For the pagans of late antique Arabia, death was an undeniable reality. They knew that humans are tragic because they die; to be heroic was one way of overwhelming death, if only for a brief moment. There was also the option of salvific religions and their promise of an eternal life in faith. All the same, whether pagan or followers of a salvific religion, their lives were shaped as if death was always present. The Qurʾan was composed against this backdrop of ever-looming death which means that to examine the concept of death in the Qurʾan is to try and imagine a world where the reality of death was the only certitude and the only predictable element in human life. The Qurʾan is, for the benefit of those who have not read it, very much like a stream of consciousness novel; you can open it and read any page and it immediately hits the ground running. This is because it is not a narrative work. It is rather a discourse about God, faith and the meaning of life. There is thus no one place where death is dealt with exclusively. Moreover, the Qurʾan is constituted of three major protagonists: God, humanity, and the Prophet. Rhetorically it is structured to presume that God is the speaker, and humanity the object of the revelation. Part of the rhetorical strategy of the text is that God speaks of humanity to humanity.
Furthermore, the arguments conducted around the topic of death function well because they rest on the shared assumption of Muhammad and the pagans that death renders human life incomplete, hence death is a problem in human existence. If the pagans did not share this assumption, then there was no point in arguing it. The Qurʾan was not creating a problem and pretending to offer a solution. It was addressing a major issue in pagan Arabia: the impossibility of immortality and the absurdity of life in the presence of death. The Qurʾan thus reminds the pagan Meccans of something they were not disputing yet were not willing to be reconciled with: that every soul shall taste death (Q. 29:57). Indeed, the use of the word “taste” was not lost on the Meccans. Death shall, as it were, be served to them and they will have to eat it. In another verse the rhetoric is even more pointed: death will feel like a drunken stupor, a cup of wine as it were (Q. 50:19). Those drinking the wine of death will be taunted and asked that this is a fate you strived to avoid, didn’t you? The Qurʾan actually does not mind repeating platitudes to great dramatic effects. Take for instance Q. 39:30 which reminds Muhammad and his people, in the plainest of language as a simple tautology, that “he will die and they will die.” There is almost a sense that the mere mention of this fact constitutes a resounding condemnation of human arrogance. Lest they enjoy the comfort of any precautions against death, the Qurʾan ridicules them and declares that death will overtake them, run as they may, even if they hide in high fortified towers (Q. 4:78). Are they building them thinking that they might live eternally? (Q. 26:129).
- The point made by the Qurʾan to Muhammad was that he need not worry because death will overtake the pagan Meccans after he dies. Death is the triumph of God; with or without Muhammad, God will win the day. This is evident is Q. 21:34 which states that “no man before you have we made immortal. If you yourself are doomed to die, will they live on for ever? Every soul shall taste death. We will prove you all with evil and good. To us you shall return.”
- The Qurʾan is holding on to the pagan’s argument that death renders life meaningless and turning it upside down. Indeed, it argues the very opposite: death, by forcing humans to face the question of the meaning of life, reveals that death is not an end but a beginning. The purpose of death is to bring a person face to face with God to whom he or she has to answer. In another chapter (Q. 50:2–20) the Qurʾan sums up the condition and history of humanity neatly. Therefore, death in the Qurʾan is always tied to life after death. Only the fact that there is life after death renders human life bearable, meaningful, and explains the mystery of human existence. The Qurʾan sees life as part of a cycle of birth, death, resurrection, and life after death. The cycle of human existence is thus not terminated at death as the pagans thought but continues into an everlasting life in a post-judgment world of human perfection.
