History Of Jews

As indicated earlier, all Palestinian land - particularly Jerusalem - are sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The reason for this is that most of the prophets God sent to warn people spent part or all of their lives on this land.

According to historical studies based on archeological excavations and sacred texts, Prophet Ibrahim, his sons, and a small number of people who followed him first migrated to Palestine - known then as Canaan - in the nineteenth century bce. The Qur'anic commentaries (tafsir) indicate that Ibrahim (Abraham), peace be upon him, thought to have lived in the Palestinian area known today as Al-Khalil (Hebron), settled there with Prophet Lut (Lot). The Qur'an reports of his migration as follows:

We said: "Fire, be coolness and peace for Ibrahim!" They desired to trap him, but We made them the losers. We delivered both him and Lut to the land which We had blessed for all beings. (Qur'an, 21:69-71)

This region, described as "the land which We had blessed," is mentioned in various Qur'anic commentaries as referring to the land of Palestine.

Before Ibrahim, peace be upon him, the Canaanite (Palestinian) people were idolaters. He convinced them to abandon their idolatry and recognize the one and only God. According to historical sources, he settled his wife Hajar and his son Isma'il (Ishmael) in Mecca and its surroundings, while another wife, Sara, and his second son Ishaq (Isaac) stayed in Canaan. Likewise, the Qur'an mentions that Prophet Ibrahim settled some of his sons in the vicinity of al-Bayt al-Haram, which, according to the Qur'anic commentaries, is located in the valley of Mecca.

Our Lord, I have settled some of my offspring by Your Sacred House in an uncultivated valley. Our Lord, let them perform prayer. Make the hearts of mankind incline towards them and provide them with fruits, so that hopefully they will be thankful. (Qur'an, 14:37)

However, Ishaq's son Ya'qub (Jacob) emigrated to Egypt during his son Yusuf (Joseph)'s royal appointment. (Ya'qub's sons also are remembered as the "Children of Israel.") After Yusuf's release from prison and appointment as the head of the Egyptian treasury, the Children of Israel lived in peace and security in Egypt.

Somehow, their condition changed over time, and Pharoah treated them with great cruelty. God made Musa (Moses) His prophet during this period, and ordered him to lead them out from Egypt. He went to Pharaoh, asked him to give up his pagan beliefs and to surrender to God, and to free the Children of Israel also called Israelites. But Pharaoh was a cruel and savage tyrant. He had enslaved the Children of Israel, working them almost to death, and then ordered the execution of male children. Continuing his cruelty, he responded hostilely towards Musa. To prevent his own followers - actually his sorcerers - from believing in Musa, he threatened to cut their alternate hands and feet.

Following the death of Prophet Yusuf (Joseph), the Children of Israel endured great cruelty at the hands of Pharaoh.

Although Pharaoh refused permission, Musa, peace be upon him, and his people fled Egypt, with the help of God's miracles, in approximately 1250 bce. They settled in the Sinai Peninsula and in eastern Canaan. In the Qur'an, Musa commands the Children of Israel to enter Canaan:

My people, enter the Holy Land, which God has ordained for you. Do not turn back in your tracks and so become transformed into losers. (Qur'an, 5:21)

After Musa, peace be upon him, the Israelites continued to live in Canaan (Palestine). Again according to historians, Dawud (David) became the Israelis' king and created a powerful kingdom. During the reign of his son Sulayman (Solomon), Israel's borders extended from the Nile River in the south to the Euphrates River in today's Syria to the north. This was a magnificent period for the Israelite kingdom in many fields, particularly architecture. In Jerusalem, Sulayman had a magnificent palace and temple built. After his death, God sent many more prophets to the Children of Israel, though in most cases they did not listen to them and rebelled against God.
Those who disbelieve filled their hearts with fanatical rage - the fanatical rage of the Time of Ignorance - and God sent down serenity to His Messenger and to the believers, and bound them to the expression of guarding against evil which they had most right to and were most entitled to. God has knowledge of all things.
(Qur'an, 48:26)

As a result of their degeneracy, the Israelite kingdom dissolved and was occupied by various idolatrous peoples, and the Israelites, also known as Jews at the time, were enslaved once again. When Palestine was occupied by the Roman Empire, Prophet 'Isa (Jesus), peace be upon him, came and once again invited the Children of Israel to forsake their pride, superstitions, and rebelliousness and to live according to God's religion. Very few Jews believed in him; most of the Children of Israel denied him. And, as the Qur'an reports, they were: "Those among the tribe of Israel who disbelieved were cursed on the tongue Dawud and that of 'Isa, son of Maryam." (Qur'an, 5:78) After some time, God plagued the Jews with the Romans, who drove all of them out of Palestine.

Our reason for this lengthy explanation is to show that the Zionists' fundamental contention that "Palestine is the land God promised to the Jews" is not true. This topic will be examined in more detail in the chapter on Zionism.

Zionism interprets the concepts of "chosen people" and "promised land" through a racist lense. According to this claim, everyone descended from the Jews is "chosen" and owns "the promised land." However, race has no value in the sight of God, for what is important is godliness and righteousness. In God's eyes, the chosen ones are those who continue to follow the religion of Ibrahim, no matter what their race may be.

The Qur'an also emphasizes this fact. God announces that Ibrahim's heirs are not the Jews who boast of being "children of Ibrahim," but the Muslims who live according to his religion:

The people with the strongest claim to Ibrahim are those who followed him and this Prophet [Muhammad], and those who believe. God is the Protector of believers. (Qur'an, 3:68)
THE MUSLIM OBSERVER, 9.2001

W.REPORT, JULY 96
While Jews opposed to Zionism openly defy the Israeli government, fanatical Jews take the view: "The Promised Land is for the Chosen People. For good. For keeps. Forever." On a cover of Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, fanatical Jews are pictured carrying signs with this slogan. Due to such mistaken ideas, they behave cruelly toward their captive population of Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

Pork Forbidden???

The fact that consumption of pork is prohibited in Islam is well known. The following points explain various aspects of this prohibition:

1. Pork prohibited in Qur’an
The Qur’an prohibits the consumption of pork in no less than 4 different places. It is prohibited in 2:173, 5:3, 6:145 and 16:115.
“Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than Allah.” [Al-Qur’an 5:3]
The above verses of the Holy Qur’an are sufficient to satisfy a Muslim as to why pork is forbidden.

2. Pork prohibited in the Bible
The Christian is likely to be convinced by his religious scriptures. The Bible prohibits the consumption of pork, in the book of Leviticus
“And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you”.
“Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch, they are unclean to you.”
[Leviticus 11:7-8]
Pork is also prohibited in the Bible in the book of Deuteronomy
“And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you. Ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass.”
[Deuteronomy 14:8]
A similar prohibition is repeated in the Bible in the book of Isaiah chapter 65 verse 2-5.

3. Consumption of pork causes several diseases
The other non-Muslims and atheists will agree only if convinced through reason, logic and science. Eating of pork can cause no less than seventy different types of diseases. A person can have various helminthes like roundworm, pinworm, hookworm, etc. One of the most dangerous is Taenia Solium, which is in lay man’s terminology called tapeworm. It harbours in the intestine and is very long. Its ova i.e. eggs, enter the blood stream and can reach almost all the organs of the body. If it enters the brain it can cause memory loss. If it enters the heart it can cause heart attack, if it enters the eye it can cause blindness, if it enters the liver it can cause liver damage. It can damage almost all the organs of the body.
Another dangerous helminthes is Trichura Tichurasis. A common misconception about pork is that if it is cooked well, these ova die. In a research project undertaken in America, it was found that out of twenty-four people suffering from Trichura Tichurasis, twenty two had cooked the pork very well. This indicates that the ova present in the pork do not die under normal cooking temperature.

4. Pork has fat building material
Pork has very little muscle building material and contains excess of fat. This fat gets deposited in the vessels and can cause hypertension and heart attack. It is not surprising that over 50% of Americans suffer from hypertension.

5. Pig is one of the filthiest animals on earth
The pig is one of the filthiest animals on earth. It lives and thrives on muck, faeces and dirt. It is the best scavenger that I know that God has produced. In the villages they don’t have modern toilets and the villagers excrete in the open air. Very often excreta is cleared by pigs.
Some may argue that in advanced countries like Australia, pigs are bred in very clean and hygienic conditions. Even in these hygienic conditions the pigs are kept together in sties. No matter how hard you try to keep them clean they are filthy by nature. They eat and enjoy their own as well as their neighbour’s excreta.

6. Pig is the most shameless animal
The pig is the most shameless animal on the face of the earth. It is the only animal that invites its friends to have sex with its mate. In America, most people consume pork. Many times after dance parties, they have swapping of wives; i.e. many say “you sleep with my wife and I will sleep with your wife.” If you eat pigs then you behave like pigs. We Indians look upon America to be very advanced and sophisticated. Whatever they do, we follow after a few years. According to an article in Island magazine, this practice of swapping wives has become common in the affluent circles of Bombay.

(By - Dr. Zakir Naik)

The Challenge Of The Quran

Description: The Qur’anic challenge to produce a work similar to it, and the inability of its contemporaries to meet it.

By Dr. Bilal Philips

The Quran is not only unique in the way in which it presents its subject matter, but it is also unique in that it is a miracle itself. By the term “miracle,” we mean the performance of a supernatural or extraordinary event which cannot be duplicated by humans. It has been documented that Prophet Muhammad, may God praise him, challenged the Arabs to produce a literary work of a similar caliber as the Quran, but they were unable to do so in spite of their well-known eloquence and literary powers. The challenge to reproduce the Quran was presented to the Arabs and mankind in three stages:


l. The Whole Quran

In the Quran, God commanded the Prophet to challenge all of creation to create a book of the stature of the Quran:

“Say: ‘If all mankind and the jinn would come together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce its like even though they exerted all and their strength in aiding one another.’” (Quran 17:88)


2. Ten Chapters

Next, God made the challenge ostensibly easier by asking those who denied its divine origin to imitate even ten chapters of the Quran:

“Or do they say that he has invented it? Say (to them), ‘Bring ten invented chapters like it, and call (for help) on whomever you can besides God, if you are truthful.” (Quran 11:13)


3. One Chapter

This final challenge was to produce even a single chapter to match what is in the Quran, whose shortest chapter, al-Kawthar, consists of only three verses:

“And if you all are in doubt about what I have revealed to My servant, bring a single chapter like it, and call your witnesses besides God if you are truthful.” (Quran 2:23)

These challenges were not just empty words with no one caring to prove them wrong. Prophet Muhammad’s call to monotheism, to the abolition of idolatry in all its forms, and to the equality of slaves and their masters threatened the whole socio-economic framework of Mecca society in general, and the position of the ruling Quraishee tribe from which the Prophet came in particular. Mecca, the trading center of Arabia, as well as its spiritual center, desperately wanted to stop the spread of Islam. Yet all that the Prophet’s opponents had to do to crush the movement was to make up a single chapter like any one of those which the Prophet and his followers were reciting to the people. A number of Quraishee orators and poets tried to imitate the Quran, but they failed. They then resorted to offering him vast amounts of wealth, the position of king over them, and the most noble and beautiful of their women in exchange for his promise to stop inviting people to Islam. He responded to them by reciting the first thirteen verses of Chapter Fussilat, until they asked him to stop.[1] The Quraish also resorted to torturing their slaves and relatives who had embraced Islam in a vain attempt to cause them to revert to paganism. Later they organized an economic boycott against the Prophet his followers and the members of his clan, Banu Hashim, in an attempt to starve them into submission. But even this plan eventually failed. Finally, they plotted to kill him in his home by sending armed young men from each of the clans of Quraish in order that the guilt of his murder be shared by all the clans, making revenge by the Prophet’s clan impossible.

However, God enabled the Prophet and his followers to flee Mecca and join a new band of converts who had arisen among the tribes of a city to the north called Yathrib. Islam spread rapidly through the clans of Yathrib, and within a year Muslims became the city’s majority. Prophet Muhammad was then made the ruler, and the name of the city was changed to Medina an-Nabi (The City of the Prophet may God praise him), which was then shortened to “Medina.” Over the next eight years, the clans of Mecca and its neighboring lands mounted a series of unsuccessful battle campaigns against the emerging Muslim state in Medina, which ended with the Muslim invasion of Mecca itself.

All of this bloodshed could have been avoided if only the Quraish and their allies had been able to produce a mere three lines of poetry or flowing prose similar to the shortest chapter of the Quran. Hence, there can be no doubt about the inimitability of the Quran’s literary style, about the miracle of its rhyme and the marvel of its rhythm.

It has been suggested that the inimitability of the Quran is not necessarily unique, for great English poets like Shakespeare, Chaucer, or great poets in any language tend to have distinctly unique styles which set them apart from their contemporaries. However, if, for example, some leading poet of today were to make an in-depth study of Shakespeare’s writings and write a sonnet in Shakespeare’s style in old ink and on old paper, then claim that he had discovered a lost poem of Shakespeare’s, the literary world would probably accept this claim, even after careful study. Thus, even the greatest of poets could be imitated; no matter how unique his style was, just as the famous painters have been imitated. [In fact, some English scholars consider much of what has been attributed to Shakespeare to have been written by his contemporary, Christopher Marlowe.] The Quran, however, is way above this level, as attempts to forge chapters have been made throughout the ages, yet none has withstood close scrutiny. And, as was mentioned before, the incentive to imitate the Quran was more intense during the time of its revelation when literally skills were at their peak than at any other time, yet there was no successful attempt.



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Footnotes:

[1] Collected by al-Hakim, al-Bayhaqee, Aboo Ya’laa and Ibn Hishaam, and declared Hasan by Ibrahim al-’Alee in Sahih as-Seerah an-Nabaweeyah, p.64.