Story of the Man of the Ruined Town and Ibrahim's Four Birds

Both accounts come one after the other in Surah al-Baqarah, Quran 2:259-260. They are signs that Allah can bring back to life what has died, which is the same power that will raise people on the Day of Resurrection.

The two stories are different, and it helps to keep them apart. In the first, a man is shown a sign without having asked for one. In the second, Ibrahim عليه السلام asks to see how Allah does it.

The meaning of Quran 2:259 is that a man passed by a town that had fallen in ruins, and he said, "How will Allah bring this to life after its death?" Allah then caused him to die for a hundred years and revived him.

Allah asked him how long he had stayed. He said a day or part of a day. Allah told him that he had stayed a hundred years, and invited him to look at three things:

• His food and drink, which had not changed with time.
• His donkey, whose bones he was told to look at.
• The bones themselves, and how Allah raises them and then covers them with flesh.

The verse says Allah made the man a sign for the people. When it became clear to him, he said: "I know that Allah is over all things competent." Commentators generally understand his words as wonder at how such a place could live again, and Allah answered by showing him with his own eyes.

In Quran 2:260, Ibrahim said: "My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead." Allah asked him, "Have you not believed?" He said, "Yes, but only that my heart may be satisfied." His question was about how it happens, and it did not come from a lack of belief.

Allah told him to take four birds and to keep them close to himself. Then he was to put a part of them on each hill and call them, and they would come to him hurrying. Allah ended by reminding him: "And know that Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise."

The verse does not say which birds they were or how many hills were meant. Scholars have mentioned different explanations of the details of how the birds were prepared, but the point of the verse is the response: they came to him when he called.

It is reported from Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ said, "We are more worthy of doubt than Ibrahim," when he said, "My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead." This is in Sahih al-Bukhari (3372 and, with the word "doubt", 4537) and in Sahih Muslim (151).

Scholars explain that the Prophet ﷺ was speaking with humility and that the sentence rules out doubt in Ibrahim. The meaning is that if doubt were possible for anyone, we would be more deserving of it than Ibrahim, and since we do not doubt, then Ibrahim certainly did not. His request was to see with his eyes what he already believed with certainty, so that his heart would be at rest. This is also what the verse itself says.

The Quran does not name the man who passed by the town, and it does not name the town. It does not say whether he was a prophet. Some commentators have suggested names for him and for the town, but these come from commentary and are not in the verses or in an authentic hadith, so we leave him unnamed as the Quran does.

It also does not say where Ibrahim made his request or which birds he took. The lesson does not depend on any of these details.

• Allah has power over life and death. What looks lost, whether a ruined town or a body returned to dust, is not beyond Him.
• Our sense of time is limited. The man thought he had stayed a day or part of a day, and Allah told him it was a hundred years.
• It is not wrong to ask Allah to strengthen the heart. Ibrahim's request shows that certainty can grow even in someone who already believes.
• A believer asks respectfully. Ibrahim said, "My Lord," and Allah answered him and showed him what he asked to see.
• The Prophet ﷺ spoke with humility about himself and his followers, and in doing so made it clear that doubt was far from Ibrahim.