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Dâniâl (Daniel) (PUH)
They say that he was an orphan and had no mother or father and grown up
with an old woman from the Israelites, and he was captivated by Nebuchadnezzar
as well as `Uzair (Ezra), and God made them safe away from this tyrant's
punishment and torture, and he (Daniel) died some where near Shush, and
seems it is a village behind the river, and the river of Shâsh is
a well-known river like Tigris and Euphrates and the Nile as they said.
When Nebuchadnezzar captured Daniel and kept him for a while, many things
happened about him and people knew him by his virtues and they gathered
around him to listen to his sermons to guide them to their happiness, and
so then Nebuchadnezzar got afraid because of him and he kept him in a pit
like a well and he kept with him a lioness that got milk, and all that
long time in that pit he used to drink her milk and this is what kept him
alive and she used to eat from the mud of the pit, and he stayed like this
for long time until he got annoyed of it and got even weaker, so he then
prayed to God to make a relief for him. Then God inspired to the prophet
that was in Jerusalem and God sent him there after the leaving of Nebuchadnezzar,
so God inspired to him to take the food and the drink to Daniel and tell
him My greets, and the prophet asked: and where is he O Lord? so He answered
him: you will find him in the well of Babylon, and then the prophet came
to him and saw him in the well and said to him: O Daniel, and he answered:
yes, O strange voice, and he said to him: your Lord greets you and He sent
to you this food and drink, and so he hanged it down for him and then Daniel
said: thanks be to God who never forgets who mentions Him, thanks be to
God who never disappoints who prayed to Him, thanks be to God who is enough
for who depends on Him, thanks be to God who never delivers to another
who trusted Him, thanks be to God who gives goodness in exchange of goodness,
thanks be to God who gives triumph by patience, thanks be to God who gives
a relief after our adversities, thanks be to God who is our Trust when
we have no tricks to do, thanks be to God who is our hope when we doubt
about our works..etc. Then at that night, after the pray of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar
saw in his dream that his head was made of iron and his legs were made
of copper and his chest was made of gold, and then he called out for the
priests and the astrologers and asked them: what did I see in my dream?
They answered: we don't know, but tell us what you saw in your dream, and
he said to them: I give you the money for a long time and you can't tell
what I had in my dream, and he ordered to kill them all, and someone who
was attending in his court said to him: if anyone had something, then that
would be the man of the well because the lioness never stopped feeding
him and she is giving him milk while she eats the mud, and so then he ordered
to bring Daniel (PUH) and he asked him: what did I see in my dream? He
answered: you saw that your head is made of iron and your legs are made
of copper and your chest is made of gold, and then he said: yes this is
what I saw so what is this? Then said Daniel to him: your kingdom is to
begone and you are to be killed after three days and a man from Persia
shall kill you, and then Nebuchadnezzar said: I have seven cities and for
every city there are guards, and even I'm not satisfied with those so I
put up a duck made of copper on the gates of every city so that whenever
a stranger goes in it shall shout and he would be taken, and then said
Daniel to him: the matter is what I told you.
Then he sent the knights to the borders of his cities and said to them:
whoever passes you by kill him, and Daniel was sitting with him so he said
to him: don't leave me for three days and when they are passed I shall
kill you, and when it was the third day he got sad and saw a kid that he
used to take as a son and he was a persian but he didn't know that he was
from Persia, so he gave him his sword and said to him: O kid, whoever you
find in your way then kill him and if you found me kill me then, so then
the kid took the sword and struck his head with it and killed him [this
story is different from the one told in Torah, and the one in Torah is
another famous version among Shiites as well with some difference]. It
is narrated that once Daniel wanted to pass over a river so he gave the
boatman a piece of bread so that he would transport him, but he didn't
accept that and said: what shall I do with it and bread is to be stepped
upon by the legs for us? and when Daniel saw that from him he raised his
hands to the sky and said: O Lord be victorious for the bread for You saw,
O Lord, what this slave made and what did he say about the bread, and then
God inspired to the sky to hold the rains and inspired to the earth and
it turned like clay and didn't plant anything until they began to eat each
other and the story about this is long, and then God had mercy upon them
by the prays of Daniel and then the sky rained over the earth and earth
planted and goodness started to show and they got back to what they used
to by the blessings of Daniel, and it is given to Daniel that he shall
judge between people in the after-life and he was during his childhood
an owner of wisdom.
It is narrated in a long story that he was standing and watching some
children playing in the road and among them there was a child that they
called Mât Al-Deen [religion is dead] so he stepped towards him and
asked him about his name and he said: my name is Mât Al-Deen, and
then he asked about his father and he said: he is dead, and then he asked
about his mother and he said that she's alive and he took him and went
to her in her home and he asked her about the name of her son, and she
said to him: his name is Mât Al-Deen, and then he asked her: who
named with such name? She said then: his father, he went away with some
people for some trade and then they got back but he didn't come back with
them and they told me that he is dead, and then I asked them about his
fortune and money and they said that he didn't leave anything back, and
then I asked them if he did say anything to you? they said: yes he claimed
that your are pregnant so he said: tell her that either she got a male
or a female let her name it Mât Al-Deen, and then Daniel asked her
about his companions whether they are alive or not, and she said they are
all alive, and then he gathered them all together and got help from the
guards to do so and then he separated them and asked about the man and
they said he is dead, and then he started to ask them one by one about
the time of his death and about his sickness and who used to take care
of him and who washed his body and who prayed over his body and buried
him and in what land he was buried and whether there were other people
attending all of that.
In general, they all differed severely in their answers, and then they
admitted that they killed him and divided his money among them, so the
man's blood was taken over them and he took from them the charge of crime
and gave it to the man's family and took also all of his money, all of
that by his own wisdom and by his art and his ways that no one would be
able to do except of someone like him as he is one of the viceroys, and
he gave all of that to the man's family and then said to the mother: name
your son `Âsh Al-Deen [religion is living] and so she did. For Daniel
there are many more miracles and virtues and have nothing alike them except
from viceroys like him may peace be upon him and them and the blessings
of God.
Next: `Uzair (Ezra) Iramyâ' (Jeremiah) (PUT)