Fingerprints and the gathering of bones

The ayah in tafsir

The denier mocks resurrection. The reply is not only the great bones, but the banan — the fingertips, the ends of the fingers — restored in proportion. Al-Tabari: even the small bones of the hand. The argument is qadr: the One who shaped the fine can gather the coarse.

What later eyes saw

The ridges of the fingertip are unique to a person and form early. Modern identification hangs on that small field of skin. The Quran chose, as the emblem of restoration, the very place later ages used to name a man. That is a striking choice of example. It does not require that 7th-century Arabs ran a police file.

Where we stop

Banan is fingertips, not “fingerprints” as a technical term. The miracle claimed here is Allah’s power to restore the fine. Uniqueness of ridges is a later observation that fits the example; it is not the tafsir of nusawwiya.