Quran Difficulty
How many times does a person die and
live?
Sam Shamoun
The Quran says that the
unbelievers live and die twice:
None
but the unbelievers dispute concerning the signs of God; so let not their going
to and fro in the land delude thee. The people of Noah before them also cried
lies, and the parties after them; every nation purposed against their Messenger
to seize him, and disputed with falsehood that they might rebut thereby the
truth. Then I seized them; and how was My retribution! Even so the Word of thy
Lord was realised against the unbelievers, that they are the inhabitants of the
Fire… It shall be proclaimed to the unbelievers, 'Surely God's hatred is
greater than your hatred one of another, when you were called unto belief, and
disbelieved.' They shall say, 'Our Lord, Thou hast caused us to die two
deaths and Thou hast given us twice to live; now we confess our sins.
Is there any way to go forth?' That is because, when God was called to alone,
you disbelieved; but if others are associated with Him, then you believe.
Judgment belongs to God, the All-high, the All-great. S. 40:4-6, 10-12
The following reference helps
explain what the second death is:
Verily!
The Muttaqun (pious - see V.2:2),
will be in place of Security (Paradise). Among Gardens and Springs; Dressed in
fine silk and (also) in thick silk, facing each other, So (it will be), and We
shall marry them to Houris (female fair ones) with wide, lovely eyes. They will
call therein for every kind of fruit in peace and security; They
will never taste death therein except the first death (of this world), and He
will save them from the torment of the blazing Fire, As a Bounty from
your Lord! That will be the supreme success! S. 44:51-57
The above implies that since
the first death refers to physical death the second one must be the punishment
of hellfire. In other words, the second death doesn’t mean one becomes lifeless
or ceases to exist since even those who experience the first death are said to
be still alive:
And
say not of those slain in God's way, 'They are dead'; rather they are living,
but you are not aware. S. 2:154
Count not those who were slain in God's way as dead, but rather living with
their Lord, by Him provided, rejoicing in the bounty that God has given them,
and joyful in those who remain behind and have not joined them, because no fear
shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow, S. 3:169-170
This implies that the
author(s) was/were not defining death in terms of non-existence or the complete
cessation of life. In light of this, it is apparent that the second death
refers to a person being punished in hell where s/he will be tortured forever
and never experience pleasure or happiness again.
Some expositors understand
the punishment which disbelievers experience in the grave as the second death:
(They say) i.e. the disbelievers will say in the Fire: (Our Lord!)
O our Lord! (Twice hast Thou made us die) once when You took away our souls [in
the life of the world] and once after Munkar and Nakir questioned us in the
graves, (and twice hast Thou made us live) once before we were questioned by
Munkar and Nakir in the graves and once for the resurrection. (Now we confess)
we acknowledge (our sins) our idolatry and denial. (Is there any way to go out)
is there any way we can go back to the life of the world so that we believe in
You? (Tanwîr
al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs: http://altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=73&tSoraNo=40&tAyahNo=11&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0)
This suggests that the
punishment in the grave is part of the second death, with the other part being
hell, which further supports our contention that the Quran does not define
death as the termination of conscious existence. After all, those being
punished in the graves are clearly alive and alert since they experience pain
and torture.
Thus, the Quran envisions the
following pattern: human existence which starts in the womb (first life),
physical death (first death), physical resurrection (second life), punishment
in the grave/hellfire (second death).
Now some Muslims get rather
ingenious and claim that the first death actually refers to the condition of a
person before s/he is conceived in the womb, i.e. each individual was dead in the
sense that at one point in time they did not exist and then they came to life
in this world. The problem with this view is that this means that even the
believers were dead before they came to life in the womb, which thereby implies
they experienced death twice, once before they came into being and another time
when they died after coming into physical existence.
But this plainly contradicts
Q. 44:56 which emphatically says that believers only die once, thereby ruling
out the possibility that the first death refers to the non-existent condition
of a person before his/her conception in the womb.
In fact, the Quran has the
strange teaching that he made a covenant with all the descendants of Adam at
the beginning of creation,
And
(remember) when your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their
loins, their seed (or from Adam's loin his offspring) and made them testify as
to themselves (saying): "Am I not your Lord?" They said: "Yes!
We testify," lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: "Verily,
we have been unaware of this." Or lest you should say: "It was only
our fathers aforetime who took others as partners in worship along with Allah,
and we were (merely their) descendants after them; will You then destroy us because
of the deeds of men who practised Al-Batil
(i.e. polytheism and committing crimes and sins, invoking and worshipping
others besides Allah)?" (Tafsir At-Tabari). S. 7:172-173 Hilali-Khan
How are we supposed to
understand this? Did Allah make that covenant with dead entities? Or doesn’t
this rather indicate that all humans are believed to have been alive in some
way at the time Adam was created? But what happened to them after that covenant
making experience? Are they then alive all those thousands of years until they
are actually conceived and born? Or are they thought to die and remain dead
until they are receiving life again in the womb? The Quran keeps adding to the
confusion.
Moreover, this would mean that the disbelievers actually die three times, i.e. they were dead before they were conceived in the womb, they will die after they are born, and will die once again after being thrown into hell.
The foregoing raises
additional problems for the Muslims. According to the following text,
How
do you disbelieve in God, seeing you were dead and He gave you life, then
(thumma) He shall make you dead, then (thumma) He shall
give you life, then (thumma) unto Him you shall be returned? S.
2:28
The disbelievers will be
raised after experiencing the second death. Now this either suggests that even
the disbelievers will escape hell, or that the first death refers to the
non-existent condition of humans before their conception. The difficulty with
the first view is that the Quran asserts that the disbelievers will abide in hell
forever:
And
they say, 'The Fire shall not touch us save a number of days.' Say: 'Have you
taken with God a covenant? God will not fail in His covenant; or say you things
against God of which you know nothing? Not so; whoso earns evil, and is
encompassed by his transgression -- those are the inhabitants of the Fire; there they shall dwell forever.
And those that believe, and do deeds of righteousness -- those are the
inhabitants of Paradise; there they
shall dwell forever.' S. 2:80-82 Arberry
And
those who followed will say: "If only we had one more chance to return (to
the worldly life), we would disown (declare ourselves as innocent from) them as
they have disowned (declared themselves as innocent from) us." Thus Allah
will show them their deeds as regrets for them. And they will never get out of the Fire. S. 2:167
Hilali-Khan
Verily,
those who disbelieve, if they had all that is in the earth, and as much again
therewith to ransom themselves thereby from the torment on the Day of
Resurrection, it would never be accepted of them, and theirs would be a painful
torment. They will long to get out of the Fire, but never will they get out therefrom, and theirs will be a
lasting torment. S. 5:36-37 Hilali-Khan
But
the evildoers dwell forever in the
chastisement of Gehenna that is not abated for them and therein they
are sore confounded. We never wronged them, but they themselves did the wrong.
And they shall call, 'O Malik, let thy Lord have done with us!' He will say,
'You will surely tarry.' S. 43:74-77 Arberry
How, then, can they come to
life after experiencing the second death when the torment of hellfire is the
second death? Does this mean that the evildoers will not suffer punishment
forever and that the Quran is therefore wrong?
And we already noted the
problem with the latter interpretation since this would mean that even
believers die twice, something that is expressly denied in Q. 44:56.
Moreover, if a Muslim still
wants to insist and contend that Q. 2:28 refers
to the condition of a person before s/he is alive as death then one will have a
scientific problem to contend with. The fertilized egg is alive from the start,
otherwise it could not grow. Thus, the embryo is alive immediately at
conception.
More importantly, how can
people be dead at a stage before conception when they do not even exist at this
point? One must first exist in order to experience death. This interpretation
makes absolutely no sense.
The Muslim scripture further
says that those who are in hell are neither dead nor alive:
Verily
he who comes to his Lord as a sinner (at Judgment), - for him is Hell: therein
shall he neither die nor live. S. 20:74 Y. Ali
Here we have another
contradiction. In Q. 44:56 it is said that the believers will not taste death,
implying that the unbelievers will, but here it says that the unbelievers will
NOT die there. So, if the unbelievers are not going to die there either, where
and when will their second death take place? That is rather incoherent.
The final problem that a
Muslim faces is that the Quran testifies that every person will go to hell,
including believers:
Now,
by thy Lord, We shall surely muster them, and the Satans, then We shall parade
them about Gehenna hobbling on their knees. Then We shall pluck forth from
every party whichever of them was the most hardened in disdain of the
All-merciful; then We shall know very well those most deserving to burn there. Not
one of you there is, but he shall go down to it; that for thy Lord is a
thing decreed, determined. Then We shall deliver those that were
godfearing; and the evildoers We shall leave there, hobbling on their
knees. S. 19:68-72
Since even believers enter
hellfire this means that they will also experience the second death, which
soundly contradicts the assertion of Q. 44:56 that they will not.
In fact, there are specific
“sound” narrations where Muhammad speaks of people being taken out of hell
whose bodies were burnt by the fire:
… We, the companions
of the Prophet said, "O Allah's Apostle! What is the bridge?"
He said, "It is
a slippery (bridge) on which there are clamps and (hooks like) a thorny seed
that is wide at one side and narrow at the other and has thorns with bent ends.
Such a thorny seed is found in Najd and is called As-Sa'dan. Some of the believers
will cross the bridge as quickly as the wink of an eye, some others as quick as
lightning, a strong wind, fast horses or she-camels. So some will be safe
without any harm; some will be safe after receiving some scratches, and
some will fall down into Hell (Fire). The last person will cross by
being dragged (over the bridge)." The Prophet said, "You (Muslims)
cannot be more pressing in claiming from me a right that has been clearly
proved to be yours than the believers in interceding with Almighty for their
(Muslim) brothers on that Day, when they see themselves safe.
"They will say,
‘O Allah! (Save) our brothers (for they) used to pray with us, fast with us and
also do good deeds with us.’ Allah will say, ‘Go and take out (of Hell) anyone
in whose heart you find faith equal to the weight of one (gold) Dinar.’ Allah
will forbid the Fire to burn the faces of those sinners. They will go
to them and find some of them in Hell (Fire) up to their feet, and some
up to the middle of their legs. So they will take out those whom they will
recognize and then they will return, and Allah will say (to them), ‘Go
and take out (of Hell) anyone in whose heart you find faith equal to
the weight of one half Dinar.’ They will take out whomever they will
recognize and return, and then Allah will say, ‘Go and take out (of
Hell) anyone in whose heart you find faith equal to the weight of an atom (or a
smallest ant),’ and so they will take out all those whom they will
recognize." Abu Sa'id said: If you do not believe me then read the
Holy Verse:--
‘Surely! Allah
wrongs not even of the weight of an atom (or a smallest ant) but if there is
any good (done) He doubles it.’ (4.40) The Prophet added, "Then the
prophets and Angels and the believers will intercede, and (last of all) the
Almighty (Allah) will say, ‘Now remains My Intercession.’ He will then
hold a handful of the Fire from which He will take out some people whose bodies
have been burnt, and they will be thrown into a river at the entrance of
Paradise, called the water of life.
They will grow
on its banks, as a seed carried by the torrent grows. You have noticed how it grows beside a rock or
beside a tree, and how the side facing the sun is usually green while the side
facing the shade is white. Those people will come out (of the River of
Life) like pearls, and they will have (golden) necklaces, and then they will
enter Paradise whereupon the people of Paradise will say, ‘These are
the people emancipated by the Beneficent. He has admitted them into
Paradise without them having done any good deeds and without sending forth any
good (for themselves).’ Then it will be said to them, ‘For you is what
you have seen and its equivalent as well.’" (Sahih al-Bukhari,
Volume 9, Book 93, Number 532s: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/093.sbt.html#009.093.532s)
It is evident from the
foregoing that the Quran is really incoherent on this issue, as well as on many
other issues.
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