The Eighth Principle: How the Quran Establishes the Reality of the Resurrection

This is the third of the three fundamentals on which all the messengers and every revealed law are agreed: monotheism, prophethood, and the certainty of the Resurrection and the gathering of mankind.

Allah has repeatedly mentioned this truth in His Noble Book and has affirmed it through a variety of approaches:

• First, He informs us of it—and He is the truest of all who speak—and of the perfect recompense that will occur therein. In addition to His many references to it, He has sworn an oath to it in three places in His Book, such as His words, “I swear by the Day of Resurrection” (al-Qiyamah 75:1).

• Second, He proclaims the perfection of His power and the absolute execution of His will, showing that nothing can frustrate Him; reviving the servants after their death is but one instance of the manifestations of His might.

• Third, He reminds His servants of their first creation: the One who brought them into existence when they were nothing at all must inevitably bring them back as He originated them, and restoring them is even easier for Him. This meaning is reiterated in numerous passages and varied styles.

• Fourth, He points to His reviving the barren, lifeless earth after its death, declaring that He who gives it life will likewise give life to the dead. He supports this by drawing attention to something far greater: His creation of the heavens, the earth, and all the mighty beings they contain. Once the deniers concede this—and they can never truthfully deny it—on what basis do they deem the resurrection of the dead improbable? He also substantiates it through the vastness of His knowledge and the perfection of His wisdom, stating that it would neither befit Him nor be proper for Him to leave His creation neglected, without command or prohibition, without reward or punishment. By this same reasoning He establishes both prophethood and the Resurrection.

• Finally, He confirms the resurrection and the repayment of the righteous for their righteousness and the wicked for their wickedness through the histories He recounts of His dealings and established ways with former nations and bygone generations, and how He delivered the prophets