*Hazrat Uzair, peace be upon him*[Ezra]

Hazrat Abdullah bin Salam said that the person whom Allah the Exalted brought back to life after 100 years was Hazrat Uzair.

It is narrated from Hazrat Wahb bin Munabbih that he was a wise man. One day he went to his fields to look after them. On his return, he was passing by a ruin and entered it to escape the midday heat. He dismounted from his donkey. He had figs in one basket and grapes in another. He sat in the shade of a deserted building, took his cup, squeezed grapes into it to extract the juice, then took the dry bread he had and put it in the juice so it would soften and he could eat it. Then he leaned against the wall and lay down.

His gaze fell on the roof. He saw that the roof was still standing, but beneath it there were only decayed bones of those who had once lived there. He said, _“How will Allah bring it back to life after its death?”_ He said this not out of doubt, but out of wonder.

Allah the Exalted sent the Angel of Death, who took his soul, and he remained dead for 100 years. During that period, the Children of Israel experienced various events.

When 100 years had passed, Allah the Exalted sent an angel to Hazrat Uzair. The angel created his heart so he could understand, and created his eyes so he could see and understand how Allah brings the dead to life. Then, while he watched, his blessed body was completed — flesh, skin, and hair formed over the bones. Then the soul was breathed into the body, and he was seeing and understanding all of it.

When he sat up, the angel asked him, _“How long have you remained here?”_

He rode his donkey and came to his neighborhood, but the people did not recognize him, nor did he see any familiar face. He could not even find his own house. While walking, he went in another direction. Finally he reached his house and saw there was a blind, disabled old woman sitting there, who was now 120 years old. She had been his maidservant. When he had left the house, she was 20 years old. He recognized her.

He said to her, _“O servant of Allah, is this the house of Uzair?”_ She said, _“Yes, this is the house of Uzair,”_ and began to weep. Then she said, _“For ages no one has even mentioned Uzair’s name. People have forgotten him.”_ He said, _“I am Uzair. Allah kept me dead for 100 years and then brought me back to life.”_

Hazrat Uzair’s father had hidden the Torah in a safe place during the time of Bukht Nasr. According to the well-known view, Uzair was a prophet of the Children of Israel, and his era was between Hazrat Dawud, Sulaiman, and Zakariya-Yahya.[Nebuchadnezzar]

No one among the Children of Israel remained who had memorized the Torah. So Allah taught it to him through inspiration and had him write it down again.

Ibn Asakir has reported a narration from Ibn Abbas that he asked Hazrat Abdullah bin Salam, _“Why did the Jews declare Uzair to be the son of Allah?”_ Hazrat Abdullah bin Salam narrated the incident of him writing the Torah from memory and said, _“The Children of Israel used to say that Hazrat Musa could not bring us a book without writing it down, while Uzair brought the Torah without a written copy. Therefore, some people called him the son of Allah.”_

For this reason, some scholars have said that the continuous transmission of the Torah was broken in Uzair’s time, and he restored it.