Tafsir of Al-Mu'minoon 23:16

The Exalted has not emphasized the matter of the Resurrection as He emphasized the matter of death, despite the abundance of those who waver regarding it or deny it. He sufficed by presenting that which renders an abundance of emphasis unnecessary, establishing the pillars of the claim with the utmost solidity: namely, His creation of man from an extract of clay, then transitioning him from stage to stage until He brought him forth as another creation, encompassing wonders and gathering strange phenomena. In this is the clearest evidence of His wisdom and His immense power—Glory be to Him—to resurrect and restore him, and that He—Majestic is His Majesty—does not neglect his affair, leaving him after his death as something forgotten, established in the womb of non-existence as if he had never been a thing.

Since the previous clause contained hyperbole regarding how He—Exalted is His status—perfected the creation of man and mastered it, He—Glorified and Exalted is He—exaggerated in emphasizing the clause indicating death, even though it is not denied. This is because such [mastery in creation] is a cause for the intellect to deem it [death] highly improbable—so much so that he who has not witnessed it, yet hears that Allah—Glorified be His Majesty—has perfected the creation of man and mastered it to the ultimate degree, would almost deny its occurrence. This is a subtle perspective regarding the increase of emphasis in the clause indicating death and the lack of such increase in the clause indicating resurrection, a point which I have not seen preceded by anyone.

It has been said regarding this: When He—Exalted is He—mentioned in the preceding verses the obligations He mentioned, He alerted us that He—Glorified be He—originated the creation of man and cycled him through stages until He brought him to a stage that is the pinnacle of his perfection, through which he becomes qualified for obligations of the type mentioned, namely, being alive, rational, hearing, and seeing. This necessitated mentioning a stage in which the requital for what He obligated him with occurs, which is being resurrected on the Day of Resurrection, so He alerted us to it by saying: “Then, indeed, you, on the Day of Resurrection, will be resurrected.” Thus, the most important intent, after clarifying his creation and his qualification for obligation, is to clarify his resurrection. However, the mention of death was inserted because it is an isthmus (barzakh) between the stage in which he became qualified for the deeds that necessitate requital and his resurrection; thus, it is inevitable that he must cross it to reach that. It is as if it were said: "O you, this creature of wondrous affair, your essence and your reality will perish and cease to exist, then it—its very self, from the scattered parts, the decayed bones, and the torn-up, vanishing skins across the regions of the East and West—will be resurrected and spread forth for the Day of Judgment, to reward those who did good in what We obligated them with, and to punish those who did evil in it."

Thus, the second clause—the clause indicating resurrection—did not stand in need of emphasis like the first one—the clause indicating death—because it is like a premise for it, and its emphasis returns to it. From this, the secret of the shift in speech from the third person to the second person is known. (End of quote, though it contains a degree of remoteness).

It is also said: Exaggeration was used in the first clause because of the persistence of the addresses in heedlessness, as if they were placed in the position of those who deny it, while the second was left without such [emphasis] due to the clarity of its proofs and the brilliance of its arguments. Al-Tibī said: "This is fine speech, if only the superior syntax supported it."

It may be said: The intense aversion to death, from which no one is safe, was placed in the position of intense denial, hence the exaggeration in emphasizing the clause indicating it. As for the Resurrection, since it is a life after death, souls do not hate it, and since it is a place of hardships, they do hate it. When its state was neither like the state of death nor like the state of life, but somewhere in between, the clause indicating it was emphasized with a single emphasis. This is an aspect of emphasis that no scholar of rhetoric has mentioned, and it is no detriment to it that they did not, as it is sound in itself.

The repetition of the particle of delay (thumma) serves to signal the disparity of ranks. The verse contains the mention of nine stages, and death occurred as the eighth stage. It happens that those who are born after eight months of gestation rarely survive. He—Glorified be He—did not mention the stage of life in the grave because it is of the same nature as the restoration.