“Say: ‘The One who brought them into being the first time will revive them.’ ” It was Allah who created those bones in the first place, and re-creating them is easier than originating them: “He is the One who begins the creation, then brings it back again, and that is even easier for Him,” and, “Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like of them? Yes indeed!” These are rational proofs—reasoning from the initial act of creation to the final return.

Allah likewise points to the possibility of resurrection by reviving the earth after its death. He sends rain upon a barren, lifeless land with neither life nor vegetation, and the earth turns green at once. Who revived these plants if not Allah? The One who brings vegetation back to life after it has withered and died is surely able to raise the dead.

There must also be another life, for it is incompatible with divine wisdom that Allah should create this world, shower its inhabitants with blessings and provision, send down scriptures, dispatch messengers, and legislate fighting against His enemies—only for everything to amount to a fleeting worldly existence. That cannot be; it contradicts wisdom. There must be another life, the true life, as Allah says: “He will say, ‘Alas, would that I had sent something ahead for my life!’” The real life is the life of the Hereafter: “Our Lord, grant us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.”

Then He said, “And debate with them in the manner that is best,” meaning: when you deliver an admonition