تخيّل أنك نمتَ ثم استيقظت، فوجدت طعامك كما تركته لم يتغيّر، لكن الذي كان واقفًا بجوارك صار عظامًا بالية. فكم نمتَ إذًا؟ يومًا؟ في قصة اليوم رجلٌ عاش هذا بالضبط، وكان الجواب: مئة عام.
مرّ رجل صالح على قرية خَرِبة، ﴿وَهِيَ خَاوِيَةٌ عَلَىٰ عُرُوشِهَا﴾ — أي سقطت سقوفها على جدرانها، ولم يبقَ فيها أحد. وكان معه حماره وطعامه وشرابه. ووقف ينظر إلى هذا الخراب كله، فخطر بباله سؤال. ولم يكن سؤال إنكار، بل سؤال من رأى بعينه شيئًا يصعب أن يتخيّل عودته.
قال: ﴿أَنَّىٰ يُحْيِي هَٰذِهِ اللَّهُ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا﴾ — أي كيف يعيد الله الحياة إلى هذه القرية بعد أن خربت؟ ولم يجبه الله بكلام يسمعه. ﴿فَأَمَاتَهُ اللَّهُ مِائَةَ عَامٍ ثُمَّ بَعَثَهُ﴾. مئة عام كاملة. ثم أحياه وسأله: ﴿كَمْ لَبِثْتَ﴾؟ فقال: ﴿لَبِثْتُ يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ﴾. فقيل له: ﴿بَل لَّبِثْتَ مِائَةَ عَامٍ﴾.
ثم جاءت العلامات واحدة بعد واحدة. ﴿فَانظُرْ إِلَىٰ طَعَامِكَ وَشَرَابِكَ لَمْ يَتَسَنَّهْ﴾ — طعامٌ مرّت عليه مئة عام ولم يفسد. ﴿وَانظُرْ إِلَىٰ حِمَارِكَ﴾ — والحمار عظام بالية. ثم: ﴿وَانظُرْ إِلَى الْعِظَامِ كَيْفَ نُنشِزُهَا ثُمَّ نَكْسُوهَا لَحْمًا﴾ — فرأى بعينيه العظامَ تجتمع ويُركَّب بعضها إلى بعض، ثم يُكسى عليها اللحم، حتى قام الحمار حيًّا أمامه. سأل عن إحياء قرية، فأراه الله الإحياء في أقرب شيء إليه.
﴿فَلَمَّا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ قَالَ أَعْلَمُ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ﴾. لم يعد الأمر عنده خبرًا سمعه؛ صار شيئًا رآه. وقد قال الله له قبل ذلك: ﴿وَلِنَجْعَلَكَ آيَةً لِّلنَّاسِ﴾ — أي إن هذا الرجل نفسه صار علامة، يحكي الناس قصته من بعده إلى اليوم. وأنت الآن واحد من هؤلاء الناس.
يقول الله تعالى في القرآن الكريم: {وَانْظُرْ إِلَى حِمَارِكَ وَلِنَجْعَلَكَ آيَةً لِلنَّاسِ وَانْظُرْ إِلَى الْعِظَامِ كَيْفَ نُنْشِزُهَا ثُمَّ نَكْسُوهَا لَحْمًا}. أي انظر كيف نجمع العظام ونغطيها باللحم ليعود الحمار حياً.
الذي يُحيي العظام بعد مئة عام قادرٌ على كل شيء.
رأى الرجل الجواب بعينيه، ونحن لم نره. ما الذي يجعلك تصدّق بشيء لم ترَه؟ وما أكبر شيء تؤمن به ولم ترَه قطّ؟
انظر اليوم إلى شيء حيّ صغير — نبتة أو عصفور — وقل في نفسك: الذي أحيا هذا قادرٌ أن يحييني بعد موتي.
القرآن الكريم، سورة البقرة: 259 — والآية لا تسمّي الرجل
القصة كلها بنص الآية: الإماتة مائة عام، والطعام الذي لم يتسنّه، والحمار الذي أُعيد. لكن الآية تقول ﴿أَوْ كَالَّذِي مَرَّ عَلَىٰ قَرْيَةٍ﴾ ولم تسمِّه، وتسميته عزيراً قول للمفسرين لا يثبت، ولذلك تبقى القصة بهذه العلامة: الآية ثابتة، والاسم ليس فيها.
Imagine sleeping, then waking to find your food exactly as you left it, unchanged — but the one who had been standing beside you is now worn bones. So how long did you sleep? A day? In today's story a man lived exactly this, and the answer was: a hundred years.
A righteous man passed by a ruined town, {and it had fallen into ruin upon its roofs} — its roofs had collapsed onto its walls and no one was left in it. With him were his donkey, his food and his drink. He stood looking at all that ruin, and a question came to him. It was not a question of denial; it was the question of someone who has seen with his own eyes something hard to imagine coming back.
He said: {How will Allah bring this to life after its death?} — how will Allah restore this town after it has fallen? And Allah did not answer him with words he could hear. {So Allah caused him to die for a hundred years; then He revived him.} A hundred full years. Then He brought him back and asked: {How long have you remained?} He said: {I have remained a day or part of a day.} He was told: {Rather, you have remained a hundred years.}
Then the signs came, one after another. {Look at your food and your drink; it has not changed with time} — food a hundred years old that had not spoiled. {And look at your donkey} — and the donkey was worn bones. Then: {And look at the bones — how We raise them and then We cover them with flesh.} He watched with his own eyes as the bones gathered and were joined together and covered with flesh, until the donkey stood alive in front of him. He had asked about reviving a town, and Allah showed him reviving in the nearest thing to him.
{And when it became clear to him, he said, I know that Allah is over all things competent.} It was no longer something he had heard; it was something he had seen. And Allah had said to him before that: {And that We may make you a sign for the people} — this man himself became a sign, his story told by people after him until today. And you are now one of those people.
The One who brings bones to life after a hundred years is able to do anything.
The man saw the answer with his own eyes, and we have not. What makes you believe in something you have not seen? And what is the biggest thing you believe in without ever having seen it?
Look at one small living thing today — a plant, a bird — and say to yourself: the One who gave this life is able to give me life after my death.
The Quran, Surah Al-Baqarah: 259 — the verse does not name the man
The whole account is in the verse: the hundred years, the food that did not spoil, the donkey restored. But the verse says only one who passed by a town and does not name him; calling him Uzair is a commentators' opinion, not established. That is why the mark stays: the verse is certain, the name is not in it.