Aslam

Praise be to Allah.

Ibn

Katheer (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

It was

narrated to us via Ibn Luhay‘ah from Qays ibn al-Hajjaj from someone who

told him: When Egypt was conquered, its people came to ‘Amr ibn al-‘As (may

Allah be pleased with him) and said to him: O Ameer, this Nile of ours is

used to something and cannot flow unless it is done. He said: What is that?

They said: On the twelfth night of this month, we take a young girl from her

parents, and we placate her parents, then we dress her in jewellery and the

finest garments there can be, then we throw her into this Nile.

‘Amr (may

Allah be pleased with him) said to them: This is something that cannot

happen in Islam; Islam erases that which came before it (of bad customs).

So they

stayed for a while, during which the Nile did not flow at all, neither a

little nor a lot, until they thought of leaving. Then ‘Amr (may Allah be

pleased with him) wrote to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with

him), telling him about this. He wrote to him, saying: You did the right

thing. I am sending you a piece of paper with my letter; throw it into the

Nile.

When his

letter came, ‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) took the piece of paper on

which was written:

“From the

slave of Allah ‘Umar, Ameer al-Mumineen, to the Nile of the people of Egypt.

To

proceed: If you only flow on your own initiative, then do not flow, for we

have no need of you. But if you only flow on the command of Allah, the One,

the Subduer, and He is the One Who causes you to flow, then we ask Allah,

may He be exalted, to make you flow.”

He threw

the paper in the Nile and by Saturday morning, Allah had caused the Nile to

flow (to a depth or width of) sixteen cubits in one night, and Allah put an

end to this particular custom of the people of Egypt until today.

End quote

from al-Bidayah wa’n-Nihayah, 7/114-115

Similar

reports were also narrated by Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam in Futooh Misr, p. 165;

al-Lalkai in Sharh I‘tiqad Ahl as-Sunnah, 6/463; Ibn ‘Asakir in Tareekh

Dimashq, 44/336; Abu’sh-Shaykh in al-‘Azamah, 4/1424, via Ibn Luhay‘ah.

This is a

da‘eef isnad (weak chain of narration) that is not saheeh, and this report

cannot be proven with such an isnad. Ibn Luhay‘ah – whose full name was

‘Abdullah ibn Luhay‘ah ibn ‘Uqbah – is da ‘eef as he used to get mixed up,

and in addition to that he is mudallis (one

who

narrates from someone he met something he did not hear).

See at-Tahdheeb, 5/327-33; Mizan al-I‘tidaal, 2/475-484

Qays ibn

al-Hajjaj is sadooq (trustworthy), from the sixth level of hadeeth narrators

(tabaqah) according to al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar; they are the ones who it is not

proven that they met any of the Sahabah/Companions (may Allah be pleased

with them). See: Taqreeb at-Tahdheeb, 1/25

Sometimes

he narrated it as a mursal (the

link between the Successor and the Prophet is missing)

report and

sometimes he narrated it from the one who told him, but the one who told him

is majhool and not known.

So the

report is da‘eef (weak) and is not saheeh (sound)

If this

story were true, everyone would know about it and it would be well known,

and it would have been widely narrated through confirmed isnads, because it

is an important and significant event, the like of which should not be

ignored; rather an incident less significant than this would not be

overlooked by historians and narrators.

And Allah

knows best.