From the explanation of "Al-'Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah," his statement: "The One who causes death without fear and raises [the dead] without difficulty."

The Shaykh: "A Killer Without Fear, A Resurrector Without Difficulty." The second phrase connects to the previous explanation, "A Resurrector Without Difficulty"; that is, as He - the Exalted - said in the verse mentioned previously: , He who created it in the first place finds it easier to recreate it.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Yes, as for his statement, "A Killer Without Fear," it seems he is indicating that when Allah - Mighty and Majestic - kills the creation, He does not kill them to escape their evil, as an adversary among humans usually does with his opponent, or an enemy with his enemy, killing him only to get rid of his evil. Allah - Mighty and Majestic - is too Great to kill the creation and extinguish them after He created them out of fear of their evil. Rather, it is for a profound wisdom; among that is returning them to the Hereafter so that He may give each of them the reward for what their hands have done.

Eid Abbasi: The doctor says...

The Shaykh: Yes.

Eid Abbasi: This is what...

The Shaykh: Because he brought the verse, and the verse is explicit: , and this is in reality one of the unseen matters that one must believe in. The philosophers say: death is a state of non-existence; because they understand that death is the opposite of life, so when life goes, death comes, and when death comes, there is no existential thing. But if Allah - Mighty and Majestic - says: , then both are encompassed by the attribute of creation, and creation pertains only to existential things, not to non-existent things; this is from one aspect. From another aspect, you all know the hadith about the coming of death on the Day of Resurrection in the form of a ram, which is placed between Paradise and the Fire, and then, after it is slaughtered, it is called out: O people of Paradise, eternal life, so no death; and O people of the Fire, eternal life, so no death.
Thus, this death has a real existence, and Allah - Mighty and Majestic - by His power represents it in the form of a ram. Just as the Noble Qur'an - for example - is the speech of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - and it is represented on the Day of Resurrection in some form, and some authentic hadiths have come regarding this. Just as the deed that a person does in this worldly life is represented to him in his grave; if it is good, it is in the form of a person with a beautiful face and appearance, and the opposite is the opposite. These are existing realities, and Allah - Mighty and Majestic - created them, and the perfection of His creation of them is that He represents them in material, corporeal forms that are seen with the eye.
So death is one of the realities of the creation of Allah - Mighty and Majestic - that we cannot comprehend, because it is beyond the intellect. But since the text has come affirming it, it is not our concern that the philosophers ignored these texts and denied them; because they only believe in what their intellect, thought, and knowledge encompass. And Allah - Mighty and Majestic - says: , and He says: . And although the intended meaning of this verse: is the two sciences; the intended meaning is the two sciences: religious and legal knowledge, and acquired and experimental knowledge. In each of the two sciences, Allah - Mighty and Majestic - addresses humanity: . And there is no doubt that if a person combines the two sciences, he will have a greater grasp of what Allah intended for His servants in knowledge than one who is limited to one of them. So if the religious scholars add experimental and theoretical knowledge to their knowledge, there is no doubt they will have a greater grasp of knowledge than the opposite; that is, the people who have a grasp of experimental and acquired knowledge but do not raise their heads to religious knowledge. With that, the people who combine the two sciences are also addressed by His - the Exalted - saying: ; so it is even more fitting and more fitting that this text addresses a type of people who are limited to one of the two sciences; it is even more fitting and more fitting that this text addresses the philosophers who rely in their beliefs solely on pure intellect and reasoning; these people are not to be heeded if they deny a reality from the religious scientific realities; such as their saying: that death is an attribute of non-existence and not an attribute of existence, after Allah - Mighty and Majestic - informs of the opposite of what they held, saying: , He tests you with life and death.

The questioner : Can we say that death was created before life?

The Shaykh : Can we say what?

The questioner : We say that death was created before life.

The Shaykh : Why can we say that?

The questioner : Because it comes first in the verse, and secondly: life was not created except from death, except after death.

The Shaykh : Because the order in the example, and the conjunction "waw" (and) does not imply precedence in rank.