Tafseer of The Night Journey · Al-Israa · 17:49
And they say, "When we are bones and crumbled particles, will we [truly] be resurrected as a new creation?"
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Allah the Exalted says, reporting the statement of those of the polytheists of Quraysh who do not believe in the Hereafter, and they said out of obstinacy: أَئِذَا كُنَّا عِظَامًا (When we have become bones) — neither broken nor fallen to pieces after our death and our decay — وَرُفَاتًا (and crushed dust) — that is to say: dust in our graves.
As Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: Allah says رُفَاتًا — he said: "Dust."
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, similarly.
Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word وَقَالُوا أَئِذَا كُنَّا عِظَامًا وَرُفَاتًا: he said: "Finely ground dust, and there is no singular for al-rufāt; it is like al-duqāq (fine debris) and al-ḥuṭām (fragments). One says of it: rafattu yurfatu raftan fa-huwa marfūtun — when it is made into something like ḥuṭām and ruḍāḍ (crushed bits)."
And His word أَئِنَّا لَمَبْعُوثُونَ خَلْقًا جَدِيدًا — they said this, denying the resurrection after death: "Shall we, after we have become bones in the graves, which are not broken, and crushed dust which is indeed broken, and after we have decayed and become dust in the graves, be resurrected as a newly created being, brought back to life again as we were before death?" And the Exalted in His majesty answered them, teaching them of His power to resurrect them after their death and to create them anew as they were before their decay — as a new creation — whatever state they may be in: bones or crushed dust, or stones or iron, or anything else that, in their opinion, is too tremendous for anything like them as living people to be made from it. "Say, O Muḥammad: Be stones or iron, or a creation of what is great in your breasts."
