Thread by @abdul_now

Look at how the Quran - in just 3 verses - takes you on a journey from doubt to certainty.

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Addressing all of mankind, a doubt that often plagues the minds of skeptics is mentioned:

"O people, if you are in any doubt concerning the Resurrection..." (Quran 22:5)

"Wht if this is all for nothing", they ask, "and what if there is no such thing as life after death?" (2/34)

In addressing the skeptic, the Quran does not aim to construct an argument that somehow "deductively" proves the truth of resurrection. It does not engage with the skeptic on their own terms. (3/34)

Instead, it beautifully shifts our attention from the thought of a creeping doubt about the unseen to the reality of an unwavering certainty that is directly accessible to all of us: the fact that we were created. (4/34)

It approaches the question by analogizing the idea of "life after death" to a more monumental event: the inception of life from non-life. The verse reads: (5/34)

“O people, if you are in any doubt concerning the Resurrection, then [consider that] indeed, We created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then from a clinging clot, and then from a lump of flesh - formed and unformed - that We may show you..."⬇️⬇️⬇️ (6/34)

"...And We settle in the wombs whom We will for a specified term, then We bring you out as young children (Literally: as a child)…” (7/34)

If the likelihood of life after death is supposedly "questionable", then surely, it is exponentially less likely for life to arise out of non-life in the first place. Yet here we are; from lifeless dust to the the very life we now live. (8/34)

It is as if the verse is saying that this doubt is predicated upon the assumption that the requisite power to bring the dead back to life is nowhere to be found; but how could that be when your very own life is testimony to a power even greater than that?! (9/34)

If the power that caused you to come to life after having never lived is undeniable, then 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢, so is the power to bring back to life that which was previously alive. (10/34)

The power to create life from non-life does not only imply a mere "mechanistic" causal force that recombines lifeless matter into an emergent biological structure; it implies the fundamental nature of life itself. (11/34)

When our attention is directed towards the intricate process through which life was created, we are only being reminded of what we already know. (12/34)

We are reminded that mere inanimate particles led to a process where a tiny amount of fluid turns into a clot-like glob, then the glob into a lump of flesh... (13/34)

...then this lump of flesh into a fragile sentient being that experiences and communicates desires, aspirations, pleasures, and pains. (14/34)

When we are faced with such a reality, we are just as dispositioned to recognize its unmistakable teleological roots as we recognize some of our deepest certainties and innermost human experiences. (15/34)

When reminded tht a tiny lump of flesh ws trnsformed into a man with capacity to reason & self-reflect, tht initial doubt is devastatingly confronted with the realisation tht our very existence itself is the strongest sign of an ultimate purpose there possibly could be. (16/34)

We are then reminded of our lifecycle: from the fragile state of infancy where we know next to nothing, to the heights of our physical and mental capacity, followed by a return to our initial state where we lose whatever strength and knowledge we had: (17/34)

"..and then [We develop you] that you may reach your [time of] maturity. And among you is he who is taken in [early] death, and among you is he who is returned to the most decrepit [old] age so that he knows, after [once having] knowledge, nothing." (18/34)

If the transformation to life frm non-life weren't enough, then take a look at your mind. Your self-awareness & your ability to attain this mysterious thing called "knowledge", when only recently you were not even "𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑑" (Quran 76:1). (19/34)

As time passes, or as we witness others age, we start noticing our cognitive capacity gradually deteriorating until it is completely gone. From a spec of dust, to a conscious, rational individual, and from there back to a spec of dust. (20/34)

Through this cycle, we intuitively recognize the delightful audacity in the fact tht the process ws not a mere interaction btween particles to form a more complex molecular structure; it produced aspects tht are qualitatively distinct from it: qualia, knowledge, & reason. (21/34)

If your skepticism about an ultimate purpose is rationally based, then the One you depend on for your rational faculties is more worthy of Knowledge and Wisdom than you are. The One who structured your faculties is able to restructure them, (22/34)

And if we - being the specks of dust we r - find it unbecoming to act wthout purpose or to withhold people's dues, thn a fortiori, it would also be unbefitting of the One who is more worthy of the highest virtues than the creatures dependant on Him for any virtues at all. (23/34)

In the last part of verse 5, the Quran further reinforces these profound signs by illustrating the wonders of nature - the dry, barren earth that transforms into a vibrant, life-filled expanse with the descent of water. (24/34)

This serves as a remindr of the Truth - God - the One who resurrects the dead, the All-Powerful who commands over evrything:

“And you see the earth dry and barren, but when We send down water upon it, it quivers and swells, and grows [something] of every delightful pair.”(25/34)

The verses then take us back to the question of resurrection - only that this time, the reality of the hereafter is forcefully asserted within a context that seems to naturally entail it. The text reads: (26/34)

“That [comes about] because Allah is the Truth, and He resurrects the dead, and He has power over everything. And for that the Hour shall surely come to pass - in this there is no doubt - and Allah shall surely resurrect those in the graves” (Quran 22:5-7). (27/34)

"In this, there is no doubt"; for given the bigger picture described above- as opposed to an inconsequential state of perpetual doubt in which the skeptic chooses to isolate - the mere thought of "doubtfulness" now comes across as straightforwardly unreasonable. (28/34)

If we recall how the verses started, however, it seems the skepticism was never regarded as a genuine intellectual concern in the first place: ‘O people, if you are in any doubt concerning the Resurrection…" (29/34)

The verse frames the issue as a conditional (an “if-then” statement), which, in the Arabic language, is often used to insinuate that the question is not a genuine concern. (30/34)

By presenting the answer in a conditional form, it suggests that the issue might be addressed hypothetically, but in reality, the conditional structure of the verse rhetorically questions the validity or seriousness of the concern from the get-go. (31/34)

Over in corner of radical skepticism - in depths of a purely abstract realm of dreamed up "possibilities" and unrelenting self-doubt - the skeptic still anxiously (yet demandingly) has his arms crossed. He isn't having any of this. (32/34)

“Certainty”, in whatever fantasized sense of the word he may be dreaming of, is still nowhere to be found for him. But the Quranic approach - here and elsewhere - brushes off the skeptic’s groundless concerns as soon as they arise.. (33/34)

But the Quranic approach brushes off the skeptic’s groundless concerns as soon as thy arise, & instead exposes their absurdity by the fact that the Wisdom of the Creator & objectivity of purpose r directly accessible to every individual *simply by virtue of being alive.* (34/34)