The Qur'an, in its second chapter, Al-Baqara,, mentions a parable, concerning a man who passed by a hamlet in ruins, and asked himself how God will be able to resurrect the dead on the Day of Judgement. This parable has been one of the most popular in tradition and although Muslims do indeed believe this story to have been a real historical event, the identity of the man involved is unknown and is unimportant in the narrative. The incident is identified by Abdullah Yusuf Ali with a number of Biblical events. One identification is Ezekiel's vision of dry bones. Another is Nehemiah's visit to Jerusalem in ruins after the Captivity and to Ezra, the scribe, priest and reformer, about whom many similar tales have come down in Jewish tradition over time. However, all scholars of Islam agree that the identity of the man is least important as the tale is given in the Qur'an as a parable.
Narrative
The Qur'an narrates in that a man passed by a hamlet in ruins, where the people who lived there had died generations earlier, and then asked himself how God will be able to resurrect the dead on the Day of Judgment. The Qur'an goes on to say that God subsequently caused the man to die for a hundred years, and then raised him to life again. God then asked the man how long he felt he had "tarried thus", to which the man replied perhaps one day or part of day, at which point he was told the truth. On the other hand, the food and the drink the man had with him were intact, and both were as fresh as it when he had left them, showing that God has power over all things and controls time for all things. The man's donkey, however, was not only dead but was reduced to pure skeletal form. And then, by God's power, the bones joined right in front of his eyes, and the body clothed itself in muscles, flesh and blood, resulting in the donkey coming back to life. The Qur'anic verse reads:
Moral
This parable is used to teach various lessons. Firstly, it represents that time is nothing to God, who has power over time. Secondly, it teaches that the keys of life, death and resurrection are in God's control only, and that man has no power over the three. Finally, like most Qur'anic parables, it illustrates that man's power is nothing, and that his utmost faith should rest in God and God only.
