Stories Of The Prophets

Ibn Abi Al-Dunya narrated the following, based on a
chain of citations. Nabuchadnezzar captured the two lions and threw
them into a pit. He then brought Daniel and threw him at them; yet they
did not pounce at him; rather, he remained as Allah wished. When then
he desired food and drink, Allah revealed to Jeremiah, who was in Sham
(Palestine/Syria): "Prepare food and drink for Daniel." He said: "O
Lord I am in Jerusalem while Daniel is in Babylon (Iraq)." Allah
revealed to him: "Do what I have commanded you to do, and I shall send
you one who will carry you and what you have prepared." Jeremiah did so
and Allah sent him something that would carry him until he arrived at
the brink of the pit.

Then Daniel asked: "Who is this?" He answered: "I
am Jeremiah." He asked: "What brought you?" He answered: "Your Lord
sent me to you." He said: "And so my Lord has remembered me?" He said:
"Yes." Daniel said: "Praise be to Allah Who never forgets those who
appeal to Him! And Praise be to Him Who compensates good with good,
rewards patience with safety, dispels harm after distress, assures us
when we are overwhelmed, and is our hope when skill fails us."

Daniel After Death

Yunus Ibn Bakeer reported that Muhammad Ibn Ishaaq
reported that Abu Khalid Ibn Dinar reported that Abul Aa'lia said:
"When Tastar was invaded, we found, in the treasure house of
Al-Harmazan, a bed on which lay a dead man, with a holy script at his
bedside. We took the scripture to Umar Ibn Al Khattab. He called Ka-b
and he translated it into Arabic, and I was the first Arab to read it.
I read it as I read the Qur'an." Here, I (Khalid Ibn Dinar) said to
Abul Aa'lia: "What was in it?" He said: "Life history, annals, songs,
speech, and what is to come." I asked: "And what did you do with the
man?" He said: "We dug in the river bank thirteen separate graves. At
nightfall we buried him and leveled all the graves in order to mislead
people for they would tamper with him." I asked: "And what did they
want from him?" He said: "When the sky was cloudless for them, they
went out with his bed, and it rained." I asked: "Who did you think the
man was?" He said; "A man called Daniel." I asked: "And for how long
had he been dead when you found him?" He said: "Three hundred years." I
asked: "Did not anything change on him?" He said: "No, except for the
hairs of his face (beard, and mustache); the skin of the prophets is
not harmed by the earth, nor devoured by hyenas."

The chain of citation from Abul Aa'lia is good, but if
the date of the dead man's death was really three hundred years, then
he was not a prophet but a saintly an, because there was no prophet
between Isa (Jesus)(pbuh), and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), according
to the hadith in Bukhari. The span between them (the dead man and
Muhammad (pbuh)) was variously reported as four hundred, six hundred,
and six hundred twenty years. It could be that he had died eight
hundred years earlier, which would be near to Daniel's time, if his
being Daniel is correct. However, he could still have been somebody
else, either a prophet or a saint. Yet the truth is more likely he was
Daniel, because he had been taken by the King of Persia and remained
imprisoned as already mentioned.

It was narrated with a correct citation that his nose
as one span (nine inches) long. Anas Ibn Malik, with a good citation,
said that his nose was an arm's stretch long (two feet), on which basis
he is thought to be an ancient prophet from before this period.
Almighty Allah knows best.

Daniel's Death -
Hadith

Ibn Abu Dunya reported from Abu Bilal that Abu Musa
found with Daniel a holy script and a container in which were dirhams,
his ring and ointment. He wrote to Umar, who replied: "Send the
scripture to us, send some of the ointment, tell the Muslims who are
with you to use it, share the dirhams among them, and leave the ring
for you.

Abu Bakr Ibn Abu Dunya related without citation that
when Abu Musa was told that he was Daniel, he stayed with him, embraced
him, and kissed him. Then he wrote to Umar that he found with him
nearly ten thousand Dhirhams. It used to be that people came to borrow
from it, and if they did not return it, they became sick. Umar ordered
his burial in a grave to be kept secret and the money to be sent to the
treasury, with the box and the ring a gift to him (Abu Musa).

It is related of Abu Musa that he told four of the
captives to dam the river and dig a grave in the middle, where he
buried him. Then he beheaded the four captives in order for the secret
to be kept from all except himself.

Daniel's Ring

Ibn Abu Dunya also reported, by a chain of citations,
that a ring was seen on the hand of Ibn Abu Barda Ibn Abu Musa. The gem
was carved with two lions with a man between them, whom they were
licking. Abu Barda said: "This is the ring of that man whom the people
of this town say is Daniel. Abu Musa took it the day he was buried. The
learned people of the town told Abu Musa that soothsayers and
astrologers told the king in Daniel's time that a boy would be born who
would destroy him and his kingdom. So the king swore to kill all the
baby boys, except that they threw Daniel in the lions' den, and the
lion and lioness began to lick him and did not harm him. His mother
came and took him. Abu Musa said: "And so Daniel carved his image and
the image of the two lions into the gem of his ring, for him not to
forget Allah's blessing upon him in this.'" This has a good citation.