Iliyā and all who dwell within it—I shall abase them for slaughter and hand them over to captivity. The din of wedding drums will be turned into screams; the neighing of horses into the howls of wolves; the lofty balconies of palaces into lairs for wild beasts; the glow of lamps into the glare of swirling dust. Their honor will be reduced to humiliation, their ease to servitude. I shall replace the perfume that once clung to their women with the smell of dust, and their gentle tread upon carpets with stumbling over rough ground.
I will make their bodies manure for the earth and their bones bared to the sun; I shall trample them with every sort of torment. Then I shall command the sky and it will become a plate of iron, and the earth a slab of copper. Should rain fall, the soil will yield nothing—and if anything manages to sprout, it will be only by My mercy for the beasts. I will withhold the rain in sowing season and send it in harvest season; if they plant during that time I will set a blight upon it, and if something escapes the blight I shall strip it of blessing. If they call upon Me I will not answer, if they ask of Me I will not give; if they weep I will not pity them, and if they humble themselves I will turn My face away from them.” (Ibn ʿAsākir narrated this wording.)
Ishāq ibn Bishr said:
Idrīs related to us from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said:
When Allah the Exalted sent Jeremiah to the Children of Israel—at a time when grave offenses abounded among them, for they committed sins and killed the prophets—Nebuchadnezzar coveted their land. Allah cast the desire into his heart and stirred him to march against them, for He intended to exact vengeance on them through him.
Allah revealed to Jeremiah: “I shall destroy the Children of Israel and take retribution from them. Stand upon the Rock of the Sacred House; My command and revelation will reach you there.”
Jeremiah stood, tore his garments, scattered ashes on his head, and fell prostrate, saying, “My Lord, would that my mother had never given birth to me, now that You have made me the last of the prophets of the Children of Israel, so that the ruin of the Holy House and the destruction of the Children of Israel should occur in my time.”
He was told, “Raise your head.” When he lifted it he wept and said, “My Lord, whom will You set over them?”
He answered, “Worshipers of fire—people who neither fear My punishment nor hope for My reward.
Rise, O Jeremiah, and listen to My revelation; I shall inform you about yourself and about the Children of Israel: Before I created you I chose you; before I formed you in your mother’s womb I sanctified you; before I brought you forth from her belly I purified you; before you reached maturity I appointed you as a prophet; before you attained full strength I selected you. For a momentous task I have singled you out. Therefore stay with the king, support him, and guide him.”
Thus Jeremiah remained with the king, directing him and bringing him revelation from Allah, until transgressions multiplied and the people forgot how Allah had saved them from their enemy Sennacherib and his armies.
Then Allah revealed to Jeremiah: “Rise and recite to them what I command you; remind them of My favor upon them and make them aware of their deeds.”
Jeremiah said, “My Lord, I am weak unless You strengthen me; powerless unless You convey the message through me; prone to error unless You guide me; forsaken unless You help me; and abased unless You dignify me.”
Allah the Exalted replied, “Do you not know that every affair proceeds from My will, that both creation and command belong entirely to Me, and that …”