He was a righteous and insightful servant. One day he went out to inspect an estate of his, and on the way back he came to a desolate town at the height of midday; the heat bore down upon him. Still mounted on his donkey, he entered the ruins, dismounted, and with him were two baskets—one filled with figs, the other with grapes. He sat in the shade of the ruin, produced a small bowl, squeezed some of the grapes into it, then took the hard, dry bread he had brought and placed it in the juice so it would soften for eating. Afterwards he lay on his back with his feet propped against a wall. Gazing at the ceilings of the deserted houses—still standing upon their beams while their inhabitants had long perished—he noticed decayed bones and said:

“How will Allah bring this back to life after its death?” (Q 2:259)

He harbored no doubt that Allah would indeed resurrect them; he spoke only in amazement. Allah therefore sent the Angel of Death, who took his soul, and Allah caused him to die for one hundred years. During that century many events and changes befell the Children of Israel.

Then Allah sent an angel to ʿUzayr, creating his heart anew so that he might comprehend and his eyes so that he might behold how Allah revives the dead. The angel reconstructed him from behind as he looked on: bones were covered with flesh, hair, and skin, and finally the soul was breathed into him, all while ʿUzayr saw and understood. He sat up, and the angel asked:

“How long have you remained?”

He replied, “I have remained a day”—for he had lain down in the early afternoon and was restored near sunset—“or part of a day; the full day has not passed.”

The angel said, “You have remained one hundred years. Now look at your food and drink”—the dry bread and the juice he had pressed—“they have not changed.” The juice was exactly as before, and the bread still dry. That is Allah’s word: “…and look at your food and drink; they have not spoiled.” The figs and grapes too were as fresh as ever, yet a trace of wonder lingered in his heart.

The angel continued, “Do you doubt what I have told you? Then look at your donkey.” When he looked, he saw that its bones had decayed and turned to dust. The angel called to the bones, which answered and gathered together from every direction while ʿUzayr watched. He then connected them, clothed them with veins and tendons, covered them with flesh, grew skin and hair over them, and finally breathed into the donkey, which stood up, raising its head and ears toward the sky and braying, thinking the Day of Resurrection had come.

Thus does Allah say: “And look at your donkey, and We will make you a sign for the people. And look at the bones—how We raise them, then clothe them with flesh” (Q 2:259); that is, observe how the bones of your donkey fit together at their joints until the skeleton stands complete without flesh, and then observe how We clothe it with flesh.

When the matter became clear to him, he declared, “I know that Allah is able to do all things”—whether resurrecting the dead or anything else.

He mounted his donkey and rode back to his neighborhood. The people did not recognize him, nor did he recognize them or even his own house. Puzzled, he made his way to what had been his home, where he found a blind, crippled old woman, now one hundred and twenty years old. She had once been their maidservant: when ʿUzayr left she was twenty, fully aware of and familiar with him, but with the passage of time age and infirmity had overtaken her.

ʿUzayr asked her, “Good woman, is this the house of ʿUzayr?”

She answered, “Yes, this is the house of ʿUzayr,” and she wept, saying, “For so many years I have not heard anyone mention ʿUzayr; people have forgotten him.”

He said, “Indeed, I am ʿUzayr. Allah caused me to die for one hundred years, then revived me.”

She exclaimed, “Glory be to Allah!”