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Ezra Sleeps
For 100 Years
Ishaaq Ibn Bishr reported, on the authority of Ibn Abbas and
others, that Ezra was a saint and a wise man. He went out
one day to his own farm, as was his custom about noon, he
came to a deserted, ruined place and felt the heat. He
entered the ruined town and dismounted his donkey, taking
figs and grapes in his basket. He went under the shade of
the khaiba tree and ate his food. Then he got up to look at
what remained of the ruins. The people had long been lost,
and he saw bones.
He said this not out of doubt but out of curiosity. Allah
sent the Angel of Death to take his life. He remained dead
for one hundred years.
After the one hundred years had passed and there had been
changes in Israelite affairs, Allah sent an angel upon Ezra
to revive his heart and his eyes in order for him to feel
and see how Allah revives the dead. The angel said: "For how
long did you sleep?" He said: "A day or part of a day." He
said this because he knew he had slept early in the
afternoon and woke up late in the afternoon. The angel said:
"You remained asleep for one hundred years." He ate and
drank the food which he had prepared before he was overtaken
by that long sleep. Then the angel revived his donkey.
Almighty Allah recounted this, in the holy Qur'an:
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Al-Quran, Chapter 2 Al-Baqara, Verse
259 |
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In
the Name of Allah, The Benevolent, The Merciful |
Or
(take) the similitude of one who passed by a hamlet, all in ruins to
its roofs. He said: "Oh! how shall Allah bring it (ever) to life,
after (this) its death?" but Allah caused him to die for a hundred
years, then raised him up (again). He said: "How long didst thou
tarry (thus)?" He said: (Perhaps) a day or part of a day." He said:
"Nay, thou hast tarried thus a hundred years; but look at thy food
and thy drink; they show no signs of age; and look at thy donkey:
And that We may make of thee a sign unto the people, Look further at
the bones, how We bring them together and clothe them with flesh."
When this was shown clearly to him, he said: "I know that Allah hath
power over all things." |
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Ezra Returns
Home
He rode on his donkey and entered his native place, but the
people did not recognize him, nor did his household, except
his maid, now an old woman. He asked her: "Is this the house
of Ezra?" She said: "Yes, but the people have long forgotten
Ezra." He said: "I am Ezra. Allah had taken my life for a
hundred years and has now returned it to me." She said:
"Ezra used to be answered when he prayed to Allah. Pray to
cure me of my blindness if you truly are Ezra." He prayed
for her and massaged her eyes and took her by the hand. "Get
up by the power of Allah," he said. The crippled woman stood
up and walked; she opened her eyes and saw: her blindness
was gone. She said: "I bear witness that you are Ezra."
Ezra Finds and Copies the Torah
She rushed to the assembly of the
Israelites. Ezra's son was
one hundred eighteen years old, and his children's children
now were lords of the assembly. She called out to them
saying: "This is Ezra come to you." The accused her of
lying. She said: "I am your old maid. He just prayed to
Allah for me, and here I am whole again, walking and
seeing." The people stood up and looked at him. His son
said: "My father had a mark between his shoulders, a black
mole," and they discovered it. They said: "None among us
memorized the Torah since Neabuchadnezzar burnt it, except
Ezra; and there was only one copy of the Torah, which was
hidden by Sarukha. He buried it in the days of
Nebuchadnezzar in a place none but Ezra known." Ezra led the
people to the hidden place and took out the copy of the
Torah. Its leaves had rotted and the book itself crumpled.
Ezra sat under the shade of a tree surrounded by the
children of Israel and copied out the Torah for them from
that script. Henceforth the Jews said that Ezra is the son
of Allah, for the two pieces of evidence which came down
from heaven: for his copying the Torah and for his fighting
the cause of the Israelites. He had been copying the Torah
for Ezekial in the land of darkness in the hermitage of
Ezekiel. The village which was in ruins is said to be
Sayrabadh.
Ibn Abbas commented: "So it is as Allah said:..."
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Al-Quran, Chapter 2 Al-Baqara, Verse
269 |
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In
the Name of Allah, The Benevolent, The Merciful |
He
granteth wisdom to whom He pleaseth; and he to whom wisdom is
granted receiveth indeed a benefit overflowing; but none will grasp
the Message but men of understanding. |
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That is, for the
Israelites, in that he was sitting among his children, they
old men, and he a youth. He died as a forty year old, and
Allah resurrected him at the same age as he was on the day
of his death!
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