Prophet Yahya (John)
1st century CE (contemporary of Isa; killed before or around the time of Isa's mission).
Yahya (John) was the son of Zakariyah, given wisdom and prophethood as a child. He was serious and merciful to animals; he fed them from his food and ate fruit or leaves. He loved reading and was guided to hold fast to the Scripture; he became the wisest of his time and wept much in fear of Allah. He lived in the wilderness, sometimes in a grave he had dug, or in caves with beasts that recognised him and left. He called people to repent. He pronounced that the marriage of the tyrant Herod Antipas to his niece Salome was incestuous; she asked for his head, and he was executed. The Quran honours him: "Peace upon him the day he was born and the day he dies and the day he is raised alive."