Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 73 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:73

فَقُلْنَا ٱضْرِبُوهُ بِبَعْضِهَا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يُحْىِ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْمَوْتَىٰ وَيُرِيكُمْ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ

“So We said, "Strike him [i.e., the slain man] with part of it."[31] Thus does Allāh bring the dead to life, and He shows you His signs that you might reason.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Struck with part of the cow, the dead man rose and named his killer: so Allah gives life to the dead, and shows His signs.

A reflection

So Allah gives life to the dead

A potter's bowl collapses on the wheel. Her apprentice gasps. She simply gathers the clay into a ball and begins again. She made it once; making it again is no harder.

'Thus Allah gives life to the dead.' The ayah leaves out the obvious step: they struck him, and he lived. It moves straight to the lesson. One classical theologian explains that 'the dead' is plural on purpose. This one revival is a model of every revival to come.

The same commentator quotes an earlier scholar. These people already believed in the resurrection, but only by reasoning, and reasoning is never entirely free of doubt. So Allah let them see it with their own eyes, to settle their hearts. It recalls Ibrāhīm's request: 'My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead', so 'that my heart may be at rest' (2:260). And He brings back life, the theologian adds, without needing any material, time, model or tool.

This is where human pride is quietly undone. We speak of 'giving life' through medicine and technology, and those are real gifts. But no one has ever returned a person once death has truly come. The resurrection is not a problem for the One who began creation. 'He begins creation, then repeats it, and that is easier for Him' (30:27).

The humbling thought is personal. My own life was given without my asking. It will be returned without my permission. Every breath between is borrowed from the One who said of a murdered man: rise. And he rose.

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.