Tafseer of The Night Journey · Al-Israa · 17:98
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?"
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, exalted be His praise, says: This which We have described of what We shall do on the Day of Resurrection to these polytheists (mushrikīn) — namely that We shall gather them upon their faces, blind, dumb, and deaf, and that We shall cast them into the Fire as We have set forth their condition therein — is their recompense for their disbelief (kufr) in the worldly life toward Our signs, by which are meant His proofs and His arguments, that is, His messengers who called them to His worship and to ascribing divinity to Him alone above the idols and images. And it is likewise the recompense for their words, when they are called to believe in the Promise and in Allah's reward and punishment in the Hereafter: أَئِذَا كُنَّا عِظَامًا (when we are already bones), decayed, وَرُفَاتًا (and dust), after we have become dust — أَئِنَّا لَمَبْعُوثُونَ خَلْقًا جَدِيدًا (shall we then be raised up as a new creation?) — they say: shall we after that be raised up as a new creation, as He created us the first time in the world? This out of indignation at that notion, and out of rejection and astonishment at the possibility that this could come to pass.
