Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:47
سُورَةُ الوَاقِعَةِ · Meccan · Verse 47 of 96
وَكَانُوا۟ يَقُولُونَ أَئِذَا مِتْنَا وَكُنَّا تُرَابًۭا وَعِظَٰمًا أَءِنَّا لَمَبْعُوثُونَ
Translation
always saying, ‘What? When we are dead and have become dust and bones, shall we then be raised up?
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'And they used to say: When we die and become dust and bones, will we really be raised?' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the denial at the root of their persistence, treating decayed dust and bones as the unanswerable case against resurrection, and using that doubt to justify a life of indulgence. Ask yourself: their whole heedlessness rested on this one disbelief, that there would be no raising, no reckoning, so the comfort of now was all there was. It is the same quiet assumption behind much of my own carelessness: 'this is probably it, so why not.' The denial of accountability is the permission slip for every persistence in wrong. If I truly doubted there was a raising, I would live exactly as they did. So the real question is: do I live as though I will be raised, or only say I believe it?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:47 is discussed in 4 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:47 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.