The birds gathered again, united in the circle of 'ilm. As usual, Shama ', the teacher, said, "O my brothers and sisters, do any of you wants to share?" Without hesitation, Peacock came forward, give salaam, then said, "O my brothers and sisters, we have learned about the story of Prophet 'Isa, Yahya and Zakariya, alayhimussalam. I would like to share the story of Prophets before the arrival of Prophet Zakariya and after the death of Prophet Sulaiman, alayhimussalam." Shama 'said, "Interesting! Go on my brother!" Then Peacock continued, "According to Ibn Ishaq, in the divine scripture revealed to Prophet Musa, in the account of the Israelites and of what they were going to do after him, it is said,"' "And We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Book, 'You shall do corruption in the earth twice , and you shall ascend exceedingly high' . . . and We have made Gehenna a prison for the unbelievers." And the Qur'an also says,
وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ فِي الْكِتَابِ لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُوًّا كَبِيرًا"And We conveyed to the Children of Israel in the Scripture that, "You will surely cause corruption on the earth twice, and you will surely reach [a degree of] great haughtiness." - (QS.17:4)
So there were the Israelites with their history and sins, and Allah was letting them go unpunished, out of compassion for them, favoring them. Then Allah brought punishment upon them for their sin, as He had warned them in the Mosaic text. The first of these incidents concerned one of their kings called Zedekiah. When he ascended the throne, Allah had sent a prophet to instruct and direct him, thus making the prophet an intermediary between the king and Allah. Allah thus spoke to Zedekiah about the Israelites, not by books revealed, but rather by commanding them to follow the Torah and its stipulations, and by deterring them from disobedience , as well as by calling upon them to return to obedience.
When this king began to reign, Allah sent to him Isaiah the son of Amoz. That was before the time of 'Isa, Zechariah, and Yahya. It was Isaiah who announced the advent of Prophet 'Isa, alayhissalam and Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). The king reigned over the Children of Israel and Jerusalem for some time. But as his reign was coming to a close, grave events took place while Isaiah was with the king. Allah sent against them Sennacherib, king of Babylon, with six hundred thousand men, and he advanced until he reached the environs of Jerusalem.
The Israelite king was suffering from a rash on his leg. Prophet Isaiah came to him and said, "O King of the Children of Israel, Sennacherib, king of Babylon, has arrived with six hundred thousand of his forces. The people are terrified and fleeing before them." This depressed the king, who said, "O Prophet of Allah, do you have a divine revelation for us about what has happened. How will Allah treat us and Sennacherib and his forces?" The prophet then replied, "No revelation has come to me about you." Just then Allah revealed to the prophet Isaiah, "Go to the king of the Children of Israel, and command him to prepare his testament and to appoint whomever he desires from among the members of his house to succeed him." Prophet Isaiah then came to the king of the Children of Israel, Zedekiah, and said to him, "Our Rabb has revealed to me that I should command you to prepare your testament and to appoint whomever you desire of your family as your successor, for you shall die."
As Isaiah said this to Zedekiah, the king turned to the sanctuary and prayed. He praised Allah and called upon Him, weeping and imploring amidst tears, his heart sincere and full of reliance upon Him, with endurance and a clear conscience, "O my Rabb, The Spreme, The Most Holy, All-Compassionate, the Most Merciful and The Most Gracious, Whom no slumber or sleep affects! Remember my acts and deeds, and my good rule over the Children of Israel. All that was from You, and You know it better than I myself, for both my conscience and my manifest behavior are open to You." Allah responded to him for he was a pious worshiper. Allah inspired Isaiah to inform King Zedekiah that his prayer had been heard, and that Allah was All-Merciful, "Allah saw your tears. He has postponed your death by fifteen years and shall deliver you from your enemy, King Sennacherib of Babylon and his hosts.
Upon hearing this, the king was relieved of pain, suffering and grief. He prostrated himself and said , "O my Rabb and Rabb of my fathers, You have I worshiped, praised, honored and glorified. You grant kingship to whomever You desire, and withdraw it whenever it pleases You. You exalt or humble whomever it pleases You. You know the concealed and the manifest. You are the First and the Last, Master of the innermost and of the manifest. You have mercy, and answer the prayer of those in straits. You responded to my prayer, and pitied me when I implored You."
As he raised his head, Allah instructed Isaiah, "Tell King Zedekiah to command one of his servitors to bring him a piece of the fig and let the king apply it to his rash, and he will be healed . By morning, he will have recovered." The king did accordingly, and was healed. He then said to Isaiah the prophet, "Ask our Rabb to give us a sign of what He is going to do to our enemy." Allah said to Prophet Isaiah, "Tell him, I shall dispose of your enemy and save you from them . They will all be dead by morning except for Sennacherib and five of his scribes."
When they awoke in the morning, a herald came to the king, and announced at the gate of the city, "O King of the Children of Israel, Allah has disposed of your enemy. Come forth, for Sennacherib and his host have perished." When the king went forth to look for Sennacherib , he was not found among the dead. The king then dispatched men to search for him, and he was found in a cave with five of his scribes, one of whom was Nebuchadnezzar. They were paraded in public places, and then were brought before the king of the Israelites, who, upon seeing them, prostrated himself from sunrise till afternoon . Then he said to Sennacherib, "What do you think of the act of our Rabb concerning you? Has He not slain your host with His power while both we and you were unaware? " Sennacherib replied, "I had heard, even before I left my country, of your Lord and His aid to you as well as His mercy upon you. But I did not obey the right counsel . It is only my foolishness that plunged me into this misery. Had I listened or been reasonable, I would not have attacked you. But misery struck me and my men." The king of the Children of Israel exclaimed, "Praise be to Allah, the All-Mighty, whom it pleased to save us from you. Our Rabb left you and those with you alive, not in order to honor you but to confront you with increased misery in this world , and chastisement in the world to come ; also to have you tell those whom you left at home what you have seen of the act of our Rabb, and to warn those who will come after you. Were it not for that, He would not have preserved you. Your blood and that of those with you is worth less before God than the blood of a tick, should I happen to kill one."
Then the king of the Children of Israel ordered the chief of his guard to parade them before the populace, and for seventy days he paraded them in Jerusalem , while feeding them two loaves of barley bread per man daily . Sennacherib said to the king, "Death is better than what you are doing to us. But do what you were ordered to do." The king gave orders to place them in the death-chamber, but Allah revealed to Isaiah, "Tell the king to send Sennacherib and his men away, in order to warn their people; let the king honor them and transport them until they have reached their country. Prophet Isaiah informed the king thereof. So Sennacherib and those with him departed for Babylon. When they arrived, he assembled the people and informed them of what Allah had wrought with his troops. His sorcerers and soothsayers told him, "O King of Babylon, we used to tell you about their Rabb and their prophet, and the divine revelations to their prophet, but you did not listen to us. They are an invincible people, because of their Rabb."
The story of Sennacherib frightened them. But Allah spared them, and it turned into a warning and an admonition. Sennacherib lived seven years thereafter.
According to the people of the Book, Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah in 701 B.C. Allah sent an angel to kill 185,000 of Sennacherib's men in one night. Some scholars from among the People of the Book assert that this king of the Israelites attacked by Sennacherib was lame as a result of sciatica, and that Sennacherib coveted his realm because Zedekiah was chronically ill and weak, and that another king of Babylon had set out against him, one Lifar by name.
Nebuchadnezzar, the son of his uncle, was his scribe. Allah sent upon him a wind that destroyed his army while he and his scribe escaped, and Lifar was slain by his own son; but Nebuchadnezzar in his fury about his master's death slew the son, the parricide. Sennacherib later set out against Zedekiah. Sennacherib dwelled then in Nineveh with the current king of Adharbayjan-he was called Salman the Left-handed. Sennacherib and Salman clashed and fought until their armies annihilated one another, so that whatever they possessed became the booty of the Children of Israel.
According to Ibn Ishaq, " When Zedekiah, the aforementioned king of the Jews, passed away, the affairs of the Jews became confused. There was rivalry for the kingship. They killed one another to attain it, and though their prophet Isaiah was among them, they did not turn to him nor did they listen to him. Because they acted in this way, Allah said to Isaiah, "Rise among thy people, let me send a revelation through you." When he rose, Allah inspired him. The prophet admonished them and filled them with fear about the vicissitudes of fate; he enumerated Allah's favors and fate's vicissitudes. As Isaiah finished his speech, they turned upon him to kill him, but the prophet fled from them. A tree that he passed split open, and he entered it. But Satan caught him and seized a fringe of his garment, which he showed to the pursuers. They set a saw across the middle of the tree and sawed through it, and Isaiah was sawn in half. Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Allah we shall return."
Then Peacock said, "O my brothers and sisters, it has been the unchanging law of Allah that when bad manners, mischief and wickedness, then blood shed, oppression and injustice become the order of the day and the truth is opposed with hatred and jealousy and these matters become widespreads through the whole nation, then the capability of accepting the truth is taken away from them. In such a case, that people become so courageous that not only do they reject the messenger bringing the message to them. but even become inclined towards killing them. They then make Shirk and rebellion their line of action and instead of being friends of Allah, they become 'friends of the Shaitan.' Naudhubillah min dhalik. And Allah know best."
- Moshe Perlmann, The History of At-Tabari, Voume IV : The Ancient Kingdom, SUNY Press.
- Ibn Kathir, Stories of the Prophet, Darussalam.
