99 Preface ۞ أَوَلَم يَرَوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ الَّذي خَلَقَ السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضَ قادِرٌ عَلىٰ أَن يَخلُقَ مِثلَهُم وَجَعَلَ لَهُم أَجَلًا لا رَيبَ فيهِ فَأَبَى الظّالِمونَ إِلّا كُفورًاYusuf AliSee they not that God, Who created the heavens and the earth, has power to create the like of them1 (anew)? Only He has decreed a term appointed, of which there is no doubt. But the unjust refuse (to receive it) except with ingratitude.2God, Who created all that is in the heavens and on earth, has surely the power to receive the life of individual souls after their bodies have perished-and revive them with memories of their past life and for a continuation of their spiritual history. Only He has fixed a term for each stage of our existence, which we can neither prolong nor shorten.This phrase carries us back to 17:89. after we began the argument about the real motives for the rejection of the Qur-ān by sceptics. That argument is now closed in a sort of minor circle within the major circle sketched in n. 2304 above.