Prophet Ezra, known as Uzair, was a saintly and wise man whose story became a powerful sign for the Israelites.
Ezra Sleeps for a Hundred Years
Ishaaq Ibn Bishr reported, on the authority of Ibn Abbas and others, that one day Ezra set out for his own farm, as he usually did. Around noon he came upon a deserted, ruined town and, feeling the heat, dismounted his donkey and went to rest in the shade of a khaiba tree, eating figs and grapes from his basket. Afterward he got up to walk through the ruins and saw scattered bones from people who had long since perished. Looking at them, he wondered aloud, "Oh, how will Allah ever bring this back to life after its death?" (Ch 2:259). He said this not out of doubt, but out of genuine curiosity.
At that moment, Allah sent the Angel of Death to take Ezra's life, and he remained dead for a hundred years.
After this century had passed, and much had changed among the Israelites, Allah sent an angel to bring Ezra's heart and eyes back to life, so that he might witness for himself how Allah revives the dead. The angel asked him how long he had slept, and Ezra answered that he thought it had been a day, or part of a day, since he remembered falling asleep in the early afternoon and now it seemed to be late afternoon again. The angel told him that he had in fact slept for a hundred years. Ezra then ate and drank from the food he had prepared before falling asleep, and the angel also brought his donkey back to life before his eyes.
Allah says in the Qur'an: "And look at your donkey. Thus We have made of you a sign for the people. Look at the bones, how We bring them together and clothe them with flesh." When this was made clear to him, Ezra said, "I know now that Allah is able to do all things." (Ch 2:259)
Ezra Returns Home
Ezra then rode his donkey back to his hometown, but no one recognized him, not even his own family, except for an elderly woman who had once been his maid. He asked her whether this was the house of Ezra, and she told him it was, though the people had long since forgotten him. He told her that he was Ezra, and that Allah had taken his life for a hundred years and had now restored it to him. She replied that Ezra used to have his prayers answered by Allah, and asked him to pray for her blindness to be cured if he truly was Ezra. He prayed for her, gently touched her eyes, and took her by the hand, saying, "Get up, by the power of Allah." The old woman, who had also been unable to walk, rose to her feet, her sight restored. She declared that she now bore witness that he truly was Ezra.
Ezra Finds and Copies the Torah
She hurried to the assembly of the Israelites to share the news. By this time, Ezra's own son was a hundred and eighteen years old, and his grandchildren had become leaders among the people. She called out to them that Ezra had returned, but they did not believe her at first. She insisted, reminding them that she was their old maid, and that Ezra had just healed her blindness through his prayer, proof that stood before them since she could now see and walk. The people gathered around Ezra to examine him. His son recalled that his father had a distinctive black mole between his shoulders, and when they checked, they found it there, confirming his identity.
The people then explained that no one among them had memorized the Torah since Nebuchadnezzar had burned it, except for Ezra. Only one copy had survived, hidden away by a man named Sarukha during the time of Nebuchadnezzar, buried in a location known only to Ezra. Ezra led the people to this hidden spot and retrieved the copy, though by then its pages had rotted and the book itself had crumbled with age.
Ezra then sat beneath a tree, surrounded by the children of Israel, and rewrote the entire Torah for them from memory, using the ruined script as his guide. It was because of these two remarkable events, his prayer that came from heaven and his complete restoration of the Torah, along with his lifelong dedication to the cause of the Israelites, that some among the Jews later claimed Ezra was the son of Allah. Before all this, he had also spent time copying the Torah for Ezekiel while in seclusion in Ezekiel's hermitage in a place of darkness. The ruined town where Ezra had fallen asleep is said to have been called Sayrabadh.
Ibn Abbas explained that this was the meaning of Allah's words, "We have made of you a sign for the people" (Ch 2:259), a sign specifically for the Israelites, since Ezra sat among his own descendants and the elders of his community while still appearing as a young man himself. He had died at the age of forty, and Allah resurrected him at that very same age on the day his life was restored.