Ilyās (Elijah) in Islam

In Islamic scripture and tradition Ilyās is a divinely appointed nabi/rasūl sent to the Israelite community to denounce idolatry (specifically Baʿal worship) and to call people to the worship of Allah. The Qurʾān names him among other praised righteous figures; exegetical traditions place him in the prophetic succession that includes Alyasa (Elisha) as his successor. Later Muslim commentators and storytellers added legendary accretions (for example, accounts of ascent to heaven) and local identifications (a reputed tomb at Baalbek in some popular traditions), while some scholars and hadith critics (e.g., Ibn Kathir in specific judgments) questioned certain reports as Isra'iliyat or noncanonical.

The Qurʾān does not provide a physical description of Ilyās. Scriptural narrative emphasizes his role and actions rather than corporeal details. Later legend and devotional literature, however, supply vivid motifs: Ilyās is reported in some accounts to have been taken up in a chariot of fire and to have ascended to the heavens; apocryphal and folkloric sources sometimes amplify his status (including portrayals of him as part-human, part-angel in certain traditions) and link him iconographically to motifs of longevity and pilgrimage. These later images are expansions on the terse Qurʾānic portrait rather than direct scriptural descriptions.

Qurʾānic and exegetical material present Ilyās principally as a prophetic teacher: he reproached his community, urged fear of God, and called people to abandon Baʿal. Traditional narratives record that when his people persisted in idolatry he pronounced a curse that brought drought, and that his supplication later brought heavy rain—motifs used to demonstrate prophetic efficacy in moral and providential terms. Later Muslim legend attributes additional capacities: stories of his being taken up into the skies in a chariot of fire, of exceptional longevity, of meetings with the mystical figure Khidr (including a hadithic motif that they met yearly in Jerusalem to perform pilgrimage), and folkloric links to the Fountain of Youth. Scholarly notes in the sources mark several of these embellishments as noncanonical or debated (e.g., some hadiths judged Isra'iliyat).