The Messengers of God
the story of prophet ilyasa

BRIEF HISTORY OF PROPHET ILYAS A.S.

The prophet Ilyas was one of the messengers of Allah. This fact is stated in the words of Allah the Quran Surat Ash-Shaaffaat verse 123 which means, “And indeed Ilyas really belongs to one of the apostles of’. Not only that, even the prophethood of Ilyas is further strengthened by the mention of the name Ilyas up to four times in the Qur'an, namely in the Letter of Ash Shaafabahat and Surat Al-An’aam.

It is said that the Prophet Ilyas was a prophet who had a good deity with a high level of piety and obeyed the commandments of Allah SWT. But his fear is not directly proportional to the state of society that shirk because there are still many who worship idols.

The prophet Ilyas was commissioned to repair the people who were descendants of the Children of Israel and still had the habit of worshiping idols under the name of the idol of Baal. They live in the city of Balbek, precisely in the Lebanese territory. Allah sent him to teach tawhid to the people.

The Prophet Ilyas was commanded by Allah to invite his people to worship Allah SWT. He never tires of following God's commandments by calling his people to worship God. But this is not easy to do considering that his preaching continues to be opposed and his people continue to worship idols. But he did not break charcoal and remained patient and continued to preach.

One day, He asked his people, “O my people, why do you not fear? Why do you continue to worship Baal and turn away from Allah, Thou and the Lord of your former father?” But the people of the Prophet Ilyas did not speak these words.

Then He continued to say to his people, “Are you not afraid of the punishment of Allah ? You worship the idol of Baal, but only God, the Lord of the worlds, is worthy of the worship of”. Hearing these words, the Children of Israel still ignored the words of the Prophet Ilyas. Instead of despairing of seeing the incident, he remained sincere to preach.

PROPHET ILYAS A.S. HE WAS ASSIGNED TO REPAIR THE ACHLAQ OF BANI ISRAEL

Once upon a time, the people of the Prophet Ilyas lived in pleasure because the economy recovered after the previous drought. But with this pleasure, his people still do not want to thank Allah SWT. Moreover, they returned to disobedience to Allah SWT by continuing to do various deeds and still worship the Idols of the God Ba’l.

Seeing these conditions, He commanded his people by saying to King Ahab,“Hai King Ahab, command all the people of the Children of Israel’il to meet me at Jabal Qarmil. Include also four hundred prophets Ba’l”.

Hearing his words, King Ahab at a glance sent all the people and the prophets of Ba’l to Jabal Qarmil. Then Prophet Ilyas AS loudly exclaimed in front of the crowd, “till when you worship the gods! If God is God, worship Allah SWT! If God is Ba’l, worship Ba’l!”. Hearing these words, the people gathered there remained silent.

Then the Prophet Ilyas AS said: “Among the prophets of God, I am the only one present here, while there are 450 prophets of Ba’l. Let's see who the true God is.

Shortly thereafter the Prophet Ilyas told the prophets of Ba’l to search for a bull and was ordered to slaughter it. After that, he ordered to cut the meat and put it on the fire stove. Then among them and the prophets of Ba’l are not allowed anyone to light a fire.

The prophet Ilyas ordered the prophets of Ba’l to pray to their god, while he prayed to Allah SWT. He wanted to prove that God could turn on the fire to cook the beef. The people agreed to the deal.

At a glance, the prophets of Ba’l began to choose a bull and prepare the beef that had previously been slaughtered. After that they prayed to Ba’l from morning until noon while shouting, “Our answer, Ba’l!”. They pleaded as they danced around the place where the furnace of fire was ready to send fire from the sky. But nothing happened to show up.

Shortly thereafter, the Prophet Ilyas called upon them, “Pray even more loudly to your god, the God Ba’l whom you have considered god all this time”. Hearing his words, the Ba’l prophets began to be provoked to pray even harder. They also perform the ritual by scraping their bodies with swords and spears so that blood spills from their bodies.

THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ACKNOWLEDGED THE PROPHETS OF ILYAS AND BEGAN TO BELIEVE IN ALLAH.

Seeing the prayers of the prophets of Ba’l that were never granted by their god, then the Prophet Ilyas ordered the people to gather. He began to improve the place of worship that had collapsed by putting rocks so that it seemed to return perfectly as a place of worship to Allah SWT.

Then Bai Ilyas dug a ditch large enough to hold approximately 15 liters of water. He arranged the wooden blocks on the sacrificial offering, and put the meat on the firewood.

Then the Prophet Ilyas said, “Fill 4 jars with water to the brim, then pour the water on the sacrificial offering and on the wooden pile”. After everything was prepared, he then said, “One more time,” then they did it. “One more time, he said, and they did it anyway. So the water flowed until it filled the trench.

Then the Prophet Ilyas AS approached the place and prayed: “Yaa Allah, the God worshipped by Abraham, Ishaq, and Ya’qub, show your power at this time that you are the Almighty God, the Almighty God, and I am your servant. Answer, O God! Answer me so that these people will know that You are truly God and that only you are the place to return!”.

Shortly after he said the prayer, then Allah SWT immediately sent fire from heaven. Then the fire burned a pile of wood and pieces of meat on it. Seeing the incident, they immediately fell to the ground to prostrate while saying, “Allah is God! Verily Allah is the true God!”.

After that the Prophet Ilyas AS said to King Ahab, “It will soon rain, please King Ahab go!”. Then King Ahab went and he went up to Jabal Qarmil. Then Allah SWT sent down a heavy rain to the land of Israel’il.

MIRACLES OF PROPHET ILYAS A.S. REVIVE THE DEAD CHILD

The prophet Ilyas US lived in the land of Israel’il with an evil king named Ahab. King Ahab sent the Israelites to worship gods and idols. Seeing the condition of the people with such an evil king, God was angry with him.

Then Allah commanded the Prophet Ilyas to meet King Ahab and said, “Keep, O King Ahab, there will never be any dew or rain for the next two or three years, unless I say so! Therefore, repent and worship Allah!”. Then King Ahab became upset and angry with him and tried to kill him.

Then Allah ordered the Prophet Ilyas to go to the tributary of Kerit and hide there. By drinking the waters of the river and the food that the gaga brought to them by Allah's command.

King Ahab's army continued to pursue the US prophet Ilyas, and learned that he was hiding in a tributary of the Kerit River. He survived by drinking water from the creek and eating food carried by the crow every day. But suddenly the tributary was dry because there was no rain, so he was confused to find shelter.

After recovering, Prophet Ilyasa AS was adopted by Prophet Ilyas AS and continued to accompany Prophet Ilyas in preaching. But at that time the Prophet Ilyas AS had not been appointed as a prophet.

Then Allah SWT ordered him to go to the city of Sarfat and live there because there is a widow who will provide food and provide for his life. So the Prophet Ilyas went to the city of Sarfat.

Arriving in the city, he saw a widow gathering firewood. Then Prophet Ilyas approached the widow and said: “Mother, please bring me a little water to drink, also bring me a little bread!”.

But the widow replied, “I'm sorry, I don't have any bread. I only had a handful of wheat flour in the bowl, and a little olive oil in the bottle. I was gathering firewood to cook that little ingredient so that my son and I could eat. That is our last meal; after that we will die!”.

But Prophet Ilyas still replied, “Don't worry, Mother, please Mother make food for Mother and Mother's child. But first make one small loaf of flour and oil, and bring it to me. For Allah SWT, the only God worthy of worship, says that the bowl will always be filled with flour, and the bottle will be filled with oil, until Allah rains on earth”.

Finally, the widow believed the words of the Prophet Ilyas AS. Soon the widow was willing to do as Ilyas said. He made a little bread and gave it to her. He ate it immediately, while the widow made bread as food for him and his son.

As Allah SWT said through the Prophet Ilyas AS, the bowl was always filled with flour, and the bottle was always filled with oil. The next day there was still a little flour and a little oil to make some more bread. So that food supplies for them can be fulfilled up to almost 3 years during the long dry season.

One day, the widow received bad news. He found his son sick and died. Then the widow called the Prophet Ilyas AS and said, “Hi Servant of Allah, what happened to my son? Why did my son die?”

Then the Prophet Ilyas took the sick child to his private room. He laid the child on the bed, and prayed to Allah SWT, “Yes Allah, O my Lord, why did You bring misfortune to this widow? He has given me bread and now You take away the life of his son”.

He continued to pray to God, “Yes Allah, O my Lord, live this child!. Seeing his earnestness in praying, then Allah SWT listened to the prayer and granted his prayer. The child then begins to breathe and comes back to life. Then he brought the child to his mother and said: “Mother, mother's child has come back to life”.

The widow replied: “Now I know that you are a servant of Allah and all your words are from Allah SWT!”

THE PROPHETS OF ILYAS A.S. IMPOSE PUNISHMENTS

The prophet Ilyas continued to try to resuscitate the Children of Israel to abandon the practices of idolatry, but the effort was in vain. The Children of Israel still refused the preach of Prophet Ilyas but he remained patient and Istiqamah did his duty.

Once, the Prophet Ilyas prayed to God to stop the rain. God allowed his prayers. Finally, for three years, there was no rain in the area. The region experienced severe drought and caused many livestock and plants to die. The Prophet Ilyas also experienced much distress due to these events.

Then the Prophet Ilyas said to his people, “When you leave an idol, then I will pray to Allah to immediately stop your suffering”. They threw away their idols and prayed to God to immediately stop the suffering of the Children of Israel and immediately rain down. Hearing his prayer, then God granted the prayers.

This pleasure did not necessarily destroy the vices of the Children of Israel, proving that they continued to worship their idols. He then prayed back to God to stop the rain. God also gave back his prayers.

But in the end, the children of Israel will be disbelievers again, and the painful punishment of Allah will befall them. Then Allah sent the Prophet Ilyasa to replace the Prophet Ilyas to lead the Israelites on the right path.

GOD MADE THE PROPHET ILYAS ETERNAL

Nabi Ilyas AS and Nabi Ilyasa AS jointly carry out the mission of dakwah which is to make the Bani Isra’il in Israel abandon the habit of worshiping idols and make them believe in Allah SWT. Ilyas AS lived with Prophet Ilyasa AS to carry out a mission to Bani Isra’il for eight years.

Once, they both went to the area east of the Jordan River. When Ilyas AS was resting, there came the Angel of Death before him, and then cried out, “Hai Ilyas, fill the call of God, now is the time for you to face God and get ready because your life will soon be up!” the Angel of Death.

Hearing the news, she became sad and cried. Then the angel of death asked, “Why are you sad, Ilyas?”. “Do you grieve that you will abandon dunya and fear death?”, asked the angel of Death.

“None of which I regret except there is no time for me to recite to Allah, while others can still continue to recite praises to Allah,” replied Prophet Ilyas A.S.

Seeing this event, then at that time Allah SWT sent down a revelation to the Angel of Death to delay to take the life of Prophet Ilyas and give him the opportunity to recite according to his request.  His desire is very simple, which is to want to continue to live to be sincere to Allah SWT. So he thought about it all his life.

As a result of the event, the word of Allah SWT appeared, “Let Prophet Ilyas live in the garden to whisper and complain and recite to Me until the end of the day”. Hearing the word of Allah, the Angel of Death did not dare to take the life of Prophet Ilyas AS.  He is permitted by God to live forever and never die unless the Day of Resurrection comes.

So the discussion of the Story of the Prophet Ilyas, please disseminate, may bring benefits to all of us.