The 25 Prophets: (17) Uzayr (AS) (Ezra)

UZAYR (AS) (EZRA)

Years passed after the death of Suleiman (AS) and Bani Israiyl again started straying off from their religion. God then sent to these people, Prophet Uzayr (AS) so as to guide them and put them back again on the right track.

God instructed Uzayr (AS) to go to a certain town. When he went there he found that the town was deserted, like a ghost town. He was amazed to see that he had been sent to a town without people or any life for that matter, so he stood there looking and asking himself how God will ever bring this town to life again after its death.

God wanted to show him that nothing was impossible for Him, so made him die a hundred years and then raised him up again, and said to him: “How long did you tarry thus?”

He said: “Perhaps a day or part of a day.”

God said: “No, you have tarried thus a hundred years. Look at your food and your drink; they show no sign of age; and look at your donkey, and that we may make of you 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 God has power over all things.”

Actually Uzayr (AS) was asleep when his soul was taken away. And when he was asked how long he had stayed that way, he said that it was for a day or a part of a day. In actual fact he was dead for one hundred years, and when he came to life again he found his food and water which he left behind was intact, and as fresh as when he had left it. However, donkey was not only dead, but nothing but bones was left of it. And before his own eyes, the bones were reunited, clothed with flesh and blood, and restored to life. This is how God shows that He can bring back to life what was dead when He wishes.

When he woke up he found the town (which was dead) alive and bustling with life. He therefore asked the people of the town if they knew Uzayr; they replied him that Uzayr they knew had died over one hundred years ago. So he said: “But I am Uzayr!” They doubted him, but nevertheless they took him to a very old woman who was over hundred years old, who is said to have been his mother. They asked her if she knew Uzayr and to give them any identification marks that he might have had, so as to prove his identity. Therefore she gave them the marks and when they saw them, they then believed him to be Uzayr.

Uzayr (AS) thus started teaching them again the Tawraat, which was forsaken and forgotten. The people accepted him as their Prophet and exalted him to an extent that they said Uzayr (AS) was the Son of God; but God punished them for saying this.

Reference: The Twenty five Prophets (The Parable of the Apostles Mentioned in the Holy Quraan)", by Nassir ibn Issa ibn Said Al-Kindy. (p 140-141)