Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 79 An-Nazi'at, Ayat 10-14

يَقُوۡلُوۡنَ ءَاِنَّا لَمَرۡدُوۡدُوۡنَ فِى الۡحَـافِرَةِ ؕ‏ ﴿79:10﴾ ءَاِذَا كُنَّا عِظَامًا نَّخِرَةً ؕ‏ ﴿79:11﴾ قَالُوۡا تِلۡكَ اِذًا كَرَّةٌ خَاسِرَةٌ​ ۘ‏ ﴿79:12﴾ فَاِنَّمَا هِىَ زَجۡرَةٌ وَّاحِدَةٌ ۙ‏ ﴿79:13﴾ فَاِذَا هُمۡ بِالسَّاهِرَةِ ؕ‏ ﴿79:14﴾

(79:10) They say: “Shall we indeed be restored to life, (79:11) even after we have been reduced to bones, hollow and rotten?” (79:12) They say: “That will then be a return with a great loss!”4 (79:13) Surely they will need no more than a single stern blast, (79:14) and lo, they will all be in the open plain.5

Notes

4. That is, when they were told that they would surely be raised back to life after death, they started mocking it, saying to one another: Well, if we have really to be restored to our former state of life, then we would certainly be doomed.

5 That is, they are mocking it as an impossibility, whereas it is not at all a difficult task for Allah for the performance of which He may have to make lengthy preparations. For it only a single shout or cry is enough at which your dust of ash will gather together from wherever it lay, and you will suddenly find yourself alive on the back of the earth. Thinking this return to be a return to loss, you may try to escape from it however hard you may, but it will inevitably take place; it cannot be averted by your denial, escape or mockery.