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The story of Prophets of the Children of Israel after Dawud and Sulayman in the Quran and the Islamic tradition: verses, hadiths and the views of the exegetes, faithfully translated from Arabic.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 2:40 PM
This chapter relates the story of a group of prophets of the Children of Israel who lived after Dawud and Sulayman (peace be upon them) and before Zakariyya and Yahya (peace be upon them).
Among them was Chî'ya ibn Amtsiya (Isaiah). He lived before Zakariyya and Yahya, and he was among those who announced the coming of Issa and Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). In his time a king named Sadiqa reigned over the Children of Israel in the land of Bayt al-Maqdis, an obedient listener to Chî'ya in all that the prophet commanded and forbade him of public welfare. Then trials grew great among the Children of Israel: the king fell ill and an ulcer broke out on his foot, while the king of Babylon, Sanharib, marched in those days upon Bayt al-Maqdis. Ibn Ishaq relates that he advanced with six hundred thousand banners.
The people were seized with great panic and asked Chî'ya: what has Allah revealed to you concerning Sanharib and his troops? He replied: nothing has been revealed to me concerning them as yet. Then revelation came down upon him with the command to King Sadiqa to settle his final wishes and appoint whom he wished over his kingdom, for his term was near. When the prophet told him, the king turned to the qibla, prayed, glorified Allah, supplicated and wept.
He said, weeping and humbling himself before Allah: « O Allah, Lord of lords and God of gods, O Most Merciful, O Bestower of Mercy, O You whom neither drowsiness nor sleep seizes, remember me through Your knowledge, my deed and Your good judgment over the Children of Israel: all of it is from You, and You know it better than my own soul, my secret and what I display. » Allah answered him and had mercy on him: He revealed to Chî'ya to give him the good news that Allah had been moved by his weeping, that He had deferred his term by fifteen years and would deliver him from his enemy Sanharib. When the prophet told him this, the pain left him, and evil and sorrow came to an end. The king then said: « O Allah, it is You who give sovereignty to whom You will and take it away from whom You will, who honor whom You will and abase whom You will, Knower of the unseen and the seen, You are the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, You show mercy and You answer the call of the distressed.
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When he raised his head, Allah revealed to Chî'ya to command him to take the water of figs and apply it to his ulcer, that he might be healed and rise in good health. The king did so and was healed. Allah then sent death upon the army of Sanharib: by morning they had all perished except Sanharib and five of his companions, among them Bukht Nassar. The king of the Children of Israel had them brought, put them in chains and paraded them through the lands as chastisement and humiliation for seventy days, giving each of them daily two loaves of barley, then committed them to prison. Allah the Most High revealed to Chî'ya to order the king to send them back to their land, so that they might warn their people of what had befallen them. When they returned, Sanharib gathered his people and told them what had happened to them: « We informed you of the matter of your Lord and His prophets and you did not obey us: it is a people that no one can overcome against their Lord. » Sanharib died seven years later.
Ibn Ishaq relates further: at the death of Sadiqa, king of the Children of Israel, their affairs scattered, their trials mingled and their evil multiplied. Allah the Most High revealed to Chî'ya: he stood up among them, exhorted them, reminded them, made known to them what Allah deserves, and warned them of His grievous punishment should they contravene and deny. When he finished his speech, they fell upon him to kill him. He fled from them; passing by a tree, it opened and he entered it. The devil caught up with him, seized the hem of his garment and brought it out. When they saw that, they brought a saw, set it upon the tree and sawed it with him inside. To Allah we belong and to Him is the return.
Among them as well: Armiya ibn Halqiya (Jeremiah), of the descendants of Lawi (Levi) son of Ya'qub. It was claimed that he was al-Khidr, related by ad-Dahhak from Ibn Abbas: it is a strange report that is not authentic.
It is related in some athars that he stopped at the blood of Yahya ibn Zakariya as it bubbled up in Damascus and said: « O blood, the people tire of you, be still. » The blood subsided, swirled and then vanished. Abu Bakr Ibn Abi ad-Dunya said: Ali ibn Abi Maryam narrated to me, from Ahmad ibn Habab, from Abdallah ibn Abd ar-Rahman: Armiya said: « My Lord, which of Your servants is most beloved to You? » It was said: « The one who remembers Me most, those who occupy themselves with My remembrance to the neglect of the remembrance of creatures, those against whom the temptations of wealth do not pass, who do not flatter themselves with lasting life, those who, when the life of this world presents itself to them, diminish it, and who, when it is turned away from them, rejoice at that. It is they upon whom I bestow My love, and I give them beyond their limits. »
Allah the Most High says in His clear Book:
« And We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Book: you will sow corruption on the earth twice and you will rise to great loftiness. So when the first of the two promises comes, We will raise against you servants of Ours possessed of great might: they will go through the dwellings, and it will be a promise fulfilled. Then We will give you back victory over them and reinforce you with wealth and children, and make you more numerous. If you do good, you do it for yourselves; and if you do evil, it is for yourselves likewise.
So when the promise of the latter comes, it will be to sadden your faces, to enter the mosque as they entered it the first time, and to destroy utterly what they take hold of. It may be that your Lord will have mercy on you. And if you return, We return, and We have made Hell a enclosure for the disbelievers. »
Surat al-Isra, 4-8
Allah revealed to a prophet of the Children of Israel called Armiya, when the acts of disobedience appeared among them: « Rise in the midst of your people and inform them that they have hearts but do not understand, eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear. I have recalled the righteousness of their fathers and it inclined Me toward their sons. How have they found the fullness of My obedience? And has any wretch ever found happiness through My disobedience?
And has any wretch ever been wretched through My obedience? Beasts remember their habitats and turn to them, while this people abandoned the way by which I honored their fathers and sought nobility by other than its path. Their scholars denied My truth, their readers worshipped other than Me, their monks did not profit from what they knew, their rulers lied about Me and about My messengers, hiding deceit in their hearts and accustoming their tongues to lying. I swear by My majesty and My might that I will rouse against them fierce horses whose tongue they will not understand and whose faces they will not recognize, that will have no pity for their weeping, and I will raise up among them a tyrannical, harsh king, whose armies will be like slices of cloud and whose columns like overflowing rivers; the beating of his banners will be like the flight of eagles, the charge of his cavalry like the swoop of falcons, turning prosperity into ruins and leaving villages desolate.
Woe to Iliya and its inhabitants: how I will expose them to slaughter, set the wild beasts upon them, replace after the din of weddings the cries of grief, after the neighing of horses the howling of wolves, after the dwellings of palaces the dens of beasts, after the light of lamps and the fragrance of incense the dust, honor by abasement, felicity by servitude. I will replace their women, after perfume, with the earth, and walking upon carpets with trials. I will make their bodies rubble for the earth and their bones exposed to the sun, and I will crush them with all kinds of punishment. Then I will command the sky to be a layer of iron and the earth to be molten copper: if it rains, the earth will not sprout, and if anything sprouts in that time, it will be by My mercy for the beasts.
Then I will withhold it in the season of sowing and release it in the season of harvest: if they sow anything in that time, I will let loose upon it the blight. If anything escapes it, I will strip it of blessing: if they call upon Me, I will not answer them; if they ask, I will not give them; if they weep, I will not show them mercy; if they humble themselves, I will turn My face away from them. » Related by Ibn Asakir with these words.
Armiya related: when Allah the Most High willed to take vengeance upon the Children of Israel, when trials had grown great among them, they had taken to disobedience and killed the prophets, Bukht Nassar coveted their land, Allah cast the resolve to march upon them into his heart, and he resolved to set out. Allah revealed to Armiya: « I destroy the Children of Israel and take vengeance upon them: go up on the rock of Bayt al-Maqdis; My command and My revelation will come to you. » Armiya stood up, rent his garments, put ashes on his head and said: « My Lord, I wish my mother had not borne me, when You made me the last of the prophets of the Children of Israel, so that the ruin of Bayt al-Maqdis and the loss of the Children of Israel would pass through me. » It was said: « Lift your head.
» He lifted his head and wept: « My Lord, upon whom will You raise them? » It was said: « Upon fire-worshippers, who fear not My punishment and hope not for My reward. » « Rise, O Armiya, and listen to My revelation: I inform you of your story and of the story of the Children of Israel. Before I created you, I chose you; before I formed you in your mother's womb, I sanctified you; before I brought you out of your mother's belly, I purified you; before you reached prophethood, I gave you wisdom; before you attained the age of strength, I chose you for a great matter.
Rise then with the king: you will set him straight and guide him. » Armiya remained with the king, guiding and setting him straight, and revelation came to him from Allah, until the trials grew great and they forgot that by which Allah had saved them from their enemy Sanharib and his troops. Allah revealed to Armiya: « Rise, recount to them what I command you, remind them of My grace upon them and inform them of their affairs. » He said: « My Lord, I am weak if You do not strengthen me, incapable if You do not secure my delivery, at fault if You do not set me straight, forsaken if You do not aid me, abased if You do not honor me.
» It was said: « Do you not know that all matters proceed from My will, that creation and command belong to Me entirely, that hearts and tongues are all in My hand: I turn them as I will and they obey Me? I am Allah, nothing is like Me: the heavens and the earth and all they contain stand by My word. Tawhid is safeguarded and power completed only through Me; none knows what is with Me but I. It is I who spoke to the seas: they understood My word; I commanded them: they carried out My command; I fixed for them limits they do not transgress; they come with waves like mountains and, when they reach My limit, I clothe them in humility for My obedience, in fear and acknowledgment of My command.
I am with you, and nothing will reach you while I am with you. I have sent you to a great part of My creation, that you may convey My messages: you will earn the reward of whoever follows you, without anything of their reward being diminished; should you fall short of that, you will deserve the sin of the one you leave in blindness, without anything of their burden being increased. Go to your people and stand up among them: Allah has recalled to you the righteousness of your fathers, and for that He has preceded you with His grace, O children of the prophets. How did your fathers find the fullness of My obedience, and how have you found the fullness of My disobedience?
Has any wretch ever found happiness through My disobedience? Do we know anyone who obeyed Me and was wretched through his obedience? Beasts, when they remember their wholesome habitats, turn to them; and this people has grazed in the meadows of perdition, abandoned the way by which I honored their fathers and sought nobility by other than its path. Their scholars and their monks took My servants as lords to be venerated and judged by other than My Book, until they made them ignorant of My command, made them forget My remembrance and My sunna, and seduced them away from Me: My servants obeyed them through an obedience that belongs to Me alone, and thus they obey them in My disobedience.
Their kings and their emirs neglected My grace, felt secure from My cunning, and this world seduced them until they cast away My Book and forgot My covenant: they distort My Book and invent lies about My messengers, out of daring toward Me and trust in Me. Glory be to My majesty, the loftiness of My station and the greatness of My affair: is it fitting that I have a partner in My dominion? Is it fitting for a human being to be obeyed in My disobedience? Is it fitting for Me to create servants and make them lords apart from Me?
And have I ever authorized anyone obedience to another, when it belongs to Me alone? Their readers and their jurists study what they prefer, bow before kings, follow them in the innovations they introduce into My religion, obey them in My disobedience and honor for them covenants that break My covenant: they are ignorant of what they know, profiting nothing from what they know of My Book. The children of the prophets are subdued and deluded: they wade in with those who wade in, hope for victory like their fathers', and for the nobility with which I honored them, and claim that none is more deserving of it than they, without sincerity on their part or reflection. They do not remember the patience of their fathers, their striving in My command, until the seduced were seduced, how they gave themselves and poured out their blood, were patient and truthful, until My command was honored and My religion manifest.
I waited for this people in the hope that they would feel shame before Me and return: I pardoned and forgave them, multiplied them and prolonged their lives, excused them in the hope that they would remember, and all the while: I made the sky rain upon them, made the earth grow, clothed them in health, granted them victory over the enemy, and they only increased in rebellion and distance from Me. Until when will this be? Do they mock Me? Do they act insolently with Me?
Do they deceive Me? Do they dare against Me? I swear by My might that I will open up for them a trial in which the patient stumbles, in which the judgment of those of judgment goes astray and the wisdom of the wise. Then I will set over them a tyrant, harsh, violent and obstinate; I will clothe him in awe, strip tenderness and mercy from his heart, and I have sworn that a host dark as the blackest night will follow him: armies like slices of cloud and columns like rising dust; the rustle of his banners like the flight of eagles, the charge of his cavalry like the flight of falcons, turning prosperity into ruin and villages into wasteland, sowing corruption in the earth and destroying utterly what they seize, hard of heart, heedless, without tenderness, without mercy, without sight, without hearing.
They roam the markets with voices raised like the roar of lions, making skins shudder with their awe and minds wander at their sound, with tongues they do not understand and faces marked with the unseemly which they do not know. By My might, I will make their houses empty of My Books and My sanctuary, their assemblies empty of its narrations and lessons, their mosques empty of those who dwell and visit them, those who adorned their maintenance for other than Me, kept night vigil in them and worshipped to gain this world through religion, studied in them for other than religion and learned in them for other than deeds. I will replace their kings: honor with abasement, security with fear, wealth with poverty, felicity with hunger, long health and ease with every kind of trial, garments of brocade and silk with cloaks of wool and coarse cloth, goodly souls with the carcasses of the slain, the robes of crowns with iron collars, chains and shackles.
Then I will bring back, after the spacious palaces and well-fortified fortresses, the ruin, and after the well-built towers the dens of beasts, after the neighing of horses the howling of wolves, after the light of the lamp the smoke of the fire, after companionship desolation and arid wastes. I will replace their women: bracelets with leg-irons, necklaces of pearls and rubies with chains of iron, all kinds of perfumes and incense with drenching and dust, walking upon carpets with crossing the markets, rivers and pebbles into the night through the depths of the markets, chambers and curtains with the exposure of faces, markets and tresses, goodly souls with scorching winds. Then I will crush them with all kinds of punishment, to the point that were it to cling to whoever of them lived at that time, it would reach even him. I honor only the one who honors Me, and I abase the one who holds My command cheap.
Then I will command the sky in that time to be a layer of iron, and I will command the earth to be molten copper: no sky to rain nor earth to sprout. If anything falls in that time, I will let loose upon them the blight, and if anything escapes it, I will strip it of blessing: if they call upon Me, I will not answer them; if they ask Me, I will not give them; if they weep, I will not show them mercy; if they humble themselves to Me, I will turn My face away from them. »
Armiya said: « O Allah, You began with us and with our fathers before us through Your mercy and Your nobility: You chose us for Yourself, placed among us Your prophethood, Your Book and Your mosques, gave us a place in the lands and made us successors, raised us, us and our fathers, through Your grace in childhood, and protected us and them through Your mercy in adulthood. You are the most faithful of benefactors: do not change though we change, do not replace though we replace, and complete Your favor, Your gift, Your grace and Your kindness. » It was said: « I begin My servants with My mercy and My grace: if they accept, I complete; if they ask for more, I add; if they give thanks, I multiply; if they change, I change; when they change, I am angry; when I am angry, I punish, and nothing stands before My wrath. » Armiya said: « By Your mercy I stand to speak before You.
Is that fitting for me, the lowliest and weakest, to speak before You? But by Your mercy You have kept me until this day, and no one has more right to fear this punishment and this threat than I, through what You were pleased with me by Your grace, and through my dwelling in the house of wrongdoers while they disobey You around me, with no disapproval or change from me: if You punish me, it is by my sin, and if You have mercy on me, that is what I hope of You. My Lord, glory to You and praise, blessed are You, our Lord, and exalted: will You destroy this city and what surrounds it, when it is the dwelling of Your prophets and the place of Your revelation? My Lord, glory to You and praise, blessed and exalted are You: the desolation of this mosque and the mosques around it, and of the houses raised for Your remembrance!
My Lord, glory to You and praise, blessed and exalted are You: Your hatred of this community and Your punishment of it, when it is of the descendants of Ibrahim, Your intimate friend, of the community of Moussa, Your confidant, and of the people of Dawud, Your chosen one! My Lord, what town will be safe from Your punishment after Urushalim? And what servants will be safe from Your assault after the descendants of Your intimate friend Ibrahim, the community of Your confidant Moussa, and the people of Your successor Dawud? » It was said: « O Armiya, whoever obeys Me does not see My punishment coming.
I honored this people only for My obedience; had they disobeyed Me, I would have brought them down to the abode of the abased, were it not that My mercy overtakes them. O Armiya, I took Ibrahim as an intimate friend and you were protected through him, and Moussa as confidant: ask Us to protect you, not to snatch you away, and not to raise your enemy against you. » It was said: « O Armiya, I sanctified you in your mother's womb and kept you until this day: had your people protected the orphans, the widows, the poor and the wayfarer, I would have been their constant support, and they would have with Me the station of a lush garden whose trees are flourishing, whose water is pure, whose water does not fail, whose fruits do not perish nor cease. But I will complain of the Children of Israel: I was to them like a tender shepherd, warding off from them every drought and every hardship, making plenty follow, until they became rams butting one another: woe to them, then woe to them.
I honor only the one who honors Me, and I abase the one who holds My command cheap. The generations before this people concealed their disobedience of Me, and this people makes a display of it: they parade it in the mosques, the markets, upon the mountain-tops and in the shade of trees, until the sky complains to Me of them, the earth and the mountains complain, and the wild beasts flee to the ends of the earth and its farthest reaches. And despite all that, they do not cease, and they do not profit from what they know of the Book. »
When Armiya conveyed to them the message of their Lord, and they heard what it contained of threats and punishment, they said: « You lie, and you raise against Allah an enormous slander: you claim that Allah will lay waste His earth and His mosques of His Book, His worship and His tawhid! Who will worship Him when there remains on earth no worshipper, no mosque, no Book? You have vastly exaggerated the slander against Allah, and madness has overtaken you. » They seized him, chained him and imprisoned him.
At that, Allah raised against them Bukht Nassar, who marched with his troops until he encamped at their gate, then besieged them: they went through the dwellings. When the confinement grew too long for them, they submitted to his judgment: they opened the gates and slipped through the alleys. He went through their dwellings, judged them with the judgment of the jahiliyya and the brutality of tyrants: he killed a third of them, took a third captive, left the infants, the old men and the aged women, trampled them with horses, destroyed Bayt al-Maqdis, carried off the children by force, exposed the women in the markets, killed the fighting men, razed the fortresses, destroyed the mosques and burned the Torah. He asked after Daniyal, the one who had written the book for him; they found he had died, and the people of his house brought out the book to him.
Among them were Daniyal ibn Hizqil the younger, and Mishayil, Azrayil and Mikhayil: he granted them that book. Daniyal ibn Hizqil was a descendant of Daniyal the elder. Bukht Nassar entered Bayt al-Maqdis with his troops, went through all of Cham, killed the Children of Israel until he wore them out, then, when he was finished, departed, carrying off the wealth that was there and leading away the captives. With him went boys, sons of the scholars and the kings, numbering ninety thousand boys.
He cast refuse into Bayt al-Maqdis and slaughtered pigs in it. Among the boys were seven thousand from the house of Dawud, eleven thousand from the descendants of Yousouf ibn Ya'qub and his brother Benyamine, eight thousand from the descendants of Eïcha ibn Ya'qub, fourteen thousand from the descendants of Zabaloun and Naftali, sons of Ya'qub, fourteen thousand from the descendants of Dan ibn Ya'qub, eight thousand from the descendants of Yastakhir ibn Ya'qub, two thousand from the descendants of Rayloun ibn Ya'qub, four thousand from the descendants of Roubil and Lawi, and twelve thousand of the rest of the Children of Israel. He set out until he reached the land of Babylon.
Wahb ibn Munabbih said: when Bukht Nassar had done what he did, it was said to him: « They had a man who warned them of what befell them, who described you, told them your story and informed them that you would kill their fighting men, carry their children captive, demolish their mosques and burn their churches: they called him a liar and suspected him, beat him, chained him and imprisoned him. » Bukht Nassar ordered Armiya brought out of prison: « Were you the one warning this people of what befell them? » « Yes. » « And I knew it.
» « Allah sent me to them and they called me a liar. » « They called you a liar, beat you and imprisoned you? » « Yes. » « Wretched is the people that called its prophet a liar and the message of its Lord a lie!
Would you join me, that I may honor you and give you ease? And if you prefer to remain in your land, I guarantee you safety. » « I have always been in the safety of Allah: never have I left it for an hour. Were the Children of Israel not to leave it, they would not have feared you or anyone else, and you would have no power over them.
» When Bukht Nassar heard this speech from him, he left him, and Armiya remained in his place in the land of Iliya. It is a strange narrative, containing wisdom, exhortations and excellent things, and from the standpoint of arabization, a difficulty.
Bukht Nassar was the usfahboudh, governor, of the region extending from the Ahwaz to Rome for the king of the Persians, who was Lahrasb; he had built the city of Balkh, surnamed al-Khansa, and fought the Turks, driving them into the narrowest of places. The one who sent Bukht Nassar to fight the Children of Israel in Cham was none other than Bahman, king of the Persians after Bashtasb ibn Lahrasb: this was in retaliation for the Children of Israel's aggression against His messengers sent to them. Ibn Jarir related the following chain: Younous ibn Abd al-A'la, from Ibn Wahb, from Sulayman ibn Bilal, from Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Ansari, from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab: when Bukht Nassar arrived at Damascus, he found there blood boiling on a mound of refuse: « What is this blood? » He was told: « Our forefathers lived with this matter: every time the mound is covered over, it appears again.
» He killed on that account seventy thousand of those in submission and others besides, and the blood subsided. It is an authentic chain to Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab. The hafiz Ibn Asakir has already related what indicates that this was the blood of Yahya ibn Zakariya, but that does not hold: Yahya ibn Zakariya lived long after Bukht Nassar. It appears that it is the blood of an earlier prophet, or the blood of one of the righteous, or of whomever Allah willed among His servants: Allah knows best.
It is also related that Bukht Nassar came to Bayt al-Maqdis, that its king, of the family of Dawud, made peace with him against the Children of Israel, and that Bukht Nassar took hostages and returned. When he reached Tabariyya, word reached him that the Children of Israel had risen against their king and killed him because he had made that peace: he cut the throats of the hostages with him and went back to them, took the city by force, killed the fighting men and carried the offspring captive. It has reached us that he found in prison Armiya the prophet: he brought him out, and Armiya told him what had happened and how he had warned them, and that they had called him a liar and imprisoned him. « Wretched is the people that disobeyed the messenger of Allah!
» He let him go and treated him well. « We have done wrong and been unjust: we repent to Allah for what we have done. Pray to Allah that He accept our repentance. » Armiya prayed to his Lord, and Allah revealed to him that He would not do so: « If they are truthful, let them remain with you in this city.
» He informed them of what Allah the Most High had commanded him: « How can we remain in this city, when it lies in ruin and Allah is angry with its inhabitants? » They refused to remain. From that time the Children of Israel scattered through the lands: one group settled in the Hijaz, one in Yathrib, one in Wadi al-Qoura, and a band of them went to Egypt. Bukht Nassar wrote to its king demanding those of them who had fled to him: he refused.
He mounted with his army, fought him, overcame and defeated him, carried their children captive, then marched toward the land of the Maghreb until he reached its farthest end. Then he turned back with many captives from the land of the Maghreb, Egypt, the people of Bayt al-Maqdis, the land of Palestine and the Jordan, and among the captives was Daniyal. It appears that it was Daniyal ibn Hizqil the younger, not the elder, as Wahb ibn Munabbih mentioned: Allah knows best.
Ibn Abi ad-Dunya related from one of our chains, from al-Ajlah al-Kindi, from Abdallah ibn Abi al-Houdhayl: Bukht Nassar trained two lions, threw them into a pit, then had Daniyal brought and threw him upon them. The lions did not attack him, and he remained as long as Allah willed. Then he felt the need human beings feel for food and drink: « Prepare food and drink for Daniyal. » « My Lord, I am in the holy land and Daniyal is in the land of Babylon, in the land of Iraq.
» « Prepare what I command you: We will send the one who will carry you and carry what you have prepared. » He did so. « Daniyal, O Daniyal. » « Who are you?
» « I am Armiya. » « What brought you? » « Your Lord sent me to you. » « And has my Lord remembered me?
» « Yes. » « Praise be to Allah who does not forget the one who mentions Him, praise be to Allah who does not disappoint the one who hopes in Him, praise be to Allah: the one who trusts in Him does not hand his affairs over to another, praise be to Allah who repays excellence with excellence, praise be to Allah who repays patience with deliverance, praise be to Allah who dispels our harm after our distress, praise be to Allah who is our trust when our deeds seem evil to us, praise be to Allah who is our hope when the means are cut off from us. »
Younous ibn Boukayr related, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq: « When we conquered Toustar, we found in the wealth of the house of al-Hourmouzan a couch upon which lay a dead man, with a mushaf at his head. We took the mushaf and carried it to Umar ibn al-Khattab, who called Ka'b to translate it into Arabic. I am the first of the Arabs to have read it: I read it just as I read you this Quran. » « What was in it?
» « Your sîras, your affairs, the modes of your speech, and what will happen hereafter. » « What did you do with the man? » « We dug thirteen separate graves by day, and when night came we buried him and leveled all the graves, so as to make his location unknown to the people, that they might not dig him up. » « What do you expect from him?
» « When the sky withheld rain from them, they would bring out his couch and rain would fall. » « Who do you think the man was? » « A man called Daniyal. » « How long have you found him dead?
» « Three hundred years. » « Has anything changed in him? » « Nothing but a few hairs of his nape: the flesh of the prophets is not consumed by the earth, nor do wild beasts eat it. » The hafiz says: it is an authentic chain to Abi al-'Aliya.
But if the date of his death is well established at three hundred years, he is not a prophet: he is a righteous man. The hadith related by al-Bukhari establishes that there is no prophet between Issa ibn Maryam and the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and the interval between the two is four hundred years, or six hundred years, or six hundred and twenty-six years according to the reports. The date of his death might go back to eight hundred years, which would be near the time of Daniyal, should it be Daniyal who corresponds to reality; but it could be another man, either a prophet or a righteous man. Suspicion draws near to Daniyal, because the king of the Persians had taken him and he remained there detained, as we have already mentioned.
It has been related by an authentic chain to Abi al-'Aliya that the length of his nose was a span, and from Anas ibn Malik, by a sound chain, a cubit. On this basis, it could be a man of the older prophets, before these periods: Allah knows best.
« Daniyal prayed to his Lord that the community of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) bury him. »
Related by Ibn Abi ad-Dunya, from Abi al-Ach'ath al-Ahmari
When Abou Moussa al-Ach'ari conquered Toustar, he found him in a coffin, his veins and pulse still beating. He said: « Whoever points out where Daniyal is, to him we give the good news of Paradise. » Hourqous came forward. Abou Moussa wrote to Umar informing him, and Umar wrote back: « Bury him, and give the good news to Hourqous: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave him the good news of Paradise. » The hafiz says: this report is mursal by this route, and its identification, if established, requires scrutiny: Allah knows best.
Anbasa ibn Sa'id, who was a scholar, related: Abou Moussa found with Daniyal a mushaf, a jar containing oud and dirhams, and his ring. « As for the mushaf, send it to us. As for the oud, send us some of it, and order the Muslims of your region to seek healing with it. Divide the dirhams among them.
As for the ring, We have granted it to you. » Ibn Abi ad-Dunya also related by another route that, when Abou Moussa found him and was told it was Daniyal, he embraced him, kissed him, wrote to Umar reporting his affair and the wealth placed with him, close to ten thousand dirhams: whoever came would borrow from it, and if he did not return it, he would fall ill. Umar ordered that he be washed with water and sidr, shrouded, buried, and that his grave be concealed from all; that the wealth be returned to the house of the treasury; and that the covering be carried to Umar, who granted him his ring. It is related from Abou Moussa that he ordered four prisoners to divert a river: they dug a grave in its midst, buried him in it, then he had the four prisoners put to the sword, so that the location of his grave was known to no one but Abou Moussa al-Ach'ari, may Allah be pleased with him.
Ibn Abi ad-Dunya said: Ibrahim ibn Abdallah narrated to me, Ahmad ibn Amr ibn as-Sarh narrated to us, Ibn Wahb narrated to us, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi az-Zinad, from his father: I saw in the hand of Abi Bourda ibn Abi Moussa al-Ach'ari a ring whose seal bore the engraving of two lions between which was a man whom they were licking. « This is the ring of that dead man whom the people of this town claimed was Daniyal, which Abou Moussa took the day he buried him. » Abou Moussa asked the scholars of that town about the engraving of the ring: « The king in whose reign Daniyal lived: the astrologers and men of knowledge came to him and told him that on such and such a night a boy would be born who would overrun his kingdom and ruin it. He swore: by Allah, that very night, no boy shall remain but I will kill him!
» So they took Daniyal, still a child, and threw him into the lions' pit: the lion and his lioness spent the night licking him without harming him. His mother came and found them licking him. Allah saved him through that until he attained what he attained. The scholars of that town said that Abou Moussa said that Daniyal engraved his image and that of the two lions licking him upon the seal of his ring, so as not to forget the grace of Allah upon him in that.
It is a hasan chain.
Here follows the account of the rebuilding of Bayt al-Maqdis after its ruin, and of the gathering of the Children of Israel after their dispersal through the regions of the earth. Allah the Most High says in His clear Book:
« Or like the one who passed by a town that had collapsed upon its roofs: how will Allah bring this to life after its death? So Allah made him die a hundred years, then resurrected him. He said: how long have you remained? He said: I have remained a day or part of a day.
He said: rather, you have remained a hundred years. Look at your food and your drink: it has not spoiled. And look at your donkey. And that We may make you a sign for the people, and look at the bones, how We raise them then cover them with flesh.
When it became clear to him, he said: I know that Allah is powerful over all things. »
Surat al-Baqara, 259
Then Allah the Most High revealed to Armiya, according to what has reached me: « Who is it that will people Bayt al-Maqdis? Go out to it and settle it. » He set out until he arrived and found it in ruins: « Glory be to Allah: He commanded me to settle this city and informed me that He will people it. When will He people it, and when will Allah bring it to life after its death?
» Then he laid his head down and slept, with his donkey and a sack of provisions. He remained in his sleep seventy years, until Bukht Nassar and the king above him, Lahrasb, died, whose reign had lasted a hundred and twenty years, and his son Bashtasb ibn Lahrasb succeeded him: the death of Bukht Nassar occurred during his reign. Word reached him from the land of Cham that it lay in ruin and that the wild beasts had multiplied in the land of Palestine, until no human being remained there. He proclaimed throughout the land of Babylon, among the Children of Israel: whoever wishes to return to Cham, let him return.
He set over them a man from the family of Dawud and commanded him to people Bayt al-Maqdis and build its mosque. They returned and settled it. Allah opened the eyes of Armiya: he looked upon the city, how it was being built and populated. His sleep reached a hundred years in all, then Allah raised him, without his supposing he had slept more than an hour: « I know that Allah is powerful over all things.
» The Children of Israel settled in the city, and Allah restored their affairs. They remained thus until the Romans overcame them in the time of the kings of the tribes: they had neither community nor kingdom left, that is, after the appearance of the Christians over them. Thus Ibn Jarir related it.
Ibn Jarir mentioned that Lahrasb was a just king who governed his kingdom well: servants and lands obeyed him, as did the kings and commanders; he had good judgment in the building of cities, rivers and strongholds. When he weakened in the management of the kingdom, after a hundred years and more, he stepped down from the throne in favor of his son Bashtasb. It was during his reign that the Magian religion appeared: a man named Zaradousht accompanied Armiya and angered him; Armiya prayed against him, and Zaradousht became a leper. He left and joined the land of Azerbaijan, accompanied Bashtasb and taught him the Magian religion he had invented of his own invention, may Allah curse him: Bashtasb accepted it from him, imposed that religion upon the people, overcame them and killed a great number of those who refused it. After Bashtasb came Yahman ibn Bashtasb, one of the most famous kings of the Persians and the most mentioned of heroes. Bukht Nassar served each of these three kings and lived very long: may Allah make him ugly.
The point of all this: as for what Ibn Jarir mentioned, namely that the passer-by of this town was Armiya, it was said by Wahb ibn Munabbih, Abdallah ibn Ubayd ibn Oumayr and others: it is a strong report from the standpoint of the preceding narrative context. It has also been related from Ali, Abdallah ibn Salam, Ibn Abbas, al-Hasan, Qatada, as-Souddi, Sulayman ibn Bourayda and others that it was Uzayr: it is the most famous report among a great part of the salaf and the khalaf. Allah knows best.