Al-Baqarah 2:28
The verse is a four-stage timeline: amwātan (in a lifeless state) → aḥyākum (He gave you life) → yumītukum (He will cause you to die) → yuḥyīkum (He will bring you to life again) → ilayhi turjaʿūn (you will be returned to Him).
كَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَكُنتُمْ أَمْوَٰتًا فَأَحْيَـٰكُمْ ۖ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيكُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
How can you deny God, when you were dead and He gave you life, then He will put you to death, then He will bring you to life, then to Him you will be returned
Al-Baqarah 2:28 · Translation: talal-itani
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"Amwāt" here is not "the dead" but the not-yet-having-come-to-life — the original state of non-being. In these five words the verse traces a person's full arc of creation.
Observation
The biological cycle that begins from inanimate mineral elements is an observable fact: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and water ions combine within a structured cell to form a living system; with death this system disassembles back into its components and atoms re-enter circulation in different bodies. Matter's "inanimate → living → inanimate" cycle can be tracked at laboratory scale. The verse's "He will bring to life again" is not a scientific extension of this cycle; it stands beside the cycle science observes as a forward-looking promise.
Exegesis
Al-Rāzī (Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb) summarizes the verse's central argument: if a person remembers their own first beginning — being given life while inanimate — they cannot claim a second life is impossible. The verse exposes a logical inconsistency: accepting the first creation while denying the second is incoherent.
Sources
Tafsīr: al-Rāzī · Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb; al-Ṭabarī · Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; al-Qurṭubī · al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān. Science: biochemical cycle of matter.