Page 170 - Demo

Chapter III166John the Baptist (pbuh) announces A powerful ProphetJohn the Baptist (pbuh) , according to the narratives ofthe four Evangelists, was a cousin and contemporary of Jesus (pbuh) , being only about six months older than the latter. The Quran does not mention anything about the life and work of this Prophet except that God, through the angels, announced to his father Zachariah (pbuh) thathe would have a son name Yahya, who would bear witness to the word of Allah, and that he would be an honourable person, chaste, and one of the righteous John Prophets (Quran, iii.-). Nothing is known about his infancy, except that he was a Nazarite living in the wilderness, eating locusts and wild honey, covering his body with a cloth made of camel’s hair, tied with a leather girdle. He is believed to have belonged to a Jewish religious sect called the “Essenes,” from whom issued the early Christian “Ibionites” whose principal characteristic was to abstain from worldly pleasures. In fact, the Quránic descriptive term of this hermit Prophet –“hasūra,” which means “chaste” in every sense of the word- shows that he led a celibate life of chastity, poverty, and piety. He was not seen from his early youth until he was a man of thirty or more, when he began his mission of preaching repentance and baptizing the penitent sinners with water. Great multitudes were drawn to the wilderness of Judea to hear the fiery sermons of the new Prophet; and the penitent Jews were baptized by him in the water of the River Jordan. He reprimanded the educated but fanatical Pharisees and the Priests, and threatened the learned but rationalistic Saduqees (Saducees) with the coming vengeance. He declared that he was baptizing them with