The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 197
PT. 17 AL-ANBIYA' CH. 21 b وَاَدْخَلْتُهُمْ فِي رَحْمَتِنَا إِنَّهُمْ مِّن And We admitted them to. 87 الصَّلِحِينَ Our mercy. Surely, they were of the righteous. when he went away in anger, وَذَا النُّونِ إِذْ ذَّهَبَ مُغَاضِبًا فَظَنَّ ,And remember Dhun-Num. 88 أَنْ لَنْ نَقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ فَنَادَى فِي الظُّلُماتِ اَنْ and he thought that We would لا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ سُبْحَنَكَ إِنِّي كُنْتُ never cause him distress and bhe cried out in the midst of his 37:140-141; 68:49. 37:144. Such was the situation which confronted Ezekiel. In 592 B. C. five years before the downfall he had foreseen it and with some detail had predicted it and had warned the Jews of the impending disaster. The first terrific blow by Babylon in 597 B. C. had left the Jews unconvinced of the probability of their imminent political extinction a probability which to Ezekiel was a certainty as clear as noonday. But as Ezekiel foretold the destruction of the Jews so did he predict their restoration. The picture drawn by him of the salvation in store for his people is as gracious and brilliant as his forecast of their downfall had been stern. His prophecy of the restoration and return to Jerusalem was based upon a vision which he had seen (Ezekiel, ch. 37) and to which a reference is to be found in the Quran also (2:260). Ezekiel's book is full of prophecies. He foretold the destruction and eventual restoration and rehabilitation of the Jews. He also made a prophecy about the great rise of Christian nations of the west and of communism and a prophecy about the equally great decline and downfall of both (chapters 38:39). But he did not live long to see the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, because he died in captivity in 570 B. C. at the age of 52. From the Book of Ezekiel it appears that he was a great admirer of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon. According to him Nebuchadnezzar was justified in taking the severe steps that he took against Egypt, Tyre and the Israelites. The destruction and sack of Jerusalem was the result of the Israelites' own iniquity and wickedness. He, along with the Prophet Jeremiah, was in favour of supporting the Babylonian government and for this support both these Prophets were condemned as traitors by the Jewish priests of the time, just as Jesus was condemned as a traitor for supporting the Roman government in the time of Titus, and the Promised Messiah in our own time was condemned as a traitor and a sycophant for preferring British rule in India to that of the Sikhs. Ezekiel and Daniel are called the Prophets of the Exile (Holy Bible edited by C. I. 2111