أَيَعِدُكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ إِذَا مِتُّمْ وَكُنتُمْ تُرَابًا وَعِظَٰمًا أَنَّكُم مُّخْرَجُونَ · هَيْهَاتَ هَيْهَاتَ لِمَا تُوعَدُونَ · إِنْ هِىَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا ٱلدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمَبْعُوثِينَ · إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا رَجُلٌ ٱفْتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ كَذِبًا وَمَا نَحْنُ لَهُۥ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ
a-yaʿidukum annakum idhā mittum wa kuntum turāban wa ʿiẓāman annakum mukhrajūn · hayhāta hayhāta limā tūʿadūn · in hiya illā ḥayātuna'l-dunyā namūtu wa naḥyā wa mā naḥnu bi-mabʿūthīn · in huwa illā rajulun'ftarā ʿalā'llāhi kadhiban wa mā naḥnu lahū bi-muʾminīn
"'Does he promise you that when you have died and become dust and bones you will be brought out? Far, far off is what you are promised! There is no life but our life in this world: we die and we live, and we are not to be raised. He is nothing but a man who has invented a lie against God, and we are not going to believe him.'"
The word is not a noun but an ism fiʿl — a word that carries the meaning of a verb but is not inflected like a verb. Its meaning: "how far off!"
A variant reading is transmitted in the vowel at the end of the word (hayhāta / hayhāti / hayhātu); it does not change the meaning.
And the word order must be recorded: the word is repeated twice. In Arabic such repetition reports emphasis. What is rejected, that is, is counted not far but "very far".
I record this as an observation: the other side does not say that the resurrection is impossible — it says that it is far off. And the particle lām (limā tūʿadūn) must be recorded: the lexicographers record that limā here does not mean "for", but shows to whom the distance belongs.
| Reading | Meaning | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Some of us die, some of us live" — the continuing of the generations | The next sentence rejecting the resurrection |
| 2 | "We die and (after us, in our children) we live" | The same |
| 3 | "We live and we die" — the wāw does not report order | The wāw in Arabic reporting simple conjunction |
I pass the disagreement on; I do not impose a preference. What is common to all three is this: the sentence confines life to this world.
And the same objection will return word for word in the eighty-second verse of the sūra: a-idhā mitnā wa kunnā turāban wa ʿiẓāman a-innā la-mabʿūthūn. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and the eighty-first verse will name it openly: bal qālū mithla mā qāla'l-awwalūn — "they said the same as those before them said."
The sūra, that is, repeats in the eighty-second verse, in the mouths of those it addresses, the sentence it placed in the mouth of a people in the thirty-fifth, and it records this as a finding. This weave can be verified from the wording of the two verses.
The root ف-ر-ي: to split, to cut a hide; and to invent. Iftirāʾ — Form VIII: to invent, to fasten upon someone. The root was treated at al-Furqān 25/4 (in hādhā illā ifkun'ftarāh).
| Place | Charge | What it looks at |
|---|---|---|
| al-Furqān 25/4 | ifkun'ftarāhu wa aʿānahū ʿalayhi qawmun ākharūn | He had help — the source |
| al-Muʾminūn 23/38 | rajulun'ftarā ʿalā'llāhi kadhiban | He ascribed it to God — the fastening |