The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 221
PT. 17 AL-HAJJ CH. 22 ذلِكَ بِأَنَّ اللهَ هُوَ الْحَقُّ وَأَنَّهُ يُحْيِ الْمَوْلى That is because Allah is the. 7 وَأَنَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌة Truth, and that it is He Who brings the dead to life, and that He has power over all things;2442 2:74; 30:51; 35:10; 41:40; 42:10; 57:18. derived from (bahaja). They say (bahaja) i. e. it made him joyful, glad or happy. E means, beauteous or beautiful and bright or splendid, having a joyful, glad or happy appearance. means, beauty or goodliness of a thing or its beauty and brightness or splendour; joyfulness, gladness or happiness of appearance (Lane & Aqrab). Commentary: an The verse proceeds to give arguments to show that life after death or the resurrection is established fact. Man's own creation and physical development is the first argument given in this verse to prove this theme. This creation is a process of evolution, a gradual unfolding, a development from one stage to another, from lifeless matter to a seed, then to a fertilized ovum, then to a foetus and then it culminates in the birth of a perfectly formed human being. But this process of evolution and growth does not stop with man's birth. It continues. A child grows into a full grown man and then he passes on to old age and then to death which is the flight of the human soul from its physical habitat. This wonderful physical growth of man from a lifeless piece of matter to a fully developed human being constitutes an irrefutable proof that the Creator of man and the Author of all these stages of development possesses the power to give him a new life after he is dead. The inference seems to be that just as the creation and development of man is a process of evolution and gradual growth, in the same way the progress of Islam will also be gradual and in stages. After this argument in favour of life after death, another argument given in this verse is taken from nature. The verse says that the earth becomes barren, bleak or dead on account of a long period of drought. There is not a blade of grass to be seen on it. Then God sends down rain. The bleak and barren earth begins to vibrate with new life. This phenomenon also leads to the same conclusion that God Who has the power to make the dead and barren earth vibrate with new life has the power to bring man to life after his death. It also leads to the implied inference that by the advent of Islam, a spiritually dead Arabia will bloom and blossom into new life. See also 23:13-15. 2135 2442. Commentary: The verse purports to say that the inescapable inference from the preceding verse is (1) that God is i. e. His existence is an established