The question: When will the threat of Resurrection be carried out?

After Tauhid the other question about which a dispute was raging between the Prophet (pbuh) and the disbelievers was the question of the Hereafter. Here, before giving the arguments, the Hereafter has been depicted with all its horrors so that the people should know that what they are refusing to believe in cannot be averted by their denial, but they have to meet and experience it one day, inevitably.

Allah says: “They say: “When will this threat (of Resurrection) come to pass? Tell us if indeed you are truthful.” (36Ya-Sin:48)

The disbelievers’ question had not been asked with a view to find out the exact date of the coming of the Hereafter, but they asked it, because they thought it was impossible, and irrational, that human beings could be raised back to life after death. According to the traditions related by Ibn Abbas, and others, One of the chiefs of Makkah came up with a rotten bone of a dead person, from the graveyard. He broke and crushed it into pieces before the Prophet (pbuh) and scattering its particles in the air, said: “O Muhammad (pbuh), you say that the dead will be raised back to life. Tell us who will give life to these decayed and rotten bones?” The answer was given immediately in the form of these verses.

Allah says: “Does man not see that We created him of a sperm drop, and lo, he is flagrantly contentious?” (36Ya-Sin:77)

That means, We caused the sperm-drop which contained nothing, but the basic germ of life to develop to an extent that it started moving and eating like the animals. Furthermore, it has developed such powers of intellect, reasoning, disputation and speech, which are not possessed by any animal. So much so, that now he dares stand up as an adversary before his Creator!

Allah says: “He strikes for Us a similitude but forgot his own creation. He says: “Who will quicken the bones when they have decayed?” (36Ya-Sin:78)

That is, he regards Us as powerless and weak, like the creation, and thinks that, just as man cannot raise the dead back to life, so also can’t We. He “Forgets his own creation.” He forgets that We created the basic germ of life from dead matter, which became the means of his creation. Then We caused the germ to develop to such an extent, that now he stands before Us as a disputant.

Allah says: “Say: “He Who first brought them into being will quicken them. He knows well about every kind of creation. He Who created, from a green tree, a fire for you. A fire to light your stoves with. Has He Who created the heavens and the earth no power to create the likes of them? Yes, indeed, He is the Superb Creator. Whenever He wills a thing, He just commands it Be, and it is. Holy is He Who has full control over everything, and to Him you shall all be recalled.” (36Ya-Sin:79-83)