Ya-Sin · Makki · ayah 78 of 83

Ya-Sin 36:78

وَضَرَبَ لَنَا مَثَلًا وَنَسِىَ خَلْقَهُۥ ۖ قَالَ مَن يُحْىِ ٱلْعِظَـٰمَ وَهِىَ رَمِيمٌ

“And he presents for Us an example[1284] and forgets his [own] creation. He says, "Who will give life to bones while they are disintegrated?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

A man crumbles a dead bone and asks who could revive it; the ayah answers that he has forgotten how he himself began.

A reflection

Not realism: a coin struck from the wrong mould

The sceptic's question in this ayah can sound like plain common sense. Who will give life to bones when they have decayed? Many modern people would say the same, with a shrug. Dead is dead. Dust is dust. Believing otherwise seems to require switching off the part of the mind that deals in facts.

The ayah does not treat the question as realism. It gives it a name first: he struck for Us a likeness. The concise commentaries explain what that means. He set up a comparison that should never have been made: measuring the Creator's power by the power of a creature. Another says he grew heedless and ignorant when he used decayed bones as proof that resurrection was impossible.

The words carry pictures. Ḍaraba, struck, is the hammer coming down on a blank to mint a coin. Mathal, a likeness, is a figure made on another's pattern, a smith's mould for a blade. So he struck for Us a likeness is close to: he minted an image of Allah from a human mould. One commentator spells it out. He made for Us a likeness and a peer from among creation, and measured Our power against theirs.

That is the hidden move inside the question. Who can revive this? is only unanswerable if the One being asked about is no more capable than the one asking. Of course no human can do it. The question quietly assumes no one else can either.

The ayah does not call this an argument. It calls it a likeness struck on the wrong pattern. Then, in four words, it shows what went wrong.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.