Mu'jam Kabir Tabarani 15649 — We were discussing righteousness (birr)

Al-Mufaddal bin Fadalah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: We were discussing righteousness (birr) in the presence of Abu Harb bin Abi al-Aswad, and Abu Harb said: We were discussing righteousness in the presence of Sayyiduna Imran bin Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him), and Sayyiduna Imran bin Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) said: We were discussing righteousness in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) began narrating to us, saying: "Among the nations before you there was a devout man who lived in a hermitage, called Jurayj. He had a mother who would come to him and call him, and he would look down at her and speak to her. One day she came to him while he was in his prayer and absorbed in it, and she called him" - the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) imitated her and placed his hand on his forehead, as she called out with her head raised and her hand on her forehead: O Jurayj, O Jurayj, three times, each time three times. Each time Jurayj kept saying: O my Lord, my mother or my prayer? So she became angry and said: O Allah, let Jurayj not die until he looks upon the faces of prostitutes. The narrator said: The daughter of the king of the town reached puberty; she became pregnant and gave birth to a boy. The people said to her: Who did this to you? Who is your companion? She said: It is Jurayj, the man of the hermitage. He knew nothing until he heard the sound of axes at the foot of his hermitage, and he began asking them: Woe to you, what is the matter with you? But they did not answer him. When he saw that, he took hold of the rope and came down. They began dragging him by his nose and beating him, saying: You are a hypocrite who deceives people with your deeds. He said to them: Woe to you, what is the matter with you? They said: Are you the one who made the king's daughter pregnant? He said: Then what did she do? They said: She gave birth to a boy. He said: Is the boy alive? They said: Yes. He said: Then move away from me. So they moved away, and he prayed two rak'ahs and finished; then he walked to a tree and took a branch from it, then came to the boy, who was in his cradle, struck him with that branch and said: O rebellious one, who is your father? He said: My father is so-and-so, the shepherd. The people said: If you wish, we will build your hermitage for you of gold, and if you wish, of silver. He said: Restore it as it was." Abu Harb held that only three spoke in the cradle: Isa son of Maryam (peace be upon them both), the child who bore witness to the innocence of Yusuf (peace be upon him), and the child of Jurayj's story.