' Say: 'He who created you at first.'" (Sura
xvii. 53). "'Who shall give life to bones when they are rotten?' Say: 'He
shall give life to them who gave them being at first, for in all creation
is He skilled.'" (Sura xxxvi. 79). "Man saith: 'What! after I am dead,
shall I in the end be brought forth alive?' Doth not man bear in mind that
we made him at first, when he was nought?" (Sura xix. 68). "The infidels
will say, 'shall we indeed be restored as at first? What! When we have
become rotten bones?' 'This then,' say they, 'will be a return to loss.'
Verily, it will be but a single blast, and lo! they are on the surface of
the earth." (Sura lxxix. 10-14). "Is He not powerful enough to quicken the
dead?" (Sura lxxv. 40). This resurrection will be to judgment. "'Never,'
say the unbelievers, 'will the hour come upon us.' Say: 'Yea, by my Lord
who knoweth the unseen, it will surely come upon you, ... to the intent
that God may reward those who have believed, ... but as for those who aim
to invalidate our signs, a chastisement of painful torment awaiteth them.'"
(Sura xxxiv. 3, 4). "A terrible chastisement doth await them _on the Day_
when faces shall turn white, and faces shall turn black. 'What! after your
belief have ye become infidels? Taste, then, the chastisement for that ye
have been unbelievers.' And as to those whose faces shall have become
white, they shall be within the mercy of God." (Sura iii, 102). The Prophet
knew not the time when all this would take place. "They will ask thee of
the 'Hour,' when will be its fixed time? But what knowledge hast thou of
it? Its period is known only to thy Lord; and thou art charged with the
warning of those who fear it." (Sura lxxix. 41-45.) These and similar texts
show the certainty of the resurrection. According to the Ijma' of the
Faithful, he who has any doubts on this article of the faith is an infidel.
The {163} Mutazilites show from reason that a resurrection of the body is
necessary in order that rewards and punishment may be bestowed. The
orthodox agree with the conclusion, but hesitate to base it on reason.[158]

The Karamians hold that the different parts of the body will not cease to
be, but that at the last God will gather them together. "Thinketh man that
we shall not re-unite his bones? Aye! his very finger tips we are able
evenly to replace." (Sura lxxv. 3, 4.) The orthodox, however, hold that
this verse does not disprove the fact of previous annihilation, a belief