Sacred Texts  Islam  Index  Previous  Next 
Some of The Conditions of a Group of Prophets (PUT)

Elias (Elijah), Alyasa` (Elisha), Ðul-Kifl, Ishmael, Bal`am (Balaam)

God did say: Recite unto them the tale of him to whom We gave Our revelations, but he sloughed them off, so Satan overtook him and he became of those who lead astray(Al-A`râf:175), and this phrase was revealed about Bal`am ben Ba`urâ' (Balaam ben Beor) and he was one of the Israelites and was given the Great Name and he used to pray with it and his prays are answered and so the pharaoh was inclined to him, and when the pharaoh opposed Moses while Moses was calling him to the faith and leaving the idols and also asking him to release the Israelites, and he (Moses) was accompanied with miracles that made the pharaoh afraid, so the pharaoh asked Balaam ben Beor to pray against Moses and his folks to keep him away from him, so when he went to pray against Moses, his she-ass denied to go, so he came along and struck her to let her keep on going wth him, so then God made her speak and she said: woe to you Balaam why beating me? Want me to come with you to pray against the prophet of God and his faithful folks? But he did not stop and did not listen to her and kept on like that until he killed her, and when he did so, the Great Name sloughed off from him and his tongue could not mention it, and it is the saying of God: but he sloughed them off, so Satan overtook him and he became of those who lead astray. And had We willed We could have raised him by their means, but he clung to the earth and followed his own lust. Therefor his likeness is as the likeness of a dog: if thou attackest him he panteth with his tongue out, and if thou leavest him he panteth with his tongue out(Al-A`râf:175-176) and that was an example given by God to everyone that has the same characteristics as him, for while he was a faithful man and his prays and calls are answered, suddenly he turns to be an enemy for God and deserved the shame and wrath from God, so God gave him His holy phrases and made hospitality towards him and people asked for him to release them from adversities, and then he turned to be a pain for the creatures and his tongue went out over his chest, and he is the one who said when his tongue went out over his chest: now life and after-life escaped away from me and nothing remained but plotting and tricks.
It is attributed to Al-Ridhâ (PUH) that he said: only three animals will get into paradise: the ass of Balaam and the dog of the people of the cave (the sleepers) and the wolf. As for the wolf, there was a wrong-doer king that sent an officer to bring a group of believers to torture them, and so the officer went along for the task, and when he did so, the wolf came and ate the son of the officer and he (the wolf) knew about the intention of the officer, and the officer used to love his son so much and he had been so sad for him, so God made the wolf into the paradise for this.
As reported by Ibn `Abbâs he said: the wolf got into the paradise for eating the son of the officer, and if the wolf did eat the officer himself then God would had raised him to so high a position. It is not something to be hidden the existance of the joke and the wisdom and that is: the officer is an assistor for the wrong-doers and the one who harmed him is accepted by God, so what is the situation of the wrong-doers themselves in front of God? Be careful and meditate, may God guide us to the rightful path, Amen.
Al-Mas`udi said in Muruj Al-Ðahab: Balaam ben Beor was in a village in the lands of Shem (Canaan), and he is the son of Sanur ben Waseem ben Nâb ben Lot ben Haran (PUT), and his prays were answered, so his folks asked him to pray against Joshua ben Nun but he could not do it, so he advised some of the kings of the giants to show the pretty women and release them toward the camp of Joshua ben Nun, and so they did, and they (the Israelites) hurried up to the women and the plague spread among them and seventy thousand of them were dead.
There is another saying and that is: Moses ben Amram lived until the end of the Wandering and the forty years were over and he went to the city of the giants and in the front of his army there were Joshua ben Nun and Caleb ben Jephunneh, and he is the husband of his (Moses) sister Mariam (Mary) the daughter of Amram, and when they reached it (the city), the giants gathered around Balaam ben Beor and he was an old man descended from the children of Lot (PUT) and they said to him: Moses ben Amram came to kill us or let us out of our lands as he did with the pharaoh and his folks, and they asked him to pray to God against him (Moses) and his folks for his prays were answered, and Balaam knew the Great Name of God, so he said to them: how shall I pray against the prophet of God and the faithful people and the angels with them? So they kept on insisting time after another and he denied all the time, and when they got despaired they went to his wife and gave to her many gifts and asked her to persuade him to pray against Moses and his people, and so she did but he denied and she insisted until she persuaded him to ask God about it and so he did but no answer appeared, and even God forbade him in his dreams, and he told her about that and she kept on persuading him and said to him: ask again, and when he did so for many times he decided not to stop until what his wife and the giants want is done, and then God did not give an answer, then she said to him: if God hated that from you then He would prohibit you from doing so, and she kept on persuading and tricking him until he accepted to do so, and then he rode his ass and went toward Moses and his people and climbed a mountain that towered over them, and when he went forward a bit his ass sat down and denied to go and he struck her bitterly, and when that happened for three times God made the ass speak and said: woe to you Balaam where are you going? Don't you see the angels keeping me away? But he did not believe so and the Satan took over him and he forgot God, and so the ass went along with him until he looked upon the Israelites, and then whenever he wanted to pray against them his tongue would change the words to blessings, while when he wanted to pray for his people his words would change to damnations, and when they asked him about that he said: this is something out of my hands. God then opposed him, and his tongue went out hanging upon his chest and then he said: now life and after-life escaped from me and only trick is left, then he ordered them to ornament the women and give them the commodities to sell and send them to the camp of Moses and no woman should prohibit anyone from his desires, and he said to them: if one man of them commited adultery then you will win against them, and so they did and the women went into the camp of Moses and adultery happened and a man called Zimri ben Shallom (Zimri ben Salu), and he was a Simeonite, he took a woman and went to Moses and said to him: I deem you said this is prohibited, by God I shall not obey you, then he went with her into his tent and commited adultery with her, so then God revealed upon them the plague and it spread among them and this is the wrath of God and His test for His prophets and viceroys.
The nephew of Moses, the son of Aaron, was away from the camp to do some business for his uncle Moses and when he got back and saw that the plague had spread among the Israelites, and he was a man of power, he knew that reason for that and he went to Zimri and saw him lying with a woman so he smote them with a spear and killed them both and he forbade that any man would approach any woman, and then the plague vanished after the death of seventy thousand, and some said they were twenty thousand, and then Moses made Joshua on the front and ordered him to get into Jericho with the Israelites and so he did and killed the giants in it and only few of them are left, and the sun was about to set and Joshua feared that night will fall and they will run away and he laid siege to their town so he prayed to God to stop the sun and keep it away from setting, so then God answered his prays and stopped the sun and he perished them all and none is left of them, and then Moses went into it and lived there as much as God desired and then God took his soul back.
As for saying that Moses died in the period of Wandering as it is the most famous opinion, and that he did not go into the lands of the giants, so then everything was told in this section was to be with Joshua ben Nun after Moses, and that God ordered him to go to the lands of the giants and He made victory for him against them and perished them and the sun was stopped for setting for him by the commandment of God as an answer for Joshua. The holding of the sun for Joshua ben Nun the viceroy of Moses is famous for scholars and the nations and it is a miracle proposed for Joshua and it was sang by poets and travellers and it is still remembered by speakers and none of the scholars of any religion deny this. It is also was held for the prince of believers (PUH) and not denied by a true believer and it was returned back (the sun) for him twice as it was told in assured narrations.

Next: Escaping The Plague