Ad-Dukhan · Makki · ayah 35 of 59

Ad-Dukhan 44:35

إِنْ هِىَ إِلَّا مَوْتَتُنَا ٱلْأُولَىٰ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمُنشَرِينَ

“"There is not but our first death, and we will not be resurrected.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The deniers sum up their creed in one sentence: there is only our first death, and we will never be unfolded back to life.

A reflection

Lights out?

In hiya illā mawtatunā al-ūlā wa-mā naḥnu bi-munsharīn: there is nothing but our first death, and we will not be raised.

This is the most modern-sounding sentence in the surah. Many people today would say it with a shrug. Death is the end. Belief in an afterlife is wishful thinking, a comfort story for those afraid of the dark.

It deserves a fair hearing. The commentaries record that the deniers of Makkah held it as their settled position. They did not believe they would be raised for reckoning, reward or punishment.

The Quran's reply is not a single slogan. Across many surahs it reasons. Who gives life to bones when they have crumbled, someone asks. Say: He will give them life Who produced them the first time (36:78-79). The first life is the evidence for the second. You did not exist, and now you do.

This very passage adds another argument, a few ayat on. We did not create the heavens and the earth and all between them in play (44:38). One theological commentary draws out the logic. If there were no raising, all of this creation would be play and pointlessness.

At a friend's funeral, a man stands at the back with his hands in his pockets. When it is over he says quietly to the person next to him, well, that's it then, lights out. Then he walks to the car park. But on the drive home he cannot stop thinking about his friend's kindness, his patience, the wrongs done to him that were never put right. Was all of that simply switched off?

What remains open is the feeling, not the logic. The heart that has seen injustice go unanswered already suspects that death cannot be the final word.

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.