سورة الجاثية

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Dawud ibn Kathir narrated from Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) that he said: ...Then He speaks of the materialists who said: "We shall not be brought back to life after death," and He says: وَ قالُوا ما هِیَ إِلَّا حَیاتُنَا الدُّنْیا نَمُوتُ وَ نَحْیا وَ ما یُهْلِکُنا إِلَّا الدَّهْرُ [And they say: There is nothing but our life in this world; we live and die and nothing destroys us but time]. In the words نَمُوتُ and نَحْیَا there is a case of putting forward and putting back, because the materialists do not believe in the resurrection and coming to life after death. Rather, they said: we die and come to life, and nothing destroys us but time. Rather, they have only a baseless conjecture, and this is a conjecture of doubt.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Concerning the creation of the heavens and the world; such are the sky, the air, the winds and water. Look well at the sun and the moon, the trees and plants, water and stone, at the succession of night and day, the vastness of the seas, the abundance of the mountains, the height of the peaks, and the diversity of tongues and dialects! Woe to the one who denies the One who decrees and directs this world. The deniers imagined that all of these are like self-grown plants that have no sower, and that these varied forms have no maker, and they had no proof or evidence for this claim of theirs, nor did they undertake any investigation in this matter. Is it possible for a building to exist without a builder, or for a deed to be carried out without a doer?!

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Never revile time (dahr); for Allah is time itself. Its ta'wil [explanation] is that the people of the age of ignorance (jahiliyya) used to attribute distressing events and descending calamities to time, and they would say: this is what time has done, and they would revile time. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: "The doer of these matters is Allah the Exalted; so do not revile the doer of these matters."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Kufr (disbelief) in the Book of Allah is of five kinds; one of them is the kufr of denial (juhud), and that itself is of two kinds: denial with knowledge, and denial without knowledge. As for denial without knowledge, they are those about whom Allah relates in the Qur'an, and that is that they said: وَ قالُوا ما هِیَ إِلَّا حَیاتُنَا الدُّنْیا نَمُوتُ وَ نَحْیا وَ ما یُهْلِکُنا إِلَّا الدَّهْرُ وَ ما لَهُمْ بِذلِکَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا یَظُنُّونَ [And they say: There is nothing but our life in this world; we live and die and nothing destroys us but time, and they have no knowledge of that; they only conjecture].

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): The kufr (disbelief) mentioned in the Glorious Qur'an is of five kinds, and they are: the kufr of denial, absolute kufr, the kufr of abandonment, the kufr of disavowal, and the kufr of ingratitude for blessings. As for the kufr of denial, it is of two kinds: one of them is the denial of the Oneness [of Allah], and that is the saying of those who say: "There is no Lord, no Paradise, no Hell, and no gathering or resurrection." This group are among the heretics (zanadiqa) and the atheists, and likewise a group among the materialists (dahriyya) who say: وَ ما یُهْلِکُنا إِلَّا الدَّهْرُ [nothing destroys us but time]. This is a view they have put forward, and they have no proof for it either; and إِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا یَظُنُّونَ [they only conjecture].

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abu Amr al-Zubayri said: I said to Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): "Inform me about how many aspects kufr (disbelief) has in the Book of Allah the Mighty and Majestic (the Quran)." He said: "Kufr in the Book of Allah has five aspects: kufr al-juhud (disbelief of denial — the denial of Lordship), which is of two kinds; kufr by abandoning what Allah has commanded; kufr al-bara'ah (disbelief of disavowal); and kufr of [denying] the blessings. As for kufr al-juhud, it is the denial of Lordship, and it is the statement of one who says: There is no Lord, no Paradise and no Hell. These are two groups of the zanadiqah (heretics) called al-Dahriyyah (the materialists), and they are those who say: وَ ما یُهْلِکُنا إِلَّا الدَّهْرُ [And nothing destroys us but time]. It is a religion they have devised for themselves according to their own taste and view, without any examination, verification or investigation into what they say. Allah the Mighty and Majestic says after it: إِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا یَظُنُّونَ [meaning they merely conjecture] that the matter is as they say."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): In refutation of [the materialists] who supposed that time has ever been in a single state, and that there is no Creator, no Governor, no Maker, no resurrection and no dispersal (at the Day of Judgement). Allah the Exalted, relating their statement, said: They say to the skins of their bodies: "Why did you testify against us?!" They answer: "The very Allah who made every being speak has made us speak, and He created you the first time." (Fussilat/21). And the like of this (verse) is plentiful in the Quran, and it is against those who used to say this speech in the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family), and those who used to profess faith before him (the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family)) but concealed disbelief and polytheism [within themselves], and remained after the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) and became the cause of the destruction of the ummah. So Allah the Exalted refuted their statement (the Dahriyyah's) with His saying: O people! If you are in doubt about the resurrection, [then consider this]: We created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then from a clot of clinging blood, then from a "mudghah" [something like chewed flesh], some formed and some unformed, so that We may make [it] clear to you [that We are able to do all things]. And We keep in the wombs [of mothers] whichever [foetuses] We will for an appointed term [and We drop whatever We will], then We bring you forth as infants, then that you may reach your full strength and maturity. And among you is he who dies, and among you is he who is brought back to the worst part of life [and old age], so that after having had knowledge, he knows nothing! [On the other hand,] you see the earth [in the winter season] dry and dead, but when We send down water upon it, it stirs and swells and grows every kind of beautiful plants! (al-Hajj/5). He refuted [them], and this saying: You see the earth [in the winter season] dry and dead, but when We send down water upon it, it stirs and swells and grows every kind of beautiful plants! (al-Hajj/5), and verses in the Quran like it, and His speech in Surah Qaf — all of it is a refutation against the Dahriyyah and the atheists, those who denied resurrection and dispersal.