Judges is a portion of Al-Kitab telling the history of Bani-Israel after the death of Prophet Yusha (pbuh) up to the time of Prophet Samuel (pbuh). At that time, Bani-Israel was not faithfully worshipping the one true God. They were following the ways of the neighbouring nations who were all idol-worshippers. But they had made an agreement before Allah many years ago to follow the ways of the Lord faithfully. Now, because they were unfaithful to the agreement, Allah sent the armies of the surrounding nations to punish Bani-Israel, with the hope that Bani-Israel would repent and turn back to the one true God. When the suffering became bad enough, Bani-Israel would repent and cry out to Allah for help. Then Allah would raise up someone from among them who would lead them to freedom from their enemies. This cycle of sin, punishment, and deliverance happened several times. So Judges is about those deliverers, the “judges.” The events in Judges happen over a period of about 325 years. Some of the judges whose stories are told include Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Barak, Gideon, Abimelech, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, and Shamaun.