Could you please clarify how we are resurrected on the day of judgment? Is it only the soul that is resurrected, or are people called up body and soul to come out of their graves?
Although the thought of resurrection after being dead for hundreds, if not thousands, of years seems to our minds difficult to understand and envisage, it is by no means beyond our power of comprehension. When we believe in Allah as the All-Powerful, Absolute Creator, then we understand that there is nothing which can be said to lie beyond His power. Although many non-believers refuse to believe in Allah over this particular issue of resurrection, a careful logical examination of what is involved in creation and resurrection is bound to make the concept of resurrection much easier to accept. When we think of our own creation, we cannot but accept that it is the work of a wise Creator whose work is perfect. We need not go back to the origin of man. We only have to look at how every new baby is born and how that baby develops from conception to birth. What makes those infinitesimal sperm and egg especially equipped for bringing into existence a human being? If we say it is the genes which they have, then who has made those genes? Neither sperm nor egg has been there before a certain point in time. How did they get their qualities? What made them equipped to meet, be fertilized and start the process of pregnancy and childbirth? Because of the familiarity of this process to man, it may seem natural. Natural it certainly is, but it is also miraculous. It is an indication of the power of the Creator.
The Creator Who gives us life when we come into the world is certainly to bring us back to life on the day of judgment. This second process of resurrection is much simpler than our first creation.
Resurrection, according to Islam, brings us back to life in body and soul. Numerous verses in the Qur'an and many Hadiths indicate this. The Prophet, peace be upon him, likens the resurrection to awakening from sleep. Addressing his people, he says: "By Allah, you shall die as you go to sleep, and you shall be resurrected as you wake up again." The Prophet here draws an analogy which is given in the Qur'an, making sleep a special form of death. Resurrection is, therefore, no more than a special form of awakening. When we wake up, we have both body and soul. Similarly, when we are resurrected, we shall have both our bodies and souls.
Read carefully these verses from Surah 36, "Ya Seen". You will find that they clearly indicate resurrection of body and soul. "Is man, then, not aware that it is We who create him out of a mere drop of sperm, whereupon he shows himself endowed with the power to think and to argue? And now he coins for Us a simile and remains oblivious of how he himself was created. And so he says: 'Who could give life to bones that have crumbled to dust?' Say: 'He who brought them into being in the first instance will give them life once again, seeing that He has full knowledge of every act of creation. He who produces for you fire out of the green trees so that you kindle your fires therewith'."
In these verses we have a clear assertion that bones will be resurrected and put back together. That is a reference to the resurrection of the body. It is useful to think about the example given by Allah of making the green, water-containing plants into fuel. Nowadays, we know a great deal about how this process is made. It can be accomplished in a variety of ways, such as desiccation or man-made carbonization which gives us coal, or by slow, subterranean process of decomposition into oil or coal. In whichever way it is completed, the green tree becomes a source of energy which can be used in a variety of ways to bring things into being. Yet when trees die, they first decompose and become part of the soil. When we dig we do not notice that there has been a tree in that place sometime in the past. Yet it remains there and it goes through a long process of decomposition in order to become a new source of energy. That is the work of Allah who can do everything with perfect ease. It is also with perfect ease that He resurrects us, body and soul, for judgment.
• Retirement: Pensions — predetermined, fixed returns, no risk, but
You have mentioned that pension and other funds run by government are permissible. An important element in these is the predetermined, fixed rate of return and the absence of any risk of loss. In these circumstances, how are these different from bank interest?
Pension funds are meant for the benefit of the employees and their families. There is nothing wrong with all government employees, or those in large companies grouping together in order to support a fund which aims only to ensure that people are looked after in their old age or when the breadwinner is no longer alive. The fixed rate is acceptable and the government guarantees the absence of risk whose task it is to ensure the welfare of its people. There is no element of profit for the government. All is geared to the benefit of the participants. That is an aim of Islamic legislation.
Bank interest is meant to give profit to the bank. Hence it is run to ensure that the bank, not the creditors or borrowers, receive the net profit. If depositors are given a share of the profit, it is the continued profitability of the bank that is the aim.
• Retirement: Provident funds & validity of such schemes
All government employees contribute to a government fund and receive their contribution with a certain amount of increase at the end of service. There is a minimum, which is set by the government on what may be contributed, but the maximum is at the discretion of the employee. Is this acceptable?
This fund seems to be similar to a pension fund run by the government. There may be a difference in the form of receiving all the contributions and the profits in a lump sum, rather than monthly pension for the rest of one’s life. This difference does not affect the ruling over this type of transactions.
I do not see anything wrong with this type of government fund. In all Muslim countries, government runs pension funds for its employees, and requires the same to be run by large institutions and companies in order to take care of people in old age, when they are less able to work. Al-Azhar and Islamic universities everywhere have some pension arrangements in which members of staff pay monthly contributions which are added to similar or larger contributions by the employers. The amount of pension received at the end of employment is higher than the total contributions.
This is perfectly acceptable. It is not interest. It is cooperation between all employees, employers and the governments in providing necessary care to people who have passed long years of their service.