Imam Razi on Resurrection

This is from a part of the Imam’s commentary on the 75th sura of the Qur’an, verses 5-6, which read:

"But man desires to defile what lies before him (75:5); asking ‘when is the Day of   Resurrection?'(75:6)

From Tafsīr al-Kabīr, ed. S. ͑Imrān (Cairo, Dār al-ḥadīth: 2012, vol. 15) 526-527:

[…]. Know that a denial of the Resurrection is sometimes born of doubt (shubha) and sometimes of passion (shahwa).

As for what is from doubt, it is that which God relates by His statement “Does man suppose that We shall not gather his bones?” [Qur’ān 75:3]. The full statement (taqrīr) of [the doubt] is as follows: the human being is this body. When he dies, the parts of the body separate, and then those parts mix with all the rest of the parts of the earth, and [end up] scattered all over the whole world. And their differentiation from each other after that is impossible. Hence, the Resurrection is impossible.

Know that this doubt can be eliminated in two ways. The first [way]: we don’t grant that the human being is this body. For why can’t one hold that: he is a thing that is a manager (mudabbir) of this body, so that, if this body corrupts, he remains alive as he is. And God is powerful such that He can thereafter supply him with whichever body He wishes or wills to. On this doctrine, the issue is resolved. And in the ayat, there’s an allusion to this [doctrine]; for it swears by the ‘blaming soul’ (al-nafs al-lawwāmah) and then says “Does man suppose that We shall not gather his bones?” – which is a clear declaration of a distinction between the soul and the body.

The second [way]: we grant that the human being is this body, but then why do you claim that ‘after the separation of its parts it is not possible to gather them again’? That [is in fact possible] because He, the exalted, knows all particulars and so knows the part which is the body of  ͑Amr. And He, the exalted, is powerful over all contingents, and that composition [of the body’s parts] is among contingent things. If it wasn’t, it would not have existed in the first place. Hence, it follows that He has power over their composition. And when it is established that He, the exalted, knows all particulars and is powerful over all particulars, no doubt remains over the issue.

As for the second division, it is the denial of the one whose denial of the Return is based on passion. It is that which God relates by His statement “But man desires to defile what lies before him” [Qur’an 75:5]. Its meaning is that the human being whose nature inclines him toward giving himself free rein in desires, and demands lots of pleasures, is not about to suddenly acknowledge the Resurrection and Reckoning and the return of the deceased ones, in order that the bodily pleasures not become loathsome to him. And so for that reason, he is always a denier, asking – contemptuously and disdainfully – ‘when is the day of Resurrection?’"

I think the entire issue is not as simple as Imam Razi makes it appear, because when the material body disintegrates into its constituents, this disintegration causes the emergence from those very same constituents, minerals and plants; the plants are consumed as food by animals where a part of this food becomes the body of the animal or gets converted into animal semen, which is then transferred into an animal womb from where this semen emerges after undergoing various incremental stages of transformation through substantial motion [according to Mulla Sadra], into an animal. Now this animal may itself be consumed as food by a human where part of this food becomes the substance of human semen, which is then transferred into a suitable human womb, where this human-semen emerges after undergoing various incremental stages of transformation,once again through substantial  motion, into an actual distinct human; So the bodily constituents of "Amr" also become the bodily constituents of "Zayd" and numerous other humans through the ceaseless repetition of this cycle of existence. Now the question that emerges here is whether the bodily constituents of "Amr" will be resurrected as the body of Amr or will they be reconstituted as the body of Zayd, or "X', "Y" or "Z"?

There are plenty of other philosophical difficulties with physical resurrection, for instance the purpose of the soul's attachment with the body was to attain perfection, and natural death occurs upon the attainment of this objective, after which there does not appears to be any reason for the soul to rejoin its material body. Now if it is asserted by the theologians that the purpose of the reattachment is for the soul to reap the rewards or suffer the torments of the hereafter, so this reward and punishment can also be experienced by the soul, and in fact is experienced by it during purgatory or "Barzakhi" in a subtle immaterial "Mithali-body", thereby demonstrating the fact tat the soul can experience reward and punishments without the material body as well, the latter being by no means necessary for such experience. On the contrary it could be argued that making an evil soul to rejoin its material body so that it can be punished would only be a cause of pleasure and not pain for such a soul compared to the intense suffering of the Barzakh in a 'mithali-body'.

Not to mention the absolute rational impossibility of a pure actuality,namely the perfected soul, of reattaching with something potential, such as the material body.