(And when Abraham said (unto his Lord): My Lord! Show me how Thou givest life to the dead…) [2:260]. The commentators of the Qur’an have mentioned the reason why Ibrahim asked his Lord to show him how He brings the dead back to life. Sa‘id ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ja‘far informed us> Shu‘bah ibn Muhammad> Makki ibn ‘Abdan> Abu’l-Azhar> Ruh> Sa‘id > Qatadah who said: “It was mentioned to us that Ibrahim passed by a corpse of a beast which was surrounded by beasts of the sea and of the land, and so he said: ‘O Allah! Show me how you bring the dead back to life!’ ” Also, al-Hasan, ‘Ata’ al-Khurasani, al-Dahhak and Ibn Jurayj said: “Ibrahim, Allah’s intimate friend, passed by a dead donkey lying on seashore (‘Ata’ said this was rather Tiberias lake). He saw the carrion surrounded by beasts of the water and of the land. When the water rose up, the fish and the beasts of the sea came forward and ate of it, and whatever fell of the carrion was swept away by water; and when the sea ebbed away, wild animals went forward and ate of it, and whatever fell of the carrion became dust. When the wild animals went away, birds came forward and ate of the carrion, and whatever fell from them, the wind scattered it away in the air. Ibrahim was amazed when he saw this. He said: ‘O Lord! I know very well that you will gather its parts, please show me how you bring it to life, so that I can see it with my own eyes’ ”. Said Ibn Zayd: “Ibrahim passed by a dead whale, half of which was in the sea and half in the land. The part which was in the sea was eaten up by the beasts of the sea while the part which was in the land was eaten up by the beasts of the land. Satan the evil one whispered to him: ‘How is Allah going to gather the different parts of this from the bellies of all these beasts?’ Ibrahim said: (My Lord! Show me how Thou givest life to the dead, He said: Dost thou not believe? Abraham said: Yea, but (I ask) in order that my heart may be at ease) by dispelling Satan’s whispering”.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou
