This, then, is the story of ʿUzayr.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir said: He is ʿUzayr ibn Jurwah—some say ibn Surayq—ibn ʿAdiyā ibn Ayyūb ibn Darznā ibn ʿArī ibn Taqī ibn Yashūʿ (1) ibn Phinehas ibn Eleazar ibn Aaron ibn ʿImrān.

Another view holds that he is ʿUzayr ibn Sarūkha (2). Certain reports indicate that his grave is in Damascus.

Ibn ʿAsākir then cited, through the isnād of Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī—from Dāwūd ibn ʿAmr, from Ḥibbān ibn ʿAlī, from Muḥammad ibn Kurayb, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās—in a marfūʿ report: “I do not know whether Tubbaʿ was cursed or not (3), nor do I know whether ʿUzayr was a prophet or not.”

He also transmitted a similar wording on the authority of Muʾammal ibn al-Ḥasan, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Shajzī, from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from Maʿmar, from Abū Dhūʾayb, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah, as a marfūʿ report.

It was further related through Isḥāq ibn Bishr—who is discarded (4)—from Juwaybir and Muqātil, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās that ʿUzayr was among those whom Nebuchadnezzar carried off into captivity while he was still a young boy. When he reached forty, Allah granted him wisdom; Ibn ʿAbbās said, “No one had a better memory of, or greater knowledge of, the Torah than he.” He added, “He used to be mentioned among the prophets until Allah erased his name from that list when he asked his Lord about predestination (5).” This report is weak, disconnected, and objectionable; Allah knows best.

Isḥāq ibn Bishr also narrated—from Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām—that ʿUzayr is the servant whom Allah caused to die for a hundred years and then revived.

Isḥāq ibn Bishr further said: Saʿīd ibn Bashīr reported to us from Qatādah, from Kaʿb; and Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan; and Muqātil and Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās; and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ismāʿīl al-Suddī, from his father, from Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās; and Idrīs, from his grandfather Wahb ibn Munabbih.

Isḥāq said, “All of these related to me the account of ʿUzayr, each adding something to what the others had mentioned.” They reported with their respective chains:

“ʿUzayr was a righteous and wise servant. One day he set out to inspect an estate of his. When he was on his way back, he came upon a ruined town at the height of midday, and the heat overcame him…"