2/259 — The man who waited a hundred years
"…He left him dead a hundred years, then raised him. He said, 'How long have you stayed?' He said, 'A day, or part of a day.' He said, 'No, you have stayed a hundred years. Look at your food and your drink, they have not spoiled; and look at your donkey…'"
| Stage | What is shown |
|---|---|
| The food | Unspoiled — as though no time had passed |
| The donkey | Its bones remaining — time has passed completely |
| The man himself | On waking he supposes a day has passed |
The same hundred years has left three different traces in three different beings. I record this as an observation: the verse takes as its subject not time itself but the measurability of time's effect.
كَيْفَ نُنشِزُهَا ثُمَّ نَكْسُوهَا لَحْمًا — inshāz: to raise and set in place, to lay one upon another. Kiswa — to clothe. The picture of the bones being "clothed" with flesh is used.
A note on a variant reading: it is also transmitted that the word is read nunshiruhā (We spread them out and give them life). The difference between the two readings is between raising and giving life.
قَالَ أَعْلَمُ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ — the one who asked speaks after he has seen. And what he says is the language not of a confession but of a piece of knowledge.