Ala-Maududi
(37:123) Surely, Elias too was among the Messengers.[70]
70. The Prophet Elias (peace be upon him) was from among the Israelite Prophets. He has been
mentioned only twice in the Quran, here and in Surah Al-Anaam, Ayat 85. The present-day scholars
have determined his period between 875 and 850 B.C. He was an inhabitant of Gilead, which in
ancient days was the territory now under the northern districts of the modern state of Jordan,
to the south of the River Yarmuk. In the Bible he has been mentioned as Elijah the Tishbite.
Here is briefly his life story.
After the death of the Prophet Solomon (peace be upon him) the Israelite kingdom was broken up
into two parts mainly due to the unworthiness of his son, Rehoboam. One part which consisted of
Jerusalem and southern Palestine remained with the descendants of the Prophet David (peace be
upon him), while in the second, which comprised northern Palestine, an independent state by the
name of Israel was established with Samaria as its capital. Although conditions in both the
states were very bad, the state of Israel, from the very beginning, followed the path of
depravity due to which the evils of polytheism and idolworship and tyranny and wickedness went
on increasing and multiplying in it endlessly; so much so that when Ahab, the king of Israel,
married Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Sidon (Lebanon), the mischief reached its
extremity. Under the influence of this polytheistic princess Ahab himself became a polytheist.
He built a temple and altar to Baal in Samaria, tried his very best to introduce and popularize
Baal-worship instead of the worship of One God, and consequently, offerings began to be made
publicly in the name of Baal in the Israelite towns and cities.
This was the time when the Prophet Elijah (peace be upon him) appeared on the scene. He came from
Gilead and gave Ahab a notice that in consequence of his sins, the land of Israel would go
without rain, even without the dew. This word of the Prophet of Allah proved to be literally
true and there fell no rain in Israel for thee and a half years. At last, Ahab came to his
senses and he sought the Prophet Elijah‘s help. But Elijah, before praying for the rain, thought
it necessary to make the distinction between Allah, Lord of the worlds, and Baal plain before
the people of Israel. For this purpose, he commanded that the priests of Baal would make an
offering in the name of their deity, and he also would make an offering in the name of Allah,
Lord of the worlds, in front of the assembled people. Then the one whose offering would be
consumed by a fire from heaven, without the agency of the human hand, the truth of his deity
would be established beyond doubt. Ahab accepted this proposal. Thus, 850 of the priests of Baal
assembled on Mt. Carmel to answer the challenge given by the Prophet Elijah. In this encounter
the Baal worshipers were defeated, and the Prophet Elijah proved that Baal was a false god, and
the real God is the One God alone who had appointed him as His Prophet. After this, Elijah got
the priests of Baal slaughtered in front of the same assembly of the people; then he prayed for
the rain, and his prayer was immediately answered and the whole land of Israel was saturated
with water.
But, despite these miracles, Ahab could not shake off the influence of his polytheistic wife.
Jezebel turned hostile to the Prophet Elijah and she hoped that he would be put to death just as
the Baal worshipers had been put to death. Under the circumstances the Prophet Elijah was
compelled to leave the country and he remained lodged in a cave at the foot of Mt. Sinai for
several years. The lamentation that he made to Allah, on this occasion, has been related in the
Bible, in these words:
The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy
prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. (I
Kings, 19: 10).
About the same time Jehoram, the ruler of the Jewish state of Jerusalem, married the daughter of
Ahab, the king of Israel, and under her polytheistic influence the same evils that had spread in
Israel also began to spread in Judah. The Prophet Elijah carried out his prophetic duty again
and wrote a letter to Jehoram, the following words of which have been reported in the Bible:
Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, because thou hast not walked in the ways of
Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah. But hast walked in the way of the
kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to
the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father’s house,
which were better than thyself: Behold, with a great plague will the Lord smite thy people, and
thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods: And thou shalt have great sickness by disease of
thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day. (2 Chronicles, 21:
12-15).
Whatever the Prophet Elijah had prophesied in this letter proved true. First, the kingdom of
Jehoram was destroyed by the external invaders, and the enemies even carried away his wives,
then he himself died of the disease of the bowels.
A few years later the Prophet Elijah again went to Israel and constantly tried hard to bring
Ahab, and after him his son, Ahaziah, to the right path, but the evil that had taken root in the
house of the royal family of Samaria could not be eradicated. At last, due to the curse of the
Prophet the family of Ahab met its doom, and then Allah recalled his Prophet from the world. For
details, see the following books of the Bible: I Kings, chs. 17, 18, 19, 21; 2 Kings, chs. 1, 2;
2 Chronicles, ch. 21.
Ala-Maududi
(37:124) (Call to mind) when he said to his people: “Will you not fear Allah?
There is no commentary by Abul Maududi available for this verse.
Ala-Maududi
(37:125) Do you call upon Baal[71] and forsake the Best of the Creators?
71. Lexically, baal means master, chief and possessor. This word was also used for husband, and
has been used in this sense at several places in the Quran itself, e.g. in (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 228); (Surah An-Nisa, Ayat 127); (Sura
Houd, Ayat 72) and (Surah An-Noor, Ayat
31). However; in the ancient times the Semetic nations used it in the meaning of deity
or lord; they had even given the name of Baal to a special god. The chief male god of the
Phoenicians, in particular, was Baal and their chief goddess was Ashtoreth, his wife. The
scholars differ as to whether Baal meant the sun or Jupiter, and Ashtoreth the moon or Venus. In
any case, historically it is certain that Baal worship was prevalent from Babylon to Egypt
throughout the Middle East, and the polytheistic communities of the Lebanon and Syria and
Palestine, in particular, had become its devotees. When the Israelites settled in Palestine and
Jordan after they came out from Egypt, they started contracting marriage and other social
relations with the polytheistic nations round about them, in violation of the strict prohibitive
injunctions of the Torah, the disease of idolworship began to spread among them, too. According
to the Bible, this moral and religious decline had started appearing among the Israelites soon
after the death of Joshua, son of Nun, who was the first caliph of the Prophet Moses:
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim. And they forsook
the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtoreth. (Judges, 2: 11-13).
And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites and
Hivites, and Jebusites. And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their
daughters to their sons, and served their gods. (Judges, 3: 5-6).
At that time worship of Baal had so deeply affected the Israelites that, according to the Bible,
in one of their habitations a public altar had been built at which offerings were made to Baal.
A God-worshiping Israelite could not bear the sight; so he pulled down the altar one night. Next
morning a great multitude of the people gathered together and demanded that the man who had cast
down the altar be put to death. (Judges, 6:25-32). This evil, at last, was put to an end by
Samuel, Saul and the Prophets David and Solomon (peace be upon them). They not only reformed the
Israelites generally but also eradicated polytheism and idol worship from their kingdom. But
after the death of the Prophet Solomon the mischief was again revived and the Israelite state of
northern Palestine was swept away in the flood of Baal-worship.
Ala-Maududi
(37:126) Allah is your Lord and the Lord of your ancestors of yore.”
There is no commentary by Abul Maududi available for this verse.
Ala-Maududi
(37:127) But they denounced him as a liar, so they will surely be arraigned (for punishment),
There is no commentary by Abul Maududi available for this verse.
Ala-Maududi
(37:128) except Allah’s chosen servants.[72]
72.That is, only those people will be made an exceptionfrom the punishment, who did not belie the
Prophet Elijah(peace be upon him), and whom Allah chose from amongthe nation for His worship.
Ala-Maududi
(37:129) We preserved a good name for him among posterity.[73]
73. The treatment that the Israelites meted out to the Prophet Elijah (peace be upon him) in his
life has been referred to above, but after his death they became so enamored of him that they
held him in the highest esteem and reverence after the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him). They
formed the belief that Elijah (peace be upon him) had been taken up alive into heaven by a
whirlwind (2 Kings, ch. 2), and that he will come back to the world again. Thus, in Malachi
(O.T.) it is written:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord. (4: 5).
At the time the Prophets John and Jesus (peace be upon them) appeared, the Jews were awaiting the
advent of these three men: the Prophet Elias, the Christ and “that Prophet” (i.e. Muhammad).
When the ministry of the Prophet John began and he slatted baptizing the people, the Jews sent
priests to him to ask, “Are you the Christ?” And he said that he was not the Christ. Then they
asked, “Are you Elias?” And he answered that he was not Elias; then they asked, “Are you that
Prophet?” And he answered that he was not “that Prophet” either. Thereupon they said, “If you
are neither the Christ, nor Elias, nor that Prophet, why do you then baptize?” (John, 1: 19-26).
Afterwards when the name of the Prophet Jesus spread among the people, the Jews thought that
perhaps the Prophet Elias had come. (Mark, 6: 14-15). Even among the disciples of Jesus
themselves the idea was common that Elias the Prophet would come, but Jesus removed their
misunderstanding, saying, Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him
whatever they listed. Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist
and not of Elias who had appeared eight hundred years earlier. (Matthew. 11: 14; and 17:
10-131).
Ala-Maududi
(37:130) Peace be upon Elias.[74]
74. The words in the original are: Salam-un ala El-ya-sin. Some commentators say that El-ya-sin
is the other name of the Prophet Elias, just as Abraham is the other name of the Prophet
Ibrahim; some others say that different versions of the Hebrew names were prevalent among the
Arabs, e.g. one and the same angel was called Michal and Michail and Michain. The same has been
the case with the name of the Prophet Elias also. In the Quran itself the same mountain has been
called Toor Sina and Toor Sinin.
