Sūrat al-Ḥajj
Section 4 of 18 · Surah Studies · Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Made Stage by Stage
There is one verse of very great importance here, which sets a person thinking about the human being from the embryonic stage to the end of life, and dwells on the elaborate nature of that process. It is verse 5:
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِن كُنتُمْ فِى رَيْبٍ مِّنَ ٱلْبَعْثِ فَإِنَّا خَلَقْنَـٰكُم مِّن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ عَلَقَةٍ ثُمَّ مِن مُّضْغَةٍ مُّخَلَّقَةٍ وَغَيْرِ مُخَلَّقَةٍ لِّنُبَيِّنَ لَكُمْ ۚ وَنُقِرُّ فِى ٱلْأَرْحَامِ مَا نَشَآءُ إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى ثُمَّ نُخْرِجُكُمْ طِفْلًا ثُمَّ لِتَبْلُغُوٓا۟ أَشُدَّكُمْ ۖ وَمِنكُم مَّن يُتَوَفَّىٰ وَمِنكُم مَّن يُرَدُّ إِلَىٰٓ أَرْذَلِ ٱلْعُمُرِ لِكَيْلَا يَعْلَمَ مِنۢ بَعْدِ عِلْمٍ شَيْـًٔا ۚ وَتَرَى ٱلْأَرْضَ هَامِدَةً فَإِذَآ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْهَا ٱلْمَآءَ ٱهْتَزَّتْ وَرَبَتْ وَأَنۢبَتَتْ مِن كُلِّ زَوْجٍۭ بَهِيجٍ
“O mankind, if you are in doubt about Resurrection, then (recall that) We created you from dust, then from a drop of semen, then from a clot, then from a piece of flesh, either shaped or unshaped, so that We manifest (Our power) to you.We retain in the wombs whatever We will to a specified term. Then We bring you out as babies, then (We nourish you) so that you reach your maturity. And among you there is one who dies, and among you there is one who is carried to the worst part of the age, so that he knows nothing even after having knowledge.And you see the land dry. Then once We send down water on it, it stirs and swells and puts forth every pleasant pair (of vegetation).” (22:5)
It is generally understood as a reply to disbelief in resurrection — the objection of how a person could be resurrected again. Allah says: We created you first from soil, that is, Ādam (peace be upon him); your original inception is from soil. Thereafter you are from the fluid; then you become a clot of blood; then a piece of flesh. All of this is li-nubayyina lakum: We wish to make it plain to you that the whole is accomplished stage by stage — that We are able to carry out this most subtle, elaborate and sophisticated creation of you. Wa-nuqirru fī al-arḥām: We then leave you at the embryonic stage, in the wombs, for as long as We wish. Then We bring you out as a child; then you reach your age of strength.
Then some among you — yutawaffā — die, their time being fulfilled; and some do not die soon enough, but are returned to ardhal al-ʿumur, that evil old age of decrepitude and senility.
This is a duʿāʾ that we need to make to Allah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to say: Allāhumma innī aʿūdhu bika mina al-haram; Allāhumma innī aʿūdhu bika an uradda ilā ardhal al-ʿumur. To this one may well say āmīn, for it means: O Allah, I seek Your refuge from evil old age — or, I seek Your refuge from being returned to this lowly state of life. Li-kay lā yaʿlama min baʿdi ʿilmin shayʾan: so that they come to know nothing after having known — as though a person had almost returned to childhood.
Not everyone reaches that stage. Some, māshāʾAllāh, die at their peak; some pass away with the strength of their minds intact. May Allah never allow us to reach this stage of evil old age; and if He keeps us long, in shāʾ Allāh, with īmān, may He allow us to remain fresh, with our organs and faculties intact — above all our brain and our heart — so as to worship Allah (swt).
All of this is set out in detail as a reply: if Allah takes a person through all these complicated stages, what difficulty can there be in resurrecting him afterwards? — the more so now that we know of DNA, fixed, for the most part, in every part of the human body. The hadith adds that even if a person is mauled by an animal, even if he decomposes entirely, there is always a part that remains, a particle.