al-Bāʿith

The Resurrector, who raises the dead and sends messengers

Begin the series ↓

Recited as it sounds in the Qur'an, 22:7.

Heard together with: al-Bāʿith / al-Muḥyī / al-Muʿīd

Start with what we know

Then take away everything it needs. What is left is not a bigger version of us. It is the Name.

Episode 1

In us

CPR and defibrillation bring back people whose hearts have stopped, within minutes

But: Minutes, not years; only the recently dead

Episode 2

In nature

Silene stenophylla plants regenerated from fruit frozen 31,800 (± 300) years in Siberian permafrost (2012); a Judean date palm ('Methuselah') sprouted in 2005 from a seed about 2,000 years old found in an ancient jar; seafloor microbes revived after 101.5 million years (Morono et al. 2020)

Episode 3

At our best

Lab revival needs living tissue to start from

But: Nothing revived was fully dead; it was dormant

Episode 4

The Break

Take away a dormant seed, living cells, a starting point.

Not a longer-lasting seed, but life given back to what had none.

Read: Q 22:7; 30:50; 41:39

From the tradition: Classical: al-Bāʿith also sends messengers and raises from sleep. Ezekiel 37:3-5 'can these bones live again?… I will cause breath to enter you'; Daniel 12:2; 1 Cor 15:42

On screen

Frankenstein stitches the dead together and gets a creature who calls himself a fallen angel. al-Bāʿith raises from dust, whole, by the One who made it the first time.

Where it shows up

In scripture: Q 22:7; 30:50; 36:78-79; 41:39. Ezekiel 37:3-5; Daniel 12:2; 1 Cor 15:42-44
The same thread in Jewish and Christian scripture: Strong. Ezekiel 37; Daniel 12:2; Amidah 'meḥayyeh metim'; Creed 'resurrection of the dead'
In the universe: Stars: elements in our bodies were made in earlier generations of stars
In nature: Fresh Water (Our Planet): desert blooming after rain (30:50)
In people: Paramedics; organ donation (life after a death)
In science: Biology: dormancy and revival (seeds, spores, tardigrades)

Living it

Wake up to good; send good ahead (36:12)

Its kind

Act: something done: mercy shown, provision given, a prayer answered.

In the Qur'an: 22:7 (verb yabʿathu) (not in the Qur'an verbatim (verb form))

Sources for this page

Wikipedia Judean date palm, Silene stenophylla; gutenberg.org/ebooks/84; api.quran.com; sefaria.org Ezek 37, Dan 12:2; bible-api.com 1 Cor 15