Life, Death, Resurrection, and The Afterlife: A Comparitive Study of Contexts of Eschatological Verses in Surat Al-Hajj and a Sample of Other Suras of The Quran

Abstract

The objective of this article is to explore contexts of eschatological verses in the Quran, using a comparative study of nineteen eschatological verses in Surat al-Hajj and a stratified systematic sample of twenty-four verses from twenty-one suras of the Quran. For in-depth interpretations, we also compare eschatological verses in two cohorts of Surat al-Hajj, namely Surat al-Zumar and Surat Ghaffir. A qualitative content analysis of semantics of individual verses and a context analysis of several passages provides the basis of our interpretations. One of the findings of this study is that there is a close association between eschatological verses and certain elements of tawhid in such verses. Another significant finding is that a binary choice of belief or lack of belief in tawhid and resurrection provides a theoretical/pedagogical context for several eschatological verses. Although these theoretical concepts are repeated in each sample sura, Surat al-Hajj differs from its two cohorts in its unique structural characteristics. Whereas it begins its preamble with eschatological verses, its second section is devoted to Hajj and its third section segues into a broader discourse on tawhid. In contrast, Surat al-Zumar describes both tawhid and eschatological messages in its entire text, displaying only weakly differentiated sections. Like Surat al-Hajj, Surat Ghaffir contains similar frequencies of eschatological verses, but its preamble is dominated by tawhid messages, whereas Surat al-Hajj starts with a stark warning of an apocalyptic end of this world.