Prophet Jeremiah | The Warner Who Foretold Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

(Cite: Hamdani, Mufti Shah Rafi Uddin & Khan, Dr. (Mufti) Imran. (2018), Prophet Jeremiah , Encyclopedia of Muhammad , Seerat Research Center, Karachi, Pakistan, Vol. 1, Pg. 211-215. )

Jeremiah , Hebrew Yirmeyahu, Latin Vulgate Jeremias, ¹ was the Son of Hilkiah and a prophet in the days of Josiah and his sons. ² It is also said that Jeremiah was Al Khidr , but that report is weak and is rejected. ³ His description is not given directly in the Holy Quran. However, it is reported in the Bible and the Muslim exegesis and literature.

The name Jeremiah means "Raised-up/Appointed of the Lord.” According to the Book of Jeremiah, he prophesied in Jerusalem from the thirteenth year of King Josiah of Judah through the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, a period of 40 years from roughly 626-586 B.C.E. After this, he continued his prophetic ministry from exile in Egypt for some time. The Book of Jeremiah identifies his pupil Baruch, the son of Neriah, as the loyal scribe who transcribed much of his work and probably provided many of the biographical details of his life, which is better documented than any other Hebrew prophet. ⁴

Traditions About Jeremiah

Details regarding Jeremiah are mentioned in the Bible, but we cannot take it for granted since the text of the Bible has been tampered. Christian scholars have also tried to associate disrespectful things with the prophets. Hence, fewer traditions, which have been screened through are mentioned below:

Abdullah Bin Abdur Rehman states that there is a tradition where Jeremiah asked Allah:

"O Lord! Which of Your slaves is more lovable to you?" He answered: "Those who remember Me most away from their remembrance of My creatures; those who are not thinking of death, nor speak of eternal living; those who, when they are allured by the riches of this world, despise them, and when they lose them are happy; those have My love, indeed, and I shall reward them more than they desired." ⁵

As per another tradition, Wahab Bin Munabbah reported that when sins increased, Allah revealed to an Israelite prophet called Amos (Mamia) that he should stand before his people and admonish them that they are hard-headed, blind, and deaf. Moreover, he should tell them that:

"I (Allah) remember their forefathers, and that makes Me Merciful with them. And ask them about My bounty: can any of them benefit from disobeying Me? And does any suffer who obeys Me? The beasts remember their countries, and return to them, but those people have forgotten why I have favoured them for the sake of their forefathers, and have misused their generosity. Your cries have forgotten My tenets, and your reciters worship other than Me, and your women have not learned a useful lesson, and their rulers have lied against My messengers and me. Their hearts and mouths are full of lies. And I swear by My majesty and power that I will send upon them people with strange tongues, and strange faces, merciless in the face of their tears; and I shall send them a tyrannous cruel king, with an army like clouds, and followers like storms, and their flags like the wings of eagles, and the paces of their horses like the decades of a journey. They will return buildings to dust and leave the villages a wilderness. Woe betides it and its inhabitants if they shout and invoke! I will not look at their faces. And will impose slaves upon them, and the cries of their women will rise, and the neighing of the horses and the barking of the wolves will boom, and the grand palaces of the wealthy and honourable will be the house of animals. All the surroundings will be covered in dust and cries, people will suffer from dishonour after esteem, after all the blessing and lavishness they will live in sheer humiliation and will transform their women from fragrance to filth, and the rival will capture their ease. These bodies will be made the weeds, and their bones will be set to the warmth of the sun. And will be trampled under such agony, then I will order the sky to change to that of iron and the earth to be tough as brass neither the sky will rain, nor the land will cultivate if I produce something it will just be the kindness for the animals. ⁶

The Character Of Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah gives us not only a fuller account of the life and career of its author than do the books of the other prophets, but we also learn more about his own inner and personal life and feelings than we do of Isaiah or any other prophet. From this source, we learn that he was, by nature, gentle and tender in his feelings, and sympathetic. God made him strong and firm and immovable like iron for his mission. ⁷

Jeremiah Appeals On Behalf Of His People

According to Ka'b Jeremiah said:

"By your grace, I have come to learn before You; how is it possible when I am weak and powerless, to speak before You? But by Your mercy, You have spared me to this day. None fears this punishment more than I do, because I have been among them while they disobeyed You, yet without it changing me. If You punish me, I deserve it, and if You spare me, I expect it of Your kindness. O Lord, You are Our lord! Are you going to destroy their country when it is the place of Your prophets the place of Your revelations? O Lord the Exalted and Blessed by Your Name! For You to destroy this mosque and all pertaining to it, and those houses which landed Your praise! O Lord, for You to kill these people and punish them, when they are the issue of Abraham Your faithful friend and David Your chosen one! O Lord, which village will escape Your punishment then? Which worshipper will escape Your vengeance after the children of Your faithful friend Abraham?" He on High said: "He who disobeys Me will not detest My punishment. I had honoured them because they obeyed Me. If they disobeyed me, I would place them among the disobedient, until I rescue them out of My Mercy." "O Lord, You made friends with Abraham and for his sake you preserved us; and Moses You did save, and he asked you to save us and not abandon us, nor throw us to the enemy”.

And so Allah revealed to him: "O Jeremiah, I made you honored in your mother's womb and have chosen you to this day. If your people had protected the orphans, the widows, the helpless, and the stranded, I would have been their Sustainer. But I complain of the children of Israel to you. I have been the kind shepherd to them; but I honor only those who honor and despise those who despise My command. Those before them feared Me, but these people displayed their obedience of Me in the temple, market place, hill and mountain tops, and under the shade of trees until the heavens wondered at them before Me, and the earth and the mountains, including the beasts, wondered and wailed. All that had no effect on them; nor was the Book useful to them." ⁸

Jeremiah’s People Refuse To Listen

Nevertheless, the prophet did his duty and conveyed the message of Allah to the people, but they reacted strongly to him, called him a liar and imprisoned him. ⁹ Due to this, Allah sent Nebuchadnezzar upon them. He entered the country with his troops and surrounded the city. When the siege was prolonged, the people surrendered to his rule. They opened the gates, and Nebuchadnezzar’s troops’ streamed in. This is narrated in the Holy Quran as:

فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولَاهُمَا بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلَالَ الدِّيَارِ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَفْعُولًا 5¹⁰

So when the first of those promises came, We sent upon you Our extremely militant bondmen – they therefore entered the cities pursuing you; and this was a promise that had to be fulfilled.

He ruled them savagely and punished them cruelly. He killed a third of them, captured a third, and spared the lame and the old; then he trampled upon them with the horses, demolished their houses, drew the youth along, and stood the women in the marketplaces as guards. Nebuchadnezzar entered Jerusalem with his troops and then marched into Syria. He killed the children of Israel until he almost exterminated them. He returned to Babylon with booty in the form of treasure and men, among them young princes and children of priests numbering ninety thousand. The land of Jerusalem was then polluted, and the sacrificing of swine was put into practice.

Meeting Of Nebuchadnezzar And Jeremiah

Wahab Bin Munbah ؓ states that when Nebuchadnezzar did all the destruction which he could, he was told that there was an individual among them who had foretold the people about this destruction. He had warned them that a king would come who would slaughter the men, women, children, burn the Torah and destroy every thing. Still, the people didn’t pay heed to these warnings. Instead, they claimed that Jeremiah was lying, so they imprisoned him. After listening to this, Nebuchadnezzar ordered the people to acquit Jeremiah . When Jeremiah was released, Nebuchadnezzar arranged a meeting with him. When they were face to face, Nebuchadnezzar asked: Did you warn them about this destruction? Jeremiah said: Yes. He asked: How did you know? Jeremiah replied: Allah revealed it on to me, but the people didn’t believe it. He asked: Did they manhandle imprison you? Jeremiah said: Yes. Upon hearing this, Nebuchadnezzar said the individuals who deny the God and His messenger are the worst among humans. ¹¹

Lastly, he asked Jeremiah if he would like to come with him so that he may honour Jeremiah or would he prefer to stay in his land. Jeremiah said that he would like to stay in his land and continue to fulfil the trust of Allah. Hence, Nebuchadnezzar let him stay, entrusted the country to him, and went back to his own country. ¹²

Jeremiah Sleeps For 100 Years, Jerusalem Is Renovated

When Nebuchadnezzar left Jerusalem, it was in pieces. Jeremiah looked at the ruins and wondered how this city could be prosperous again. Hashim Ibn Al-Kalbi reports the next set of events. He states that Allah revealed the following to Jeremiah :

"I am going to reconstruct Jerusalem, so go there." He went and found it devastated. He said to himself: "Exalted be Allah! Allah told me to come to this city and that He was reconstructing it. When will Allah rebuild it? And when will He bring it back to life?"

Then he tied his donkey and slept. After a while, he woke up. To him, he had only slept for an hour or so, but in actuality, he had slept for over 100 years. When he got up, he saw that the city which was in ruins before was prosperous again. When Jeremiah saw this miracle, he praised Allah and said:

يُؤْتِي الْحِكْمَةَ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَمَنْ يُؤْتَ الْحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُوتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّا أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ 269¹³

Allah bestows wisdom on whomever He wills, and whoever receives wisdom has received abundant goodness; but none heed advice except men of understanding.

Demise

Jeremiah probably died in Egypt. Whether his countrymen killed him, as tradition says, can, on account of the lack of historical data, be neither affirmed nor denied. But his assassination does not seem wholly impossible. At any rate, his life, even as it had been a continual struggle, ended in suffering. And it was not the least of the tragic events in his life that his chief opponents belonged to the same two classes of which he was a member. The priests fought him because he declared sacrifice to be of little importance, and the prophets because he declared that it was self-interest which prompted them to prophesy good for the people. ¹⁴

• ¹  Encyclopedia Britannica (Online Version): https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeremiah-Hebrew-prophet: Retrieved: 04-08-17
• ²  The Jewish Encyclopedia (Online Version): http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8586-jeremiah Retrieved: 04-08-17
• ³  Abul Fida Ismail Ibne Kathir (2014), Al Bidaayah Wan Nihaayah (From the Beginning to the End, translated by Rafiq Abdur Rahman), Darul Ishaat, Karachi, Pakistan, Vol. 1, Pg. 388.
• ⁴  New World Encyclopedia (Online Version), (2008), http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jeremiah; Retrieved: 04-08-17
• ⁵  Ali Ibn Al Hassan Abu Al Qasim well known as Ibne Asaker (1995), Tareekh e Damishq, Armiyah Bin Haqeea Bin Sabat, Dar Al-Fikar Lil-Taba’at Wal-Nashar Wal-Tauzee’, Egypt, Vol. 8, Pg. 27.
• ⁶  Ali Ibn Al Hassan Abu Al Qasim well known as Ibne Asaker (1995), Tareekh e Damishq, Armiyah Bin Haqeea Bin Sabat, Dar Al-Fikar Lil-Taba’at Wal-Nashar Wal-Tauzee’, Egypt, Vol. 8, Pg. 28-29.
• ⁷  International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Online Version): http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/J/jeremiah-(2).html: Retrieved: 04-08-17
• ⁸  Abul Fida Ismail Ibne Kathir, Stories of the Prophets (Translated by Muhammad Mustapha), Darussalam, Riyadh, Saudia, Pg. 161-162.
• ⁹  Abul Fida Ismail Ibne Kathir (2014), Al Bidaayah Wan Nihaayah (From the Beginning to the End, translated by Rafiq Abdur Rahman), Darul Ishaat, Karachi, Pakistan, Vol. 1, Pg. 389.
• ¹⁰  Holy Quran, Bani Israel (The Descendants of Israel) 17: 5
• ¹¹  Abul Fida Ismail Ibne Kathir, Stories of the Prophets (Translated by Muhammad Mustapha), Darussalam, Riyadh, Saudia, Pg. 162-163.
• ¹²  Abul Fida Ismail Ibne Kathir (2014), Al Bidaayah Wan Nihaayah (From the Beginning to the End, translated by Rafiq Abdur Rahman), Darul Ishaat, Karachi, Pakistan, Vol. 1, Pg. 390.
• ¹³  Holy Quran, Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2: 269
• ¹⁴  The Jewish Encyclopedia (Online Version): http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8586-jeremiah: Retrieved: 05-08-17