Qul yatawaffakum malaku almawti allathee wukkila bikum thumma ila rabbikum turjaAAoon (surah Sajdah: 11)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(32:11) Tell them: 'The angel of death who has been charged with your souls shall gather you, and then you shall be brought back to your Lord.' *21

Qul yatawaffaakum malakul mawtil lazee wukkila bikum Thumma ilaa rabbikum turja`oon

*21) That is, "Your `ego' will not mix in the dust,` but as soon as its term of action comes to an end, God's angel of death will come and will take it out of the body and seize it completely. No part of it will be allowed to become dust with the body. It will be taken intact into custody and produced before its Lord." Let us consider in some detail the facts which have been presented in this brief verse: (1) It says that death does not occur as a matter of course, like the stopping of a watch suddenly when it needs re-winding, but for this purpose Allah has appointed a special angel, who comes to receive the soul precisely in the manner as an official receiver takes something into his custody. From the details which have been mentioned at other places in the Qur'an, it becomes apparent that the chief angel of death has a whole staff of the angels under him, who perform a variety of duties in connection with causing the death, seizing the soul and taking it into custody. Moreover, their treatment of a guilty soul is different from their treatment of a believing, righteous soul. (For details, see An-Nisa': 97, AI-An`am: 93, An-Nahl: 28, AI-Waqi'ah: 83-94). (2) It also shows that man dces not cease to exist after death, but his soul survives the body. The words of the Qur'an: "The angel of death shall seize you completely," point out the same reality. For something which does not exist cannot be seized. Seizing something and taking it into custody implies that the seized thing should be in possession of the seizer. (3) It also shows that at the time of death that which is seized is not the biological life of man but his self, his ego, which is connoted by the words like "I" and "we" and "you". Whatever personality this ego may have developed during its life-activity in the world, the same is taken out intact as a whole, without effecting any increase or decrease in its characteristics, and the same is made to return to its Lord after death. The same personality will be given a new birth and a new body in the Hereafter; the same will be subjected to trial; the same will be called to account; and the same will have to experience rewards or punishments.