Sura 2, al-Baqara, Medina 87

The Quranic text and Ali’s version

كَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ ...

2:28. How can ye reject the faith in Allah?

... وَكُنتُمْ أَمْوَاتاً فَأَحْيَاكُمْ ...

Seeing that ye were without life, and He gave you life;

... ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيكُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ ﴿٢٨﴾

then will He cause you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye return.

Transliteration Kaifa takfuru_na billa_hi wa kuntum amwa_tan fa ahya_kum, summa yumitukum summa yuhyikum summa ilaihi turja'u_n(a).

Asad’s version

How can you refuse to acknowledge God, "Seeing that ye were without life (literally, dead), and He gave you life: then will He cause you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye retum."

Pickthall’s version

How disbelieve ye in Allah when ye were dead and He gave life to you! Then he will give you death, then life again, and then unto Him ye will return.

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[[ Ali’s note:- C46. In the preceding verses Allah has used various arguments.

- He has recalled His goodness (2:21-22);

- resolved doubts (2:23);

- plainly set forth the penalty of wrong-doing (2:24);

- given glad tidings (2:25);

- shown how misunderstandings arise from a deliberate rejection of the light and breach of the Covenant (2:26-27).

Now (2:28-29) He pleads with His creatures and appeals to their own subjective feelings.

- He brought you into being.

- The mysteries of life and death are in His hands.

- When you die on this earth, that is not the end. You were of Him, and you must return to Him.

- Look around you and realize your own dignity; it is from Him.

The immeasurable depths of space above and around you may stagger you. They are part of His plan. What you have imagined as the seven firmaments (and any other scheme you may construct) bears witness to His design of order and perfection, for His knowledge (unlike yours) is all- comprehending.

And yet will you deliberately reject or obscure or deaden the faculty of Faith which has been put into you?]]

[ Ruby’s note: The way these sentences and the sequence of events are structured implies that after bringing to life again after death, still there is another state of returning to God Himself. Is this means individual souls merging with the Supreme Being Himself? ]