An-Naml (The Ant)

83. “And on the Day when We shall muster out of every nation a party from those who belied Our revelations, and they shall be kept in rank.”

84. “Till when they come (before their Lord), He will say: ‘Did you reject My revelations while you had no comprehensive knowledge of them? Or what was it you did?’”

This verse indicates that Allah shall muster only a part out of every nation, while in Hereafter all people will be mustered. This makes it clear that the above verse does not relate to Hereafter but it relates to /raj‘at/ ‘return to life’ in which a group of men will be quickened before Resurrection.

So, this verse says:

“And on the Day when We shall muster out of every nation a party from those who belied Our revelations, and they shall be kept in rank.”

The Arabic word /hašr/ means ‘to cause to camp’, and ‘to send out a group from their place and to move them toward the battle-field, and the like’.

The Arabic word /fauj/, as Raqib says in Mufradat, means ‘a group who travel speedily’.

The Qur’anic word /yuza‘un/ means ‘keeping a crowd of people in a manner that a group of them joins another’ and this meaning is usually applied upon some tremendous crowds, the like of which was used for the troops of Solomon in this Surah.

Thus, the verse, on the whole, indicates that there will come a day when Allah will raise to life a group from any nation and will send them forth for the retribution of their deeds.

Many of the commentators have considered this holy verse as a reference for the subject of /raj‘at/ ‘return to life’ and the return of some evil doers and good doers to this world at the threshold of the Hereafter, since if it was referring to the Resurrection and Hereafter the application of the holy phrase ‘out of every nation a party’ would not be correct, because in Hereafter all people will be mustered, as the Qur’an in Surah Al-Kahf, No. 18, verse 47 says:

“…and We muster them nor shall We leave out any one of them.”

Another reference is that before this verse the words were about the signs of Resurrection at the end of this world, and the coming verses also point to the same subject, therefore, it is not probable that the verses before and after it speak about the events which happen before Resurrection, but the middle verse speaks of the Resurrection.

The agreement of the verses requires that all of them speak about the events before the Resurrection.

There are also many narrations in this ground that we will point to them when commenting the meaning of /raj‘at/ (return to life).

The concept of ‘Raj‘at’ is one of the famous creeds of Shi‘ah, the commentary of which, in a short sentence, is as follows. After the advent of Hadrat Mahdi (as) and at the threshold of Resurrection a group of ‘true sincere believers’ and a group of ‘very vicious disobedient infidels’ will return to this world.

The former group (true believers) will pass some degrees of development and the latter group will receive some harsh retributions.

The Late Sayyid Murtada, who is one of the dignitaries of Shi‘ah, says:

“After the advent of Hadrat Mahdi, Allah, the Exalted, will cause some of those who have passed away aforetime to return to this world in order that they take part in the rewards and honours of his victory and observe his government throughout the world, and He will cause a group of obstinate enemies to return to this world to punish them.”

Then, Sayyid Murtada adds:

“The reasoning of this sect is that no intellectual person can deny the power of Allah upon this thing, because it is not an impossible matter, while some of our opponents deny this subject so earnestly that it seems improbable and they count it impossible.”

Then he adds:

“The proof for the legitimacy of this belief is the consensus of Twelvers, because none of them has ever opposed this belief.”1

It is understood, of course, from the words of some of the ancient scholars of Shi’ah, and the Late Tabarsi’s in Majma‘-ul-Bayan that a very minority of Shi‘ah did not believe in this belief and commented /raj‘at/ in the sense of the return of the domination and government of Ahl-ul-Bayt (as), not the return of persons and that the dead be quickened, but their opposition is in such a way that it does not harm consensus.

However, there are a lot of statements here that, in order not to go out of the way of commentary discussion, they are referred to in short as follows:

1- No doubt, the act of restoring some dead persons to life in this world is not one of the impossible things, as the restoring all human being to life in Hereafter is quietly possible.

To surprise for such an affair is like the wonder of a group of pagans of the Age of Ignorance concerning the subject of Resurrection, and mocking it is similar to their mockery upon Resurrection, because intellect does not consider it impossible; and the Power of Allah is so vast that all these affairs are easy for Him.

2- According to the Holy Qur’an, the occurrence of /raj‘at/ (return to life) has happened for five instances of the former nations:

A. The first instance is about a prophet who was passing by a township the walls of which were ruined and the bones of the bodies of its people were scattered over there. He asked himself how Allah might restore these dead bodies to life.

Then Allah caused him to die and after one hundred years He restored him to life and asked him how long he had tarried. The prophet in answer said he tarried for one day or a part of a day. But Allah said he tarried for one hundred years.¹

Whether this prophet is ‘Uzayr or other prophet it is the same, the important matter is the life after death in this world.

The Qur’an says:

“…so Allah made him die a hundred years, then He raised him up…”

B. The Holy Qur’an in Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 243 also speaks about another group who, being afraid of death and, with pretext of plague, restrained from going to the Holy War. They went out of their houses and Allah issued the command of death for them and then they were restored to life.

“…Then Allah said to them; ‘Die’ (and they died); then He restored them to life…”

C. Again in Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verses 55 and 56, concerning the Children of Israel, we recite that a group of them, after asking Moses for seeing Allah, died because of thunderbolt, and, the Qur’an says:

“Then We raised you up after your death in order that haply you might be thankful.”

D. In Surah Al-Ma’idah, No. 5, verse 110, among miracles of Jesus (as) we recite:

“…and you did raise the dead (from their graves), by My leave…”

This shows that Jesus (as) used to use this miracle of his repeatedly to raise the dead, and this is counted as a kind of /raj‘at/ for some men.

E. Concerning the dead body and finding his murderer, the Children of Israel were quarrelling. Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 73 says:

“So, We said: ‘strike him (the corps) with a part of it (the sacrificed cow)’. Thus, Allah gives life to the dead and shows you of His signs, so that you might understand.”

In addition to these five instances, there are also some other instances mentioned in the Qur’an, like the story of ‘the Companions of the Cave’ which was something similar to /raj‘at/ (return to life); and the story of Hadrat Ebrahim and the four birds that, after killing them, returned to life again in order to illustrate the possibility of Resurrection of human beings for him.

This is also notable in the subject of /raj‘at/.

However, how is it possible that a person accepts the Qur’an as a heavenly Book and, with these clear verses, does also reject the possibility of /raj‘at/ (return to life)?

Basically, is /raj‘at/ something other than returning to life after death? Is /raj‘at/ not counted as a small example of Resurrection in this small world? He who accepts Resurrection with its vast scale, how can he deny the subject of /raj‘at/ (return to life in this world)?

3- Whatever was said, up to here, proved the possibility of the occurrence of /raj‘at/ (return to life), and there are also many traditions narrated from Ahl-ul-Bayt (as) which confirm its happening. Since our discussion has not the capacity of mentioning all of them, it is enough to refer to the number of them which the Late ‘Allamah Majlesi has collected and introduced.

He says:

“How is it possible that a person believes the truthfulness of the statements of Ahl-ul-Bayt (as) but he does not accept the widely transmitted traditions of /raj‘at/, the explicit traditions the number of which reaches about two hundred and that more than forty reliable persons of the narrators and famous scholars have referred to them in more than fifty books. If these traditions are not widely transmitted, what kind of tradition is widely transmitted?”3

A Few Traditions as Examples

1- Imam Sadiq (as) said:

“The first one to whom the earth (grave) will be cleft and he will return to the world is Husayn-ibn-Ali (as).”

2- Imam Baqir (as) said to ‘Bukayr-ibn-’A‘yan’:

“Verily the Messenger of Allah (S) and Ali (as) will return to life.”

3- Imam Sadiq (as) said:

“There will come with Gha’im (as) twenty seven men from behind Kufah; fifteen persons of them are from the people of Moses (as), those who used to guide (others) to the Truth and to call (them) to it; and seven persons of the Companions of Kahf; and Yusha‘-ubnu-Nun, Salman, ’Abu-Dujanat-il-’Ansari, Miqdad, and Malik-i-’Ashtar will be his helpers and governors.”4

Imam Sadiq (as) in a tradition says:

“Verily /raj‘at/ (return to life) is not general but it is informal, because only a group will return to life that have pure faith or pure infidelity.”5

This holy tradition defines the philosophy of /raj‘at/, because a group of sincere believers who had encountered some barriers on the path of spiritual perfection in their life and their perfection remained incomplete, the Divine Wisdom requires that they continue their path of perfection by returning again to this world, so that they can be witnesses of the worldly government of Truth and Justice and participate in building this government, since participation in the formation of such a government is one of the greatest honours.

On the contrary, some of the hypocrites and obstinate tyrants, besides their special retribution in Hereafter, must tolerate some punishments in this world similar to what the people of Pharaoh, ‘Aad, Thamud and Lot tolerated, and its only way is /raj‘at/ (return to life in this world).

During the period of /raj‘at/ (return to life in this world), the disbelievers will be reprimanded for both their beliefs and their behaviour.

Concerning the time when they are brought for reckoning, the verse says:

“Till when they come (before their Lord), He will say: ‘Did you reject My revelations while you had no comprehensive knowledge of them? Or what was it you did?’”

The speaker of this statement is Allah and the objective of the Qur’anic term /’ayati/ is the miracles of Divine prophets, or the commandments of Allah, or all of them.

And the purpose of the phrase ‘you had no comprehensive knowledge’ is that without doing any research about it and being unaware of the reality of a matter, they began to reject it. This is the ultimate ignorance of a person that with rather no research and having no knowledge about something tries to deny it.

In fact, they will be asked of two things: one is their rejection while having not any research, and the other is the deed they used to do.

If the above verse is taken as about Hereafter and Resurrection, its meaning is clear, but if it refers to /raj‘at/ (return to life in this world), as the agreement of the verse requires, it points to this fact that at the time of returning some of the wrong doers to this world, the one who is vicegerent of Allah and is the ‘master of affairs’ will investigate them and then he will punish them in this world as much as they deserve.

This punishment does not hinder their Hereafter punishment. It is like the state of many of the criminals who tolerate the ‘fixed punishment for certain crimes’ in this world and, if they do not repent, their proper chastisement in Hereafter is reserved.