Al-Anbya 21:64–90

On hearing such replies from Abraham, the people could have accused him of insolence and taken him to task, as usually happens in such cases. But, in spite of their being polytheists, there seemed to be some sense of reason left in them. So, realizing the force of the rationality in his replies, they felt ashamed and admitted that they were wrong. Had they not subsequently fallen a prey to prejudices, this experience would have been sufficient to lead them towards the true faith.

Those who enjoy power always resort to oppressive methods when they fail in the field of reasoned argument. This happened likewise in the case of the Prophet Abraham. After the incident of the demolition of the deities, when the leaders of the community felt that they could not counter Abraham’s arguments, they started persecuting him. Finally, one day, intoxicated with power, they threw him in a pit of fire. But, a prophet is God’s representative on earth. Therefore, on this exceptional basis, God grants extraordinary help to prophets. So, in this case also, at God’ behest, the fire cooled down for him. Help of this kind can be available to a non-prophet also, provided he completely identifies himself with God’s plan to the same extent as a prophet does.

The Prophet Abraham was born in Iraq. When the people of his community and Iraq’s ruler, Nimrod, became his enemies, he left his native place after fully conveying the divine message to them. At God’s command he migrated to the lands of Syria and Palestine. Though his countrymen did not support him, God gave him sons and grandsons who followed in his footsteps. God accepted and appreciated his piety to the extent that He started a chain of prophets from amongst his descendants.

Wisdom means realization of God (ma‘rifah) and knowledge (‘ilm) means divine revelation. All other prophets besides Lot also received these blessings. Now after the cessation of prophethood, the Quran is the sole purveyor of divine Revelation. As regards divine knowledge (hikmah or ma‘rifah), non-prophets also receive a share of it according to their merits. Those on whom God looks with kindness has God as their friend. He pulls them out of the environment of evil-doers and puts them in the environment of good people. He becomes their supporter at every turn of their lives. He bestows divine knowledge (hikmah) upon them, after which their whole life is bathed in God’s mercy.

The Prophet Noah performed his divine task of giving the call for the Truth among his community over an extremely long period, but except for a few individuals, nobody was reformed. At last, Noah prayed for the destruction of his community. Thereupon, such a disastrous flood set in that even the mountain tops could not provide the people with safe havens. Though this incident took place in relation to a prophet, there is solace in this for the common man also. It shows that those who make mischief in this world do not enjoy absolute freedom to do whatever they like, while one who espouses the cause of Truth is not all alone in this world. One who identifies himself with Truth, to the extent that he becomes the representative of Truth in the world, does not remain alone in this life, for God becomes his supporter; and who can overpower one who is supported by God?

In these verses two Israelite prophets have been mentioned—One David (Dawud) and the other, his son, Soloman (Sulayman). God had bestowed upon them the capability to settle human problems and take right decisions about them. The Prophet David used to offer prayers to God so eloquently that even the mountains and the birds would join in with him. Moreover, God also told him how to make use of iron. It was the prophets of God who taught man how to pray to his Lord and praise Him. But it appears from these verses that other important things also came to be properly known to man through the prophets: for instance, the principles of social justice and the use of minerals and metals. Indeed, primary knowledge of every important thing in relation to life was probably granted to man through their good graces alone.

Here the taming of the winds means making navigation on the seas a possibility, for in ancient times ocean travel was revolutionised when man invented ships with sails. The sails were in fact a means of harnessing the winds and performed the function of engines for the ships of those days. The invention of ships with sales made the oceans not only navigable, but also suitable for transporting heavy cargo. This gives an indication that man was taught the science of navigation on the seas through the prophets. Besides this, a group of jinn was made subservient to the Prophet Solomon (Sulayman). They used to execute for him large welfare projects which could not be done by ordinary men. In the modern machine age, such enormous tasks of human welfare are performed by machines. Before the machine age, in order to facilitate the performance of major projects, God had made the jinn subordinate to His prophets.

God provides examples differing in kind and of the highest order through His prophets, the purpose being to give people a set of ideals. One of these examples is that of the Prophet Job (Ayyub). Job was an Israelite prophet probably some time in the ninth century B.C. According to the Bible, he was initially very rich. He was blessed with farms, cattle, houses, children, etc., to such an extent that it was said that nobody was his peer in the entire east. In spite of this, however, Job was a very grateful and faithful person. His life set an example of how a person may remain humble and modest, in spite of being blessed with great wealth and honour. But, Satan reversed the lesson to be learned from this situation. He managed to convince people that Job’s extraordinary reverence for God was on account of the extraordinary blessings that had been showered on him. If he were to be deprived of these blessings,—so Satan maintained—his entire gratefulness would vanish. God thereupon set another example through him. Job’s cattle died, his farms were destroyed, his children died and even his body was afflicted with a disease. All his friends and relatives left him, except his wife who remained with him. But Job reconciled himself with God’s decision. He exercised the utmost patience. In the words of the Bible: ‘Then Job, tore his robe and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said:Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job did not sin, nor did he charge God with wrongdoing.’ (Job, 1:20-22). When Job showed so much patience and gratefulness, not only was a befitting reward set apart for him in the Hereafter, but his circumstances in the world were also changed. ‘Then God gave him double of what he had before.’ (Job:42:12). This very incident is thus figuratively described in the Prophet Muhammad’s saying: ‘When God changed the days of Job again, He sent a shower of golden grass-hoppers on him.’

Ishmael (Isma‘il) was the Prophet Abraham’s son. Some commentators (of the Quran) have held that Idris is the prophet who has been mentioned in the Bible by the name of Enoch. Similarly, Dhul Kifl is perhaps that prophet who has been mentioned in the Bible by the name of Hizti-El. The prophets are refered to as patience personified. The reason for this is that the root of all God-worshipping actions is patience. Patience means abstaining from reaction. A person who is unable to refrain from reaction can never maintain himself on the path of the God-favoured life in this world of trial. The fact is that patience is the door leading to all God’s mercies, in this world as well as in the life after death.

Jonah (Yunus) was sent as a prophet to Nineveh, an ancient city of Iraq. At that time, Nineveh’s population was just over one hundred thousand. For a long time, he invited the community to accept the unity of God and the Hereafter, but they were not ready to do so. Now, if any community remains adamant about their denial of a prophet, even after having had the divine message conveyed to them to the fullest possible extent, then God’s way is to ask the prophet to leave the town and thereafter the community is subjected to punishment (in the shape of some disaster). But Jonah himself felt that the time had come for him to go, and he went away, leaving his community without waiting for God’s command to do so. He left the city and, reaching the sea coast, he boarded a boat. After setting sail, the boat started sinking. People thought that some slave who had fled from his master was on the boat. According to an old tradition, the solution to this problem was to discover the slave and cast him out. When lots were drawn, the name of Jonah came up and he was thrown overboard. At that moment a big fish (probably a sperm whale) appeared and swallowed him. The fish kept him in its stomach, then at God’s command, ejected him and cast him up on the coast. There he recovered his health and returned to his community. A prophet had to face this fate simply because he left his dawah mission before its completion. Then one can imagine the fate of those successors of the prophet who have been neglectful and completely unmindful of the task of spreading God’s word.

Prophets are those on whom God has bestowed His special Grace. A most prominent personal characteristic of theirs is that their endeavours are directed not towards the attainment of worldly goals but towards the attainment of things that are valuable from the viewpoint of the Hereafter. They have discovered the Majesty of God to the extent that in their eyes He is everything and nothing else matters. In every circumstance they opt for the path of modesty and humility. These qualities were found in full measure in Zachariah (Zakariyya) and other prophets. On this account, God blessed them with His special grace. Common believers too will be entitled to God’s succour and His blessings, provided that they possess the aforesaid qualities.