The commentators have correctly explained the usage of this...

The commentators have correctly explained the usage of this simile based on the description ( muntashir ) which comes at the end of the verse, and have painted a picture of the extraordinary state of confusion and terror that will prevail upon mankind on that day, when every order that is familiar to them will have been transformed; nevertheless, it would be better not to confine the discussion to just this one aspect of the similitude, but to explore the meaning of its other aspects also.

This would allow us to better understand the object of the verse, which is to describe the astonishing scenes of the great day of judgement. There is no doubt that one day the present order in the cosmos will undergo a tumultuous upheaval, and following a cataclysmic event, it will be brought to an abrupt end.

Not only shall the earth be subjected to convulsion and turmoil, but the stars will also die and the galaxies will break up and fall silent; in other words, that universal explosion will devastate the heavens and the earth simultaneously, and the prevailing system and order in creation will be completely transformed, bringing an end to the life of the universe and its inhabitants and the annals of created beings.

Indeed, this total annihilation of the cosmos, in which no single creation will be identifiable, is the inevitable future of our world. Then, graves will be upturned, and the earth, in obedience to the directive of its Lord, shall reveal the age-old contents and secrets that she had hidden in her bosom, and lighten her burden.

If man looks at the constitution of his own body, which is made up of various elements found in the earth and water, he will realize that this body will one day be absorbed into the earth and provide sustenance for fruits and plants and thus be dissipated all over the world; or his molecules might be ultimately shaped into drops of water that find place in the vast oceans.

The elements that make up our bodies are the result of changes that have occurred under a special set of causes and conditions; not only does the body of every human being reach its form through the same procedure, but when it decomposes and decays into atoms at the end of its life, it once more becomes sustenance available to other life forms. And in this way the constituent elements of one body are preserved, even while transmuted, in the world.

Therefore the idea of a renewal of life after death is not difficult for man to picture.