Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:28
How can you disbelieve in Allah when you were lifeless and He brought you to life; then He will cause you to die, then He will bring you [back] to life, and then to Him you will be returned.
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.
The explanation of the saying of Allah: كَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَكُنْتُمْ أَمْوَاتًا فَأَحْيَاكُمْ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيكُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ (28) هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مَا فِي الأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا
("How can you reject Allah, when you were dead and He brought you to life; then He causes you to die, then He brings you to life again, and then to Him you will be returned (28). He it is who created for you all that is on the earth.")
The exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the explanation of this:
Some of them said the following:
576 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related this to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī in a report which he mentioned, on the authority of Abū Mālik, and on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — and on the authority of Murrah, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of people among the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ — concerning: "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead and He brought you to life, then He causes you to die, then He brings you to life again": He says: you were nothing, and He created you, then He causes you to die, then He brings you to life again on the Day of Resurrection.
577 – Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh (Ibn Masʿūd) concerning His saying: أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ ("You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice") [Surah Ghāfir: 11], that he said: this is like that which is in (Surah) al-Baqarah: "You were dead and He brought you to life, then He causes you to die, then He brings you to life again."
578 – Abū Ḥaṣīn ʿAbdallāh ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Yūnus related to me, saying: ʿAbthar related to us, saying: Ḥuṣayn related to us, on the authority of Abū Mālik, concerning His saying: أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ ("You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice"), that he said: You created us when we were nothing, then You caused us to die, then You brought us to life.
579 – Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of Abū Mālik, concerning His saying: أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ ("You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice"), that he said: they were dead and Allah brought them to life, then He caused them to die, then He brought them to life again.
580 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His saying: "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead and He brought you to life, then He causes you to die, then He brings you to life again", that he said: you were nothing when He created you, then He causes you to die with real death, then He brings you to life again. And His saying: أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ ("You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice") is the same.
581 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī related to me, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that he said: it is His saying: أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ ("You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice").
582 – It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, saying: ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, saying: Abū al-ʿĀliya related to me, concerning the saying of Allah: "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead", he says: when they were nothing, then He brought them to life when He created them, then He caused them to die, then He brought them to life again on the Day of Resurrection, and then after life they returned to Him.
583 – It was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ ("You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice"), that he said: you were dust before He created you — that is one death. Then He brought you to life and created you — that is one giving of life. Then He causes you to die, so that you return to the graves — that is a second death. Then He raises you on the Day of Resurrection — that is a giving of life. Thus there are two deaths and two periods of life, and that is His saying: "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead and He brought you to life, then He causes you to die, then He brings you to life again, and then to Him you will be returned."
And others said the following:
584 – Abū Kurayb related this to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ concerning: "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead and He brought you to life, then He causes you to die, then He brings you to life again, and then to Him you will be returned", that he said: He brings you to life in the grave, then He causes you to die.
And others said the following:
585 – Bishr ibn Muʿādh related this to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead" — the entire āyah. He said: they were dead in the loins of their forefathers, and Allah brought them to life and created them, then He caused them to die with the death that is inescapable, then He brought them to life again for the rising on the Day of Resurrection. Thus there are two periods of life and two deaths.
And some of them said the following:
586 – Yūnus related this to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning the saying of Allah, the Exalted: رَبَّنَا أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ ("Our Lord, You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice"), he said: He created them from the back of Adam when He took the covenant from them. And he recited: وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِنْ بَنِي آدَمَ مِنْ ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ ("And when your Lord took from the children of Adam, from their backs, their offspring") until he reached: أَوْ تَقُولُوا إِنَّمَا أَشْرَكَ آبَاؤُنَا مِنْ قَبْلُ وَكُنَّا ذُرِّيَّةً مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ أَفَتُهْلِكُنَا بِمَا فَعَلَ الْمُبْطِلُونَ ("Or say: 'Our fathers associated partners (ashraka) before us, and we were offspring after them. Will You then destroy us for what the falsifiers did?'") [Surah al-Aʿrāf: 172-173]. He said: and He granted them understanding and took the covenant from them. He said: and He drew a rib from the ribs of Adam — the shortest rib — and created from it Ḥawwāʾ (Eve) — this he narrated on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ. He said: and that is the saying of Allah, the Exalted: يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالا كَثِيرًا ("O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from a single soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from them both many men") [Surah al-Nisāʾ: 1]. He said: and He dispersed from the two of them afterward in the wombs a numerous creation, and he recited: يَخْلُقُكُمْ فِي بُطُونِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ خَلْقًا مِنْ بَعْدِ خَلْقٍ ("He creates you in the bellies of your mothers, creation after creation") [Surah al-Zumar: 6]. He said: a creation after (another). He said: and when He had taken the covenant from them, He caused them to die, then He created them in the wombs, then He caused them to die, then He brought them to life again on the Day of Resurrection. And that is the saying of Allah: قَالُوا رَبَّنَا أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ فَاعْتَرَفْنَا بِذُنُوبِنَا ("They said: 'Our Lord, You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice, and we confess our sins'"). And he recited the saying of Allah: وَأَخَذْنَا مِنْهُمْ مِيثَاقًا غَلِيظًا ("And We took from them a solemn covenant") [Surah al-Aḥzāb: 7]. He said: on that day. He said: and he recited the saying of Allah: وَاذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَمِيثَاقَهُ الَّذِي وَاثَقَكُمْ بِهِ إِذْ قُلْتُمْ سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا ("And remember the favor of Allah upon you and His covenant with which He bound you, when you said: 'We hear and we obey'") [Surah al-Māʾidah: 7].
Abū Jaʿfar (al-Ṭabarī) said: Each of these sayings which we have reported on the authority of those from whom we reported them has an aspect and a direction of interpretation.
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As for the manner of interpretation of the one who interprets His saying "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead and He brought you to life" as "you were nothing": he takes recourse to something like the expression of the Arabs concerning an effaced matter and a forgotten affair: "this is a dead thing" and "this is a dead affair" — by the description "dead" is meant: its falling into oblivion and the effacement of its traces among the people. And likewise one says, in the opposite and in contrast to it: "this is a living affair" and "a living mention" — by that description is meant that it is prominent and well-known among the people, as Abū Nukhayla al-Saʿdī said:
"Thus have you revived for me my name, though I was not unknown, yet one mention is loftier than another."
By his saying "Thus have you revived for me my name" he means: you have raised it up and made it known among the people, until it became prominent and became a living, mentioned name, after it had been unknown and dead. Thus this is the interpretation of the one who said, concerning His saying "when you were dead": you were nothing, that is to say: you were forgotten, without there being any mention of you, and that was your death. Then He brought you to life, and made you into living people who are mentioned and known. Then He causes you to die by taking your souls and returning you, as you were before He brought you to life — in the effacement of your mention, the disappearance of your traces, and the falling of your affairs into oblivion. Then He brings you to life again by returning your bodies to their form and breathing the soul into them, and making you into people as you were before the causing to die, while you recognize one another at your rising and at your gathering.
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As for the manner of interpretation of the one who interprets that as the causing to die which is the departure of the soul from the body: then he must have meant by his saying "when you were dead" that it is an address directed to the inhabitants of the graves after they have been brought to life in their graves. But that is a far-fetched meaning, for the rebuke there is only a rebuke for what has preceded and what crimes they have committed, not a call to repentance and return. And His saying, exalted is His remembrance, "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead" is the rebuke of One who wishes to bring His servants to repentance, and the reproach of One who wishes to lead His creatures back from disobedience to obedience, and from misguidance to conversion. But there is no more conversion in the graves after death, and no repentance therein after dying.
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As for the manner of interpretation of Qatāda's saying, that they were dead in the loins of their forefathers: he meant by it that they were drops of sperm (nuṭaf) in which there were no souls, and that they were thus in the same sense as all other inanimate things in which there is no soul. And His giving them life, exalted is His remembrance, is His breathing of the souls into them; and His causing them to die afterward is His taking of their souls; and His giving them life afterward is the breathing of the souls into their bodies on the day when the Trumpet is blown and He raises the creation for what has been promised.
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As for Ibn Zayd: he himself made clear what he meant by that interpretation, namely that the first causing to die takes place when Allah, exalted is His praise, returns His servants into the loins of their forefathers, after He had taken them from the back of Adam; and that the second giving of life is the breathing of the souls into them in the bellies of their mothers; and that the second causing to die is the taking of their souls to return to the dust and to abide in the barzakh until the Day of Resurrection; and that the third giving of life is the breathing of the souls into them for the rising of the Hour and the unfolding of the Resurrection.
But when one who reflects upon this interpretation considers it, he will find it contradicting the literal meaning of the saying of Allah, of which the one who interprets it claimed that what we have described of his saying is its interpretation. That is because Allah, exalted is His praise, in His Book — concerning those of His creation about whom He gave report — informed that they said: رَبَّنَا أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ ("Our Lord, You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice"), while Ibn Zayd in his interpretation claimed that Allah brought them to life three times and caused them to die three times. And the matter, in our view, is thus — even though what he described concerning Allah's bringing forth, exalted is His remembrance, of the offspring from the back of Adam and His taking of the covenant from them, is as he described it — that this has nothing to do with the interpretation of these two āyahs — I mean His saying "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead" — the entire āyah — and His saying رَبَّنَا أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ ("Our Lord, You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice"). For no one has claimed that Allah caused those whom He brought forth on that day to die with a death other than the death by which one entered the barzakh until the Day of Rising, such that it would be permissible to direct the interpretation of the āyah to that which Ibn Zayd directed it.
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And some of them said: the first causing to die is the separation of the sperm-drop of the man from his body to the womb of the woman; it is thus dead from the moment of its separation from his body until the breathing of the soul into it. Then Allah brings it to life by breathing the soul into it and makes it into a well-formed human, after various stages that come over it. Then He causes him to die with the second causing to die by taking the soul from him, so that he is dead in the barzakh until the day when the Trumpet is blown, whereupon his soul is returned to his body and he comes back alive and well-formed for the rising of the Resurrection. These are thus two deaths and two periods of life. What led these (people) to make this statement is that they said: the death of an ensouled being is the separation of the soul from it. They thus claimed that every part of the son of Adam is alive as long as it does not leave his living, ensouled body. Everything, therefore, that leaves his living, ensouled body is abandoned by life and becomes dead — like one of his limbs, for example a hand of his hands or a foot of his feet: if it were cut off and separated while the one from whom it was cut off is alive, then that which was separated from his body would be dead, with no soul in it, by its separation from the rest of his body in which the soul is. They said: thus likewise his sperm-drop is alive by his life, as long as it does not leave his ensouled body; and when it separates from it and detaches from it, it becomes dead, by analogy with what we have described concerning the ruling regarding the hand, the foot, and the rest of his limbs. And this is a statement and a direction of interpretation — if only there were someone who proclaimed it among the leading exemplars whose interpretation of the Qurʾān is regarded as acceptable.
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And the most fitting of what we have mentioned — among the statements which we have set forth — for the interpretation of the saying of Allah, exalted is His remembrance, "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead and He brought you to life" — the entire āyah — is the statement which we have mentioned on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿAbbās: namely that the meaning of His saying "when you were dead" is: dead as regards mention, unknown in the loins of your forefathers as sperm-drops, not known and not mentioned. Then He brought you to life by bringing you forth as well-formed humans, until you became mentioned, known, and alive. Then He causes you to die by taking your souls and returning you to decayed remains, not known and not mentioned in the barzakh, until the day when you are raised. Then He brings you to life again afterward by breathing the souls into you for the rising of the Hour and the cry of the Resurrection. Then afterward you are returned to Allah, as He said: "and then to Him you will be returned", for Allah, exalted is His praise, brings them to life in their graves before their gathering, and then He gathers them for the standing-place of the reckoning, as He, exalted is His remembrance, said: يَوْمَ يَخْرُجُونَ مِنَ الأَجْدَاثِ سِرَاعًا كَأَنَّهُمْ إِلَى نُصُبٍ يُوفِضُونَ ("The day when they will emerge hastily from the graves, as though they were rushing toward erected stones") [Surah al-Maʿārij: 43], and He said: وَنُفِخَ فِي الصُّورِ فَإِذَا هُمْ مِنَ الأَجْدَاثِ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ يَنْسِلُونَ ("And the Trumpet will be blown, and at once they will hasten from the graves to their Lord") [Surah Yāsīn: 51]. And the reason why we preferred this interpretation is what we have already adduced for those who proclaim it, and the invalidity of what contradicts it, as we have previously clarified.
And this āyah is a rebuke from Allah, exalted is His praise, to those who say: آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ ("We believe in Allah and in the Last Day"), of whom Allah informed that they, despite uttering that with their mouths, do not believe in it; and that they say it only to deceive Allah and the believers. Allah therefore rebuked them with His saying "How can you reject Allah, when you were dead and He brought you to life", and He reproached them and adduced proof against them — on account of their denial of what they denied of it and their disavowal of what they disavowed with their sick hearts — and said: how can you reject Allah and thus deny His power to bring you to life after He has caused you to die, [for the rising of the Resurrection, and the recompense of the evildoer among you with evil and the doer of good with good, while you were dead sperm-drops in the loins of your forefathers, and He brought you forth as a well-formed creation and made you alive, then He caused you to die after bringing you forth. You thus know that He who did that with His power is not incapable — by the power with which He did that to you — of bringing you to life after having caused you to die] and returning you after having caused you to perish, and gathering you to Him in order to recompense you according to your deeds.
Thereafter our Lord, exalted is His remembrance, enumerated for them and for their allies among the rabbis of the Jews — whose stories He combined with the stories of the hypocrites in many āyahs of this Surah, in which He began the report concerning them with His saying: إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنْذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنْذِرْهُمْ لا يُؤْمِنُونَ ("Indeed, those who disbelieve — it is all the same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them; they do not believe") — His favors that had come to them and to their forefathers from Him, the places of which were great among them. Then He took away from many of them much of that, on account of the sins they committed, the crimes they perpetrated, and their exchanging of obedience for disobedience — by which He warned them against the hastening of the punishment upon them, as He had hastened it against the predecessors and the earlier ones before them, and by which He instilled in them fear of the descent of His exemplary punishments (mathulāt) upon their territory, as He had caused that to descend upon their ancestors, and by which He let them know what deliverance there is for them in a swift return to Him and the hastening of repentance — as regards their salvation on the Day of Resurrection from the punishment.
Thus He began, after enumerating for them what He enumerated of His favors in which they dwell, with the mention of our father and their father Adam, the father of mankind, the blessings of Allah be upon him, and what had come to him from Him of honoring toward him and benefits with Him; and what He caused to descend upon him and upon his enemy Iblīs of immediate punishment on account of their disobedience that came from them and their transgression of His command that He commanded them. And what there was of His enveloping Adam with His mercy when the latter showed repentance and turned to Him. And what there was of His causing to descend upon Iblīs His cursing in the present, and His preparing for him what He has prepared for him of lasting punishment in the hereafter, when the latter was arrogant and refused to show repentance to Him and to convert — thereby drawing their attention to His ruling concerning those who turn to Him in repentance, and His decree concerning those who arrogantly refuse conversion — as an exculpation from Allah thereby toward them and a warning to them, so that they might reflect upon His signs and so that the possessors of understanding among them might take heed. And in particular the People of the Book (ahl al-kitāb) — with what He mentioned of the stories of Adam and the rest of the stories that He mentioned along with it and after it, of that which the People of the Book knew but which the unlettered community of the polytheists (mushrikīn), the idol-worshippers, did not know — by adducing the proof against them, and against no one else among the rest of the kinds of communities, who had no knowledge of that — in favor of His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, so that by his informing them of it they might know that he is a messenger sent by Allah and that what he brought them is from Him, since what he narrated to them of these stories belonged to their hidden knowledge, the guarded portion of what was in their books, and their concealed affairs of which no one other than they, and no one other than whoever among them had learned and read their books, claimed to possess the knowledge.
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And it was known of Muḥammad ﷺ that he had never been a scribe, nor had he read their writings, nor had he associated with any of them or sat (with them), such that they could claim that he had taken that from their books or from one of them. He therefore said, exalted is His remembrance — while enumerating for them what they possess of His favors, despite their disbelief in Him and their failure to thank Him for it with the obedience they owe Him: هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مَا فِي الأرْضِ جَمِيعًا ثُمَّ اسْتَوَى إِلَى السَّمَاءِ فَسَوَّاهُنَّ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ ("He it is who created for you all that is on the earth, then He turned to the heaven and fashioned it into seven heavens, and He has knowledge of all things") [Surah al-Baqarah: 29]. He thus informed them, exalted is His remembrance, that He created for them all that is on the earth, because the earth and all that is on it contain benefit for the sons of Adam. As for religion, they constitute an indication of the oneness of their Lord; and as for the worldly life, they are a sustenance and a provision for them toward His obedience and the fulfillment of His obligatory duties.
Therefore He said, exalted is His remembrance: "He it is who created for you all that is on the earth."
And His saying "He" is a pronoun referring back to the name of Allah, exalted is His remembrance, referring back to His name in His saying "How can you reject Allah". And the meaning of His creating what He created, exalted is His praise, is the bringing forth of its essence and the bringing of it out from the state of non-being into existence. And "mā" (what) has the meaning of "alladhī" (that which).
The meaning of the saying is thus: how can you reject Allah, when you were sperm-drops in the loins of your forefathers and He made you into living humans, then He causes you to die, then He is the One who brings you to life afterward and raises you on the Day of Gathering for the reward and the punishment; and He is the One who has favored you with what He has created for you on the earth of your sustenance and your indications of the oneness of your Lord.
And "kayfa" (how) has the meaning of wonder and rebuke, not the meaning of a question, as though He said: woe to you, how can you reject Allah — as He said: فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ ("Where then do you go?") [Surah al-Takwīr: 26]. And His saying "when you were dead and He brought you to life" takes the place of the circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl). And in it the implicit "qad" is understood, but it is omitted on account of what in the saying indicates it. That is because a verb (fiʿl), when it takes the place of the circumstantial qualifier, is known to require "qad", as He, exalted is His praise, said: أَوْ جَاءُوكُمْ حَصِرَتْ صُدُورُهُمْ ("Or they come to you, while their breasts are constricted") [Surah al-Nisāʾ: 90], in the meaning of: while their breasts have already (qad) become constricted. And as you say to a man: "You came in the morning, your cattle having become numerous", by which you mean: your cattle have already become numerous.
