পৃষ্ঠা 98: প্রথম অধ্যায়: দূরবর্তী আলামতসমূহ যা ইতিমধ্যে প্রকাশ পেয়ে অতিক্রান্ত হয়েছে

Mention of the Remaining Reports Concerning the Plague Epidemic

Account of the Young Boy Who Survived During the Plague Epidemic

Ibn Kathir said: "This is the well-known view mentioned by our teacher al-Dhahabi and others. It was also said: in the year seventy; and it was said: in the year seventy-six; and it was said: in the year eighty."

Ibn Kathir said: "It was narrated by Ibn Jarir from al-Waqidi, and during it, eighty-three sons of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) died, and forty sons of Abu Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him) died."

Ibn Kathir said: "It lasted for three days. On the first day of it, seventy thousand of the people of Basra died; on the second day, seventy-one thousand died; and on the third day, seventy-three thousand died. By the fourth day, the people had all perished except for a very few individuals, to the extent that it was mentioned that the mother of the governor died there, and he could not find anyone to carry her bier."

The author of 'al-Mir'at' said: "The people of the Levant (al-Sham) perished therein except for a few."

Al-Hafiz Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani said: "Ubaydullah narrated to us, Ahmad ibn 'Isam narrated to us, Ma'di narrated to me, from a man surnamed Abu al-Fadl who had witnessed the time of the plague, who said: 'We used to go around among the tribes and bury the dead. When they became too numerous, we were unable to bury them, so we would enter a house whose inhabitants had died and block up its door.'"

"'So we entered a house searching it, and we found no one alive in it, so we blocked it up. When the plagues passed, we went around removing those blockages from the doors. We opened the blockage of the door of the house we had previously searched, and behold, there was a young boy in the middle of the house, fresh and anointed with oil, as though he had just been taken from his mother's lap.'"

He said: "'While we were standing over the boy, marveling at him, a female dog entered through a crack in the wall. She began to draw close affectionately to the boy, and the boy crawled toward her until he suckled from her milk.'"

Ma'di said: "And I saw that very boy in the mosque of Basra, having grown to manhood, holding his own beard."

Ibn Abi al-Dunya said in the book 'al-I'tibar': "Yahya ibn 'Abdullah al-Khath'ami narrated to me, from Muhammad ibn Sallam al-Jumahi who said: Yahya claimed that when the Devastating Plague (al-Ta'un al-Jarif) occurred in Basra, and people perished in it, becoming incapable of handling their dead, predatory beasts would enter the houses and feed upon the dead. That was in the year seventy, during the days of Mus'ab, and seventy thousand were dying each day. A young girl from the Banu 'Ijl was left behind after all her family had died, and hearing the howling of a wolf, she recited:"