Among the prophets between David and Zakariah is Isaiah (pbuh),
Ibn Amoz (Amisiah). According to Muhammad Ibn Ishaaq, Isaiah (pbuh) appeared
before Zakariah (pbuh) and Yahya (John the Baptist) (pbuh). He is among those
who prophesied about Isa (Jesus) (pbuh) and Muhammad (pbuh). The king during his
time was called Hezekiah (Hazkia). He listened and was obedient to Isaiah in
what he advised him to do and prohibit for the good of the state. Affairs took
momentum among the Israelites. The king became sick with an infected foot. While
he was sick, King Sennacherib (Sinharib) of Babylon advanced towards Jerusalem
with sixty thousand men.
The people were greatly terrified. The King asked Isaiah: "What
did Allah reveal to you regarding Sennacherib and his army?" He replied: "He has
not yet revealed anything to me." Then the revelation came down for King
Hezekiah to appoint a successor, as he wished, because his end was at hand. When
Isaiah told him this, the king turned to the qibla (the direction faced in
prayer); he prayed, glorified Allah, invoked Him, and wept. Weeping and invoking
Allah the All-Powerful and majestic with a sincere heart, trust and patience, he
said: "O Lord of lords, and God of gods! O, Benevolent and Merciful One Whom
neither sleep nor nodding can overpower, remember me for my deeds and my just
judgment over the children of Israel; and all that was from You, and You know it
better than I do, my open acts and my secrets are with You."
Allah answered his prayers had compassion on him. He revealed to
Isaiah to tell him the glad tidings that He had compassion for his weeping and
would extend his life for a further fifteen years and save him from the enemy,
Sennacherib. When Isaiah told this to Hezekiah, his disease was healed. Evil and
sadness departed, and he fell prostrate, saying: "O Lord, it is You Who grants
kingship to whomsoever You wish and dethrones whomsoever You wish and elevates
whomsoever You wish and degrades whomsoever You wish, Knower of the unseen and
the evident. And lo! You are the First and the Last; the Manifest and the
Perceived; You grant mercy and answer the prayers of the troubled ones."
When he raised his head, Allah revealed to Isaiah to command the
king to extract the water of the fig and apply it to his sore, and he would be
whole and cured. He did so and was cured.
Then Allah sent death upon the army of Sennacherib. In the
morning they were all corpses, except Sennacherib and five of his companions,
among them Nebuchadnezzar (Bukhtanasar). The king of Israel immediately sent for
them, put them in shackles and displayed them in the land for seventy days to
spite and insult them. Every day each of them was fed a loaf of barley bread;
after seventy days he confined them in prison.
Allah then revealed to Isaiah that the king should send them
back to their country so that they might warn their people what would happen to
them. When they returned, Sennacherib gathered his people and told them what had
happened to them. The priests and magicians said to him: "We told you about
their Lord and their prophets, but you did not listen to us. It is a nation
which, with their God, nobody can overcome." So, Sennacherib was afraid of
Allah. He died seven years later.
Ibn Ishaaq also reported that when King Hezekiah of Israel died,
the Israelites' condition deteriorated; there was political confusion, and their
wickedness increased. Isaiah preached to them what Allah revealed to him,
directing them to righteousness and warning them of Allah's severe punishment.
His preaching made him their enemy and they decided to kill him, so he escaped
from them.
Ibn Ishaaq also reported an Israelite interpolation which said
that when Isaiah was passing by a tree, it opened, and he entered therein; but
Satan saw him and held onto the loop of his garment so that it stuck out. When
they saw it, they brought a saw and sawed the tree, and him with it. Indeed,
from Allah we come and to him we return.
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