create the like of them?” (17:98-99). “Seest thou not that Allāh created the heavens and the earth with truth? If He please, He will take you away and bring a new creation. And that is not difficult for Allāh. And they will all come forth to Allāh” (14:19-21).

The subject is reverted too often to enable all the verses bearing on it to be reproduced, but the one underlying idea running through them all is that this old creation, the earth and its heaven, and the rest of the universe, would give place to a new creation. The old order would be changed into an entirely new one. It shall be a day “when the earth shall be changed into a different earth and the heavens as well” (14:48). Just as this universe has grown out of chaos and a nebulous mass into its present state of systems of galaxies and stars and their families, it will, in its turn, give place to a higher order which will be evolved from it. The idea is quite consistent with the scientific knowledge of the universe to which man has attained at the present-day — the idea of evolution, order out of chaos, a higher order out of a lower order, and with this order of the universe, a higher order of human life of which our present senses cannot conceive.

Will the Resurrection be corporeal?

Another question connected with the Resurrection is whether it would be a corporeal resurrection. So far as our present experience goes, it is through the body that the spirit receives all its impressions of pleasure and pain, that it gets knowledge and perception of things, that its impulses and sentiments are developed. In fact, according to the present state of our knowledge, we cannot conceive of the soul without a body. But whether the soul in Resurrection will receive back the same body which it left in this world is quite another question. There is nothing in the Holy Qur’ān to show that the body which the soul left at death will be restored to it. On the other hand, there are statements to show that it will be a new creation altogether. The verses quoted in the last paragraph give a clear indication that it is not the old creation that will be restored at the Day of Resurrection. Even the old heaven and the old earth will pass away and there will be a new heaven and a new earth (14:48). If the