(259) “Or consider the one who passed by a town that lay in ruins, its walls collapsed upon its roofs. He said, ‘How will Allah bring this back to life after its death?’ So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years, then raised him and said, ‘How long have you remained?’ He replied, ‘I have remained for a day or part of a day.’ He said, ‘Rather, you have remained for a hundred years. Look at your food and drink: they have not spoiled. And look at your donkey. We have done this to make you a sign for the people. Look at the bones and how We bring them together, then clothe them with flesh.’ When the matter became clear to him, he said, ‘I know that Allah has power over all things.’”

This is yet another proof that Allah alone creates and governs, causes death and gives life. He says, “Or consider the one who passed by a town that lay in ruins, its walls collapsed upon its roofs.” Its people had perished, its inhabitants were gone, and its walls had fallen upon its roofs. Not a living soul remained there; it stood desolate and deserted. The man stopped there in astonishment and said, “How will Allah bring this back to life after its death?” He considered this unlikely because he was ignorant of Allah Most High’s power.

When Allah willed good for him, He showed him a sign in his own person and in his donkey. He had food and drink with him. “So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years, then raised him and said, ‘How long have you remained?’ He replied, ‘I have remained for a day or part of a day.’” He regarded the time during which he had been dead as brief because his awareness and senses had ceased, and the last state he remembered was that immediately preceding his death.

He was told, “Rather, you have remained for a hundred years. Look at your food and drink: they have not spoiled.” That is, they had not changed but remained as they were, despite the passage of many years and the succession of different seasons. This is among the greatest proofs of Allah’s power: He preserved them and kept them from changing and spoiling, even though food and drink are among the things most susceptible to spoilage.

“And look at your donkey.” It had died, its flesh and skin had decomposed, its bones had scattered, and its limbs had come apart. “We have done this to make you a sign for the people”—a sign of Allah’s power and His raising the dead from their graves, so that you might serve as a tangible example witnessed with their own eyes and they might thereby know the truth of what the messengers reported.

“Look at the bones and how We bring them together”—that is, how We fit them into one another and join them together—“then clothe them with flesh.” He watched this happen before his very eyes, just as Allah Most High has described. “When the matter became clear to him” and he came to know Allah Most High’s power, “he said, ‘I know that Allah has power over all things.’”

What is apparent from the context of the verse is that this man denied the resurrection, and that Allah willed good for him and intended to make him a sign and proof for the people. This is evident for three reasons.

The first is his statement, “How will Allah bring this back to life after its death?” Had he been a prophet or a righteous servant, he would not have said that.

The second is that Allah showed him a sign in his food, his drink, his donkey, and his own person so that he might see it with his own eyes and affirm what he had denied. The verse does not state that the town in question was rebuilt and restored to its former condition, nor is there anything in the context to indicate that. Moreover, that would be of little significance. What proof of Allah’s raising the dead would there be in a ruined town to which its former inhabitants, or others, later returned and which they rebuilt? The true proof lies in Allah’s restoring the man and his donkey to life and preserving his food and drink unchanged.

The third lies in the words, “When the matter became clear to him.” That is, something of which he had been ignorant and which had been unclear to him now became clear. This establishes the correctness of what we have stated. And Allah knows best.

Then Allah Most High says: