Or like the one who passed by a town fallen in ruin upon its roofs.
The commentators explain: the roofs had fallen, then the walls onto them. And no one lived there anymore.
Notice what the verse does not say: neither the man's name, nor the town's.
He said: “How will Allah bring this to life after its death?”
The verse does not say that he doubted Allah's power. Many commentators read his words as wonder before such ruin.
And look at his word for the town: its death. A town can die. Can it live again?
So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years, then raised him.
The title of this book says “asleep”. The verse says more: Allah caused him to die.
He asked a question in words. Allah answered with a century.
He said: “How long have you remained?”
The man said: “I have remained a day, or part of a day.”
He said: “Rather, you have remained a hundred years.”
Some scholars explain: he died early in the day and came back to life before sunset, so he thought it was the same day.
“Look at your food and your drink: they have not changed with time.”
Ibn Kathîr reports that he had figs, grapes and juice. A hundred years, and nothing had spoiled.
“And look at your donkey.”
The donkey, the commentators say, was nothing but bones. Over the same hundred years: two opposite signs.
“And We will make you a sign for the people.
And look at the bones: how We raise them, then clothe them with flesh.”
Whose bones? Many commentators say the donkey's. Some say his own. Either way, he watched it happen.
And when it became clear to him, he said: “I know that Allah is over all things competent.”
He does not say “now I believe”. He says “I know”. What he believed, he has now seen.
A man passes by a ruined town: the roofs have fallen in, then the walls on top of them.
He asks a question many have asked. Allah answers it in his own life.
He looked at a dead town and asked how. Allah answered in his own life.
Tonight, read 2:259 slowly, and stop at each “look”: the food, the donkey, the bones.