The story of Dhoul-Kifl

“And Ismaïl and Idris and Dhu al-Kifl: all of the patient: and We admitted them into Our mercy: they are of the righteous. “And remember Our servants Ibrahim: and Isaac: and Ya'qoub: possessors of hands: and eyes: We purified them with a pure purification: by the remembrance of the Home: and they are with Us: of the chosen: the best: and remember Ismaïl: and Élisha: and Dhu al-Kifl: and all of the best.

So the apparent of his mention in the Immense Quran: with praise of him: conjoined with these masters the prophets: is that he is a prophet: may the prayer and the peace from his Lord be upon him: and this is the famous: and others claimed he was not a prophet: but was a righteous man: and a just judge: an equitable one: and Ibn Jarir withheld judgment in that: and Allah knows better: and Ibn Jarir: and Ibn Abi Najih reported: that he was not a prophet: but was a righteous man: and he had pledged for the sons of his people: that he see to their affair: and judge between them with justice: so he did: so he was named Dhu al-Kifl: and Ibn Jarir: and Ibn Abi Hatim reported: by the way of Dawoud ibn Abi Hind: when Élisha grew old, he said: if only I appointed a man over the people: who works upon them: in my lifetime: until I see how he works: so he gathered the people: “who accepts for me three things: I appoint him: he fasts the day: and prays the night: and does not grow angry? So a man rose: whom the eye would disdain: “I. “You fast the day: and pray the night: and do not grow angry?

“Yes. So he returned them that day: and he said the like of it the next day: so the people fell silent: and that man rose: “I. So he appointed him: and Iblis began saying to the devils: “go after so-and-so”: so they wearied of that: “leave me: and him”: so he came to him: in the form of a great old poor sheikh: and came to him when he took his bed for the night: and he did not sleep night or day: except that nap: so he knocked at the door: “who is this?

“A great old oppressed sheikh”: so he rose: and opened the door: and began recounting to him: “there is between me: and my people a dispute: and they wronged me: and did to me: and did”: and he went on elaborating to him: until bedtime came: and the night went: “when I go: come to me: I will secure your right”: so he set off: and went: and he was in his session: and began looking: whether he saw the sheikh: and did not see him: so he rose: following him: when the next day came: he began judging between the people: and awaiting him: and not seeing him: and when he returned to the night: and took his bed, he came to him: and knocked at the door: “who is this? “The great old oppressed sheikh”: so he opened for him: “did I not say to you: when I sit: come to me?

“They are the most treacherous of peoples: we will give you your right: and when you stand: they deny me: so set off: and when you go: come to me”: so the night escaped him: and he went: and began waiting: and not seeing him: and the nap became hard for him: he said to some of his household: “do not let anyone approach this door: until I sleep: for sleep has become hard for me”: so when that hour came, he came: “forbidden: forbidden. “I came to him yesterday: and mentioned my affair to him. “No: by Allah: he commanded us: not to let anyone approach him”: so when they wearied him: he looked: and saw a hole in the house: and climbed by it: and behold, he was in the house: the man awoke: “O so-and-so: had I not commanded you? “As for me: by Allah: you were not served: so see: from where I was served?

So he went to the door: and it was locked: as he had locked it: and the man with him in the house: so he recognized him: “enemy of Allah? “Yes.

“You wearied me in everything: and I did what you see: to anger you”: so Allah named him Dhu al-Kifl: because he pledged for a matter: and fulfilled it: and Ibn Abi Hatim reported also: from Ibn Abbas: close to this context: and thus it was reported from Abdallah ibn al-Harith: and Muhammad ibn Qays: and Ibn Houjayra the greater: and others of the predecessors: the like of this: my father narrated to us: Abu al-Jamahir informed us: Sa'id ibn Bachir informed us: Qatada narrated to us: I heard al-Ach'ari: meaning Abu Moussa: “Dhu al-Kifl was not a prophet: but was a righteous man: who prayed every day: one hundred prayers: and Dhu al-Kifl pledged after him: to pray every day: one hundred prayers: so he was named Dhu al-Kifl”: and Ibn Jarir reported it: by the way of Abd ar-Razzaq: from Ma'mar: Abu Moussa al-Ach'ari said: and he mentioned it: cut off: Asbat ibn Muhammad narrated to us: al-A'mach narrated to us: from Abdallah ibn Abdallah: from Sa'd, client of Talha: I heard from the Messenger of Allah: a hadith: which had I heard it only once: or twice: until he counted seven times: “Kifl was of the children of Israël: who did not refrain from a sin he committed: so a woman came to him: and gave him sixty dinars: on condition he lie with her: and when he sat with her: in the sitting of a man with his wife: she trembled: and wept: so he said to her: what makes you weep:

have I forced you? “No: but this is a deed I never did: and it was need: that drove me to it. “Do you do this: and never did it? Then he descended: “go with the dinars: yours: and by Allah: Kifl will never disobey Allah”: so he died that night: and in the morning it was written upon his door: Allah has indeed forgiven Kifl: and at-Tirmidhi reported it: from the hadith of al-A'mach with it: and said: good: and mentioned that some reported it: suspending it on Ibn 'Oumar: and it is a very strange hadith: I know it only by one hadith: and Ibn Hibban deemed him trustworthy: and none reported from him except Abdallah ibn Abdallah ar-Razi, this one: and Allah knows better: and if he is preserved: he is not Dhu al-Kifl: but the wording of the hadith of the Prophet is without annexation: he is another man: other than the one mentioned in the noble Quran: and Allah knows better the correct.