From the series: When the Solution Is the Impossible
Dr Faid Mohammed Said
There are moments in a person’s life when admiration mingles with bewilderment, faith with questioning, and certainty with contemplation.
Among these timeless moments in the Qur’an is the story of the man who passed by a ruined village: its sounds had vanished, its buildings had collapsed, and death lay scattered through its remains.
He stood contemplating the scene—not in denial, not in doubt, but in wonder:
“How will Allah bring this to life after its death?”
(Al-Baqarah: 259)
It is the question of a reflective jurist,
the question of a heart seeking the method, not the power,
the question of a human being who sees death as a reality and longs to see how life is restored.
Here, God—Glorified and Exalted—chooses not to answer with words,
but to turn the questioner himself into a living experiment of the answer.
1. The first scene: the desolate village… and the voice of the question
The Qur’an paints the scene with striking eloquence:
“While it lay fallen upon its roofs.”
Its ceilings had collapsed, its walls crumbled, its people dispersed, and it had become nothing more than a trace after existence.
It was the death of civilisation,
the death of humanity,
the death of memories.
Yet before this devastation, the man did not say, “This is impossible,”
nor did he say, “This can never return.”
Instead, with sincere honesty, he asked:
“How will Allah bring this to life after its death?”
This question was not denial,
but a desire to understand the how.
It resembles Abraham’s question:
“My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead.”
But the difference lies in the response:
Abraham was answered in one way,
and this man was answered through a complete lived experience.
2. The divine answer: not with words… but with death
Allah says:
“So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years, then revived him.”
This immense transition—from life to death, and from death to life—is itself the miracle:
- He did not fall ill
- Death did not approach gradually
- It came suddenly
- And a full hundred years passed without him sensing their passage
Allah did not wish to show him how others are resurrected,
but how he himself is resurrected.
It is teaching through experience, not theory.
3. Resurrection: the first lesson in divine time
After a hundred years, Allah revived him.
He was asked:
“How long have you remained?”
He replied:
“I have remained a day or part of a day.”
What had thundered through history passed over him like a fleeting glance.
Thus the Qur’an declares:
Time is a creation,
and Allah turns it as He wills.
What you think long may be short with God,
and what you think impossible may be near.
This echoes the words of the Companions of the Cave, who said,
“We remained a day or part of a day,”
after three hundred years.
Time is not the measure of power—
it is part of its dominion.
4. The first proof: food and drink untouched by time
Allah says:
“Look at your food and drink—they have not changed.”
They did not spoil,
did not decay,
did not alter.
They remained as they were,
as though a hundred years had never passed.
This is the first proof:
God’s power to suspend time over whatever He wills.
Had the food decayed, one might say,
Nature, years, corruption—these are causes.
But God halted the causes themselves.
5. The second proof: the donkey that did change
Allah then says:
“And look at your donkey.”
The donkey that had accompanied him had died,
its bones disintegrated,
leaving nothing but a scattered, weathered skeleton.
Why was it not preserved as the food was?
So that he might witness the difference between two forms of divine power:
- The power to preserve
- And the power to restore
The first appeared in the food,
the second would appear in the donkey.
Together they reveal that God creates, preserves, causes to perish, and restores.
6. The third proof: re-creation before his very eyes
Then comes the most awe-inspiring moment:
“And We will make you a sign for the people.”
That is, a living witness to the power of resurrection.
Allah says:
“And look at the bones—how We raise them, then clothe them with flesh.”
A scene unparalleled in history:
- Bones gather
- They rise
- They take shape
- Flesh covers them
- The donkey stands upon its feet
- Then walks
It is resurrection by sight,
not by hearing;
by witnessing,
not by inference.
And thus the question is answered:
How does Allah give life after death?
Not with words,
but with action.
7. The heart-shaking conclusion: “Know that Allah is over all things capable”
Allah says:
“And when it became clear to him, he said: I know that Allah is capable of all things.”
This is not a mere statement,
but the birth announcement of a new certainty—
a certainty built upon direct vision,
not hearsay,
not assumption,
not imitation.
The lesson of the entire journey is this:
God opens doors when place and time close in upon you.
He is able to turn death into a gateway to life,
the unseen into visible reality,
and the impossible into what is.
8. The place of this ninth essay in the philosophy of the series
In earlier essays, we saw:
- Moses finding relief in exile
- The sea parting for Moses
- Zamzam gushing forth for Hagar
- The impossible born to Abraham and Sarah
- A child granted to Zechariah
- Jonah emerging from the belly of the whale
- Fire becoming coolness and peace for Abraham
In this essay, we move beyond relief—
to resurrection before the very eyes.
It is the highest level of the impossible,
and the loftiest degree of tranquillity.
9. What does this scene say to the modern heart?
It says:
- If you see life in ruins—remember the desolate village.
- If despair fills the cities—remember a hundred years of death.
- If the parts of your life fall apart—remember the bones God gathered.
- If hope dies—remember the donkey that walked again.
- And if you ask “How?”—know that the answer is not always words. Sometimes it is an act God shapes in your heart, your reality, or your future.
Conclusion of the ninth essay
This Qur’anic scene is not merely a story;
it is an open workshop of faith.
From it, the heart learns how to see things as they are with God, not with people;
how to understand that time does not limit power;
that death does not close the door of mercy;
and that a sincere question may be answered in a way that transforms the questioner’s life forever.
God does not merely change reality—
He changes the very laws of existence whenever He wills.
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