9 Preface وَاللَّهُ الَّذي أَرسَلَ الرِّياحَ فَتُثيرُ سَحابًا فَسُقناهُ إِلىٰ بَلَدٍ مَيِّتٍ فَأَحيَينا بِهِ الأَرضَ بَعدَ مَوتِها ۚ كَذٰلِكَ النُّشورُYusuf AliIt is God Who sends forth the Winds, so that they raise up the Clouds,1 and We drive them to a land that is dead, and revive the earth therewith after its death: even so (will be) the Resurrection!The allegory here is double. (1) Dry, unpromising soil may seem, to all intents and purposes, dead; there is no source of water near; moisture is sucked up by the sun’s heat in a far-off ocean, and clouds are formed; winds arise; it seems as if the wind “bloweth as it listeth”, but it is really God’s Providence that drives it to the dead land; the rain falls, and behold! mere is life and motion and beauty everywhere! So in the spiritual world. God’s Revelation is His Mercy and His Rain; there may be the individual resurrection (Nushur) or unfolding of a. soul. (2) So again, may be the general Resurrection (Nushur), the unfolding of a new World in the Hereafter, out of an old World that is folded up and dead (Takwir, S. 81).