The Truth about the Alleged Punishment for Apostasy in Islam — Page 48
48 leader S a mr i ? Had that been the case, the followers of Moses as would have been obliterated from the face of the earth. METAPHORICAL 'SLAYING' Then, immediately in the next verse, Allah, the Exalted, says: 'Then We raised you up after your death, that you might be grateful. ' 46 In other words, this is the clarification of the notion of "death" that they had been commanded to impose on their own selves. Thus it enunciates that those people did not get killed, in the physical sense, i. e. , they were not slain. Rather, for their own sake they had subjected their own selves to a kind of "death", as was the commandment for them. Because, when a human being subjects his own self to a sort of "death", solely for the sake of God, then God ensures that he is given a new life. Thus, Allah has also touched upon the theme of how He turned towards them * with compassion, i. e. , when they imposed a sort of "death" on their selves 46 The Holy Qur’an 2:57. [Publisher] * , t a ba. [Publisher]