Sects and Individuals Denying the Resurrection

 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

والصلاة والسلام على رسوله الامين

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

Belief in the bodily resurrection is one of the fundamental articles of Faith in Islam,

إِنَّكُم مَّبْعُوثُونَ مِن بَعْدِ الْمَوْتِ

Verily, you are raised after death

(11:7)

وَأَنَّ السَّاعَةَ آتِيَةٌ لَّا رَيْبَ فِيهَا وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ يَبْعَثُ مَن فِي الْقُبُورِ

And verily the Hour is coming—there is no doubt about it—and verily Allah raises those in the graves

(22:7)

أَيَحْسَبُ الْإِنسَانُ أَلَّن نَّجْمَعَ عِظَامَهُ

بَلَىٰ قَادِرِينَ عَلَىٰ أَن نُّسَوِّيَ بَنَانَهُ

Does man think We will not assemble his bones?

Verily, We are capable of fashioning his very fingertips!

(75:3-4)

It is evident the Quran teaches a literal, bodily resurrection, in which man shall come out of his grave. According to the Quran, it is the unbelievers and the pagans who not only reject the Resurrection but ridicule it,

أَيَعِدُكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ إِذَا مِتُّمْ وَكُنتُمْ تُرَابًا وَعِظَامًا أَنَّكُم مُّخْرَجُونَ

هَيْهَاتَ هَيْهَاتَ لِمَا تُوعَدُونَ

إِنْ هِيَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمَبْعُوثِينَ

Does he promise you that when you have died and become dust and bones that you will be brought out?

How far, how far is that which you are promised!

It is but our life of this world. We die and we live, but we are not to be raised up

(23:35-37)

The Jewish sect of Sadducees were infamous for denying the Resurrection. In the time of the early Church, at Ephesus, some heretics had appeared who denied the Resurrection, “And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already” (2 Timothy 2:17-18). This probably means that the two heretics were teaching that the Resurrection was not literal, rather something figurative which had already transpired. The heresy of Gnosticism denies bodily resurrection too. Due to the influence of Platonism they considered matter evil, something created by the Demiurge. They conceived of the Resurrection as spiritual only, not a return to a physical body which they considered evil and an obstacle to salvation. For them that salvation was gnosis, meaning self-realization and discovery of the inner light. Max R. King, a theologian of the Churches of Christ (Restorationist movement that emerged in 19^th century America), followed in the footsteps of Hymenaeus and Philetus in proclaiming that the Resurrection has already happened, as has the Second Coming of Christ and the Final Judgment. He taught a spiritual conceptualizing of these matters, and that they pointed to the end of the Old Covenant and the establishment of the New Covenant, which had become apparent through the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The teaching of Max King has been called full preterism, but also pantelism.

In 1164, the Nizari Isma’ili Imam, Hasan II, based in Alamut, announced that the Qiyamah had occurred. This meant that Isma’ilis did not believe in a physical, bodily Resurrection, but like the false teachers Hymenaeus and Philetus and the later heretical Gnostics had spiritualized the concept. It was this false doctrine, that the Qiyamah had already occurred, which became their basis for abolishing observance of the Islamic Shari’ah. The heretical naturalists like Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Ghulam Ahmad Parwez likewise deny a literal, bodily resurrection. All of these sects and individuals have denied a core and fundamental doctrine of Islam.