Verse 56
Ta-Ha • makkah
View Aspects
7:26; 71:18-19.
Commentary:
The words, into it shall We cause you to return, give rise to a natural question, viz. where does human soul go after man dies and his body decays and is completely dissolved? The answer to this question as given by the Quran is that the human soul acquires a new body after its departure from its physical habitat and also an abode according to the nature of the deeds which man may have done during his life on earth. Man’s real sepulchre is the place to which God consigns his soul after death according to his works in this life. It is not the pit in which his dead body is placed. It is an abode of happiness or misery according to his spiritual condition.
The sentence, And from this earth shall We bring you forth once more, points to the supreme truth that man’s life does not end with the extinction and dissolution of his physical body, as it is pregnant with too big an import to end with the latter’s decay and death. If life had no great purpose God would not have created it, and after having created it He would not have made it subject to death unless there had been an afterlife. So if death were the end of all life, then the creation of man would have been "a mere sport and pastime" and this would have constituted a great reflection on the wisdom of God. The fact that God, the Source of all wisdom and intelligence, has done all this shows that He has not created man to return to dust after a life of merely 60 or 70 years but, on the contrary, He has created him for a better, fuller and everlasting life which he must live after he has shed the encumbrances of his physical tabernacle.
The verse also embodies a refutation of the religious beliefs of Pharaoh’s people who worshipped the stars.
7:26; 71:18, 19.