Allah's power over life and death; resurrection
Have you ever looked at something that was completely broken, completely gone, and wondered: could it ever be made whole again? A shattered glass, a fallen building, a dead tree? Tonight's story is about a man who asked that very question, not about a glass or a tree, but about an entire city. And Allah showed him the answer in the most extraordinary way imaginable.
The Quran tells us about a man who passed by a town that had fallen to ruin. Some scholars say this man was Uzair (AS), a righteous servant of Allah. Others say he was a traveler whose name is known only to Allah. What matters is what happened to him, and what it teaches us.
This man was traveling with his donkey, carrying provisions for his journey, including food and drink. His path took him past the ruins of a town that had once been alive and bustling. Now its buildings were crumbled, its walls collapsed, its streets empty. The bones of its former inhabitants lay scattered among the rubble. It was a scene of complete and utter desolation.
Looking at this devastation, the man was overwhelmed by a thought. He asked aloud: "How will Allah bring this town to life after its death?"
It was not a question of doubt, not in the way that arrogant people deny Allah's power. It was a question of wonder. He believed in Allah. He knew Allah could do anything. But looking at this destruction with his human eyes, he genuinely wondered: how? The gap between this pile of rubble and bones, and a living, breathing city, seemed impossibly vast. How could what was so thoroughly dead ever live again?
Allah decided to answer his question not with words but with a demonstration.
"So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years; then He revived him."
Just like that. The man died, right there beside the ruins, with his donkey beside him and his food and drink nearby. And he stayed dead for a hundred years.
Think about what happened during those hundred years. The seasons turned. Summer came and went, again and again, a hundred times. Rains fell. Winds blew. The ruins around him continued to crumble. His donkey died beside him, and its body decomposed until only white bones remained. The vegetation grew and withered and grew again. An entire century passed.
And then Allah brought him back to life.
The man opened his eyes. To him, it felt like he had simply fallen asleep for a short time, perhaps a few hours. He looked around, confused. The landscape seemed different, but he could not quite place what had changed.
Allah asked him: "How long have you remained?"
The man answered honestly, based on what he felt: "I have remained a day or part of a day."
Allah said: "Rather, you have remained one hundred years."
One hundred years. A century of human history had passed while he lay there. Generations had been born and died. The world had changed completely. And yet, to him, it felt like an afternoon nap.
Then Allah directed his attention to two things.
First: "Look at your food and your drink; it has not changed with time." The man looked at his provisions, the food he had been carrying, the drink in his container. After a hundred years, they were perfectly fresh, as if he had prepared them that very morning. Not a speck of mold, not a drop of spoilage. Time had not touched them. This was a sign: Allah can preserve whatever He wills from the effects of time.
Second: "And look at your donkey." The man turned to where his donkey had been. All he saw were white bones, bleached by a century of sun. His donkey had died and decomposed completely, as is natural. The food was preserved; the donkey was not. Both had been in the same place for the same hundred years, but Allah had treated them differently, to make a point.
And then came the most astonishing part of the entire experience.
As the man watched, Allah reconstructed the donkey before his very eyes. The Quran says: "And look at the bones, how We raise them and then We cover them with flesh."
The white bones began to move. They assembled themselves, bone clicking into bone, each one finding its proper place, ribs forming, spine aligning, skull taking shape. Then tendons appeared, stretching between the bones, pulling them together. Then muscles grew over the tendons, red and living. Then skin covered the muscles, fur sprouting. And finally, the donkey opened its eyes and stood up, alive and breathing, shaking its head as if waking from a nap.
The man had just witnessed resurrection in real time. He had watched a pile of bleached bones transform, step by step, back into a living, breathing creature. He had his answer.
When the man saw this, he said: "I know that Allah is over all things competent."
Not "I believe." He said "I know." He had moved from belief to certainty, from faith in the unseen to faith confirmed by the seen. He had watched death reversed before his eyes.
This story, contained in a single verse of the Quran, is one of the most powerful demonstrations of Allah's ability to bring the dead back to life. It answers the question that humans have asked since the beginning of time: what happens after death? Can the dead truly live again?
The answer, demonstrated through the man and his donkey, is absolute: yes. The One who created life from nothing in the first place can certainly restore it. The One who preserved food for a century and reassembled bones into a living creature has power over all things.
In the Shia tradition, belief in Ma'ad, the Day of Resurrection, is one of the five pillars of faith (Usul al-Din), alongside Tawhid (oneness of God), Nubuwwah (prophethood), Adalah (divine justice), and Imamah (leadership after the Prophet). The story of the man and the donkey is considered one of the clearest Quranic proofs of resurrection.
Imam Ali (AS) said: "He who created you the first time is the one who will bring you back. Do you think it is harder for Him to restore you than to create you in the first place?" This beautiful logic echoes the Quran's own argument: the initial creation is the greater miracle. Restoration is, if anything, easier.
Imam Sadiq (AS) explained that the story shows us three things: First, Allah's power to preserve, since the food remained fresh. Second, Allah's wisdom in allowing natural processes, since the donkey decomposed naturally. Third, Allah's power to reverse death completely, since the donkey was brought back to life from bones. These three together give us the complete picture of Allah's relationship with creation: He can preserve, He allows change, and He can restore.
The next time you look at a fallen leaf, a crumbling wall, or the bones of a creature, remember this story. Remember that nothing is truly lost to Allah. He who assembled the bones of a donkey after a hundred years can reassemble the universe itself.
"Fa amatahuAllahu mi'ata 'amin thumma ba'athah, qala kam labithta, qala labithtu yawman aw ba'da yawm, qala bal labithta mi'ata 'am" "So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years; then He revived him. He said, 'How long have you remained?' He said, 'I have remained a day or part of a day.' He said, 'Rather, you have remained one hundred years.'" -- Al-Baqarah (2:259)