وَإِدْرِيسَ

6:87; 38:49.

38:49.

Commentary:

For Ishmael see 2:128, 130; and for Idris 19:58.

The identity of Dhul-Kifl is wrapped in uncertainty. Muslim commentators of the Quran identify him with several persons, chiefly with Biblical Prophets. But the Prophet known by this name appears to be Ezekiel who is called Dhul-Kifl by the Arabs. There seems to exist a close resemblance between the words ذوالکفل and حزقیل (Ezekiel), both in form and meaning, the former word meaning "possessed of an abundant portion" and the latter "God gives strength." Thus the two words seem to possess an identical significance. Rodwell says that Ezekiel is called Dhul-Kifl by the Arabs.

According to Karsten Niebuhr, a little town called Kefil which is situated midway between Najaf and Huila (Babylon) contains the shrine of Ezekiel which is still visited by Jewish pilgrims. He is further of the view that Kifl is the Arabic form of Ezekiel. The Jews too regard Ezekiel as Dhul-Kifl (Enc. of Islam under "Dhul-Kifl" and Carsten Niebuhr’s "Travels through Arabia…" ii, 265). See also 38:49.

Born probably about 622 B.C. in a priestly family Dhul-Kifl had spent the first twenty-five years of his life in Judah. In 592 B.C. at the age of thirty he received the Call and began to preach against idol worship and the injustice and immorality of his people. In the meantime, Babylon had taken the place of Assyria as the dominant power in Western Asia and Judah had acknowledged its over lordship. But Jehoiakim, the King of Judah under the influence of his evil councillors revolted against the authority of Babylon, thus drawing upon himself the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar who successfully besieged Jerusalem in 597 and carried into exile many of her leading citizens, including Ezekiel and Jehoiachin, a king of three months’ standing—his father Jehoiakim having meanwhile died. Jehoiachin was succeeded by his uncle, Zedekiah, who for a time remained faithful to Babylon, but foolishly depending upon the support of Egypt he renounced his allegiance to Babylon, an act which Ezekiel bitterly resented and denounced as treachery to Yahweh Himself. The result was that Jerusalem was invested by Nebuchadnezzar, and after a siege of eighteen months was destroyed amid horrors untold. The Temple on which such a passion of love had been lavished was reduced to ashes and the people deported to Babylon (586 B.C.).

Such was the situation which confronted Ezekiel. In 592 B.C. five years before the downfall he had foreseen it and with some detail had predicted it and had warned the Jews of the impending disaster. The first terrific blow by Babylon in 597 B.C. had left the Jews unconvinced of the probability of their imminent political extinction—a probability which to Ezekiel was a certainty as clear as noonday. But as Ezekiel foretold the destruction of the Jews so did he predict their restoration. The picture drawn by him of the salvation in store for his people is as gracious and brilliant as his forecast of their downfall had been stern. His prophecy of the restoration and return to Jerusalem was based upon a vision which he had seen (Ezekiel, ch. 37) and to which a reference is to be found in the Quran also (2:260). Ezekiel’s book is full of prophecies. He foretold the destruction and eventual restoration and rehabilitation of the Jews. He also made a prophecy about the great rise of Christian nations of the west and of communism and a prophecy about the equally great decline and downfall of both (chapters 38:39).

But he did not live long to see the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, because he died in captivity in 570 B.C. at the age of 52. From the Book of Ezekiel it appears that he was a great admirer of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon. According to him Nebuchadnezzar was justified in taking the severe steps that he took against Egypt, Tyre and the Israelites. The destruction and sack of Jerusalem was the result of the Israelites’ own iniquity and wickedness. He, along with the Prophet Jeremiah, was in favour

of supporting the Babylonian government and for this support both these Prophets were condemned as traitors by the Jewish priests of the time, just as Jesus was condemned as a traitor for supporting the Roman government in the time of Titus, and the Promised Messiah in our own time was condemned as a traitor and a sycophant for preferring British rule in India to that of the Sikhs. Ezekiel and Daniel are called the Prophets of the Exile (Holy Bible edited by C.I. Scofield and Peak’s "Commentary of the Bible").