Imam Aḥmad—and the two compilers of the Ṣaḥīḥ—relate, through the transmission of al-Zuhrī (1), from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Nawfal, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) set out for Syria. When he reached Sargh (2), the commanders of the army—Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ and his companions—met him and informed him that the plague had broken out in Syria. The report continues with his consultation of the Muhājirūn and the Anṣār, whose opinions differed. Then ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf—who had been away attending to some need—arrived and said, “I possess knowledge about this matter. I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say:
‘If it occurs in a land where you are, do not flee from it; and if you hear of it in any land, do not go toward it.’”
ʿUmar praised Allah and then turned back.
The Imam (3) also reported: Ḥajjāj and Yazīd—conveying the same sense (4)—said: Ibn Abī Dhʿīb (5) narrated from al-Zuhrī, from Sālim, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir ibn Rabīʿah, that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf informed ʿUmar while he was in Syria (6) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
“This affliction was sent to punish the nations before you. If you hear of it in a land, do not enter it; and if it strikes a land while you are there, do not leave it fleeing from it.”
So ʿUmar returned from Syria. The two Ṣaḥīḥs likewise record it from Mālik, from al-Zuhrī, with a similar wording (7).
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: The period that Ḥizqīl remained among the Children of Israel has not been specified to us. After Allah took him unto Himself, the Children of Israel forgot the covenant Allah had made with them. Grave innovations spread, and they worshipped idols, among them an idol named Baʿl. Allah therefore sent to them Ilyās ibn Yāsīn ibn Fanḥāṣ ibn al-ʿĪzār ibn Hārūn ibn ʿImrān.
I say: Ibn ʿAsākir did not include a biography of Ḥizqīl in his History (8). Earlier we presented the account of Ilyās together with that of al-Khiḍr because they are usually mentioned side by side, and also because it follows the story of Moses in Sūrat al-Ṣāffāt; for that reason we treated it in advance. Allah knows best.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, quoting what was conveyed to him from Wahb ibn Munabbih, said: After Ilyās, his trustee al-Yasaʿ ibn Akhṭūb (peace be upon him) was commissioned as a prophet among them.