Note 1
The question which preoccupies man above all others - the question as to whether there is life after death - has been variously answered throughout the ages. It is, of course, impossible to describe the innumerable variations of those answers; nevertheless, a few main lines of thought are clearly discernible, and their mention may be useful for a better understanding of the Qur'anic treatment of this problem. Some people - probably a minority - seem to be convinced that bodily death amounts to total and irreversible extinction, and that, therefore, all talk about a hereafter but an outcome of wishful thinking. Others are of the opinion that after individual death the human "life-essence" returns to the supposed source of its origin - conceived as the "universal soul" - and merges with it entirely. Some believe in a successive transmigration of the individual soul, at the moment of death, into another body, human or animal, but without a continuation of individual consciousness. Others, again, think that only the soul, and not the entire human "personality", continues to live after death - that is, in a purely spiritual, disembodied form. And, lastly, some believe in an undiminished survival of the individual personality and consciousness, and regard death and resurrection as the twin stages of a positive act of re-creation of the entire human personality, in whatever form this may necessarily involve: and this is the Qur'anic view of the life to come.

Note 2
For this rendering of the particle thumma, see surah 6, note 31.

Note 3
See 16:15 - "He has placed firm mountains on earth, lest it sway with you" - and the corresponding note 11, which explains the reference to mountains as "pegs". - The whole of this passage (verses 6-16) is meant to illustrate God's almightiness and creativeness, as if to say, "Is not He who has created the universe equally able to resurrect and re-create man in whatever form He deems necessary?"

Note 4
I.e., "with the same creative power We have created the miraculous polarity of the two sexes in you and in other animated beings". The phenomenon of polarity, evident throughout the universe (see 36:36 and the corresponding note 18), is further illustrated in verses 9-11.

Note 5
Thus Zamakhshari, stressing the primary significance of subat as "cutting-off" (qat), i.e., "death"; also the famous second-century philologist Abu Ubaydah Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna, who (as quoted by Razi) explains the above Qur'anic phrase as an "analogue (shibh) of death".

Note 6
According to Zamakhshari, the term ma'ash ("that whereby one lives") is here synonymous with "life". In the polarity of sleep (or "death") and wakefulness (or "life") we see the allusion to bodily death and subsequent resurrection already touched upon in 6:60.

Note 7
Lit., "seven firm ones", indicating the multiplicity of cosmic systems (see surah 2, note 20).

Note 8
Implying that the overwhelming evidence of purpose and plan in all observable nature points to the existence of a conscious Creator who has "not created [anything of] this without meaning and purpose" (3:191), and who - as is stressed in the sequence - will one day pronounce His judgment on every human being's willingness or unwillingness to live up to the standards of morality made clear to him through inborn instinct as well as through divine revelation.

Note 9
See note 6 on 78:11. This passage connects with verses 4-5.

Note 10
Allegorically, "its mysteries will be opened to man's understanding" - thus further amplifying the concept of "the Day of Distinction between the true and the false".

Note 11
See note 90 on 20:105, as well as note 63 on 14:48.

Note 12
I.e., not forever, since the term huqb or hiqbah (of which ahqab is the plural) denotes no more than "a period of time" or "a long time" (Jawhari) - according to some authorities, "eighty years", according to others, "a year" or simply "years" (Asas, Qamus, Lisan al-Arab, etc.). But however one defines this term, it is obvious that it signifies a limited period of time, and not eternity: and this is in tune with many indications in the Qur'an to the effect that the suffering described as "hell" is not eternal (see note 114 on the last paragraph of 6:128), as well as with several authentic sayings of the Prophet (e.g., the one quoted in note 10 on 40:12).

Note 13
For my rendering of hamim as "burning despair", see surah 6, note 62. The meaning of ghassaq is explained in note 47 on 38:57.

Note 14
Lit., "We shall not increase you in anything but suffering": i.e., until the sins committed in this world are atoned for by commensurate suffering in the hereafter - for "whoever shall come [before God] with an evil deed will be requited with no more than the like thereof; and none shall be wronged" (6:160).

Note 15
I.e., the fulfilment of all that a human being may ever desire (Razi), symbolized by the "luxuriant gardens", etc., of the sequence.

Note 16
For the above rendering of atrab, see surah 56, note 15. As regards my rendering of kawa'ib as "splendid companions", it is to be remembered that the term ka'b -from which the participle ka'ib is derived - has many meanings, and that one of these meanings is "prominence", "eminence" or "glory" (Lisan al-Arab); thus, the verb ka'ba, when applied to a person, signifies "he made [another person] prominent", "glorious" or "splendid" (ibid.) Based on this tropical meaning of both the verb ka'ba and the noun ka'b, the participle ka'ib has often been used, in popular parlance, to denote "a girl whose breasts are becoming prominent" or "are budding" hence, many commentators see in it an allusion to some sort of youthful "female companions' who would entertain the (presumably male) inmates of paradise. But quite apart from the fact that all Qur'anic allegories of the joys of paradise invariably apply to men and women alike, this interpretation of kawa'ib overlooks the purely derivative origin of the above popular usage - which is based on the tropical connotation of "prominence" inherent in the noun ka'b - and substitutes for this obvious tropism the literal meaning of something that is physically prominent: and this, in my opinion, is utterly unjustified. If we bear in mind that the Qur'anic descriptions of the blessings of paradise are always allegorical, we realize that in the above context the term kawa'ib can have no other meaning than "glorious [or "splendid"] beings", without any definition of sex; and that, in combination with the term atrab, it denotes, "splendid companions well matched" - thus alluding to the relations of the blest with one another, and stressing the absolute mutual compatibility and equal dignity of all of them. See also note 13 on 56:34.

Note 17
I.e., not merely in accordance with their good deeds but far in excess of them, in accordance with God's unlimited bounty.

Note 18
Lit., "the soul", in the singular but implying a plural. This is, according to Ibn Abbas, Qatadah and Al-Hasan (all of them quoted by Tabari), the meaning of ar-ruh in the above context.

Note 19
This includes the symbolic right of the prophets to "intercede" for the sinners on Judgment Day (see 10:3 - "There is none that could intercede with Him unless He grants leave therefor"- and the corresponding note 7, which makes it clear that such "intercession" implies God's a-priori acceptance of the sinner's repentance). In a wider sense, the statement that he whom God will allow to speak "will say [only] what is right" implies the impossibility of anyone's being untruthful on Judgment Day.

Note 21
Cf. 69:27.