الحمد لله نحمده ونستعينه ونستغفره، ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا، ومن سيئات أعمالنا 

وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، وأشهد أن سيدنا محمدًا عبده ورسوله.

We just listened to two verses, one from Surat al-Baqara and the second from Surat Al-Araf giving us an account of dialogues between Prophets and Allah.  The historical accounts in the Quran are not intended for entertainment but for us to draw serious lessons from them.  Therefore, when Allah revealed for us these accounts, they must include important learning for us.

In the first account, Prophet Ibrahim was curious about the subject of how Allah resurrects the dead and brings them back life.   I want you to imagine this situation a slave is having the courage to ask the Lord of the universe, the Supreme Master a question for no reason other than to satisfy his own curiosity.   When we examine how Allah responded to Prophet’s Ibrahim curiosity, new realize that Allah did not discourage him from asking such question but rather Allah responded to him by detailed demonstration.

وَإِذۡ قَالَ إِبۡرَٲهِـۧمُ رَبِّ أَرِنِى ڪَيۡفَ تُحۡىِ ٱلۡمَوۡتَىٰ‌ۖ قَالَ أَوَلَمۡ تُؤۡمِن‌ۖ قَالَ بَلَىٰ وَلَـٰكِن لِّيَطۡمَٮِٕنَّ قَلۡبِى‌ۖ قَالَ فَخُذۡ أَرۡبَعَةً۬ مِّنَ ٱلطَّيۡرِ فَصُرۡهُنَّ إِلَيۡكَ ثُمَّ ٱجۡعَلۡ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلٍ۬ مِّنۡہُنَّ جُزۡءً۬ا ثُمَّ ٱدۡعُهُنَّ يَأۡتِينَكَ سَعۡيً۬ا‌ۚ وَٱعۡلَمۡ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ۬ (٢٦٠)

“And when Ibrahim (Abraham) said, “My Lord! Show me how You give life to the dead.” He (Allah) said: “Is it that you do not believe?” He (Abraham)] said: “Of course, I do but it is just to make my heart at peace.” He said: “Take four of birds, then cause them to draw close to you, and then put part of them on every mountain, and call them, they will come to you rushing. And know that Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise.” (Al-Baqara 2:260)

Based on this experiment, Prophet Ibrahim understood how Allah brings the dead alive.  Before trying to satisfying our own curiosity to understand how this demonstration explained the process of resurrection, let us look to another example demonstrating how Allah responded to the curiosity of Prophet Moses.   

Here, Prophet Moses, went even further than Prophet Ibrahim and asked to see Allah. Allah did not rebuke him for daring to make such request or even just said to him: No, you cannot see me.  Rather, Allah wanted to satisfy Prophet Moses curiosity and demonstrated to him the reason why he will not be able to see Him. Allah showed Prophet Moses why he cannot see Him, He exposed Himself to the mountain and the mountain became a heap of dust. The account goes as follows:

وَلَمَّا جَآءَ مُوسَىٰ لِمِيقَـٰتِنَا وَكَلَّمَهُ ۥ رَبُّهُ ۥ قَالَ رَبِّ أَرِنِىٓ أَنظُرۡ إِلَيۡكَ‌ۚ قَالَ لَن تَرَٮٰنِى وَلَـٰكِنِ ٱنظُرۡ إِلَى ٱلۡجَبَلِ فَإِنِ ٱسۡتَقَرَّ مَڪَانَهُ ۥ فَسَوۡفَ تَرَٮٰنِى‌ۚ فَلَمَّا تَجَلَّىٰ رَبُّهُ ۥ لِلۡجَبَلِ جَعَلَهُ ۥ دَڪًّ۬ا وَخَرَّ مُوسَىٰ صَعِقً۬ا‌ۚ فَلَمَّآ أَفَاقَ قَالَ سُبۡحَـٰنَكَ تُبۡتُ إِلَيۡكَ وَأَنَا۟ أَوَّلُ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ (١٤٣)

 “And when Moses came to Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said: My Lord! Show me Yourself, that I may look at you. He said: You will not see Me, but look at the mountain! If it stands still in its place, you will see Me. And when his Lord revealed Himself to the mountain, He sent it crashing down. And Moses fell unconscious. And when he recovered, he said: Glory unto You! I repent to you, and I am the first of the believers.” (Al-Araf 7:143)

These are just two stories, but there are others in the Quran from which we learn that curiosity is an important human trait and that Allah does not want this important trait to be oppressed or discouraged.   There is no doubt that Allah is teaching us by example that curiosity should be encouraged; not crushed.

Curiosity is the essence of human existence and without curiosity no progress will ever be achieved.   Allah placed these stories in the Quran to teach us to always be curious and to encourage our children to maintain their curiosity and never stifle this great gift.  

When we study the Quran, we note that Allah encourages Muslims to satisfy their curiously by seeking answers to questions such as how Allah started the creation, Allah says: 

قُلۡ سِيرُواْ فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ فَٱنظُرُواْ ڪَيۡفَ بَدَأَ ٱلۡخَلۡقَ‌ۚ ثُمَّ ٱللَّهُ يُنشِئُ ٱلنَّشۡأَةَ ٱلۡأَخِرَةَ‌ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ ڪُلِّ شَىۡءٍ۬ قَدِيرٌ۬ (العَنکبوت)

Say: “Travel in the land and see how He originated the creation.  Then Allah will bring forth the subsequent creation (i.e. resurrection after death). Verily, Allah is Able to do all things.” (Al-Ankaboot 29:20)

It has been said that “Old Age Starts Where Curiosity Ends” and obviously, Allah wants Muslim to always be young because without curiosity, the person will no longer be having the superiority that Allah expects from His believers, Allah said:

كُنتُمۡ خَيۡرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخۡرِجَتۡ لِلنَّاسِ تَأۡمُرُونَ بِٱلۡمَعۡرُوفِ وَتَنۡهَوۡنَ عَنِ ٱلۡمُنڪَرِ وَتُؤۡمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ‌ۗ

“You are the best nation brought out to mankind: you command what is good and forbid what is evil and believe in Allah.” (Al-Imran 3:110).

Allah creates us equipped with this trait and thus you find all children are curious and ask many questions.  It is we who stifle this talent in them and let them lose curiosity.   To help our children maintain their curiosity, you need to consider:

1. Never discourage children or worst ridicule their questions. Try to give them a coherent explanation so that these explanations can lead them to ask more questions. If you don’t know the answer, just say I don’t know, let us search for the answer together.
2. Encourage them to do things for themselves and let them find out that they can make mistakes because this is the way they learn. If you make them understand this, you will be helping them to handle themselves in difficult situations and, at the same time, to strengthen their creativity.

We should not confuse curiosity with college and graduate education.  Some argue that our formal education as we have it now, actually stifles curiosity and it needs to change and expand the time for exploring.     In fact, the whole art of teaching should be the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds. Therefore, the biggest crime any education system commits is to rob children of their imagination and their creativity by killing their curiosity.

Interesting that many successful tech moguls never graduated college, Tech superstars like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg did not finish college.   Steve Jobs said: “Much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity an intuition turned out to be priceless later on.”

The American engineer, physician, and the first black woman to travel in space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Mae Carol Jemison said: “Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.”

Walt Disney said: “Ideas come from curiosity.”

The well-known French poet, journalist, and novelist, Anatole France (1844-1924) said: “The whole art of teaching is the only art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards; and curiosity itself can be vivid and wholesome only in proportion as the mind is contented and happy.” 

One of the greatest scientists of the 20th century is Albert Einstein who was never good in formal school education. he said: “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

Bernard Baruch (1870-1965) who was an American financier, who was economic advisor for the U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt said: “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why”. 

We should not confuse Allah’s and the Prophet’s discouraging Muslims from asking questions about Hallal and Haraam with encouraging Curiosity

Neither Allah nor the Prophet (PBUH) wanted Muslims to be paranoid about the hallah and the haram and thus both the Quran and the hadeath discouraged Muslims from asking such questions.   Allah made the religion of Islam simple and easy; everything is considered hallah unless Allah clearly revealed that something is haram.  But Allah gave the Muslims, the warning that if they ask about something that Allah did not reveal that it is haram, it may become haram and they will not like it.  

يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ لَا تَسۡـَٔلُواْ عَنۡ أَشۡيَآءَ إِن تُبۡدَ لَكُمۡ تَسُؤۡكُمۡ وَإِن تَسۡـَٔلُواْ عَنۡہَا حِينَ يُنَزَّلُ ٱلۡقُرۡءَانُ تُبۡدَ لَكُمۡ عَفَا ٱللَّهُ عَنۡہَا‌ۗ وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورٌ حَلِيمٌ۬ (١٠١)

“you who believe! Do not ask about things which if disclosed would displease you. But if you ask about them while the Qur’an is being revealed, they will be disclosed to you. Allah has pardoned you for it, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Forbearing.” (Al-Maeda 5:101)

Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas (سعد بن أبي وقاص) narrated that the Prophet (PBUH) said,

إن أعظم المسلمين في المسلمين جرما من سأل عن شيء لم يحرم على المسلمين فحرم عليهم من أجل مسألته. (ورد في البخاري ومسلم وغيرهم)

“The worst criminal Muslim among the Muslims is the one who asked about something which had not been prohibited, but became prohibited because of his inquiry.” 

Abu Al-Dardaa (أبي الدرداء) said that the Prophet (PBUH) said:

عن أبي الدرداء يرفعه قال: ” ما أحل الله في كتابه فهو حلال وما حرم فهو حرام وما سكت عنه فهو عافية، فاقبلوا من الله عافيته، فإن الله لم يكن لينسى شيئا ” )رواه البزار والطبراني. والحاكم (

What Allah made in his book lawful (halal), it is halal, wand what He made forbidden (haram), it is haraam and what Allah was silent about it is allowed as His favor, so accept from Allah His favors, because Allah would not have forgotten anything.” 

Salman al-Farsi (سلمان الفارسي) reported that when the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said:

عن سلمان الفارسي رضي الله َقَالَ رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَى اللهُ عَلَيهِ وَسَلَّم: الحَلالُ مَا أَحَلَّ اللهُ فِي كِتَابِهِ ، وَالحَرَامُ مَا حَرَّمَ اللهُ فِي كِتَابِه ، وَمَا سَكَتَ عَنهُ فَهوَ مِمَّا عَفَا عَنهُ ) أخرجه الترمذي  وابن ماجه  والحاكم البيهقي ، والطبراني .

“The halal is that which Allah has made lawful in His Book and the haram is that which He has forbidden, and that concerning which He is silent He has permitted as a favor to you.” (Reported by al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah and others.) 

Now let us reexamine at how Allah answered the curiosity to Prophet Ibrahim.  

وَإِذۡ قَالَ إِبۡرَٲهِـۧمُ رَبِّ أَرِنِى ڪَيۡفَ تُحۡىِ ٱلۡمَوۡتَىٰ‌ۖ قَالَ أَوَلَمۡ تُؤۡمِن‌ۖ قَالَ بَلَىٰ وَلَـٰكِن لِّيَطۡمَٮِٕنَّ قَلۡبِى‌ۖ قَالَ فَخُذۡ أَرۡبَعَةً۬ مِّنَ ٱلطَّيۡرِ فَصُرۡهُنَّ إِلَيۡكَ ثُمَّ ٱجۡعَلۡ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلٍ۬ مِّنۡہُنَّ جُزۡءً۬ا ثُمَّ ٱدۡعُهُنَّ يَأۡتِينَكَ سَعۡيً۬ا‌ۚ وَٱعۡلَمۡ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ۬ (٢٦٠)

And when Ibrahim (Abraham) said, “My Lord! Show me how You give life to the dead.” He (Allah) said: “Do you not believe?” He (Abraham)] said: “Nay (I indeed believe), but so that my heart may be at peace.” He said: “Take four of birds, then cause them to draw close to you, and then put part of them on every mountain, and call them, they will come to you in haste. And know that Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise.” (Al-Baqara 2:260)

Prophet Ibrahim knows that Allah can resurrects the dead and he knew that Allah can do this merely by the command: Be” and it becomes.  But Prophet Ibrahim was curious about is the process.    Through the demonstration that Allah asked Prophet Ibrahim to do, Allah satisfied the curiosity of Prophet Ibrahim and Prophet Ibrahim understood the process by which Allah resurrects the dead.  Now, it is our role to be curious and ask, what did Prophet Ibrahim understand and what is the relevance of this demonstration to resurrection.

Believing that Allah can give life to the dead is one thing and finding out how is something else.  As example, none of us doubt that when we type something on Google search and then click search that Google will examine over 60 trillion pages that are located around the word to come with results.  But, how many of us wish to know how is this done and this will obviously make us more comfortable!

When Prophet Ibrahim asked Allah on how He gives life to the dead, Allah did not tell him that I say “Be alive” and it becomes. But Allah showed him through a demonstration the rule by which Allah gives life to the dead.   Therefore, the ending of this verse did not refer to Allah’s ability but referred to Allah’s might and wisdom (أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ۬) “Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise”.  Might implies the ability to enforce the rules and wisdom implies the ability to establish concise rules that govern how things work.

Allah told Prophet Ibrahim:

فَخُذۡ أَرۡبَعَةً۬ مِّنَ ٱلطَّيۡرِ فَصُرۡهُنَّ إِلَيۡكَ ثُمَّ ٱجۡعَلۡ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلٍ۬ مِّنۡہُنَّ جُزۡءً۬ا ثُمَّ ٱدۡعُهُنَّ يَأۡتِينَكَ سَعۡيً۬ا‌ۚ (٢٦٠)

“Take four of birds, then cause them to draw close to you, and then put part of them on every mountain, and call them, they will come to you in haste.” (Al-Baqara 2:260) 

Prophet Ibrahim understood the divine rule of how Allah gives life to the dead and therefore he did not ask for further explanation.  The question is: have we understood from the demonstration how Allah resurrects the dead!  

We should know that the commentators made several interpretations of this verse but none of these interpretations is based on any authentic reference and they were based on mere speculation that mostly focused on “Be” and it becomes.  But this does not explain the process and therefore, we will offer a speculation and I encourage you to also study the verse and if you come with another speculation, please share.

The concept of life after death is manifested in front of us all the time but we don’t give it a lot of thought because of our familiarity with it.  This is how the seeds that are dead for thousands of years come to life when they  planted in the soil.  They germinate and each seed grows up to give a specific plant. We know that this will happen, but we don’t know how it happens.

In 2007, about 600,000 seeds Silene stenophylla (narrow-leafed campion plant) were discovered in squirrel hibernation burrows near the banks of the Kolyma River in Siberia. The carbon-14-dating of these seeds confirmed their age to be 31,800 ±300 years and the seeds were germinated when planted. 

In December, 2009, a 4,000-year-old lentil found in Turkey was successfully germinated.  

In 2005, a 2000 years old date palm seed that was recovered from excavations in Palestine (Israel) and was germinated and it is growing.

We don’t consider these things intriguing because we are familiar with them since we frequently see these results.  But if we consider it, we will recognize that it is as mysterious as our coming alive from death. 

Unlike us, Prophet Ibrahim was curious of the process.   He was asking for the system that Allah developed to give life to the dead.  The verse does mention anything about slaughtering or cutting the birds in pieces.  Allah asked Prophet Ibrahim to look for 4 types of birds and the command that Allah gave to him was (فَصُرۡهُنَّ إِلَيۡكَ) which is translated as “make them close to you”.   The verb (صر) means to “to bring close forcefully” and this is opposite to division and separation. The verb came in the Quran to imply the force and insistence on doing something as in:

وَٱلَّذِينَ إِذَا فَعَلُواْ فَـٰحِشَةً أَوۡ ظَلَمُوٓاْ أَنفُسَہُمۡ ذَكَرُواْ ٱللَّهَ فَٱسۡتَغۡفَرُواْ لِذُنُوبِهِمۡ وَمَن يَغۡفِرُ ٱلذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ وَلَمۡ يُصِرُّواْ عَلَىٰ مَا فَعَلُواْ وَهُمۡ يَعۡلَمُونَ (١٣٥) أُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ جَزَآؤُهُم مَّغۡفِرَةٌ۬ مِّن رَّبِّهِمۡ وَجَنَّـٰتٌ۬ تَجۡرِى مِن تَحۡتِهَا ٱلۡأَنۡہَـٰرُ خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيہَا‌ۚ وَنِعۡمَ أَجۡرُ ٱلۡعَـٰمِلِينَ (١٣٦)

“And those who, when they have committed shameful indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and ask forgiveness for their sins;  and none can forgive sins but Allah – And they do not knowingly persist on what they have done. (135) For such, the reward is Forgiveness from their Lord, and Gardens with rivers flowing underneath, wherein they shall abide forever. Blessed indeed is the reward for the doers (of righteousness).” (Al-Imran 3:135-136)

وَإِنِّى ڪُلَّمَا دَعَوۡتُهُمۡ لِتَغۡفِرَ لَهُمۡ جَعَلُوٓاْ أَصَـٰبِعَهُمۡ فِىٓ ءَاذَانِہِمۡ وَٱسۡتَغۡشَوۡاْ ثِيَابَہُمۡ وَأَصَرُّواْ وَٱسۡتَكۡبَرُواْ ٱسۡتِكۡبَارً۬ا (٧)

“Truly, whenever I called them that You might forgive them, they put their fingers in their ears, covered themselves up with their garments, and persisted (in their refusal), and swell in extreme arrogance.” (Nuh 71:7)

Understanding that the command (فَصُرۡهُنَّ إِلَيۡكَ) means that Prophet Ibrahim should bring these 4 types of birds and hold them tightly close to him and he should take his time to makes them attached to him.  But why Allah asked him to take birds and not other animals.  Apparently, this is because birds are not easy to be acclimated to people.  Birds tends to always escape when a person approaches them and thus it takes long time to train them to be familiar with the person so he can control them.

As example, it takes long time to train a falcon to recognize the voice of the handler so, when he calls it, it comes and lands on his hand. So, it appears that Allah asked Prophet Ibrahim to do the same with four different types of birds.   After the birds become attached to Prophet Ibrahim, he is to place these birds on different mountains and when he calls them, they will come to him in haste.

فَخُذۡ أَرۡبَعَةً۬ مِّنَ ٱلطَّيۡرِ فَصُرۡهُنَّ إِلَيۡكَ ثُمَّ ٱجۡعَلۡ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلٍ۬ مِّنۡہُنَّ جُزۡءً۬ا ثُمَّ ٱدۡعُهُنَّ يَأۡتِينَكَ سَعۡيً۬ا‌ۚ (٢٦٠)

“Take four of birds, then cause them to draw close to you, and then put part of them on every mountain, and call them, they will come to you in haste.” (Al-Baqara 2:260)

How is this related to giving life after death?  Death occurs when the soul leaves the body.  The soul is pure and it is from Allah and the body is from the earth.  So, there is no natural affinity between the body and the soul as there is no natural affinity between man and the birds. 

Since the soul and the body are not naturally inclined to each other, either Allah has to put the soul into the materialistic body by Himself as He did with Prophet Adam or sends an angel to do that for the rest of us as stated in the hadeath narrated by Abdullah bin Masoud (عبد الله بن مسعود) who reported that the messenger of Allah (PBUH) said:

حدثنا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وهو الصادق المصدوق قال : ( إن أحدكم يُجمع خلقه في بطن أمه أربعين يوما نطفةً ، ثم يكون علقةً مثل ذلك ، ثم يكون مضغةً مثل ذلك ، ثم يُرسل إليه الملك فينفخ فيه الروح) رواه البخاري ومسلم .

“Verily the creation of each one of you is brought together in his mother’s belly for forty days in the form of seed, then he is a clot of blood for a like period, then a morsel of flesh for a like period, then there is sent to him the angel who blows the soul into.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

As it took Prophet Ibrahim time to tame the birds and make then inclined to him, the soul also needs time to be inclined to the body to be familiar with it and both he and the body become attached to each other.  At death, the body goes back in earth and the soul goes to Allah.

When the time of resurrection comes, Allah calls for the trumpet to be blown.  At that time each soul will call on all the elements of the body that has affinity to it to come and connect to him and life will be created again.

To give as simple analogy, assuming you have a steel bar that you cut into very small pieces and mix these pieces in heap of sand. You are asked to get all the steel pieces from the sand.  All you need to do is to have a magnet and the magnet will attract all the steel pieces to it.   Who created the system that allows the steel to be attracted to the magnet? 

It may be still difficult to understand how the body gets assembled together and gets connected with the soul, but this is not complicated if we realize that the human body is formed of atoms.  98.5% of the human body weight is formed from six atoms (oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and Phosphorous).  Oxygen alone represents 65% of the human body weight; carbon represents 18% and hydrogen 10%.   So, these 3 elements represent 93% of the body weight.

To understand the structure of the atom by analogy, we can consider a hydrogen atom, if the nucleus (a proton) is the size of a basketball, the electron would be found about 2 miles away and all the space in between the electron and the basketball-size nucleus is basically empty.  So, in reality we are just but empty space connected together by electromagnetic force

These atoms form the cells of our body and a human body typically contains between 50 and 75 trillion cells and each type of cell has its own life span and when a cell dies a new cell is formed.  It is estimated that all the cells in our body are replaced every 7 to 10 years.   When a person dies it may take hours or day before all the cells in the body die. 

The soul gets familiar with the code that brings the different atoms together to form cells and the algorithm that connects the different cells to form the human body.  But as for the basic components of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and Phosphorous they are abundant.  When the soul is connected with the body in the mother’s womb, it learns how the system that Allah established regarding how all the atoms are connections to form the human body.  The key to resurrection is in the term: (فَصُرۡهُنَّ إِلَيۡكَ)  (cause them to draw close to you).

Dua