59 – ‘Abd Allah narrated to us; he said: al-Hasan ibn Yahya ibn Kathir al-‘Anbari narrated to me; he said: Muhammad ibn Kathir al-San‘ani narrated to us, from Makhlad ibn Husayn ibn Abi Bakr ibn al-Fadl, from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Ziyad ibn An‘um, who said:
Allah revealed to one of the prophets of the Children of Israel, whose name was Armiyā (Jeremiah):
“Stand in the midst of your people; they have hearts with which they do not understand, eyes with which they do not see, and ears with which they do not hear.
Ask them how they found the outcome of obeying Me, and ask them how they found the outcome of disobeying Me. Ask them: Has anyone ever been wretched because he obeyed Me, or has anyone ever been happy because he disobeyed Me?
Even cattle remember their homelands and yearn to return to them, yet these people have abandoned the command by which I honoured them and have sought honour through means that do not confer it.
As for their kings, they have rejected My favour; and as for their rabbis, they have not benefited from the portion of My wisdom they know. They have stored up evil in their breasts and trained their tongues to lie.
By My might and majesty, I will surely stir up against them armies whose faces they do not recognise, whose languages they do not understand, and who will show no mercy to their tears. I shall loose upon them the cavalry of Rāmāsiyā, troops massed like clouds; the gear of its horsemen looks like falcons, and the flutter of its banners is like the wings of eagles. They will leave inhabited land a ruin and thriving villages a wilderness.
Woe to Ilyā’ and its inhabitants! How I shall hand them over to captivity and humble them with slaughter! I will replace, after their love of weddings, the crashing of skulls; I will exchange, after their wealth and honour, abject humiliation, and after their satiety, hunger. I will make their flesh dung upon the earth and their bones bleach in the sun.
⦗55⦘ That prophet said, ‘My Lord, You will destroy an entire nation and lay waste to this city, yet they are the descendants of Your close friend Abraham, the nation of Your chosen servant Moses, and the people of Your prophet David. Which nation can feel secure from Your plotting after this nation, and which city… can be safe with You after this city?’
Allah revealed to him: ‘I honoured Abraham, Moses, and David only because of their obedience to Me; had they disobeyed Me, I would have made them dwell in the abodes of the sinners.
The generations before you felt shame in disobeying Me—until the generation in which you live. They now flaunt their disobedience to Me on the mountain-tops, beneath the shade of the trees, and in the hollows of the valleys.
When I saw that, I commanded the sky and it became a plate of iron over them; and I commanded the earth and it became a sheet of copper—no sky pours down rain and no earth brings forth produce. If the sky lets fall anything, it is only by My mercy and compassion for the beasts; and if the earth causes anything to sprout, the locusts, grasshoppers, and beetles are set loose upon it. Should they harvest something in that interval and store it in their houses, its blessing is stripped away. Then they call upon Me, but I do not answer them.’”