Sacred Texts
Islam
Index
Previous
Next
The Death Zacharias and John
They say that when Mary the daughter of Amram got pregnant with Jesus (PUT)
and her pregnancy showed up, they accused Zacharias and the Satan made
them imagine and induced them to believe so and made them think truely
that the one who made her pregnant was Zacharias because no one can enter
her place except of him because he is her guardian. This matter was carried
in their hearts and they never saw a woman that gets pregnant without a
man, so the silly folks of the jews chased him until he left Jerusalem.
When he went out, the evil got even greater and the charge got bigger in
the hearts of the bad people and they talked about the sin of Zacharias,
so their silly folks chased him, and he went to a valley and they followed
him, and when he was in the middle of it he saw a tree so he went to it
and it opened up for him and he went inside it and then it closed upon
him, and then the Satan came chasing him with the others until he reached
the tree and he said to them: he is inside it here, and he put his hand
on the position of his (Zacharias's) heart, so he ordered them to saw it
and so they did and he was sawn with the tree from the middle, and then
they left him apart. Then God sent the angels to wash him up and pray upon
him for three days before being buried, and then the good people of the
Israelites took him and buried him, and the details about that shall come
later by God's will. Then it became so great in the heart of John for losing
his father by their deeds and for the charge that he was innocent of and
such a charge was something so far away from him, and his death was one
of the greatest test from God to John. Then he took care of the matters
after his father and started to speech among the Israelites and he told
them that the troubles of the good people founded because of the sins of
the Israelites and he promised them with the relief by the coming of the
Messiah (PUH) after some twenty years after his speech with them.
It is narrated that at the time of John ben Zacharias, there was a
tyrant immoral king, and there was a woman of wisdom but immoral as well
that used to come to him a lot until she got older and then she prepared
her daughter for the king and she said to her: I want to give you to the
king, and when he gets what he wants of you and then asks you about your
needs, tell him that my need is to kill John ben Zacharias, and so she
did and told him to kill John ben Zacharias, and so he sent messengers
to John (PUH) and they brought him and then he ordered to bring a tub made
of gold and he slained him in it, and it got full with blood and then they
poured it on the ground and it started to boil, and the people came and
buried it with sands but it gets even higher than the sand and so on until
all the sand turned into a great hill, and a hundred years passed and it
kept boiling over the sand, and when it was the time of Nebuchadnezzar
and he saw the blood, he wondered and asked about it but no one answered
him until an old man came and he asked him about it and the man answered:
my father told me by the way of my grandfather that this is the blood of
John ben Zacharias and his story with the king was so and so..etc, and
then Nebuchadnezzar said: no crime then, I shall kill upon it until it
calms down, and he killed for it seventy thousand, until the blood calmed
down. As attributed to Al-Sâdiq (PUH): if God wanted to make a victory
for His viceroys and faithful people, He shall do it by the most devilish
people of His creatures, and if He wanted to make a victory for Himself,
He shall do it by using His viceroys, and He made a victory for John ben
Zacharias by Nebuchadnezzar, and the victory made for Himself is like His
victory by Solomon ben David (PUH) and by Ðul-Qarnain (PUH) and by
the prince of believers (PUH) with the prophet (PUH) and after him (the
prophet), and like His victory that shall be made by the awaited Al-Mahdi
ben Al-Hasan (PUH) may our souls be a ransom for him, and may peace be
upon him and upon his fathers the purified (PUT).
It is narrated by the way of Al-Bâqir (PUH): the killer of the
she-camel of Sâleh was a blue man and a son of adultery, and the
killer of John ben Zacharias was a son of adultery, and the killer of the
prince of believers, `Ali (PUH) was a son of adultery, and the tribe of
Murâd [the tribe that the killer of the prince of believers came
from] said that they knew no father for him, and the killer of Al-Husain
ben `Ali (PUH) was a son of adultery, and the prophets and the son of the
prophets were always killed by the sons of adultery..etc. They said about
the reasons of killing John ben Zacharias many tales but the most probable
is what we've mentioned before for this is what we found in our resources,
and about giving his head to a prostitute of the Israelites as it was mentioned
in the narrations told by the Household (PUT) does not oppose what we've
mentioned before about the core of the matter and the details are only
known by God and from Him comes the guidance. As narrated also by Al-Bâqir
(PUH) about God's saying "we have given the same name to none before (him)"
he (PUH) said: he is John ben Zacharias (PUH) and no one before him had
the same name, and Al-Husain also no one before him had the same name,
and he (PUH) said: and the sky cried for them for forty mornings and so
did the sun and its cry was to rise in red and set in red, and they say
about the crying of the sky it is in fact the cry of the angels, and the
tidings about the cry of heavens and earth and the sun and moon are many
and this is not the place to mention them.
It is mentioned by `Ali ben Al--Husain (Al-Sajjâd) (PUH) that
he said: we went out with my father Al-Husain ben `Ali (PUH) and whenever
he settled down or moved he mentioned John ben Zacharias (PUH), and one
day he said: it is for the easiness of life for God that the head of John
was given to a prostitute of the Israelites. And it is copied from the
awaited viceroy, Al-Mahdi (PUH) may our souls be a ransom for him, when
he was asked about the interpretation of: Kaf Ha Ya A'in Sad(Mariam:1),
he answered: these letters are of the knowledgement of the unknown that
God showed to his slave Zacharias and then He told them to His beloved
Muhammad (PUH), and it was that when Zacharias mentioned Muhammad, `Ali,
Fâtimah and Al-Hasan (PUT), his troubles would seem to fade away,
and whenever he mentioned Al-Husain (PUH) he would desire to cry and his
chest seems to get narrower and his heart is shrinked, and one day he said:
O Lord, what is happening to me whenever I mention four names of them I
get enjoyment and whenever I mention Al-Husain (PUH) my eyes would be filled
with tears? So God then told him the story and said: Kaf Ha Ya A'in Sad,
so Kaf is Karbala, Ha is Halâk [Arabic: Halâk=Death] of the
Household, Ya is Yazeed the one who wronged Al-Husain (PUH), and A`in is
his (Al-Husain) thirst [Arabic: `Atash=Thirst], and Sad is his patience
[Arabic: Sabr=Patience], and when Zacharias heard that he remained in his
temple for three days and didn't allow anyone to get inside and started
to mourn and cry, and he lamented for Al-Husain by saying: O Lord, do You
make the best of the creation suffer the loss of his son? O Lord shall
You make `Ali and Fâtimah suffer with such an adversity? Then he
said: God give me a son as a gift for me and make me love him so much when
I become so old and then make me suffer his loss like You would make your
beloved Muhammad suffer the loss of his son, so then God gave to him John
and made him suffer his loss, and the pregnancy time for John was six months,
and so it was for Al-Husain (PUH), and this is something about their conditions
(PUT) and the situation doesn't help to give more than that, and my success
is all by God and upon Him I shall depend.
Next: Jesus The Son of Mary (PUH)