THE THESE WITNESSES, 153
Commentators make this refer to the punishment of a Jewish Himyarite King who persecuted the Christians, but the appellation "believers" as applied to Christians has no parallel elsewhere in the Quran, no detail bearing on this event is mentioned, and just this one form of persecution (burning) is not given by the martyrologists.
If we compare the passage with the story of the three children l all fits in perfectly.
The three believers would not bow themselves before an idol, and were thrown into the fiery furnace; those who threw them in were slain by the heat and the believers were saved. Evidently Muhammad here alludes to this. 2
It is possible that there is an allusion to the story of the revival of the dry bones 3 in a passage of the Qura"n, 4 which tells us that many who left their habitations for fear of death were slain by Grod, but were afterwards restored to life. 5 The Talmud treats the narrative given in Ezekiel more in detail. 6
Another biblical reference may perhaps be found in
1 Daniel, iii. 8 ff.
2 An intimation that this passage refers to this circumstance is given by the Arabian commentator Muqatil (cited by Elpherar), in that he asserts that there were in fact three "people of the burning fiery pit"
(j.iLsjf v^a-o\)j and of the pits one was in <j*j\i } i. e. Persia, and indeed under j*> o^> Nebuchadnezzar 5 but he adds : U$j dU\ Ju> ^L
V>\JS, God revealed nothing in the Sura about this or about the other event which took place in Syria, but only revealed about the one under Dhu-nawas. But this intimation is enough for the strengthening of our opinion.
3 Ezekiel, xxxvii. * Sura II. 244.
5 The Arabian commentators know of this but dimly, for Ismail Ben 'Ali gives out in the name o Ibn Talib that this event took place in the time of the Judge (?) J^V-, ^- e > Ezekiel, who came after yoV.^, the son. of Caleb, in this office. (Maraco : Prodr. IV, 83.)
6 Sanhedrin 92.
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