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The Death Zacharias and John
They say that when Mary the daughter of Amram got pregnant with Jesus (PUT) and her pregnancy showed up, they accused Zacharias and the Satan made them imagine and induced them to believe so and made them think truely that the one who made her pregnant was Zacharias because no one can enter her place except of him because he is her guardian. This matter was carried in their hearts and they never saw a woman that gets pregnant without a man, so the silly folks of the jews chased him until he left Jerusalem. When he went out, the evil got even greater and the charge got bigger in the hearts of the bad people and they talked about the sin of Zacharias, so their silly folks chased him, and he went to a valley and they followed him, and when he was in the middle of it he saw a tree so he went to it and it opened up for him and he went inside it and then it closed upon him, and then the Satan came chasing him with the others until he reached the tree and he said to them: he is inside it here, and he put his hand on the position of his (Zacharias's) heart, so he ordered them to saw it and so they did and he was sawn with the tree from the middle, and then they left him apart. Then God sent the angels to wash him up and pray upon him for three days before being buried, and then the good people of the Israelites took him and buried him, and the details about that shall come later by God's will. Then it became so great in the heart of John for losing his father by their deeds and for the charge that he was innocent of and such a charge was something so far away from him, and his death was one of the greatest test from God to John. Then he took care of the matters after his father and started to speech among the Israelites and he told them that the troubles of the good people founded because of the sins of the Israelites and he promised them with the relief by the coming of the Messiah (PUH) after some twenty years after his speech with them.
It is narrated that at the time of John ben Zacharias, there was a tyrant immoral king, and there was a woman of wisdom but immoral as well that used to come to him a lot until she got older and then she prepared her daughter for the king and she said to her: I want to give you to the king, and when he gets what he wants of you and then asks you about your needs, tell him that my need is to kill John ben Zacharias, and so she did and told him to kill John ben Zacharias, and so he sent messengers to John (PUH) and they brought him and then he ordered to bring a tub made of gold and he slained him in it, and it got full with blood and then they poured it on the ground and it started to boil, and the people came and buried it with sands but it gets even higher than the sand and so on until all the sand turned into a great hill, and a hundred years passed and it kept boiling over the sand, and when it was the time of Nebuchadnezzar and he saw the blood, he wondered and asked about it but no one answered him until an old man came and he asked him about it and the man answered: my father told me by the way of my grandfather that this is the blood of John ben Zacharias and his story with the king was so and so..etc, and then Nebuchadnezzar said: no crime then, I shall kill upon it until it calms down, and he killed for it seventy thousand, until the blood calmed down. As attributed to Al-Sâdiq (PUH): if God wanted to make a victory for His viceroys and faithful people, He shall do it by the most devilish people of His creatures, and if He wanted to make a victory for Himself, He shall do it by using His viceroys, and He made a victory for John ben Zacharias by Nebuchadnezzar, and the victory made for Himself is like His victory by Solomon ben David (PUH) and by Ðul-Qarnain (PUH) and by the prince of believers (PUH) with the prophet (PUH) and after him (the prophet), and like His victory that shall be made by the awaited Al-Mahdi ben Al-Hasan (PUH) may our souls be a ransom for him, and may peace be upon him and upon his fathers the purified (PUT).
It is narrated by the way of Al-Bâqir (PUH): the killer of the she-camel of Sâleh was a blue man and a son of adultery, and the killer of John ben Zacharias was a son of adultery, and the killer of the prince of believers, `Ali (PUH) was a son of adultery, and the tribe of Murâd [the tribe that the killer of the prince of believers came from] said that they knew no father for him, and the killer of Al-Husain ben `Ali (PUH) was a son of adultery, and the prophets and the son of the prophets were always killed by the sons of adultery..etc. They said about the reasons of killing John ben Zacharias many tales but the most probable is what we've mentioned before for this is what we found in our resources, and about giving his head to a prostitute of the Israelites as it was mentioned in the narrations told by the Household (PUT) does not oppose what we've mentioned before about the core of the matter and the details are only known by God and from Him comes the guidance. As narrated also by Al-Bâqir (PUH) about God's saying "we have given the same name to none before (him)" he (PUH) said: he is John ben Zacharias (PUH) and no one before him had the same name, and Al-Husain also no one before him had the same name, and he (PUH) said: and the sky cried for them for forty mornings and so did the sun and its cry was to rise in red and set in red, and they say about the crying of the sky it is in fact the cry of the angels, and the tidings about the cry of heavens and earth and the sun and moon are many and this is not the place to mention them.
It is mentioned by `Ali ben Al--Husain (Al-Sajjâd) (PUH) that he said: we went out with my father Al-Husain ben `Ali (PUH) and whenever he settled down or moved he mentioned John ben Zacharias (PUH), and one day he said: it is for the easiness of life for God that the head of John was given to a prostitute of the Israelites. And it is copied from the awaited viceroy, Al-Mahdi (PUH) may our souls be a ransom for him, when he was asked about the interpretation of: Kaf Ha Ya A'in Sad(Mariam:1), he answered: these letters are of the knowledgement of the unknown that God showed to his slave Zacharias and then He told them to His beloved Muhammad (PUH), and it was that when Zacharias mentioned Muhammad, `Ali, Fâtimah and Al-Hasan (PUT), his troubles would seem to fade away, and whenever he mentioned Al-Husain (PUH) he would desire to cry and his chest seems to get narrower and his heart is shrinked, and one day he said: O Lord, what is happening to me whenever I mention four names of them I get enjoyment and whenever I mention Al-Husain (PUH) my eyes would be filled with tears? So God then told him the story and said: Kaf Ha Ya A'in Sad, so Kaf is Karbala, Ha is Halâk [Arabic: Halâk=Death] of the Household, Ya is Yazeed the one who wronged Al-Husain (PUH), and A`in is his (Al-Husain) thirst [Arabic: `Atash=Thirst], and Sad is his patience [Arabic: Sabr=Patience], and when Zacharias heard that he remained in his temple for three days and didn't allow anyone to get inside and started to mourn and cry, and he lamented for Al-Husain by saying: O Lord, do You make the best of the creation suffer the loss of his son? O Lord shall You make `Ali and Fâtimah suffer with such an adversity? Then he said: God give me a son as a gift for me and make me love him so much when I become so old and then make me suffer his loss like You would make your beloved Muhammad suffer the loss of his son, so then God gave to him John and made him suffer his loss, and the pregnancy time for John was six months, and so it was for Al-Husain (PUH), and this is something about their conditions (PUT) and the situation doesn't help to give more than that, and my success is all by God and upon Him I shall depend.
 


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