26أَحياءً وَأَمواتًاMuhammad Asadthe living and the dead?1This refers not merely to the fact that the earth is an abode for living and dead human beings and animals, but is also an allusion to the God-willed, cyclic recurrence of birth, growth, decay and death in all organic creation - and thus an evidence of the existence of the Creator who "brings forth the living out of that which is dead, and brings forth the dead out of that which is alive (3:27, 6:95, 10:31 and 30:19).