It is narrated that there are many reasons for the killing of Yahya (a.s.) (John the Baptist, peace be upon him). However, the most well-known among them is as follows: One of the rulers of Damascus at the time wished to marry a woman who was his close relative, or one of those women whom it is not lawful for him to marry. But Yahya (a.s.) forbade him from this marriage. Because of this, the woman whom the ruler wished to marry began to harbor resentment in her qalb (heart) against Yahya (a.s.). After some time, when she was about to marry the ruler, she stipulated as a condition that the ruler present her with the blood of Yahya as a gift. The ruler accepted this condition. He sent someone to kill Yahya, and that person killed him, placing his head, along with his blood, in a basin and bringing it to the woman. According to the narration, the woman died immediately at that moment.
It is said that the wife of the ruler at the time fell in love with Yahya. She sent word to him, but Yahya did not approach her. When the woman lost hope in him, she requested the ruler to present her with his blood as a gift. At first, the ruler did not accept her request. However, later he fulfilled his wife's wish. He sent someone to kill Yahya. That person killed Yahya and brought his bloody head in a basin to the ruler's wife.
A hadith (prophetic tradition) has also been transmitted in this regard. Yaʿqūb al-Kūfī narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said: "The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) saw Zakariyya (a.s.) (Zechariah, peace be upon him) on the night he was taken on the miʿrāj (ascension). He greeted him and said: 'O father of Yahya, tell me; how were you killed and why did the Children of Israel kill you?' He said: 'O Muhammad! Let me tell you: Yahya was the best, most beautiful, and most noble-faced person of his time. As Allah, the Exalted, has said: "He was a master and had control over his nafs (lower self)." He did not feel any need for women. The wife of the ruler of the Children of Israel fell in love with him. She was a wicked woman. She sent word to Yahya, but Allah protected him and he did not respond to her vile request. Thereupon, the Children of Israel gathered to kill Yahya. They had a festival which they celebrated every year.
But the ruler had a custom: he would always fulfill his promises and never lie. The ruler went to the festival place. His wife got up to see him off, which he found strange, as she had never done so before. While seeing him off, he said to his wife: 'Ask of me whatever you wish. I will surely do it.' His wife said: 'I want the blood of Yahya, son of Zakariyya!' The ruler said: 'Ask for something else.' The woman insisted, saying, 'This is my wish.' When she persisted, the ruler said: 'The blood of Yahya is yours.' The woman then sent her guards to Yahya. Yahya was praying in his sanctuary. I was also praying beside him. The guards slaughtered him and placed his bloody head in a basin, bringing it to the ruler's wife.
The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) asked Zakariyya (a.s.): 'How much patience (sabr) were you able to show?' Zakariyya replied: 'I never broke my prayer.'
The guards brought Yahya's bloody head and placed it before the ruler's wife. In the evening, Allah caused the ruler, his family, and all his retinue to be swallowed by the earth. In the morning, the Children of Israel said: 'Divine wrath has come for the sake of Zakariyya. Let us, in anger for our ruler, kill Zakariyya as well.'
Thus, they set out to search for me with the intention of killing me. A man came and warned me. Out of fear, I fled from them. Satan also
went ahead of them and began searching for me with them. He was showing them my location. When I saw this, I became afraid. I realized I would not be able to defend myself against them. A tree appeared before me and said: 'Come to me, come to me!' and split open. I entered it. Satan came and grabbed the edge of my garment. At that moment, the tree closed around me, but the edge of my garment remained outside. The Children of Israel came, and Satan said to them: 'Do you see? Zakariyya has entered this tree. Here is the edge of his garment outside. He entered the tree by magic.'
The Children of Israel said: 'In that case, let us burn this tree.' Satan said: 'No, saw the tree in half.' So they sawed the tree in half.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked Zakariyya: 'Did you feel the effect or pain of the saw?' He replied: 'No, I only found the tree into which Allah had placed my ruh (spirit).'
This is, in reality, a strange expression. It is an odd hadith. There is a break in its chain of transmission. In any case, this is a rejected (munkar) hadith. In the hadiths concerning the isrāʾ (night journey) and miʿrāj (ascension), only Zakariyya is mentioned. In the authentic wordings of the hadiths about the isrāʾ, only the following expressions are found: 'I passed by Yahya and ʿĪsā, who are maternal cousins. They are the children of sisters.' The statements of the majority of scholars are also in accordance with the apparent meaning of the hadith. For Yahya's mother is Ashya, daughter of ʿImrān, who is also the sister of Maryam. Maryam is also the daughter of ʿImrān. According to another narration, Yahya's mother, that is, Ashya, the wife of Zakariyya, is the daughter of Hanna, the wife of ʿImrān. She is also the mother of Maryam. Thus, Yahya is the maternal cousin of Maryam. Allah knows best.
There is disagreement about whether the place where Yahya, son of Zakariyya (a.s.), was killed was al-Masjid al-Aqsa or another place, and two narrations have been transmitted on this matter: According to the narration of al-Thawrī, Shamnah, son of ʿAṭiyya, said: 'Seventy prophets were killed on the rock next to al-Masjid al-Aqsa. One of them was Yahya, son of Zakariyya.'
Abū ʿUbayda Qāsim b. Sallām narrated from Saʿīd b. al-Musayyab that Buhtun-Nasr (Nebuchadnezzar) came to Damascus. There he encountered the boiling blood of Yahya b. Zakariyya. When he inquired about the matter, it was explained to him. When he killed 70,000 people, the blood of Yahya stopped and calmed.
The incident of Buhtun-Nasr occurred after the Messiah. As ʿAṭāʾ and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī also say. Allah knows best.
Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir narrated from Zayd b. Wāqid that he said: 'I saw the head of Yahya, son of Zakariyya. When they wanted to build the mosque in Damascus, his head was found in the eastern corner, lying toward the qibla, at the mihrab. Its skin and hair had not changed at all.' In another narration, the following sentence is added: 'It was as if he had just been killed.' When speaking of the construction of the mosque in Damascus, it is said that his head was placed under the famous pillar called the Pillar of Sakāsika. Allah knows best.
In the work "al-Mustaqṣā fī Faḍāʾil al-Aqṣā," Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir narrates from Qasam, the freedman of Muʿāwiya, that the ruler of Damascus was Hedad b. Hedar. He married his son to Queen Eril of Sidon, who was his niece. The ruler's market in Damascus was among her properties. She was formerly a goldsmith. Her husband had sworn to divorce her with three pronouncements. After divorcing her, he wanted to take her back. He sought the legal opinion (fatwa) of Yahya, son of Zakariyya. Yahya gave the fatwa: 'She is not lawful for you until she marries another man and is divorced from him.' Upon this, the woman bore a grudge against Yahya. At her mother's suggestion, she asked the ruler for Yahya's head. At first, the ruler did not accept this request, but later he did. He sent the executioner to kill Yahya. Yahya was praying in the mosque of Jibrun.
While Yahya was in that state, the executioner struck off his head and brought it to the ruler. The head in the tray was saying: 'Your wife is not lawful for you until she marries another man and is divorced from him!' The woman took the tray and placed the head on her head, bringing it to her mother. The head said the same things to her as well. Thereupon, the woman's feet sank into the ground. Then she sank up to her hips. Her mother began to wail, and the slave girls began to cry out and slap their faces. Then she sank up to her shoulders. In this state, her mother ordered the executioner to behead her daughter, so that she might at least have her head as a keepsake. The executioner struck off the girl's head. The earth swallowed the rest of her body. All of them fell into disgrace and perished. The blood of Yahya continued to boil in the earth until the coming of Buhtun-Nasr. Buhtun-Nasr killed 75,000 people for his sake.
Saʿīd b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said: It was the blood of all the prophets. The prophet Irmiyā (Jeremiah) came and stood there until the blood stopped boiling. Irmiyā said to it: 'O blood, you have destroyed the Children of Israel. Now, by Allah's permission, stop.'
Upon Irmiyā's saying this, the blood stopped. The war ended. Those among the people of Damascus who could escape went to Jerusalem. The ruler pursued them, killed many, took some captive, and then returned.