وَقَالُوٓا۟ أَءِذَا كُنَّا عِظَٰمًا وَرُفَٰتًا أَءِنَّا لَمَبْعُوثُونَ خَلْقًا جَدِيدًا
Wa qālū a-idhā kunnā ʿiẓāman wa rufātan a-innā la-mabʿūthūna khalqan jadīdā · Qul kūnū ḥijāratan aw ḥadīdā · Aw khalqan mimmā yakburu fī ṣudūrikum, fa-sayaqūlūna man yuʿīdunā, quli'lladhī faṭarakum awwala marra, fa-sayunghiḍūna ilayka ruʾūsahum wa yaqūlūna matā huwa, qul ʿasā an yakūna qarībā · Yawma yadʿūkum fa-tastajībūna bi-ḥamdihi wa taẓunnūna in labithtum illā qalīlā
"They said: 'When we have become bones and crumbled dust, are we then to be raised in a new creation?' Say: 'Be stones, or iron; or some other creature that looms greater in your minds!' They will say: 'Who will bring us back?' Say: 'He who brought you into being the first time.' Then they will shake their heads at you and say: 'When?' Say: 'Perhaps it is near. On the day He calls you, you will answer Him with praise, and you will think you tarried only a little.'"
رُفَات — root ر-ف-ت: to crumble, to grind to pieces. The word describes the state in which even the bones have fallen apart into dust.
I record this as an observation: the objection is built in two steps — first ʿiẓām (bones), then rufāt (dust). The objector, that is, picks the hardest case. And in its answer the verse will carry that choice further still.
I record this as my own reading, and its support is the command itself: to the one who says "if we become dust, how shall we be raised?", it is said "be stones, be iron". The difficulty is accepted and then increased.
And the third step goes further still: aw khalqan mimmā yakburu fī ṣudūrikum — "or some other creature that looms greater in your breasts (the hardest thing you can conceive)."
| Step | Expression | The difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| The objection | ʿIẓāman wa rufātā | Dust |
| Answer 1 | Ḥijāratan aw ḥadīdā | Stone, iron |
| Answer 2 | Mimmā yakburu fī ṣudūrikum | The hardest thing the mind can hold |
The same method was treated at 25/13-14 in al-Furqān — there the cry was not forbidden but multiplied. I rely on that treatment: in both places the answer accepts the other party's proposal and gives it back increased.
And one further record: in the verse the construction mimmā yakburu fī ṣudūrikum gives nothing a name. It leaves a gap and opens it for the one addressed to fill with his own conception. I give this as an observation about the structure.
The root ف-ط-ر: to split open, to open for the first time. The root was analysed in detail in Fāṭir, in connection with the name of that sūra, and was treated in al-Infiṭār. I do not repeat it here.
The form of the argument is worth recording, and the same argument was tabulated at 19/9 and 19/67 in Maryam: khalaqnāhu min qablu wa lam yaku shayʾā. It was recorded there: the same argument, once against a glad tiding and once against an objection.
The difference in al-Isrāʾ must be recorded: in Maryam the argument took the form "We created him when he was nothing"; here it takes the form "He who created you the first time" (awwala marra). The stress falls not on nothingness but on priority: a work that has been done once already.
The root ن-غ-ض: to shake a thing, to move it about (especially the head, in mockery or in astonishment).
I record this as an observation: the verse records not a word but a gesture. The spoken objection had already been given in the forty-ninth verse; here the reaction given by the body is described. The places where the Qurʾān records the reaction of those addressed in this much detail are few.
The sentence is worth recording, and I give this as my own reading: the verse says that the answering will be with praise — including from those who objected.
The sūra thus states that the very mouth that objects in the forty-ninth verse will give praise in the fifty-second. The distance between them is three verses.
The same perception was treated at 30/55 in al-Rūm (yuqsimu'l-mujrimūna mā labithū ghayra sāʿa). I rely on that treatment.
I record this as an observation: the verse records not the measure of the time that has passed but the perception of it. The verb is taẓunnūna (you will think) — supposition, not knowledge.