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II, 260-263.
THE CHAPTER OF THE HEIFER.
41
and death.' Abraham said, “But verily, God brings the sun from the east, do thou then bring it from the west ?' And he who misbelieved was dumbfounded, for God does not guide unjust folk.
Or like him who passed by a village, when it was desolate and turned over on its roofs, and said, *How will God revive this after its death ?' And God made him die for a hundred years, then He raised him, and said, 'How long hast thou tarried ?' Said he, 'I have tarried a day, or some part of a day.' He said, “Nay, thou hast tarried a hundred years; look at thy food and drink, they are not spoiled, and look at thine ass; for we will make thee a sign to men. And look at the bones how we scatter them and then clothe them with flesh. And when it was made manifest to him, he said, 'I know that God is mighty over all.'
And when Abraham said, 'Lord, show me how thou wilt revive the dead,' He said, 'What, dost thou not yet believe ?' Said he, Yea, but that my heart may be quieted. He said, “Then take four birds, and take them close to thyself; then put a part of them on every mountain; then call them, and they will come to thee in haste; and know that God is mighty, wise ?
The likeness of those who expend their wealth in God's way is as the likeness of a grain that grows to seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains, for God will double unto whom He pleases; for God both embraces and knows.
According to the Arabic commentators, 'Huzair (Esdras) ibn Sara'hyâ or Al 'Hiąr (Elias) is the person alluded to; and the
village' Jerusalem after its destruction by Ba'htnazr, Nebuchadnezzar. The legend probably refers to Nehemiah ii. 13.
Cf. Genesis xv. 9.
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