19 Preface يُخرِجُ الحَيَّ مِنَ المَيِّتِ وَيُخرِجُ المَيِّتَ مِنَ الحَيِّ وَيُحيِي الأَرضَ بَعدَ مَوتِها ۚ وَكَذٰلِكَ تُخرَجونَYusuf AliIt is He Who brings out the living from the dead, and brings out the dead1 from the living, and Who gives life to the earth2 after it is dead: and thus shall ye be brought out (from the dead).Cf. 10:31. From dead matter God’s creative act produces life and living matter, and even science has not yet been able to explain the mystery of life. Life and living matter again seem to reach maturity and again die, as we see every day. No material thing seems to have perpetual life. But again we see the creative process of God constantly at work, and the cycle of life and death seems to go on, (see also 36:12).Cf. 2:164. The earth itself, seemingly so inert, produces vegetable life at once from a single shower of rain, and in various ways sustains animal life. Normally it seems to die in the winter in northern climates, and in a drought everywhere, and the spring revives it in all its glory. Metaphorically many movements, institutions, organisations, seem to die and then to live again, all under the wonderful dispensation of God. So will our personality be revived when we apparently die on this earth, in order to reap the fruit of this, our probationary life, (see also 36:33).