Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 98 of 111

Al-Isra 17:98

ذَٰلِكَ جَزَآؤُهُم بِأَنَّهُمْ كَفَرُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَا وَقَالُوٓا۟ أَءِذَا كُنَّا عِظَـٰمًا وَرُفَـٰتًا أَءِنَّا لَمَبْعُوثُونَ خَلْقًا جَدِيدًا

“That is their recompense because they disbelieved in Our verses and said, "When we are bones and crumbled particles, will we [truly] be resurrected [in] a new creation?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

Their end is named as the exact match of their stance: they covered over the signs, then mocked being raised from bones and dust.

A reflection

Seen with the eyes, since not by proof

The previous ayah described a fire that sinks and is stirred again. This ayah names the reason. That is their recompense, because they disbelieved in Our signs and said...

A linguistic commentary sees a precise fit between the two. Whenever the fire consumes them and its flame settles, they are made anew, and it blazes again. They denied being brought back after perishing. So, the commentary says, it is as if their recompense became perishing and being brought back, over and over. That deepens their regret at having denied the resurrection.

A later commentary sums up the same thought in one memorable line. They are made to see it with their eyes, since they would not see it by proof.

Picture a street where the water company posts five letters over a month. Essential work, they say: the supply will be off from eight until four on Tuesday. Fill a few bottles. One man bins every letter. 'They always say that,' he tells his neighbour. On Tuesday morning he stands at the sink with an empty kettle, turning a tap that only coughs.

He did not need the shut-off to know about it. He had been told in writing, five times. The dry tap gave him nothing the letters had not given, except a certainty he could no longer argue with.

That is the sober logic of this ayah. The resurrection was offered to them as knowledge, with reasons: the first creation, the heavens and the earth, the signs all around them. They called it absurd. So in the end it will not be argued about at all. It will be lived, again and again.

The mercy hidden in the warning is its timing. It arrives now, while a reason can still be weighed and accepted. The letters are on the doormat. It costs very little to read them, and to fill the bottles while the water still runs.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.