قَالُوا يَا وَيْلَنَا مَنْ بَعَثَنَا مِنْ مَرْقَدِنَا ۗ هَٰذَا مَا وَعَدَ الرَّحْمَٰنُ وَصَدَقَ الْمُرْسَلُونَ
They will say, 'Woe to us! Who has raised us from our resting place? This is what the All-Merciful promised, and the messengers spoke the truth.'
The Quran portrays the response of those who denied the Resurrection when they are raised. In earthly life they rejected it, absorbed in their desires and concerns, heedless of the day of reckoning. Now they suddenly emerge from their graves and hurry towards the gathering. Confronted with a reality they had never prepared to meet, their first response is a cry of alarm: “Woe to us!”
They ask in astonishment, “Who has raised us from our resting place?” Their question reflects the disbelief that had become firmly rooted within them. The reality they once regarded as impossible is now before them, and fear overwhelms their immediate understanding of what has happened.
The word marqad means a place of rest or sleep and here refers to the grave. This image helps convey the shock of being raised, but it does not by itself prove that all the dead lack every form of awareness between death and resurrection. The verse describes their response at the moment they rise; it is not a complete account of the intermediate state after death.
After their initial astonishment, they remember the warning about resurrection and judgement repeatedly brought by the messengers. Those who used to mockingly ask, “So when is this promise coming, if you're really telling the truth?”, now confront its fulfilment and admit: “This is what the All-Merciful promised, and the messengers spoke the truth.”
Yet this admission should not automatically be taken as evidence of pure faith or sincere repentance. Calling God “the All-Merciful” may itself be an appeal for mercy in their terror. One interpretive reading suggests that, as they did in worldly life when overpowered, they may seek to avert the consequences through professions of humility, admission of wrongdoing and attempts to win favour. This concerns a possible motive behind their words; it is not an explicit statement of their inner intentions in the verse.
Finally, by saying “the messengers spoke the truth”, they acknowledge that the prophets' warning was genuine. They had rejected it in earthly life, but now they see it fulfilled. Whatever their motive for admitting it, their acknowledgement comes after the time for choice and action in this life has passed.
The contrast is striking: mockery and denial in earthly life give way to fear and acknowledgement at the Resurrection. Refusing to accept a truth cannot prevent it from coming to pass. The decisive opportunity is to heed the warning while there is still time to choose and act.