Several chroniclers have affirmed that O’zair was one of the children of the prophets. Before he had attained the age of maturity he was, together with his countrymen, made prisoner, and carried off to Babylon. At that time there was no one better acquainted with the Mosaic Law than he. When he had been freed from slavery to Bakhtanassar, and had returned to his country, he was, whilst yet young, one day riding on an ass to attend to some business. He happened to pass near a ruined village, and alighted in one of the gardens, took down some figs and grape-juice from his beast, tethered it to a tree, sat down leaning against the trunk, contemplated the prostrated roofs, decayed walls, rotten bones, and said to himself: ‘How can God revive these bones [on the day of the resurrection] after thus allowing them to perish?’ Allah hast said: ‘Or [hast thou not considered] how he [behaved who] passed by a city which had been destroyed even to her foundations? He said, How shall God quicken this [city] after she hath been dead? And God caused him to die for a hundred years, and afterwards raised him to life.’*
It is related that once upon a time, when the Emâm Mûsa Kazum—u. w. b., etc.* —was fleeing from his enemies and roaming about in disguise in the world, he happened to pass near a village in Syria where he perceived an extremely high mountain, towards the top of which a multitude of Christians were hastening. He asked them about the place, and where they meant to go; they replied: ‘On this mountain is a convent; a monk comes out from it once every year, instructs us about what is lawful or prohibited, according to the religion of I’sa, and solves any difficulties we may propound.’ The Emâm Mûsa accompanied them, and went up to the mountain. When they had arrived at the gate an age-stricken old man made his appearance, and took his seat on an elevated place. As soon as the eye of the monk alighted on Mûsa Bin Ja’fer, he perceived a light shining from his noble head towards the sky, was amazed, and therefore asked: ‘Art thou a friend or a stranger?’ Mûsa replied: ‘I am not one of you.’ He continued: ‘Perchance thou art of the people of Muhammad?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ The monk inquired: ‘Art thou one of their scholars, or of the ignorant?’ Mûsa replied: ‘I am not of the ignorant.’ The monk said: ‘Shall I ask thee, or thou me?’ He answered: ‘Do as thou listest.’ The monk continued: ‘I shall ask.’ The Emâm said: ‘Ask whatever thou likest.’ The monk continued: ‘We and you say that in paradise there is a tree called Tûba.* We say its root is in the abode of I’sa [Jesus], and you fancy it is in the place of Muhammad. At all events, in paradise there is no locality nor apartment in which there is not a branch of that tree. Tell me now what is the similitude of it in the world?’ The Emâm said: ‘The similitude of it in the world is the sun, because as soon as it reaches the centre of the firmament, there is no spot to which its rays do not penetrate.’ The monk replied: ‘Thou hast spoken well, and strung well the pearl of signification.’ Shouts of applause were then heard from all quarters, and the old man of the convent again asked: ‘We and you agree that the inhabitants of paradise eat food, drink beverages, and that neither the former nor the latter decrease in quantity. Tell me, if thou knowest, what the similitude of this is in the world?’ The Emâm said: ‘The similitude of it in the world is the Book of God, the Most High and Magnificent; because no matter how much commentators and expounders dilate on its contents, and how much trouble they take to discriminate between the truths and subtleties thereof, they can never accomplish their purpose, and it remains as it was before.’ The monk approved of this answer, and said: ‘We and you say that the inhabitants of paradise consume food and drink, but that they discharge neither urine nor excrements; what is the similitude of this in the world?’ The Emâm replied: ‘The likeness of this is as of the embryo in the maternal womb, which partakes of the nourishment it receives from the mother, but has no evacuations.’ The monk said: ‘Thou hast given the right explanation. Tell me, now, whether the key to paradise is of gold or of silver?’ The Emâm said: ‘It is neither of the one nor the other, but it is the tongue of the believing servant turning about in the mouth, and saying, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His apostle.”’ The monk said: ‘I shall now ask thee another question, which thou wilt be unable to answer.’ Mûsa queried: ‘Wilt thou make a profession of our religion if I give thee the proper solution?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ After having agreed to this condition the monk asked: ‘Tell me how it happened that of two brothers who were born in the same night, and were on the same day received into the propinquity of divine mercy, one was, on the day of their death, two hundred, and the other only one hundred years old?’ The Emâm replied: ‘Those two brothers were O’zair and O’zar, the sons of Sharhia. They were twins from one womb, and after they had during fifty years lived together, O’zair went on an errand, took some figs, grapes, their juice, and milk, and reached a village in Syria which God had destroyed, with the inhabitants thereof. O’zair looked at the devastation, saying, “How will God quicken this city after she hath been dead?” After he had fallen asleep in the place, the Almighty took possession of his soul, concealed his body from men, and prohibited wild beasts from injuring it. The food and drink remained in their pristine state of freshness without undergoing any change; the beast, however, [which Ezra rode] perished. Several years after O’zair had fallen asleep, God the Most High and Glorious caused the said village to be repeopled by the efforts of a certain king, and resuscitated O’zair to life after the expiration of one hundred years. An angel then came and asked him: “How long hast thou tarried [here]?” He answered, “A day, or part of a day.”* O’zair gave this undecided reply because he thought the sun had set, and therefore he said, “I tarried a day;” but when he perceived that the sun was still above the horizon, he said: “I tarried part of a day.” The angel, however, said: “Nay, thou hast tarried [here] a hundred years. Now look at thy food and thy drink, they are not yet corrupted; and look on thine ass.”* Then O’zair looked at the rotten bones of his donkey; he saw them uniting gradually, and becoming invested with tendons, veins, and flesh. After that the Absolute Sovereign clothed him with flesh. Allah—w. n. b. e.—has said: “And look at the bones [of thine ass], how we raise them, and afterwards clothe them with flesh.” And when [this] was shown unto him, he said; “I know that Allah is able to do all things.”* Then O’zair mounted his quadruped and returned to his house. He lived fifty years more with his brother, and both died on the same day, although one of them was two hundred and the other one hundred years old.’
Distich: If thou remainest a hundred years or one day,
Thou must depart from this pleasant abode.
When Mûsa Bin Ja’fer had ended his conversation, the monk continued: ‘Whatever thou hast said is right; I bear witness that there is one God, and that Muhammad is His apostle.’ And all present on the said occasion likewise professed the faith in company with him.
It is related that when his prophetic lordship, O’zair, was resuscitated from his sleep, and received new life, he wished to return, and went to his village, but no one of the inhabitants knew him. When he stepped into his own house he did not find it as it was before. He saw an old blind woman sitting at the door of it, and asked her: ‘Is this the house of O’zair?’ She said: ‘Yes; but who art thou that askest about him? because many years have elapsed. and I do not hear my master’s name mentioned by anyone.’ He said: ‘I am O’zair.’ The servant woman replied: ‘Praise be to God, it is a hundred years since O’zair has been lost, and no one knows anything about him.’ But when she saw that his lordship persisted in his assertion, she continued: ‘I am one of his maid-servants. He was a man whose prayers were responded to; and if thou art he, cause me to recover my sight.’ O’zair then recited his orisons, placed his hands upon the eyes of the woman, and God the Most High and Glorious caused her to recover her sight. She looked into the face of O’zair, and said: ‘I bear testimony that thou art O’zair, because there is no difference in thy features from the time of thy disappearance to this day.’ As has been stated above, according to the narrative of the Emâm Mûsa Kâzum, O’zair was fifty years old when he died the first time, but only thirty or forty according to other opinions. At any rate, all agree that on his august person no signs of old age appeared, after his life had been renewed. He had a son who was one hundred and ten years old, and even his grandsons were aged and pure. The above-mentioned servant-woman went into the assembly of the children of Esrâil, and informed the descendants of O’zair, who were in that congregation, of what had taken place, but they accused her of falsehood. Then she said: ‘I am your blind maid-servant, who has obtained her eyesight from the Omnipotent Lord in consequence of the prayers of O’zair.’ Accordingly the sons and the people left the assembly and waited upon O’zair, whose son said: ‘Between the two shoulders of my father there was a mole like a crescent.’ O’zair bared his back and showed it to him, which satisfied the son, but not the people, wherefore they said; ‘After Harûn no one knew the Mosaic Law better than O’zair, and it has been lost in the time of Bakhtanassar. If thy pretensions be true, recite it.’ He complied, and the people wrote down the whole Law from his dictation; and when a copy thereof, which had been kept secret from the enemies by some grandees of the children of Esrâil, was brought and collated with it, both were found to agree, and not to differ even in a single letter. The people, however, fell into aberration, and said: ‘O’zair is the son of God.’ Allah—w. n. b. e.—has said: ‘What the transgressors say in the height of their arrogance.’ The most magnificent of speakers also said: ‘The Jews say O’zair is the son of God; and the Christians say the Messiah is the Son of God.’*
It is said that the first man who spoke on fate and predestination was O’zair, because he asked his Omnipotent Nourisher: ‘O Lord, I am astonished at Thy appointing idolaters over Thy faithful servants, and over the children of Thy prophets, so that they slew or made them captives, destroyed Thy mosque, and tore Thy book.’ Then the allocution came: ‘O O’zair, those who knew Me have transgressed. Therefore I have appointed a company over them which had no knowledge of Me.’ O’zair said: ‘O Lord, if it had not been Thy will they would not have disobeyed.’ Then the revelation came: ‘O O’zair, the decrees of fate are one of My mysteries, and woe be to him who prys into My secrets.’ Therefore O’zair desisted for a time from his inquiries, but soon again continued them, whereon the following allocution reached him: ‘O O’zair, the children of Esrâil deemed things prohibited by Me to be licit, and killed My prophets; therefore I have subjected the people who coveted not My rewards, and feared not My chastisements. This was more effective than to appoint My friends over them.’ O’zair said: ‘O Lord, Thou art a righteous judge; what was the reason of punishing many for the crimes of few, and the innocent with the guilty?’ The reply then arrived: ‘Go to yonder desert, and thou wilt hear the answer.’ O’zair obeyed, and an angel appeared to him, who asked: ‘Canst thou recall the day which has elapsed?’ He said: ‘No.’ He continued: ‘Canst thou fill one bushel with light?’ He rejoined: ‘No.’ The angel asked: ‘Art thou able to take up one misqâl’s weight of wind?’ O’zair replied: ‘This is impossible.’ The angel said: ‘As thou art unable to do these things, thou art likewise unable to fathom the mysteries of God.’ After O’zair had reiterated his questions about fate and predestination, he was commanded by the Almighty—w. n. b. pr.—to go to another place. He obeyed, but the heat of the atmosphere so affected him that he became very restless. On that occasion his eye alighted on a tree in the desert, near which he perceived a fountain of delicious water. O’zair bathed therein, and fell asleep in the shadow of the tree. On that spot there was a hill of ants, one of which so bit him that he leapt up, and in his wrath put fire to the ant-hill, destroying them all. On this occasion, however, a voice from above addressed him thus: ‘O O’zair, why hast thou killed these ants?’ He replied: ‘One of them had stung me.’ Then the Absolute Sage replied: ‘If one of them has injured thee, why hast thou destroyed them all?’ O’zair remained mute, and understood that these words were meant as a reproof to him; therefore he repented, and craved pardon.
It is related that after this event a revelation arrived, to the following purport: ‘O O’zair, thou hast told me that I am a righteous judge and no tyrant, and hast asked Me why I punish innocent people for the crimes of the guilty. Know thou, O O’zair, that when I chastise wicked people, and cause the innocent to share the punishment, no objection can be raised, because I promote them to My eternal favours; consequently, I am dealing justly, and not tyrannically, with them, inasmuch as they become the recipients of My boundless grace and protection, as I requite them for that [temporary] chastisement with [eternal] bliss.’ Though O’zair had yet many other questions and difficulties to ask about fate, he refrained from stating them, because he dreaded the wrath of the Mighty Sovereign, having previously received the inspiration: ‘If thou puttest any more questions about fate and predestination, I shall expunge thy name from the list of prophets.’
Some historians have said that the prophet to whom the Lord God—whose name be glorified—had revealed the just-narrated maxims and whom He again resuscitated to life, was Armia [Jeremiah], and not O’zair. God, however, knows best the true state of all things.