S22
Fingertips and resurrection
75:3–4 answers doubt about the resurrection: "Does man think that We will not assemble his bones? Yes. [We are] Able [even] to proportion his fingertips."
أَيَحْسَبُ ٱلْإِنسَٰنُ أَلَّن نَّجْمَعَ عِظَامَهُۥ٣ بَلَىٰ قَٰدِرِينَ عَلَىٰٓ أَن نُّسَوِّىَ بَنَانَهُۥ٤
Transliteration: ayaḥsabu l-insānu allan najmaʿa ʿiẓāmahu · balā qādirīna ʿalā an nusawwiya banānahu
Does man think that We will not assemble his bones? Yes. [We are] Able [even] to proportion his fingertips.
Translation: Saheeh International
Key words
Banān: fingertips (the ends of the fingers). Nusawwiya: "proportion", shape, make even.
Classical tafsir
Ibn Kathir. On 75:3: "on the Day of Judgement does he think that We are not able to return his bones and gather them from their various places?" On 75:4: "We could make his Banan, which are the tips of his fingers, all equal ( in length )."
Tanwīr al-Miqbās (attributed to Ibn ʿAbbas): "We are able to gather his fingers, such that his palm becomes like the hoof of a camel or beasts."
Al-Jalālayn. "We are able in addition to assembling them to reshape even his fingers".
What they share. All three read the verse as God's power to rebuild. Al-Jalālayn: God can reshape even the fingers. Ibn Kathir: "This means Our power is suitable to gather ( and recreate ) them, and if We wished We could surely resurrect him with more than what he originally had"; the fingers made "all equal" is his illustration of that power. Tanwīr al-Miqbās uses the hoof image the same way: if God can do that to the hand, He can restore the bones. None of them speaks of fine work, or of fingerprints.
How it works
Each point is tied to banān, "fingertips".
- When fingerprints form. Established Before birth, small pads (volar pads) form on the fingertips, stop growing around the 10th week and then shrink back; the events that set the ridges "collide during weeks 10 through 15". A high pad yields a whorl, an intermediate pad a loop, a low pad an arch (Langenburg, Scientific American).
- Inherited, but not copied. Established The pattern type reflects inherited timing, but the exact ridge arrangement is "random and not genetically linked". Identical twins often share pattern types, but "The identifying characteristics are different, however" (Langenburg).
Points of awe
Identical twins share DNA but not fingerprint details (Langenburg).
Reflection
The doubter's question is old: when bones have scattered, who can put them back? The verse answers with the smallest part of the hand: "Yes. [We are] Able [even] to proportion his fingertips" (75:4). If God can shape the tips of the fingers, the rest is not hard.
Ibn Kathir and the commentary attributed to Ibn ʿAbbas press the point with an image: God could have made the fingers "all equal", or joined like a hoof. For them this shows the power that can rebuild. A reader today may add a thought of their own, labelled as such: fingers that are not all equal are what let us write, sew, plant and pray with open hands — an everyday gift we rarely notice.
Today we can add a third layer, as reflection: the skin of the fingertips carries a pattern set in the womb, between the tenth and fifteenth weeks, that no one else shares — not even an identical twin. The verse does not speak of prints. But a reader who looks at their own fingertip can feel the force of the question: the One who made this, so finely, can He not make it again?
The sura's name is "The Resurrection". Its first argument is placed in our hands.
Questions readers ask next
Did the Quran reveal fingerprints?
No. The verse speaks of fingertips; the classical readings are about God's power to rebuild the body, down to the fingers. Fingerprints are a modern reflection.
What did classical scholars think the verse meant?
That God can rebuild even the fingers (al-Jalālayn, Ibn Kathir, Tanwīr al-Miqbās); Ibn Kathir and Tanwīr illustrate the power with fingers made "all equal" or hoof-like.
When do fingerprints form?
Between about weeks 10 and 15 of pregnancy (Langenburg).
Do identical twins have the same fingerprints?
No; they may share pattern types, but not identifying details (Langenburg).
Sources
- Saheeh International — 75:3–4.
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir (abridged English), Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (English) and Tanwīr al-Miqbās (attributed to Ibn ʿAbbas), on 75:3–4, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-4-sora-75.html.
- Glenn Langenburg (Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension), answer to "Are one's fingerprints similar to those of his or her parents in any discernable way?", Scientific American (no date shown), https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-ones-fingerprints-sim/.
- "Quran Miracle: Identity In Fingertips" (page title; its heading reads "Quran Reveals About Uniqueness of Fingertips"), The Last Dialogue (26 September 2019; updated 3 October 2026), https://thelastdialogue.org/article/quran-miracle-identity-in-fingertips — the popular modern claim.
- Scientific American, "Are one's fingerprints similar to those of his or her parents?"
- McGill Office for Science and Society, "You Inherit Part of Your Fingerprint from Your Parents"
- Al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr and al-Qurṭubī on 75:4