Yoonus ibn Bukayr said from Muhammad ibn Ishaaq from Aboo Khaldah, Khaalid ibn Deenaar who has narrated from Abool Aaliyah, who said:
quote:
When we (invaded and finally) conquered Tastur we found amongst the
treasures of Hurmazaan a bed with a man lying upon it. At his head was
some (type of) scripture (lit. mushaf) so we took the scripture to Umar ibn
Al Khattaab, radiyallaahu anhu, and he summoned Ka?b to render it into the
Arabic language. And I was the first among the Arabs to read it and I read it as I would read this Qur?aan.
So I (Khaalid) said to Abool Aaliyah: ?What was (written) in that book?? He said: ?Your biographies, your affairs, (examples of) the quavering tones and rhythms of your poetic languages, chants and recitations and (also written therein was) what was going to happen (to you) in the future?. So I said: ?What did you do with the man (who was lying on the bed)??
He said: ?In the daylight hours we dug thirteen separate graves (in different places) and then at night buried him in one of them so that it would be obscure to the people and they therefore would not know in which grave he was buried in to prevent them from excavating him.? I said: ?What did they hope from that?? He replied: ? When the rain was withheld from them they would bring out (his body on) the bed and then it would rain!?
I then inquired: ?Whom did you assume that man was?? He replied: ? A man called Danyaal (Daniel)!? I then asked: ?How long had he been dead before you found him?? He replied: ? About three hundred years!? ?Did anything (of his body) change?? I asked. He replied: ?No!? Except a few hairs on the nape of his neck, for Prophets don?t decompose in the earth and animals (have been forbidden) to consume them!
(Muhammad) Ibn Ishaaq Yasaar Ibn Khiyaar - born C.E. 704 in al-Madeenah, Arabia and died 767 in Baghdaad - is within the chain and he is narrating via an ?an?ana? transmission while he is well known among the scientist of hadeeth as being Mudallis.
He is the same Ibn Ishaaq of the famed history book ?Life of Muhammad? translated into English by Alfred Guillaume, which was revised by Ibn Hishaam, who died some 60 years after Ibn Ishaaq made the revision.
Therefore, he did not quote the direct authority and transmitted it from a higher authority utilizing a term, which can be used for both direct and indirect learning, or used a scholar?s name by which he wasn?t known commonly instead of using the name by which he was renown for.
Hence, this narration which is found on pages 488 - 489 in the recent English edition of ?Stories of the Prophets?by Ibn Katheer (published by DARUSSALAM in Riyaadh, Saudi Arabia) may not be included among those which are deemed by the scholars of hadeeth as authentic and likewise may not be utilized as a proof.
I would hope that one of our brothers - on this blessed forum - who is a student of hadeeth (like Abool Hasan Maalik, Hasan Sumaalee, Aboo Hakeem Bilaal Davis, Moosaa Richardson, Mustafaa George, etc.) would take the time to give us a terse explanation of some of the technical terms employed here.
And Allaah knows best!
Dawud Adib
وقال شيخ الإسلام ابن تيمية :" الراد على أهل البدع مجاهد"