'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (or (bethink thee) the like of him who, passing by a township) he says: do you not know about 'uzayr ibn shurahya who passed by the township of dayr hiraql (which had fallen into utter ruin, exclaimed: how shall allah give this township life after its death) how can allah bring the people of this township back to life after their death? (so allah made him die) right on the spot (a hundred years, then brought him back to life) at the end of the day. (he) allah (said: how long hast thou tarried) o 'uzayr? (he said: i have tarried for a day) and then looked at the sun still in the horizon and said (or part of a day. he) allah (said: nay, but thou hast tarried) you were dead (for a hundred years. just look at thy food) figs and grapes (and drink) juice (which have not rotted! look at thine ass!) look at the bones of your ass how white they look! (and, that we may make thee a token) a sign (to mankind) regarding the matter of bringing the dead to life, that they will be resurrected in the same state they died in, because 'uzayr died young and was brought back to life as a young person. it is said that allah made him a lesson for people, for he died when he was 40 years old and was brought back to life when his son was 120 years old, (look at the bones) the bones of your ass, (how we adjust them and then cover them with flesh!) after this. he then said: we will make grow on it nerves and veins, flesh, skin and hair and put the spirit in it. (and when (the matter) became clear unto him) how allah gathers the bones, (he said: i know) i had known (that allah is able to do all things) of life and death.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : or, did you see, such as he, ezra (‘uzayr), who (the kāf of ka’lladhī, ‘such as he who’, is extra) passed by a city, namely, the holy house [sc. jerusalem], riding on an ass and carrying with him a basket of figs and a cup of juice, [a city] that was fallen down, collapsed, upon its turrets, its roof tops: after nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it; he said, ‘how (annā means kayfa, ‘how’) shall god give life to this now that it is dead?’, challenging the power of the exalted one, so god made him die, and remain dead for, a hundred years, then he raised him up, brought him back to life to show him how this could be done; he, god, said, ‘how long have you tarried?’, been here?; he said, ‘i have tarried a day, or part of a day’, because he fell asleep before noon, and was made dead and then brought back to life again at sunset, and thus he thought it was a day’s sleep; he said, ‘nay; you have tarried a hundred years. look at your food, the figs, and drink, the cup of juice, it has not spoiled, despite the length of time (the final hā’ of yatasannah, ‘to spoil’, is said to belong to the original root, s-n-h; but it is also said to be silent, in which case the root would be s-n-y; a variant reading omits the final hā’); and look at your ass, how it is, and he saw that it had died, and all that remained were its withered white bones. we did this so that you would know and, so that we would make you a sign, of [the truth of] the resurrection, for the people. and look at the bones, of the ass, how we shall set them up, how we shall raise them back to life (nunshiruhā, or nanshiruhā, derived from the two expressions, nashara and anshara; a variant reading has nunshizuhā, meaning ‘how we shall move it and make it stand’); and then clothe them with flesh’, and when he looked at it, he saw that [the bones] had been reconstituted and clothed with flesh, and that the spirit had been breathed into it, making it bray. so, when it was made clear to him, as a result of witnessing it, he said, ‘i know (a variant reading for a‘lam, ‘i know’, has [the imperative] i‘lam, ‘know!’, thus making it a command from god), with the knowledge of direct vision, that god has power over all things’.
