The Quranic Mushrikun and the resurrection (Part II)

This article examines the attitudes of the Quranic mushrikun to the resurrection and the afterlife, focusing on those who doubted or denied the reality of both. The first part of the article, published in a previous issue of BSOAS, argued that the doubters and deniers had grown up in a monotheist environment familiar with both concepts and that it was from within the monotheist tradition that they rejected them. This second part relates their thought to intellectual currents in Arabia and the Near East in general, arguing that the role of their pagan heritage in their denial is less direct than normally assumed. It is also noted that mutakallims such as Abu Isa al-Warraq and al-Maturidi anticipated the main conclusions reached in this paper.