3-198 Ahmad ibn Harun al-Fami and Ja’far ibn Muhammad ibn Masroor - may God be pleased with them - narrated that Muhammad ibn Ja’far ibn Bat’tat quoted Muhammad ibn al-Hassan al-Saf’far, on the authority of Al-Abbas ibn Ma’ruf, on the authority of Hammad ibn Isa, on the authority of Hurayz who linked it up through some narrators to Abi Ja’far al-Baqir ,

“The first of the three in whose name the first lot was cast is Mary, the daughter of Imran, as we read in the following words of the Honorable the Exalted God, ‘Thou wast not with them when they cast lots with arrows, as to which of them should be charged with the care of Mary…’ There were six arrows in this casting. Then it is the lots cast for Jonah when he was riding the ship with the people and the ship stopped in the tumult. They cast lots for Jonah three times. Then Jonah went to the front of the ship. Suddenly a large whale opened his mouth and Jonah jumped into his mouth.

The next case is regarding Abdul Muttalib to whom God had granted nine sons. Abdul Muttalib made a vow that he would offer one of them for sacrifice to God if he was granted another son. When the number of his sons became ten with the birth of Abdullah - the father of God’s Prophet Muhammad ﷺ - it was hard for Abdul Muttalib to offer Abdullah as a sacrifice. Then he brought ten camels and cast lots for either them or Abdullah. The lot fell to Abdullah’s name. He increased the number of the camels to be offered ten by ten and repeated the casting of lots. However, every time the lot fell to Abdullah’s name.

When the number of camels he offered reached one-hundred, the lot fell in the name of the camels. Abdul Muttalib said, ‘O My Lord! No. It would not be fair to suffice for this. I must draw lots three more times.’ He drew lots three more times. The lot fell to the name of the camels all three times. At this time Abdul Muttalib said, ‘Now I know that my Lord is pleased with this.” And he had their throats cut.