentary on Sūrah al-Zumar, traced back to the Prophet, it is reported:
‘Allah will send a rain upon the earth that will fall for 40 days, until its depth over them reaches 12 cubits. Allah, exalted is He, will then command the bodies to grow as vegetable shoots grow. When their bodies have been perfectly restored to the way they once were, Allah will say: ‘Let the Bearers of the Throne come back to life; let Gabriel, Michael, Israfil and Azrael come back to life.’ Next Allah will order Israfil to take up the Trumpet and place it to his mouth. He will then summon the spirits; the spirits of the believers will glow with light, while the others will be dark. Israfil will gather them all, cast them into the Trumpet, and Allah will command him to blow the blast of resurrection. All the spirits will surge forth like swarming bees, filling the space between heaven and earth. Then Allah, majestic and mighty, will proclaim, ‘By My might and majesty, every soul shall surely return to its body.’ The spirits will enter through the nostrils and course through the bodies like poison in one who has been stung. The earth will then split open over them in haste, and I shall be the first for whom the earth is cleft apart. You will then emerge from it, hurrying toward your Lord.’
Al-Bukhārī and Muslim likewise relate from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him): ‘Water will descend from the sky, and people will sprout forth just as plants sprout. Nothing of the human being decays except a single bone—the coccyx—from which the whole creation will be re-assembled on the Day of Resurrection.’
In another wording recorded by Muslim: ‘Within the human being there is a bone that the earth never consumes; from it the creation will be reconstructed on the Day of Resurrection.’ They asked, ‘Which bone is that, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, ‘The ʿajb al-dhanab (coccyx).’
The scholars explain that the ʿajb al-dhanab is the small, hard bone situated at the very base of the spine, and another narration states that it is the size of a mustard seed. From it the human body will sprout anew.
The idolaters deemed it far-fetched that people could be restored to life after death, so they denied resurrection and revival. Allah therefore commanded His Prophet to swear by Him to its certainty, declaring that it is inevitable, and He said—