2:56

Summa ba'asnaakum mim ba'di mawtikum la'allakum tashkuroon

Then We revived you after your death, so that you may be appreciative.

Then We raised you up after your death, so that you might be grateful

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ASBAB AL NUZUL

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"Then We raised you up after your death, so that you might be grateful"

- Ar-Rabi bin Anas said, "Death was their punishment , and they were resurrected
after they died
so they could finish out their lives.

Qatadah said similarly.

- Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam commented on this Ayah,

"Musa returned from meeting

with his Lord carrying the Tablets on which He wrote the Tawrah. He found that they
had
worshipped the calf in his absence. Consequently, he commanded them to kill
themselves, and
they complied, and Allah forgave them. He said to them, These Tablets have Allah's
Book,
containing what He commanded you and what He forbade for you. They said, 'Should we
believe this statement because you said it By Allah, we will not believe until we
see Allah in
the open, until He shows us Himself and says: This is My Book, therefore, adhere to
it . Why
does He not talk to us as He talked to you, O, Musa 'Then he (Abdur-Rahman bin
Zayd) recited
Allah's statement ,

"We shall never believe in you until we see Allah plainly" and said,

"So Allah's wrath fell upon them, a thunderbolt struck them, and they all died.
Then Allah brought them back to life after He killed them. Then he (`Abdur-Rahman)
recited Allah's statement

"Then We raised you up after your death, so that you might be grateful"

and said, "Musa said to them, 'Take the Book of Allah. 'They said, `No. 'He said,
`What is the matter with you'
They said, `The problem is that we died and came back to life. 'He said, `Take the
Book of Allah. '
They said, `No. 'So Allah sent some angels who made the mountain topple over them."

- This shows that the Children of Israel were required to fulfill the commandments
after they
were brought back to life. However, Al-Mawardy said that there are two opinions
about this
mat ter. The f irst opinion is that since the Children of Israel witnessed these
miracles, they
were compelled to believe, so they did not have to fulf ill the commandments. The
second
opinion states that they were required to adhere to the commandments, so that no
responsible
adult is f ree of such responsibilit ies. Al-Qurtubi said that this is what is
correct , because, he
said, although the Children of Israel witnessed these t remendous calamit ies and
incidents, that
did not mean that they were not responsible for fulf illing the commandments any
more. Rather
they are responsible for that , and this is clear. Allah knows best

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TAFSIR AL TUSTARI

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Decoding the Quran
Then after you tasted death (your nothingness and that the Wahid’ul Qahhar is the
one and only existence) We had revived your life with a new understanding, that
perhaps you would evaluate this.

...
[2:56] Then We raised you up, brought you back to life, after you were dead, so
that you might be thankful, for this favour of Ours.