Our Statement

The late Maulana was unable to complete this book during his lifetime. He passed away after writing up to the Hijrah. In Urdu, this portion, up to the Hijrah, was published in two volumes. We have divided the first Urdu volume into two volumes in Bengali. The present book is its second part. We hope to publish the second Urdu volume as the third and fourth volumes in Bengali.

The Syed Abul Ala Maududi Research Academy is striving to present all of the Maulana’s works promptly to Bengali-speaking readers. The present book has been translated by the Maulana’s close associate and accomplished writer, Mr. Abbas Ali Khan. We do not think it necessary to tell discerning readers anew about his proficiency in translation, his skillful choice of words, and the strength of his language.

We offer thanks to Allah Almighty for enabling us to publish this book on behalf of the Academy. May He grant all the readers of this book the ability to understand the true mission of prophethood. Ameen.

Abdus Shahid Nasim

Director

Syed Abul Ala Maududi Research Academy, Dhaka.

Islam is, in reality, the name of the movement that seeks to build the entire edifice of human life upon the concept and belief in the sovereignty of the One Allah. From the most ancient times, this movement has proceeded upon the same foundation and by the same method. Its leadership was provided by those whom Allah Almighty calls prophets and messengers. If we are to conduct this movement, we must necessarily follow the method of action of those leaders. For no other method exists, nor can exist, for this particular kind of movement. When we try to trace the footsteps of the noble prophets in this regard, we encounter immense difficulty. We cannot learn much about the deeds and activities of the prophets who lived in ancient times. The Qur’an contains some brief indications, but the complete plan cannot be reconstructed from them. In the New Testament of the Bible, there are some unreliable sayings attributed to Jesus, which shed some light on one aspect—namely, how the Islamic movement may be conducted at its very initial stage and what problems it must face. But Jesus did not have to confront the later stages, and no indication concerning them is found either. In this matter, we receive clear and complete guidance from only one source: the life of the Prophet Muhammad Mustafa. Our turning to him is not due merely to our reverence for him; rather, we are compelled to turn to him in order to gain knowledge of the ups and downs of this path. Among all the leaders of the Islamic movement, the Prophet Muhammad alone is the leader whose life provides us with a complete and highly reliable account of every stage and every aspect—from the movement’s initial call to the establishment of the Islamic state, and thereafter its structure, constitution, internal and foreign policy, and the principles and methods of governing the state.

Chapter 13: The Decline of Earlier Communities and Their Ruins

Introduction

By studying the history of humanity, we learn what terrible consequences one after another befell the nations that regarded the world merely as a center of pleasure and amusement, rejected the truth preached by the prophets, and lived according to misguided doctrines. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Anbiya, note 17)

The accursed and destroyed nations observed the ancient ruins merely with amusement and curiosity, but learned no lesson from them. This shows how different the outlook of those who believe in the Hereafter is from that of unbelievers. One person sees a spectacle, or at most writes history; the other derives moral instruction from what he sees and gains access to facts and truths unrelated to worldly life. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Furqan, note 54)

All those sent to reform and correct humanity were inhabitants of their respective communities. Who were Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus? Now see what became of the nations that did not accept their call and pursued their baseless notions and unbridled desires. Many people, traveling for trade, have passed by the ruined settlements of ‘Ad, Thamud, Midian, the people of Lot, and others. Did they see nothing there? The fate they suffered in this world itself indicates that they will suffer an even more terrible fate in the Hereafter. On the other hand, those who reformed themselves in this world were not merely noble in this world; their condition in the Hereafter will be far better and happier. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Yusuf, note 79)

The nations that did not heed the prophets and conducted their lives while denying tawhid, prophethood, and the Hereafter ultimately deserved decline and destruction. The continuous chain of historical events bears witness that the moral laws Allah sent through the prophets, and the questioning of human deeds in the Hereafter according to them, are absolute truth. For every nation that disregarded these moral laws, considered itself above all responsibility, and assumed that it would be answerable to no one, ultimately faced destruction. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Dhariyat, note 21)

The reason the nations destroyed in the past were destroyed was that when Allah granted them abundant wealth and power, they became intoxicated with luxury and authority and began spreading corruption in the world. The overall moral decline of society then became so great that there was no upright person among them to prevent them from wrongdoing. Even if some existed, their numbers were so small that their weak voices could not restrain them from evil. For these reasons, those nations became deserving of Allah’s curse. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Hud, note 115)

For those who seek the truth, Allah’s earth is spread with sign after sign. By observing these, they can recognize the truth. But the obstinate did not believe even after seeing them. Until peace comes from Allah, they remain perpetually immersed in misguidance. In this connection, the condition of seven historical nations is described in Surah al-Shu‘ara. They were behaving with the same obstinacy as the unbelievers of Makkah did in the time of the Prophet Mustafa. In presenting these historical accounts, Allah Almighty has drawn attention to several matters.

First, there are two kinds of signs. One kind consists of the signs scattered throughout Allah’s earth. A sensible person can observe them and determine whether the direction toward which Allah’s prophets call is correct. The second kind consists of signs such as those witnessed by the people of Lot and the Companions of the Thicket. It is now for the unbelievers of Makkah to decide which kind of sign they wish to see.

Second, in every age the mentality, arguments, complaints, and excuses of the unbelievers have been alike. Their tactics and pretexts for refusing to believe have been alike. Ultimately, their fate has also been alike. Conversely, in every age the teaching of the prophets was alike, as were their character and conduct. Their manner of arguing against their opponents was alike, and Allah’s favor toward them was likewise of one kind. These two examples are recorded in history. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Shu‘ara, Introduction)

The nations of the past were given the opportunity to act in their respective eras. But they adopted the path of wrongdoing, injustice, and rebellion. They paid no heed to the prophets sent to guide them. Consequently, they failed the test and were removed from the face of the earth. Finally, it was the turn of the Arabs. They were given the opportunity to work in place of those who came before them. They now stood in the very testing ground from which their predecessors had been expelled. They were told that, if they did not wish to suffer the fate of their predecessors, they should benefit from the opportunity granted to them. They should learn from the fate of past nations and not repeat the mistakes that had caused their destruction. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Yunus, note 18)

The People of Noah

It is clear from the Qur’anic indications and the biblical account that the land where the people of Noah lived is known today as Iraq. This is also confirmed by the ancient pre-biblical inscriptions and stone tablets found among the ancient remains of Babylon. Among these is a story of roughly this kind, mentioned in the Qur’an and the Bible, which states that their dwelling place was near Mosul. It is also known from legends passed down through generations in Kurdistan and Armenia that, after the storm and deluge, Noah’s Ark came to rest somewhere in this region. Various traces of Noah are still identified around the island of Ibn Umar, north of Mosul, and near Mount Ararat on the Armenian border. It is still commonly held among the inhabitants of Nakhchivan that Noah founded this city.

Illustration

(The region of the people of Noah and Mount Judi)

Illustration of historical evidence of a powerful storm

Legends corresponding to the above account of Noah are found in the ancient literature of Greece, Egypt, India, and China. In addition, similar legends have existed since ancient times in Burma, Malaysia, the East Indian archipelagos, Australia, America, and various parts of Europe. This clearly shows that the story belongs to an age when the entire human race lived in a single land, from which they later spread to different parts of the world. For this reason, every nation mentions a great storm in its early history. Over the course of time, however, they forgot its true details, and each coated the actual event with a thick layer of fanciful imagination according to its own notions. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 47)

The mountain of Judi where Noah’s Ark came to rest lies northeast of the island of Ibn Umar in the Kurdistan region. In the Bible, the place where the Ark came to rest is called Ararat, the name of a mountain in Armenia. It is a mountain range. The Ararat range extends from the highlands of Armenia southward to Kurdistan. One of the mountains in this range is Judi, still known by that name. Ancient histories state that the Ark stopped at this place. In fact, Berasus, a Babylonian religious leader, composed a history of his country about two hundred and fifty years before the birth of Jesus, based on ancient traditional accounts; in it, he identified Mount Judi as the place where Noah’s Ark came to rest. Abydenus, a disciple of Aristotle, also confirmed this in his history. Moreover, describing the conditions of that age, he said that many people in Iraq preserved pieces of the Ark, washing them and giving the water to the sick to drink. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Hud, note 46)

The Moral Decline of the People of Noah

From the condition of Noah and his people described in the Qur’an, it is clear that this nation neither denied Allah’s existence nor was ignorant of Him. They had no objection to worshipping Allah either. But the misguidance in which they were immersed was the misguidance of shirk. That is, they regarded other beings as partners with Allah in divinity and believed that they too had the right to receive praise and worship. From this fundamental misguidance, many forms of corruption emerged among the nation. A special class arose from among the people to represent the self-made gods and goddesses whom they regarded as partners in divinity. They assumed control of all religious, political, and economic power. They created distinctions of high and low among people, filled social life with injustice and corruption, and moral depravity and sin hollowed out the very essence of humanity.

The People of Noah

Noah’s Efforts at Reform

*****Arabic*******

They had spread a vast web of deception. —Surah Nuh: 22

Deception was the tactic of those leaders by which they tried to incite the common people against the teachings of Noah. They would say, for example: Noah is only a human being like you. How can it be accepted that revelation has come to him from Allah? (Surah al-A‘raf: 63; Surah Hud: 27) The lower-class people have accepted Noah’s obedience without understanding. If there were truly any importance in his words, our elders would certainly have accepted them. (Surah Hud: 27) If Allah had wished to send a prophet or messenger, He would have sent an angel. (Surah al-Mu’minun: 24) If he were truly sent by Allah, he would possess treasures of wealth, know the unseen, and, like the angels, be free of all human needs. (Surah Hud: 31) What miracle can be seen among Noah and his followers that would justify acknowledging his status? (Surah Hud: 27) This man merely wants to establish authority and leadership over you. (Surah al-Mu’minun: 24) He has been touched by some jinn, which has made him insane. (Surah al-Mu’minun: 25) (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 48)

Noah strove tirelessly for a long time, with patience and wisdom, to change this condition. But they had ensnared the common people so thoroughly in a web of deception that no effort at reform had any effect. At last, Noah prayed to Allah: “My Lord, do not leave a single one of these unbelievers alive on the earth. For if You leave them, they will lead Your servants astray, and whoever is born from their descendants will be born wicked, ungrateful unbelievers.” (Here reference is made to the prayer Noah offered after striving continuously for a very long time to reform his people. He prayed: *****Arabic ***** O Allah, I can endure no longer; help me. (Surah al-Qamar: 10) *****Arabic ****** O Lord, do not leave a single unbeliever on earth. —Surah Nuh: 26) (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Nuh, note 16)

Punishment

Noah’s Prayer Before Allah (The Qur’an mentions the prolonged conflict that continued for several centuries over Noah’s call and his people’s persistence in disbelief. Surah al-‘Ankabut states that this conflict continued for nine hundred and fifty years. *****Arabic****** Observing their overall conduct over successive generations, Noah did not merely conclude that they lacked the capacity to accept the truth; he also expressed the view that there was no possibility that righteous and believing people would arise from their descendants in the future. *****Arabic ******* O Allah, if You leave them, they will lead Your servants astray, and whoever is born from their descendants will be sinful and opposed to the truth. Allah Himself regarded Noah’s view as correct and, on the basis of His complete and infallible knowledge, said: *****Arabic ****** Those among your people who were to believe have believed, and no one else will believe. So do not grieve over what they do. (Surah al-Shu‘ara, note 85) It was accepted. Thereafter Allah’s punishment descended upon that nation. From the Qur’an’s clear description, it appears that the flood began at a particular oven, from beneath which springs of water burst forth. Then, on one side, torrential rain began falling from the sky, while on the other, springs emerged from the earth in various places. Surah Hud mentions only hot water gushing from the oven; rainfall is indicated afterward. But its details are given in Surah al-Qamar:

(*****Arabic******)

I opened the gates of the sky, from which continuous rain poured down. And I caused the earth to burst forth, so that springs sprang out everywhere. These two kinds of water came together to fulfill Allah’s decree.

Furthermore, the use in the Qur’an of the word tannur with the definite article (*****Arabic***) seems to indicate that Allah Almighty selected a particular oven for this purpose. Then, at the mere signal, hot water began to rise from it at the appointed time. It was later called the oven that caused the storm and flood. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 48)

Was the Flood Worldwide?

Did this flood cover the entire world, or was it confined to the region where Noah’s people lived? This is a question whose answer has not yet been found. According to Israelite accounts, the general belief is that the flood covered the whole world (Genesis 7:18–24). But the Qur’an nowhere says this. From the Qur’an’s indications, it can certainly be understood that the human race after the flood arose from the people preserved from Noah’s flood. But this does not necessarily mean that Noah’s flood was worldwide. It may equally be said that at that time the descendants of Adam were confined to the part of the world where the flood occurred, and that the human generations born after the flood gradually spread throughout the world. Two matters support this view. First, evidence of a great flood in the land watered by the Tigris and Euphrates is found in historical accounts, ancient remains, and different strata of the earth. Second, legends of a great flood have existed since ancient times among most peoples of the earth. Even the ancient legends of distant lands such as Australia, America, and New Guinea mention it. This leads to the conclusion that at some time the ancestors of these peoples may have lived in the same settlement where the flood occurred. Then, as they spread to different parts of the world, they carried these legends with them. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Hud, note 42)

Noah’s Ark Becomes an Instructive Sign

*****Arabic*******

And We made it an instructive sign for the worlds. —Surah al-‘Ankabut: 15

This may also mean that this terrible punishment or this immense event was made an instructive sign for later generations. But from the way it is described here in Surah al-Qamar (verse 15), it appears that the instructive sign itself was the Ark, which remained on the mountaintop and continued to convey to later generations the news that a flood of such magnitude had come upon the world, causing the Ark to become stranded on the mountain. In his commentary on the verse of Surah al-Qamar, Ibn Jarir quotes a report from Qatadah stating that when the Muslims went to the Jazirah region during the era of the Companions, they saw that Ark atop Mount Judi (or, according to another account, near a village called Baqirwa). Even in the present age, one occasionally hears that expeditions are sent from time to time in search of Noah’s Ark. It is said that when an aircraft sometimes flies over the Ararat range, pilots see something resembling a boat on the mountain’s summit. Imam Bukhari, Ibn Abi Hatim, Abd al-Razzaq, and Ibn Jarir quote a report from Qatadah stating that when the Muslims conquered Iraq and the Jazirah, the Ark was still present atop Mount Judi (or, according to another account, near the village of Baqirwa), where the Muslims of the early period saw it. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Hud, note 46)

The ‘Ad People

Naming

This was an extremely ancient nation of Arabia. The story of this nation was heard from mouth to mouth among the Arabs. Even small children knew their name. Their glory, splendor, influence, and power were exemplary. Their disappearance from the world, leaving no trace, was likewise exemplary. Because of their fame, in the Arabic language every ancient thing is called ‘adi. Ancient remains are also called adiyyat. Land that has no owner and lies uncultivated is called adiyy al-ard. This nation is mentioned frequently in ancient Arabic poetry. Arab genealogists name this nation first among all the past nations of their country. It is related in a hadith that a man from Banu Zuhal ibn Shayban once came to the Noble Prophet. He lived in the region of the ‘Ad people and told the Prophet the stories that the people of his area had transmitted from generation to generation about that nation since ancient times.

The Dwelling Place of the ‘Ad People

According to the Qur’an, the actual dwelling place of this nation was the region of Ahqaf, situated between the Hijaz, Yemen, and Yamamah. Ahqaf is the plural of hikf, literally meaning long sand dunes, though not as high as mountains. In usage, it refers to the western part of the Arabian desert, the Rub‘ al-Khali, where there are no settlements. (Author) From there they expanded and established their influence and power from western Yemen to Iraq. Historically, the remains of this nation have almost completely disappeared from the world. Yet ancient ruins attributed to the ‘Ad people are found somewhere in southern Arabia.

It is said that the grave of Hud is located at one place. In 1837, a British naval officer, James R. Wellested, saw an inscription at Hisn Ghorab that mentioned Hud. From the writing, it clearly appears to have been composed by people who followed the Shariah of Hud. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-‘Ankabut, 25)

Ibn Ishaq says that the settlements of the ‘Ad people extended from Oman to Yemen. The Qur’an tells us that their actual dwelling place was Ahqaf, from where they emerged, spread into the surrounding regions, and overran weaker nations. To this day, it is commonly held among the people of southern Arabia that the ‘Ad people lived in this region. About 125 miles north of the present city of Mukalla, in Hadramawt, there is a place where a grave has been built and attributed to Hud, and it is known as Hud’s grave. An urs is held there every year on the fifteenth of Sha‘ban. Thousands of people gather there from different regions of Arabia. Although this grave is not historically proven, the gathering of large numbers of people from southern Arabia there may indicate that local legend identifies this region as the dwelling place of the ‘Ad people. Moreover, various ruins are now found in Hadramawt, leading local inhabitants still to regard it as the dwelling place of the ‘Ad people.

The Present Condition of the Dwelling Place of the ‘Ad People

From the present condition of al-Ahqaf, no one could imagine that a civilized and powerful nation once lived here. Perhaps thousands of years ago it was a verdant region, which gradually became a desert due to changes in the climate. Its condition now is that of a devouring desert so forbidding that no one dares remain in its midst. In 1843, a military officer of Baviringer reached its southern edge. He says that, when viewed from the highlands north of Hadramawt, this desert appears one thousand feet below. In places there are expanses of white ground where anything that falls sinks into a sea of sand and is ruined. Even the Bedouins of Arabia are terrified of this region and are unwilling to go there under any circumstances. Once, when a Bedouin refused to take that military officer there, he went alone. He says that the sand here is as fine and soft as powder. I threw a bucket there from a distance. Within five minutes it had sunk. Even the rope with which I had tied and lowered it immediately dissolved. (For details, see: 1. Arabia and the Isles, Harold Ingrams, London, 1946. 2. The Unveiling of Arabia, R. H. Kirman, London, 1937. 3. The Empty Quarter, Philby, London, 1933.) (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 51)

Prosperity Before the Destruction

Historical accounts by the Arabs and current archaeological discoveries prove that the first ‘Ad were completely destroyed and that even their traces were wiped from the world. Arab historians regard them as an extinct nation. It is also universally accepted in Arab history that only those members of the ‘Ad who followed Hud (peace be upon him) survived. This surviving part of the ‘Ad is called the Second ‘Ad. The inscription at Hisn Ghurab mentioned above is one of their surviving memorials. This inscription is thought to date from about 1,800 years before Christ. Experts have read several sentences of its original text, some of which are given below: “For a long period we lived in this fortress with such influence and authority that neither poverty nor prosperity could touch us. Our rivers remained brimful, and our rulers were kings whose thoughts were pure and refined and who were harsh toward injustice and wickedness. They ruled over us according to the Shariah of Hud (peace be upon him), and sound decisions were recorded in a book. We believed in miraculous acts and resurrection after death.”

This statement testifies to the truth of the Qur’anic account that those who ultimately inherited the former influence, authority, and prosperity of the ‘Ad were the very people who believed in Hud (peace be upon him). (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Ahqaf, note 25)

The Qur’an’s Mention of Their Prosperity and Pride

(******Arabic ******)

Remember Allah’s favor and blessing: after the people of Noah, He made you their successors. (Surah al-A‘raf: 69)

Physically, they were exceptionally well-built and powerful.

(*****Arabic *****)

He made you very healthy and robust in physique.

In their age, they were a matchless nation. No other nation could compare with them.

(*****Arabic******)

The like of whom no other nation was created in the land. (Surah al-Fajr: 8)

Their civilization was highly advanced. Their distinctive practice was to build lofty structures upon towering pillars, and for this they became famous throughout the world.

(*****Arabic********)

Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with ‘Ad of Iram, possessors of lofty pillars? (Surah al-Fajr: 6–7.)

Their material and physical might made them proud. They became intoxicated with their power.

(*****Arabic******)

Now consider ‘Ad. They deviated from the path of truth in the land, behaved arrogantly, and began saying, “Who is stronger than us?” (Surah Ha-Mim al-Sajdah: 15)

Their political power lay in the hands of several great tyrants, before whom no one could utter even a word.

(*****Arabic *****)

And they obeyed the command of every tyrant who was an enemy of the truth. — Surah Hud: 59

Religiously, they were not deniers of Allah; rather, they were involved in shirk. They did not accept that servitude and obedience must be rendered to Allah alone.

(*****Arabic********)

They said to Hud, “Have you come to us so that we may worship Allah alone and abandon what our forefathers worshipped?” (Surah al-A‘raf: 70) (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Ahqaf, note 25)

The Cause of the Punishment Sent Upon Them

The ancient ‘Ad were not destroyed because Allah had any enmity toward them and wished to destroy them for that reason. Rather, they themselves adopted a way of life that led them toward destruction. Allah had given them the opportunity to reflect and reform themselves. He sent messengers for their guidance. Through the messengers, He warned them of the consequences of following the wrong path. He clearly told them which path led to their welfare and which to destruction. But when they took no opportunity to reform themselves and stubbornly insisted on following the path of destruction, what inevitably had to happen to them happened. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 56)

The Qur’anic Account of the Punishment

(*****Arabic****)

At last We sent upon them a furious storm on some ill-fated days, so that We might make them taste humiliation in the life of this world. — (Surah Ha-Mim al-Sajdah: 16)

The punishment described at various places in the Noble Qur’an was this: a violent, roaring wind continued for seven nights and eight days. In its force, people kept falling and dying as though they were the hollow trunks of palm trees lying on the ground (Surah al-Haqqah: 7). Whatever this wind passed over, it reduced to decay (Surah al-Dhariyat: 42). When the wind began to blow, the people of ‘Ad rejoiced. They said, “Ah! Dense clouds have appeared; it will rain, and the dry things will come to life.”

But the wind came with such tremendous force that it destroyed the entire settlement. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Shu‘ara, note 86)

( *****Arabic******)

I sent upon them a furious storm on an ill-fated day. It lifted them up and cast them down in such a manner that they became like the trunks of uprooted palm trees. — Surah al-Qamar: 19–20)

That is, a day whose evil continued for several successive days. The words (*****Arabic***) are used in verse 16 of Surah Ha-Mim al-Sajdah. Verse 7 of Surah al-Haqqah says that this storm lasted for seven nights and eight days. It is said that the day on which this punishment began was a Wednesday. This led people to believe that Wednesday was an ill-omened day and that no work should be begun on it. Some weak hadiths were also cited in support, causing the belief in the evil nature of that day to become firmly rooted among the people. For example, the narration of Ibn Marduyah and al-Khatib al-Baghdadi says (*****Arabic******), meaning that the last Wednesday of the month is an ill-fated day whose evil continues. Ibn al-Jawzi calls this hadith fabricated. Ibn Rajab says it is not authentic. Hafiz Sakharawi says that all the forms in which this hadith has been transmitted are fabricated. Likewise, hadith scholars have called al-Tabarani’s hadith weak; it is (*****Arabic******), meaning that Wednesday is an unlucky or ill-fated day. Some other narrations say that one should not travel on Wednesday, conduct transactions, or cut one’s nails. They also say that one should not visit the sick, because leprosy began on that day. But all these narrations are weak and unreliable, and no creed can be founded upon them. The critical scholar Munawi says (*****Arabic****), meaning that it is strictly unlawful to hold such a belief in this matter as fortune-tellers do. For all days belong to Allah. No day is inherently auspicious or inauspicious.

‘Allamah Alusi says that all days are equal. Wednesday has no special distinction. There is no moment between night and day that is good for one person and bad for another. At all times Allah creates conditions that are suitable for some and unsuitable for others. The author (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Ha-Mim al-Sajdah, note 20)

The Thamud Nation

Introduction

Among the oldest nations of Arabia, the Thamud were the second to gain great fame after ‘Ad. Before the revelation of the Qur’an, their stories were known on everyone’s lips in Arabia. They were frequently mentioned in the poetry and speeches of the Age of Ignorance. They are also mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions and in the books of ancient historians and geographers of Greece, Alexandria, and Rome. Some remnants of this nation still existed until shortly before the birth of the Messiah (peace be upon him). Roman historians say that members of this nation enlisted in the Roman army and fought against the Nabataeans, because they were enemies of the Nabataeans.

The Habitation of the Thamud

This nation inhabited the region of northwestern Arabia still known as al-Hijr. Today, a station on the Hijaz Railway between Madinah and Tabuk is called Mada’in Salih. This was the principal settlement of the Thamud, and in ancient times it was called Hijr. Even today, stone buildings can be seen there across thousands of acres, built by the Thamud by carving into the mountains. Merely seeing this silent and deserted city suggests that at one time its population could not have been less than four or five hundred thousand. (The entire area in northern Hijaz, from Rabigh to ‘Uqbah and from Madinah and Khaybar to Tayma and Tabuk, is still filled with the ruins of the Thamud. At the time of the Qur’an’s revelation, these ruins must have been more distinct than they are today. The author (Surah al-Qamar, note 16)

At the time of the Qur’an’s revelation, the trading caravans of the Hijaz passed through these ruins. Nevertheless, when the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) passed this way during an expedition, he showed these ruins to the Muslims and told them to learn a lesson from these ancient remains. At one place he pointed to a well and said, “This is the well from which the she-camel of Salih (peace be upon him) used to drink.” He instructed the Muslims to drink water only from this well. Pointing to a mountain valley, he said, “The she-camel used to drink water from here.” That place is still known as Fajju al-Naqah. (On the way to the expedition of Tabuk, the Muslims were looking around at these ruins of the Thamud. The Noble Prophet (peace be upon him) gathered them and said, “Learn a lesson from the fate of the Thamud.” He further said, “This was the dwelling place of a people upon whom Allah’s punishment descended. It is not a place for amusement or pleasure; rather, it is a place for weeping. Therefore, cross this place quickly.” The author (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 59) (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Qamar, note 16)

The Ruins of the Thamud

(*****Arabic******)

And remember when Allah appointed you successors after the ‘Ad and gave you such standing that you now build great palaces on suitable tracts of land and carve houses in the mountains. — Surah al-A‘raf: 74

The architecture of the Thamud—carving into mountains—was just like what can be seen at Barabar, Ellora, Ajanta, and other places. Those buildings still remain intact at Mada’in Salih. Seeing them shows how advanced this nation was in engineering. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-‘Ankabut, note 65)

Hijr was the central settlement of the Thamud. Its ruins can be seen a few miles from the present city of al-‘Ula, northwest of Madinah. The site lies directly on the main road from Madinah to Tabuk. Caravans pass through this valley, but in accordance with the Messenger’s instruction, no one stays there.

In the eighth century of the Hijrah, Ibn Battutah reached this place on his way to perform Hajj. He says that buildings of the Thamud stood here amid red mountains. They had made them by carving into the mountains. The ornamentation they created remains so lifelike even now that it seems to have been made only moments ago. Human bones can still be seen scattered in these places. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 57)

Material Progress and Moral Decline

From the accounts given in the Noble Qur’an concerning this nation—in verses 73–79 of Surah al-A‘raf, 61–68 of Surah Hud, 80–84 of Surah al-Hijr, 45–53 of Surah al-Naml, 43–45 of Surah al-Dhariyat, 23–31 of Surah al-Qamar, 4–5 of Surah al-Haqqah, 9 of Surah al-Fajr, and 11 of Surah al-Shams—it is known that the nation enriched after the ‘Ad was the Thamud. (*****Arabic****) But their civilizational progress and prosperity had the same outcome as that of the ‘Ad. In other words, as the standard of living rose to ever greater heights, the standard of humanity declined ever further. On one side, palace after palace was being carved from stone in the open wilderness, like Ellora and Ajanta. On the other, shirk and idolatry were spreading through society. Society was afflicted by oppression and tyranny. Leadership had been established in the hands of people of corrupt character. The upper classes, in their pride and arrogance, considered themselves above all others. Only the lower classes responded to the call to truth presented by Salih (peace be upon him). The upper classes refused to accept the Prophet’s call, saying:

(*****Arabic *****)

We do not believe in the one in whom you have believed.

Three Reasons for Rejecting the Truth

The Thamud refused to follow Salih (peace be upon him) for three reasons. First, he was a human being. He was not superhuman, and they could not accept his superiority on that account. Second, he belonged to their own people. Therefore, in their view, there could be no reason for him to be superior to them. Third, in their view he was an ordinary man. He was not a powerful leader; he had no troops, retainers, or army with him, and he had no influence or authority. For this reason, they could not accept his superiority. They thought that a prophet must be superhuman. And if he were human, he should not be born among their land and people; he should come from somewhere else or be sent from outside. If that were not the case, then at the very least he would have to be a wealthy person, possessing fame and influence, so that it could be accepted that Allah had chosen him and turned His attention to him to guide the people. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 57)

The Conflict Between Good and Evil

After Salih (peace be upon him) began his call, his people split into two groups.

(*****Arabic****)

They suddenly divided into two opposing groups. (Surah al-Naml: 45)

One group believed, while the other refused to believe. Because of this disagreement, conflict began among them. Elsewhere the Qur’an says—

(*****Arabic******)

The proud leaders of that nation would say to the weak believers, “Do you really know that Salih has been sent by his Lord?” They replied, “We believe in the truth with which he has been sent.” Then those proud men said, “We do not believe in what you believe.”

Elsewhere, the statement of the leaders of this nation is described as follows: “O Salih, bring us the punishment with which you threaten us, if you are truly one of the messengers.” (Surah al-A‘raf: 77)

The Demand for a Miracle

(*****Arabic****)

We are sending the she-camel to them as a test. Now patiently observe what becomes of them. Tell them that the water will be divided between them and the she-camel. Each party will come to drink on its allotted day. — Surah al-Qamar: 27–28

The meaning of “We are sending the she-camel to them as a test” is that a she-camel was suddenly brought before them, and they were told: she will drink the water alone on one day, and you and your animals may drink on the other day. On her day, none of you may come to take water from any well or spring, nor may you bring your animals to drink. This challenge was issued by a man about whom they themselves said that he had neither troops nor any party or force supporting him. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Qamar, note 17)

A Decisive Sign

Verses 154–156 of Surah al-Shu‘ara state that the people of Thamud demanded from Salih (peace be upon him) a sign that would be direct proof that he had been appointed by Allah. In response, Salih (peace be upon him) presented this she-camel. (The same is stated in verse 73 of Surah al-A‘raf. The author.) This clearly proves that the she-camel appeared as a miracle. It was the kind of miracle that certain prophets presented as proof of prophethood in response to the demands of deniers. Moreover, the miraculous appearance of the she-camel is also proven by the fact that Salih (peace be upon him), presenting her, warned the unbelievers: your lives are closely bound up with the life of this she-camel. She will roam freely through your fields and farms. One day she will drink the water, and the next day all your animals will drink. If you touch her, Allah’s punishment will immediately descend upon you. It is clear that such complete certainty and confidence can be shown only regarding something that people see with their own eyes to be extraordinary. The she-camel then continued to roam freely here and there for quite some time; on one day she drank the water alone, and on the other day the other animals drank. They endured all this most unwillingly. Finally, after much consultation and conspiracy, they killed the she-camel, although Salih (peace be upon him) had no other power that could make them fear him. Further proof of this fact is that they were terrified because of the she-camel and knew that some power must be behind her, by whose strength she moved fearlessly among them. The Qur’an gives no detailed explanation of what the she-camel was like or how she appeared. No account of it is found in any authentic hadith. Therefore, it is not necessary to accept the accounts through which commentators have described the she-camel’s origin. But the Qur’an does establish that the she-camel appeared miraculously. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Naml, note 58)

The Killing of the She-Camel

(*****Arabic******)

They killed the she-camel and disobeyed the command of their Lord. — Surah al-A‘raf: 77

For quite some time, the she-camel had become a problem for the entire nation. The people had inwardly grown annoyed with her. Then consultations continued, until at last a stubborn leader undertook the responsibility of freeing the nation from this trouble. In Surah al-Shams, that man is mentioned as follows: (*****Arabic******) Suddenly, one of the most wicked men of the nation prepared to undertake this task. In Surah al-Qamar it is said: (*****Arabic*****) They appealed to their companion, and he accepted the task. Then he hamstrung the she-camel. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Qamar, note 19)

Although one man killed the she-camel, as stated in Surah al-Shams and al-Qamar, the entire nation stood behind him, and in reality he fulfilled the will of the whole nation through this crime. Therefore, the entire nation was held guilty. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 58) (A crime committed according to a nation’s wishes, or a crime of which the nation expresses approval, is considered a national crime even if it is committed by one individual. Indeed, the Qur’an also says that a crime committed openly and accepted by the nation is likewise considered a national crime. — The author)

The Conspiracy of the Wicked Against Salih (peace be upon him)

(*****Arabic******)

There were nine leaders in that city who spread disorder throughout the land and did no reforming work. They said to one another, “Swear by Allah that we will launch a surprise attack at night against Salih and his family. Then we will tell his guardian that we were not present at all when his family was destroyed. We are certainly telling the truth.”

They devised this plot, but We too devised a plan of which they were completely unaware. Now see what the outcome of their plot was. We destroyed them and their entire nation. — Surah al-Naml: 48–51

Before they could attack Hazrat Salih (peace be upon him) at the appointed time, Allah the Exalted destroyed them and their entire people.

It seems that they hatched this conspiracy after cutting the she-camel’s hump. It is mentioned in Surah Hud that when they killed the she-camel, Hazrat Salih (peace be upon him) warned them, saying, “Very well; enjoy yourselves in your homes for three days, then Allah’s punishment will come upon you” (*****Arabic*****). They may then have thought: whether or not Salih’s promised punishment comes, why should we not finish him off along with the she-camel? Most probably, they decided to attack that very night, the night on which the punishment was due to descend upon them. Then this happened: before they could lay a hand on Hazrat Salih (peace be upon him), Allah’s mighty hand fell upon them. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 58)

Description of the punishment

(*****Arabic*****) The punishment came upon them.

The description of this punishment given elsewhere in the Qur’an is as follows: when they killed the she-camel, Hazrat Salih (peace be upon him) said

(*****Arabic*****)

Remain in your homes for only three more days.

After the period of this notice had ended, toward the end of the night there was a tremendous explosion, accompanied by such an earthquake that it devastated the entire people in an instant. The next morning, their crushed corpses were found lying there, as though a thicket growing on a fence had been trampled, crushed and destroyed by passing animals. Neither their stone-built palaces nor their houses carved into the mountains could protect them. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 61) (See Surah al-Qamar, verse 31; Surah al-A‘raf, verse 78; and Surah al-Hijr, verses 83–84. —The author)

The people of faith were saved

(*****Arabic*****)

At last, when the time of Our judgment came, We saved Salih and those who believed with him through Our mercy, and protected them from the humiliation of that day. Surah Hud: 66

It is known from the legends current in the Sinai Peninsula that when the punishment came upon the people of Thamud, Hazrat Salih (peace be upon him) migrated there. Near the mountain of Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) there is another mountain called the Mountain of the Prophet Salih. It is said that this was his dwelling place. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Naml, note 65)

The cultural advancement of Thamud and its remains

Just as the distinctive feature of the people of ‘Ad was that they built palaces upon lofty pillars, the distinctive feature of the people of Thamud was that they carved palaces into the mountains. For this reason they were famous among the ancient peoples. Just as ‘Ad is given the title Dhat al-‘Imad (possessors of pillars) in Surah al-Fajr, it is said of Thamud that they carved mountains in the valleys (*****Arabic*****). The Qur’an further says that they built great palaces in the rocky land (*****Arabic*****). What was the reason for building such palaces? The Qur’an sheds light on it through the word (*****Arabic*****). That is, they did all this for pride and arrogance, wealth and power, and the display of architectural skill. No genuine need induced them to do it. This is what happens in a disordered civilization. When the poor in society cannot find even a little place to lay their heads, while the affluent, nobles and wealthy build palaces far beyond their needs, they begin constructing ostentatious memorial palaces.

Some of these palaces of the people of Thamud still exist. I saw them myself in December 1959. Some photographs of them are included here. The site lies a few miles north of al-‘Ula, a famous place in the Hijaz between Medina and Tabuk. In the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), it was called Wadi al-Qura. Even today its inhabitants remember the place as al-Hijr and Mada’in Salih.

In this region, al-‘Ula is still a verdant valley. Numerous springs, orchards and gardens can be seen there. But around al-Hijr one finds a terribly ominous atmosphere. The population is negligible, and the land lacks fertility. There are several wells there. Among the local inhabitants, a legend has long circulated about one of them. At present it can be seen amid a dilapidated military camp; it is completely dry. Its photograph is also included.

When we entered this area, as soon as we approached al-‘Ula we saw mountains that appeared completely scorched and roasted. It clearly seemed that a terrible earthquake had overturned and torn them apart from bottom to top. Photographs of these mountains are also included. Mountains of this kind could be seen for nearly forty miles eastward on the route from al-‘Ula to Khaybar, and thirty or forty miles northward inside Jordan. This means that an area three to four hundred miles long and one hundred miles wide had been devastated by an earthquake. The buildings of the Thamud that we saw at al-Hijr had counterparts at Madyan on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba and at Petra in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In particular, at Petra, Thamudite and Nabataean buildings stand side by side. There is such a clear difference in their ornamentation and construction that anyone can understand at a glance that they are neither from the same age nor of the same people.

The English Orientalist (Dayghty), in order to prove the Qur’an false, claimed regarding the buildings of al-Hijr that they were made not by the Thamud but by the Nabataeans. Yet the difference between the two types of buildings is so clear that only a blind person could consider them buildings of the same people. My view is that the art of carving buildings into mountains began with the people of Thamud. Several thousand years later, in the second and first centuries BCE, the Nabataeans advanced this architectural art. Later, at Ellora, this architectural art reached its highest development. The caves of Ellora, however, are about seven hundred years later than Petra. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Shu‘ara’, note 106)

The people of Ibrahim (peace be upon him)

After Hazrat Nuh (peace be upon him), Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was the first prophet whom Allah the Exalted appointed to propagate Islam’s universal message. He first travelled personally from Iraq to Egypt, and from Syria and Palestine to various regions of the Arabian desert, calling people to obedience and worship of Allah the Exalted—that is, to Islam. Then, for spreading his mission, he appointed his successors in various regions: his nephew Hazrat Lut (peace be upon him) in eastern Jordan, his son Hazrat Ishaq (peace be upon him) in Syria and Palestine, and his eldest son Hazrat Ismail (peace be upon him) in the interior of Arabia. Then, by Allah’s command, he built in Makkah a house called the Ka‘bah. By Allah’s command, he regarded this house as the center of his mission. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Hud, note 74)

The birthplace of Ibrahim (peace be upon him)

The city in which Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was born has become known not only through the results of modern archaeological research; the condition of the people of that region in his time has also been illuminated. Below is a brief account of the findings published by Sir Leonard Woolley in his book Abraham Lindon 1953.

Historical and cultural facts about the city of Ur

Experts today generally acknowledge that Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) appeared around 2100 BCE. At that time, the population of Ur was close to 250,000, perhaps even 500,000. The city was a great center of commerce and industry. Goods reached it from the Pamirs and the Blue Mountains on one side, while it maintained commercial relations with Anatolia on the other. The kingdom of which it was the capital extended somewhat less far north and somewhat farther west than present-day Iraq. Most of the people’s occupations were industry and trade. Inscriptions recovered from the ancient ruins show that their outlook on life was purely materialistic. Their aim in life was to acquire wealth and collect large quantities of luxurious goods. The market for interest was extremely active. The people were mercantile in outlook. They viewed one another with suspicion, and lawsuits between them were very frequent. Most of their prayers to their gods and goddesses were for long life, prosperity and success in business. The inhabitants were divided into three classes.

First: the Amelu. These were the upper class. Priests and ordinary civil officials belonged to this class.

Second: the Mushkenu. These were merchants, industrialists and agriculturists.

Third: the Ardu, that is, slaves.

Of these three classes, the first enjoyed special status. Their criminal and civil rights were distinct from those of the others. The value assigned to their lives and property was also greater than that assigned to the others.

—————— Figure:

The route of Hazrat Ibrahim’s migration

This was the city and society in which Hazrat Ibrahim grew up. From the condition of him and his family as described in the Talmud, it appears that he belonged to the Amelu class. His father held the highest office in the kingdom. Under Nimrod, he was the kingdom’s highest-ranking official (Chief officer of the state).

Gods and goddesses, temples and religious ceremonies

The inscriptions of Ur contain the names of nearly five thousand gods and goddesses. Different cities had different deities whom they worshipped. Each city had a guardian, called Rabb al-Balad or the lord of the city. He was regarded as the chief god or head of the gods and was revered more than all the other gods and goddesses. The Rabb al-Balad of Ur was Nannar (the moon god). Later people named this lord Qamrina after him. The second-largest city was Larsa, which later became the capital in place of Ur. Its Rabb al-Balad was Shammas (the sun god). Beneath these great gods and goddesses were many lesser gods and goddesses. Most were selected from the planets and stars of the sky, and a smaller number from the earth. They were associated with people’s minor needs. Images of them were made in the form of dolls, and every kind of worship and ceremony was performed before them. Nannar’s image was installed in a splendid building atop the highest hill in Ur. Nearby was the temple of Nannar’s wife, Nangul. Nannar’s temple resembled a royal palace. Each night, a priestess dressed as his bride in his bedchamber. Many women in the temple were dedicated in the name of the god. They were called devadasis (religious prostitutes). Women who dedicated their virginity in the name of their god or deity were regarded with great respect. Apparently, giving oneself once as the bodily companion of an unknown man in the path of the deity was considered a means of salvation. It goes without saying that most priests indulged in pleasure through this religious prostitution.

The status of Nannar as a deity

Nannar was not merely a deity. Rather, he was the country’s largest landowner, a great merchant, a major industrialist and a powerful ruler in the political sphere. Numerous orchards, lands and houses were endowed in the name of this temple. In addition to their income from these, farmers, landlords and merchants sent all kinds of grain, milk, gold and silver, clothing and other goods to the temple as offerings. The temple itself conducted business on a large scale. The priests and their chief gods regarded these activities as a means of attaining closeness to the deity. The source of the royal family’s governing authority was also this god Nannar. Nannar was the true king, and the ruler of the country governed on his behalf. Accordingly, the king of the country himself was counted among the worshipped deities and was worshipped like the gods.

The rise, development and decline of Nimrod’s kingdom

The name of the first founder of the royal house that ruled Ur in the time of Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was Ur-Nammu. Two thousand three hundred years before the birth of Jesus (peace be upon him), he established a vast kingdom. It extended eastward to Susa and westward to Lebanon. This family took the name Namu from him, which became Nimrod in Arabic. After Hazrat Ibrahim migrated from his homeland, successive waves of destruction began to overtake this family. First, the Elamites destroyed the city of Ur and carried away Nimrod along with his god Nannar. Thereafter, an Elamite rule was established in Larsa, under which the inhabitants of the Ur region became slaves. Subsequently, a family of Arab origin became powerful in Babylon and subjugated both Larsa and Ur. After these devastations, the faith that the people of Ur had held in Nannar was shaken, because Nannar had been unable to protect them.

The influence of Ibrahim’s teachings in later times

It cannot be stated with certainty how much influence Hazrat Ibrahim’s teachings had on the people of that country in later times. But the laws drawn up by the king of Babylon, Hammurabi (Amraphel in the Bible), in 1910 BCE, directly or indirectly drew upon light taken from the guidance of the prophets. A detailed inscription of these laws came into the hands of a French archaeologist in 1902. He published his English translation under the title C.H.W. John, The Oldest Code of Law in 1903. The principles and details of these laws resemble the Shariah of Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him).

A complete polytheistic cultural system

If the archaeological research conducted so far is accurate, it becomes clear that the shirk in which the people of Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) were involved was not merely a set of religious beliefs and pagan rituals. Rather, the entire economic, cultural, political and social system of that people operated on the basis of those beliefs. In opposition to it, the call to tawhid with which Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) stood forth did not affect idol worship alone; it also struck at the royal family’s claim to divinity, their authority and dominion, the economic and political position of the priests and upper classes, and the country’s entire way of life. To carry his message meant shattering the whole social edifice from bottom to top, and then rebuilding it anew on the foundation of tawhid. Therefore, as soon as Hazrat Ibrahim’s voice rang out, the common people, Nimrod and the priests all resolved together to silence it. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Shu‘ara’, note 99)

An examination of Nimrod’s polytheistic system

The common characteristic of all polytheistic societies from the beginning until today is that they acknowledge Allah the Exalted as Rabb al-Arbab, the Lord of all lords and the God of all gods, but they do not recognize that Lord and that God alone as the One worthy of worship.

Polytheists have always divided the divinity of God into two parts. One is supernatural divinity, which exercises authority over the chain of causes and toward which people turn to fulfill their needs and remove their troubles. In this divinity, they make spirits, angels, jinn and many other beings partners with Allah the Exalted. They pray to them, perform worship before them, and present offerings at their shrines. The second is divinity, or authority and dominion, in cultural and political affairs—the authority to make laws for life and demand obedience. In almost every age, all polytheists have separated this second kind of divinity from Allah the Exalted, or divided it between Him and the royal family, religious priests and the elders of society. Most royal families came to claim divinity in this second sense. To establish their divinity, they claimed to be children of the god in the first sense. The religious class joined them in this conspiracy.

Nimrod’s claim to divinity was also of the second kind. He did not deny the existence of Allah the Exalted. He did not claim to be the creator of the earth and heavens or the director of the created world. Rather, he claimed to be the absolute ruler of this land of Iraq and its inhabitants. His word was law; above him there was no higher power or being to whom he would have to render an account. Accordingly, any inhabitant of Iraq who did not acknowledge him as lord, and who regarded anyone other than him as lord, was a rebel and a traitor.

The impact of Hazrat Ibrahim’s call to tawhid

When Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) said, “I acknowledge only the One Rabb al-‘Alamin as God, Lord and Master, and I completely reject all authority and dominion apart from Him,” the question was not merely how acceptable this new belief of his was regarding the national religion and its deities. Alongside it arose the question of how the blow this belief was striking at the national state and its central ruling power could be ignored. That is why Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was brought before Nimrod on the charge of rebellion.

Hazrat Ibrahim’s irrefutable argument

When Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) told Nimrod that the One in whose hand are life and death was his Lord, Nimrod said, “Life and death are in my hands.”

Ibrahim (peace be upon him) said, “Very well, Allah causes the sun to rise in the east; now make it rise from the west.” On hearing this, the denier of the truth was left dumbfounded.

Although Hazrat Ibrahim’s first statement had made it clear that no one besides Allah could be Lord or master, Nimrod nevertheless answered it audaciously. After the second statement, it was difficult for him to give an even more audacious answer, because he himself knew that the sun and moon were subject to the command of the very Allah whom Ibrahim (peace be upon him) had accepted as Lord. What could he say in reply? Yet to acknowledge the truth that was becoming manifest to him would mean abandoning his absolute dominion and authority, to which the tyrant in his heart was not prepared to submit. Thus he remained merely dumbfounded. He did not emerge from the refuge of self-worship into the light of truth. Had he accepted Allah instead of that tyrant as his protector and helper, the true path would have opened before him after Hazrat Ibrahim’s conveyance of this message.

Nimrod’s fire-pit and Khalil’s flower garden

The Talmud states that Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was then imprisoned by the king’s order and spent ten days in prison. The king’s council decided to burn him alive. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Baqarah, note 123)

According to the Qur’an, they carried out their decision as well. After the fire-pit had been prepared, they threw Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) into it. (Regarding the throwing of Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) into the fire, see the following Qur’anic passages: Surah al-Anbiya: 68–70; Surah al-‘Ankabut: 24; al-Saffat: 97–98. —The compilers)

Then Allah the Exalted commanded the fire, “Become cool and harmless for Ibrahim.” (This is clearly one of those miracles described in the Qur’an. If someone interprets these miracles on the grounds that, in his view, Allah too cannot perform an extraordinary act by departing from the routine of the universe’s operation, why does he avoid the difficulty of believing in Allah? And if he offers such an interpretation because the so-called rationalists of the present age are unwilling to accept such things, we ask him: O servant of Allah, who has imposed upon you the burden that you must somehow make me accept this? Leave the person who is unwilling to accept the Qur’an exactly as it is to his own position. What kind of propagation of Islam is it to reshape the Qur’an according to his wishes in order to make him accept it, and what sensible person would consider that justifiable? (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-An‘am, note 52) (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Baqarah, note 258)

The people of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) were erased from the face of the earth so completely that no trace of them remains anywhere. If anyone from among them has had the good fortune to remain, it is only through the descendants of Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) and his two blessed sons, Hazrat Ismail and Hazrat Ishaq (peace be upon them). (Allah the Exalted addressed Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) with this declaration (*****Arabic*****), meaning, “I am appointing you to the position of leadership over all humanity.” Today, the followers of all revelation-based religions in the world—Muslims, Jews and Christians—are connected with Hazrat Ibrahim (peace be upon him) in the same way. —The compilers) Although the punishment that came upon his people after Hazrat Ibrahim left their land is not described in the Qur’an, they have nevertheless been counted among the punished peoples. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Baqarah, notes 291–292)

The rulers and learned priests of Babylon who sought to silence Hazrat Ibrahim’s call, and the polytheist inhabitants who obeyed those oppressors, vanished from the face of the earth so completely that no trace of them remains anywhere. But the man whom they sought to burn to ashes for the crime of raising Allah’s word, and who ultimately had to leave his homeland empty-handed, was granted by Allah the Exalted the favor that his name has remained illustrious in the world for four thousand years and will remain so until the Day of Resurrection. All Muslims, Jews and Christians of the world unanimously acknowledge this beloved of Rabb al-‘Alamin as a religious leader. Whatever light of guidance has reached the world over the past forty centuries has come through that one man and his pure children. They will certainly receive a great reward in the Hereafter, but even in this world they have attained such honor that none among those who vainly struggle to gain the world has been fortunate enough to attain it. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Anbiya’, note 62)

The Talmudic account

The Bible contains no mention of this important event in the life of Abraham (peace be upon him). Indeed, no event from his Iraqi life has found a place in this book. His face-to-face encounter with Nimrod, his conflict and confrontation with his father and people, his efforts and struggles against idolatry, his being thrown into the fire, and finally his being compelled to leave his homeland—all these matters were unworthy of mention in the eyes of the author of the Old Testament’s Book of Genesis. He mentions only his migration, and even that in such a way as though a family were moving from one country to another in search of a livelihood. The greatest difference between the Qur’an and the Bible is that, according to the Qur’anic account, Abraham’s polytheist father was foremost in persecuting him. The Bible, however, says that his father himself settled in Haran with his sons, grandsons, and daughters-in-law (Old Testament, Genesis, chapter 11, verses 27–32). Then, suddenly, God says to Abraham: “Leave Haran and settle in Canaan. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; you shall be a source of blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (the same Book of Genesis, chapter 12, verses 2–3). It is impossible to understand why this gracious attention suddenly fell upon Abraham. The Talmud does, of course, contain most of those accounts of the Iraqi period of Abraham’s life that are narrated in various places in the Qur’an. But when the two are compared, not only are differences found in the important parts of the story; one can also clearly feel that the Talmudic accounts are mostly filled with incoherent and unbelievable statements. In contrast, the Qur’an gives a clear account of the important events in Abraham’s life. There is no absurdity in it. For the sake of information, we quote here a brief summary of the story narrated in the Talmud. This will make clear the error of those who believe that the Qur’an depends upon the Bible and Jewish literature.

The Talmud says that, at the time of Abraham’s birth, astrologers saw certain signs in the sky and advised Nimrod that the child born in Terah’s house should be killed. Nimrod prepared to kill him. But Terah presented one of his slave’s children in place of his own child and thus saved his son. Terah then concealed his wife and infant son in a cave, where they spent ten years. In the eleventh year, Terah sent Abraham to Noah. Abraham remained with Noah for thirty-nine years and married his own niece Sarah, who was forty-two years younger than him. The Bible does not say that Sarah was Abraham’s niece. According to the Bible, the age difference between them was only ten years (Old Testament, Genesis, chapter 11, verse 29, and chapter 17, verse 17).

The Talmud then says that, at the age of fifty, Abraham left Noah’s house and returned to his father. He found that his father was an idolater and that there were twelve idols in his house, one for each month of the year. After making many attempts to reason with his father and failing, he took advantage of an opportunity one day and smashed all the idols in the family temple. Seeing the plight of his gods, Terah went straight to Nimrod and complained: “The child who was born in my house fifty years ago has done this in my home. Now pass judgment.”

Nimrod summoned Abraham and questioned him. He answered in stern language. Nimrod immediately sent him to prison and placed the matter before his council. After deliberation, the council advised that he be burned to death. Accordingly, a huge bonfire was prepared, and Abraham was thrown into it. Abraham’s brother and his father-in-law Haran were also thrown into the fire with him. This was because, when Nimrod had asked Terah, “I wanted to kill that infant son of yours on the very day he was born. Why did you present another child in his place to be killed?”

Terah replied, “I did this at Haran’s suggestion.” After this statement, the man who had actually committed the deed was released, but the adviser was thrown into the fire with Abraham. The moment Haran fell into the fire, he was burned to ashes. But the people saw Abraham walking about calmly. Nimrod was informed. When Nimrod came and witnessed this strange event with his own eyes, he cried out, “O servant of the heavenly God! Come out of the fire, and then stand before me.” Abraham emerged from the fire. Nimrod became attracted to him and sent him away with many valuable gifts.

Then, according to the Talmudic account, Abraham stayed there for two years. Meanwhile, Nimrod saw a frightening dream. The astrologers interpreted it and said that Abraham would cause the downfall of this kingdom. Therefore, he should be killed. Men were sent to kill him. But the slave whom Nimrod himself had presented to Abraham as a gift disclosed the plan to kill him before the appointed time. Abraham consequently fled and took refuge in Noah’s house. Terah continued to meet him there secretly. Then father and son decided that they should leave the country. Noah and Shem approved this proposal. Thereafter, Terah left Ur for Haran with his son Abraham, his grandson Lot, and his daughter-in-law Sarah. —Selected from the Talmud by H. Polanef, London, pp. 30–42; Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Anbiya, note 62.

The People of Lot

According to the Bible, Abraham had two brothers, Nahor and Haran. Lot was the son of Haran (Old Testament, Genesis, chapter 11, verse 26). From the mention of Abraham in verse 26 of Surah al-Ankabut, it clearly appears that Lot was the only person among his people who believed in him (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Shu‘ara, note 73).

Lot was Abraham’s nephew. He left Iraq with his uncle and spent some time travelling through Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, gaining experience in calling people to faith and conveying the message. Then, after being permanently appointed to the office of prophethood, he was commissioned to reform and rectify the misguided people. This people came to be known as the people of Lot. The people of Sodom are called his people because he was probably related to them.

The Region of the People of Lot

This people lived in the region now called Transjordan. It lies between Iraq and Palestine. In the Bible, the central city of this people is called Sodom. It was located somewhere near the Dead Sea. The Talmud says that, besides Sodom, there were four other large cities in this region. The areas between these cities were so beautiful that there was a single garden extending for several miles, whose beauty left people spellbound. But today the name and existence of this people have been completely erased from the face of the earth. It can no longer even be determined exactly where their settlements were located. Only the Dead Sea remains today as their sole memorial, and it is now called the Sea of Lot. Among the accusations made against Lot’s character in the Jews’ corrupted Bible is the claim that he quarrelled with Abraham and went to the region of Sodom (Old Testament, Genesis, chapter 13, verses 1–12). But the Qur’an refutes this statement, saying that Allah sent him as a prophet to that people (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Anbiya, note 66; Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Ankabut, note 49).

This ruined area can be seen along the route from the Hijaz to Syria and from Iraq to Egypt. Travelling groups generally see these ruins, which are still clearly visible today. The region lies southeast of the Dead Sea. Geographers say particularly of its southern part that ruins are found there in such abundance as nowhere else in the world (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Anbiya, note 63).

The Decline of the People of Lot

Arabic text.

1. Do you approach males among all the creatures in the world and abandon what your Lord has created for you among your wives? Rather, you are people who have transgressed the limits. —Surah al-Shu‘ara, 165–166

Arabic text.

2. Do you commit an obscene act such as no other creature in the world has ever committed before you? —Surah al-Ankabut, 28

Arabic text.

3. Is it your condition that you approach men, commit highway robbery, and perform evil deeds in your gatherings? —Surah al-Ankabut, 29

That is, have intercourse with them. As it is said in Surah al-A‘raf:

Arabic text.

You approach men instead of women in order to satisfy your sexual desire. More astonishing still, you do not commit this obscene act secretly; rather, you commit this evil deed openly before one another in your gatherings. This is what is stated in Surah al-Naml: “Have you become so degraded that you commit this obscene act before spectators?” (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 63).

People of upright character have never refrained from the vile act for which the people of Lot will remain infamous forever. But the Greeks alone have claimed this distinction(?), as their philosophy attempted to dignify this heinous crime as a form of moral beauty. Whatever deficiency remained in this regard was completed by modern Europe and America. A vast public campaign was launched in its support. Even the parliament of a country like Germany declared it lawful. It has also been legalized in other Western countries. Yet it is an obvious truth that homosexuality is utterly contrary to the natural order. Allah created all living beings. Among humankind, one further purpose is that men and women should form families and establish through them the foundations of civilization. For this purpose, men and women were created as two distinct sexes. Mutual sexual attraction was created between them. Their physical structures and psychological dispositions were made completely suited to the purposes of married life through the fulfilment of each other’s desires. Their attraction and satisfaction contain a pleasure that simultaneously calls and actively serves the fulfilment of nature’s purpose, and is also the reward for this act. But whoever acts contrary to this natural order and seeks sexual pleasure through homosexuality commits several offences at once. First, he struggles against his own universal natural constitution and psychological disposition. In this way he creates great disorder and confusion within himself, producing adverse effects on the bodies, minds, and character of both persons. Second, he commits the offence of betraying and misappropriating nature. Nature made sexual pleasure a gift in the service of the species and civilization, and linked its attainment with duty, responsibility, and rights; yet he obtains it by a furtive path, without rendering any service or fulfilling any duty, right, or responsibility. Third, he openly acts selfishly and treacherously toward human society. He benefits from the civilizational institutions established by society, but when his own turn comes, instead of bearing the burdens of rights, duties, and responsibilities, he uses his strength and ability entirely selfishly in a manner that is not merely unbeneficial but certainly harmful to society, civilization, and morality. He makes himself unfit to serve his lineage and family. Along with himself, he engages at least one man in abnormal, effeminate conduct, thereby opening the way to sexual misconduct and moral decline for at least two women (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 63).

Arabic text.

4. When Our angels came to Lot, he was bewildered by their arrival and felt distressed. He began to say, “This is a very difficult day.” When the people of his town saw these guests arrive, they rushed spontaneously toward his house. They had long been accustomed to such evil deeds. Lot said to them, “My brothers, here are my daughters. They are purer for you. Fear Allah and do not disgrace me regarding my guests. Is there no right-minded man among you?” They replied, “You know very well that we have no need of your daughters, and you also know what we want.” —Surah Hud, 77–79

The detailed account of this event given in the Qur’an makes it clear from its manner of presentation that these angels came to Lot’s house in the form of handsome young men. He did not know that they were angels. For this reason, he became deeply anxious when these guests arrived, and worry arose in his mind. He knew how immoral and shameless his people were.

It is possible that Lot was referring specifically to the daughters of his people, because a prophet is like a father to his people, and the daughters of the people are like his own daughters in his eyes. It is also possible that he was referring to his own daughters. In either case, there is no reason to suppose that Lot was telling them to commit adultery with them. There is no basis whatsoever for misinterpreting the words, “They are purer for you.” Lot’s clear intention was that they should satisfy their sexual desire in the natural and lawful manner prescribed by Allah, for which there was no shortage of women.

“And do not disgrace me regarding my guests”—these words give a complete picture of their mentality and show how deeply they had sunk into debauchery. The matter was not merely that they had abandoned the paths of nature and purity and pursued an unnatural, obscene path; rather, their degradation had reached such an extreme that all their inclinations and desires were now directed toward this one impure and filthy path. The desire for that impurity alone remained in their hearts, and they felt no shame in saying of the path of nature and purity, “This path is not for us.” This is the lowest state of moral and psychological degradation imaginable. The case of a person who engages in a forbidden act because of moral weakness is relatively minor. He regards the lawful as something desirable and the forbidden as something from which he must abstain. Such a person may at some point be reformed. Even if he is not reformed, at most he can be called a misguided person. But when all a person’s inclinations are directed solely toward forbidden acts and he considers the lawful unsuitable for himself, he cannot be counted among human beings. In reality, he is a loathsome, impure insect that lives and grows only in filth, with no compatibility between its nature and purity. If such an insect were born in the home of a clean and refined person, that person would pour disinfectant over it at the first opportunity and keep the home pure and clean by removing it. How long, then, can Allah tolerate the nuisance of these loathsome, impure insects upon His earth? (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Hijr, note 42)

Arabic text.

5. Meanwhile, the people of the city, beside themselves with excitement, stormed into Lot’s house. Lot said, “My brothers, these are my guests. Do not disgrace me. Fear Allah and do not humiliate me.” They said, “Did we not repeatedly forbid you to act as the guardian of the whole world?” Lot was compelled to say, “If you must do something, here are my daughters.” —Surah al-Hijr, 66–71

This gives an idea of the extent to which the immorality of this people had progressed. As soon as several handsome guests arrived at the house of an ordinary townsman, crowds would gather there and openly demand, “Hand your guests over to us; we will commit an evil act with them.”

There was not a single person throughout their entire settlement who would raise his voice against their evil deeds. Nor did any moral feeling remain among them, so that they felt no shame on seeing such excesses committed openly. When evildoers could attack fearlessly even the house of a great man like Lot, a teacher of morality, it is easy to imagine how ordinary people in that settlement must have been treated (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Ankabut, notes 51–52).

The Talmudic Account

A brief summary is given here of the condition of this people as recorded by the Talmud. It will clearly show how low this people had sunk into moral anarchy. The Talmud says that once an Elamite traveller was passing through their settlement. Since night fell on the way, he had to stay in the city of Sodom. He had provisions with him. No one invited him as a guest. He settled under a tree. Later, a Sodomite insisted on taking him to his house and kept him there for the night. Before morning, his donkey and baggage disappeared. He began to cry out, but no one listened to him. Instead, the townspeople seized whatever else he had and drove him out of the city.

Once, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, sent her slave Eliezer to Sodom to inquire about Lot. When Eliezer entered the city, he saw a Sodomite beating a stranger. When Eliezer asked why a helpless traveller was being beaten, everyone in the marketplace joined together and cut off his head.

Once, a poor man came to that city. Unable to find anything to eat anywhere, he lay helpless with hunger in one place. When Lot’s daughter saw him, she brought him food. For this, Lot and his daughter were severely rebuked, and they were threatened that if they did such a thing, they would not be allowed to remain in the town. After narrating various such incidents, the compiler of the Talmud says that in their daily lives these people were great oppressors, deceivers, and dishonest in their dealings. No traveller could pass safely through their territory. No poor person could obtain even a piece of bread from them. It often happened that someone came to them from outside and died of hunger. They would then strip him of his clothes and bury him naked. If an outside merchant unfortunately reached their territory, all his possessions would be looted. No one listened to his complaint. In their valley they had created gardens extending for several miles. In these gardens they openly committed evil deeds with extreme shamelessness. No voice was raised against them except the voice of Lot.

The Qur’anic Summary

The entire story has been described in the Noble Qur’an in only two sentences: “They had long been committing great evil,” and, “You satisfy your sexual desire with men, rob travellers, and commit sexual acts openly in your gatherings” (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 64).

The Response to the Prophet’s Call

When Lot called them to reform themselves, the people of his nation became angry and said,

Arabic text.

“O Lot, if you do not desist from all this, you will surely be among those expelled from this town.” —Surah al-Shu‘ara, 167

That is, you know that anyone who previously spoke out against us, protested against our actions, or acted contrary to our wishes was expelled from our settlement. If you do the same now, the same fate will befall you.

It is stated in Surah al-A‘raf and Surah al-Naml that, before delivering this notice to Lot, the wicked men of this people had decided: “Expel Lot and his family from your settlement. They wish to remain exceptionally pure” (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Hud, notes 86–88).

The Arrival of the Angels

Arabic text.

And when Our angels came to Abraham with the glad tidings, they first appeared before Abraham. They gave him the glad tidings of the birth of Isaac and then Jacob. Then they said that they had been sent to destroy the people of Lot, because the people of his nation had transgressed the limits (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Hijr, note 39).

Arabic text.

Abraham said, “But Lot is there.” —Surah al-Ankabut, 32

At first, Abraham became apprehensive when he saw the angels in human form, because the arrival of angels in such a form is connected with some frightening mission. When they gave him the glad tidings, his anxiety disappeared. But when he learned that this mission would be directed against the people of Lot, he pleaded for mercy for that people. His plea was not accepted. He was told not to speak further about the matter: “Your Lord’s decree has been made, and it cannot now be changed in any way.” When Abraham had no further hope after this, he became worried about Lot. He said regarding him, “But Lot is there.” That is, if this punishment came while Lot was present, how would he and his family be able to escape it? (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Hijr, note 39)

Arabic text.

They said, “We know very well who is there. We shall save him and the other members of his family, except his wife; she will be among those who remain behind.” —Surah al-Ankabut, 32

Regarding the wife of Lot, it is stated in verse 10 of Surah al-Tahrim that she was not obedient to Lot. Therefore, the decision concerning her was that, despite being the wife of a prophet, she would be subjected to punishment. It is possible that when Lot migrated and settled in the Jordan region, he married among that people. Yet even after spending a long period of her life in his company, she did not believe, and her loyalty remained with her own people. Since kinship and brotherhood have no value before Allah, each person is treated according to faith and character. Thus, being the wife of a prophet was of no benefit to her, and her fate was not joined to that of her husband but to that of the people whose religion and morality she had embraced (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Shu‘ara, note 111).

The Anxiety of Lot (peace be upon him)

(Arabic text)

And when Our messengers came to Lot, he became distressed and grieved because of their arrival. —Surah Al-Ankabut: 33

The reason for this anxiety was that the angels had come in the form of exceedingly handsome young men. Lot (peace be upon him) knew the character of his people. Therefore, as soon as they arrived, he became agitated, wondering how he could protect these guests from his sinful people if he arranged lodging for them. Yet if he did not allow them to stay, that would be extremely discourteous. Moreover, he feared that if he did not shelter these travelers, they themselves would be thrown into the jaws of wolves. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Al-Ankabut, note 53)

It is stated in Surah Hud that when the people began entering Lot’s house, he thought that there was now no way to save the guests. He then cried out: (Arabic text) “If only I had the strength to restrain you, or could rely on the support of some powerful protector!” Then the angels said: (Arabic text) “O Lot! We are messengers sent by your Lord. They will never be able to reach you.” (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Al-Ankabut, note 55)

(Arabic text)

They said, “Do not fear, and do not grieve.” —Surah Al-Ankabut: 33

That is, do not worry about us—whether they can harm us—nor about how we can be protected from them. On this occasion, the angels disclosed to Lot (peace be upon him) the secret that they were not human beings but angels. They had been sent to bring punishment upon this people. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Al-Ankabut, note 56)

From the underlying significance of the detailed account of this event given in the Noble Qur’an, it becomes clear that the angels came to Lot’s house disguised as handsome young men. Lot (peace be upon him) did not know that they were angels. For this reason, he felt intense mental anguish when the guests arrived, and his heart became constricted. He knew his people. He knew how adulterous they were and to what degree they had become shameless. As soon as these guests arrived, the people of his community began rushing toward his house without hesitation. They had long been accustomed to such wicked acts. Lot said to them, “My brothers! Here are my daughters; they are purer for you. Fear Allah and do not disgrace me concerning my guests. Is there not a single right-minded man among you?” They replied, “You know well that we have no interest in your daughters, and you know what we want.” —Surah Hud: 78 (Surah Al-Ankabut, note 57)

(Arabic text)

Then they tried to prevent Lot from protecting his guests. Finally, We blinded their eyes. We said, “Now taste My punishment and the warning.” —Surah Al-Qamar: 37

Lot (peace be upon him) earnestly pleaded with the frenzied mob to refrain from this heinous act. But they would not listen. They entered the house and tried to drag the guests out by force. At that final moment, they suddenly became blind. Then the angels told Lot (peace be upon him) to leave that settlement with his family before dawn. As soon as they had left, a terrible punishment descended upon this people.

The Bible describes the event as follows: “And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the two men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.” —Genesis 19:9–11 (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Al-Ankabut, note 58)

(Arabic text)

They said, “We have been sent to a sinful people. We will rain upon them stones of baked clay. They are marked by your Lord for the transgressors.” —Surah Adh-Dhariyat: 32–34

That is, each stone had been marked to indicate which sinful person it was to be thrown at. (Surah Al-Ankabut, note 58)

The Descent of the Punishment

(Arabic text)

Then, when Our command came, We turned that settlement upside down and rained upon it stones of baked clay in succession. Each of those stones was marked by your Lord, and this punishment was not far from the wrongdoers. —Surah Hud: 82–83 (Arabic text)

And We rained down upon them a shower of stones. This rain fell upon those who had already been warned. —Surah Ash-Shu’ara: 173

This punishment probably came in the form of a devastating earthquake and an eruption producing fire. The earthquake overturned that settlement, while the erupting material exploded and rained stones upon them. The stones of baked clay were perhaps earth that, in volcanic regions, had taken the form of stone through the combination of subterranean heat and molten material. The remains of the stone shower can still be seen all around the southeastern region of the Dead Sea. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Hud, note 86)

(Arabic text)

There, We found no house of Muslims except one.

Throughout the entire nation and the whole region, there was only one house in which the light of faith and Islam could be found. That one house belonged to Lot (peace be upon him). The rest of the nation was immersed in sin, and its land was filled with moral filth. Therefore, Allah brought the people of that one house out alive. Then such destruction befell the land that not one member of that sinful people survived. Allah’s law of retribution is that a nation is not completely destroyed so long as some significant good remains within it. If, compared with the multitude of evil people, there is even a small group striving to resist corruption and call people to the right path, Allah gives it an opportunity to work. When circumstances reach the point that not the slightest good can be found in a nation, Allah’s policy is to preserve, by His power, the few who have grown weary struggling against corruption in the community, and to deal with the rest as an intelligent owner deals with rotten fruit. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Adh-Dhariyat, note 32; Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Al-Qamar, note 22)

The Biblical Account of the Punishment

A brief summary of the light cast on this account of the punishment by the biblical narrative, the ancient records of Greece and Italy, modern archaeological research, and examination of ancient ruins is presented below.

The region east and south of the Dead Sea that now lies uninhabited contains the ruins of numerous ancient settlements, testifying that it was once a densely populated area. Even today, traces of hundreds of ruined settlements can be found there. The region is no longer fertile enough to support such a large population. Archaeological experts believe that this region remained settled and prosperous until 2300–1900 BC, while historians believe that Abraham (peace be upon him) lived two thousand years before Jesus Christ. In this respect, the ruins testify that the region was destroyed in the time of Abraham (peace be upon him) and his nephew Lot (peace be upon him).

The most densely settled and fertile part of this region is called the Valley of Siddim in the Bible. It was exceedingly fertile, like the garden of the Lord (Eden) and like Egypt (Genesis 13:10). Modern experts believe that this valley is now submerged beneath the Dead Sea, as various ruins testify. In ancient times, the Dead Sea did not extend as far south as it does today. Opposite the present Transjordanian city of Al-Karak, a small island called Al-Lisan lay in the western part of the sea; in ancient times, this was the water’s southern limit. The area below it, where water is now spread, formerly existed as a fertile valley. This was the Valley of Siddim, containing the great cities of the people of Lot: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Zoar. About two thousand years before Jesus Christ, a terrible earthquake split and submerged the valley, and the waters of the Dead Sea flowed over it. Even today, this is the most turbulent part of the Dead Sea. During Roman rule, however, it was not so turbulent and swollen; people could travel from Al-Lisan across the water to the western shore. Until that time, submerged forests could be clearly seen along the southern shore. It was also suspected that some submerged buildings remained there.

The Bible and the ancient writings of Greece and Italy reveal that wells of petroleum and sphalerite existed in various places in this region, and that combustible gas also emerged from the ground in some places. Petroleum and gas are still found underground there. Archaeological research suggests that, amid the violent agitation of the earthquake, petroleum, gas, and sphalerite erupted from the earth, and the explosion blew away the entire region. The Bible says that, having heard of this destruction, Abraham (peace be upon him) came from Hebron to see the condition of the valley and saw smoke rising from the ground as from a furnace. (Genesis, chapter 19, verse 28) (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Hud, note 91)

(Arabic text)

We left a clear sign in that settlement.

This clear sign refers to the Dead Sea. In several places in the Noble Qur’an, the unbelievers of Makkah are addressed and told that a sign of the punishment inflicted for the deeds of this wrongdoing people still exists beside the main road, which they see day and night on their journeys to Syria for trade.

(Arabic text)

Recent Discoveries

Today it is being acknowledged with near certainty that the southern part of the Dead Sea assumed its present form after sinking underground in a terrible earthquake. The central city of the people of Lot, Sodom, was located in this sunken area. The ruins of some submerged settlements have been found beneath the water in this region. Recently, attempts were made to search for ruins underwater with modern diving equipment, but no benefit from these efforts has been reported. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Adh-Dhariyat, note 34)

(Arabic text)

Then We left a sign there for those who fear the painful punishment. —Surah Adh-Dhariyat: 37

This sign is the Dead Sea, whose southern part still bears witness to immense destruction. Archaeologists believe that the major city of the people of Lot was probably submerged beneath the earth by a terrible earthquake, after which the waters of the Dead Sea spread over it. The part of the sea south of the small island called Al-Lisan appears to have been formed later, and the ruins of the ancient Dead Sea found within that island differ from the ruins to the south. It may therefore be inferred that the southern part initially stood above the surface of the sea and later sank at some point. This sinking also appears to have occurred two thousand years before Jesus Christ. Historically, this was the age of Abraham (peace be upon him) and Lot (peace be upon him). In 1965, an American team searching for ruins discovered a huge cemetery at Al-Lisan containing more than twenty thousand graves. This suggests that a large city must have existed nearby. Yet there are no ruins of any nearby city large enough to have had such a cemetery. This strengthens the suspicion that the city to which the cemetery belonged was submerged in the sea. Destruction is also visible throughout the region south of the sea. Such quantities of sulfur, tar, natural gas, and similar materials are found in the earth that it seems as though, at some time, lightning or an earthquake caused molten substances to explode and created a hell here. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Adh-Dhariyat, note 34)

The Sabaean People

The Region of the Sabaean People

Saba was a renowned commercial people of southern Arabia. Their capital, Marib, was located fifty-five miles northeast of Sana’a, the present capital of Yemen. After the fall of the Kingdom of Ma’in, the Sabaeans began to rise around 1100 BC, and their great influence remained in Arabia for a thousand years. Then, in 115 BC, Himyar, the second famous people of southern Arabia, succeeded them. Their dominion was established over Yemen and Hadramawt in the west and over the Abyssinian region in Africa.

A Great and Renowned People

Most of the trade between East Africa, India, the Far East, Arabia itself, and Egypt, Syria, Greece, and Rome was in the hands of the Sabaeans. For this reason, this people was famous in ancient times for its wealth. Indeed, Greek historians described them as the wealthiest people in the world. Besides trade, a major reason for their prosperity was that they built dams in various places and established an excellent irrigation system. As a result, their entire region was fertile and adorned with fruits and flowers. Greek historians also mentioned the extraordinary fertility and lushness of their land. The Qur’an also alludes to this in the second section of Surah Saba. Historically, Saba was the name of a very great people of southern Arabia. It consisted of numerous large tribal groups. Imam Ahmad, Ibn Jarir, Ibn Abi Hatim, Ibn Abd al-Barr, and Tirmidhi, citing a report from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), say that Saba was the name of a man of Arabia, from whose descendants the following tribes arose: Kindah, Himyar, Azd, Ash’ariyyun, Madhhij, Anmar—with its two branches, Khash’am and Bajilah—Amilah, Judham, Lakhm, and Ghassan.

This Arab people had been renowned throughout the world since ancient times. An inscription from Ur dating to 2400 BC mentions this people under the name Sabum. It is then mentioned repeatedly in Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions, and likewise in the Bible—for example, Psalms 72:15, Jeremiah 6:20, Ezekiel 27:22 and 38:13, and Job 6:19. Greek and Roman historians and the geographer Theophrastus (Theofrastes), from 288 BC through several centuries after Jesus Christ, continued to mention them. Their homeland was in the southwestern corner of Arabia, now called Yemen. Their golden age began around 1100 BC, and in the age of David (peace be upon him) and Solomon (peace be upon him), their fame spread as a prosperous people. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Ash-Shu’ara, note 114)

The Religious History of Saba

At first, this people worshipped the sun. (It is known from verses 24 onward of Surah An-Naml in the Noble Qur’an that when the hoopoe informed Solomon (peace be upon him) about the condition of this people, they worshipped the sun. Their ancient Arab traditions also confirm that this was their religion. Ibn Ishaq, quoting the statements of genealogists, says that the ancestor of the Sabaean people was Abd Shams, meaning sun-worshipper, and that Saba was his title. This is also supported by the traditions of the Children of Israel. They say that when the hoopoe went to the Queen of Saba with Solomon’s letter, he was going to worship the sun god. On the way, the hoopoe threw the letter before the queen.) When their queen embraced faith at the hands of Solomon (peace be upon him) in 965–926 BC, most of them probably became Muslims. But later, at some point, shirk and idolatry spread among them, and they began worshipping numerous gods, including Almaqah, the moon god; Athtar, Venus; Dhat Hamim and Dhat Badan, sun deities; Hobis; Harsamt or Harimat; and others of this kind. Their greatest deity was Almaqah. Their king considered himself entitled to obedience as that deity’s representative. Numerous inscriptions have been found in Yemen showing that the entire country was filled with temples dedicated to these gods, especially Almaqah. Gratitude was expressed to them on every occasion. History shows that in ancient times there was also a group among the Sabaeans who believed in one Allah instead of the gods. Recent archaeological investigations have found traces of this small group in inscriptions recovered from the ruins of Yemen. Some inscriptions dating from around 650 BC bear witness that, in various places in the Sabaean kingdom, certain houses of worship had been built specifically for worshipping the Lord of Heaven. In some places the name of that God—meaning a king who is the Lord of Heaven—has been found written. This group continued to exist in Yemen for several centuries. An inscription from 378 AD contains the words (Arabic text), meaning “with the help and support of that God who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth.” Another inscription from that period, dated 458 AD, uses the word Rahman for that God. The words are (Arabic text), meaning “with the help of the Most Merciful.” (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Adh-Dhariyat, note 35)

In the course of modern investigations of ancient ruins, nearly three thousand inscriptions have been collected from Yemen, shedding light on the history of this people. If the accounts of Arab, Roman, and Greek history are added to them, their detailed history can be reconstructed. According to these accounts, the important periods of their history are as follows:

The Period Before 650 BC

During this period, the title of the kings of Saba was Mukarrib (Arabic text). This word was probably synonymous with (Arabic text). It meant that the king considered himself a mediator between human beings and God; in other words, they were priest-kings. Their capital at that time was Sirwah, whose ruins can still be seen a day’s journey west of Marib, in a place known as Kharibah. During this period, the foundations of the famous Marib Dam were laid, and the Sabaean kings expanded it at various times.

The Period from 650 BC to 115 BC

During this period, the Sabaean kings abandoned the title Mukarrib and adopted the title Malik, meaning king. This indicates that, in the administration of the kingdom, politics and secularism gained influence at the expense of religion. At that time, the Sabaean kings moved their capital from Sirwah to Marib and developed it remarkably. This place stood 3,900 feet above sea level, sixty miles east of Sana’a. Its ruins still testify that it was once a highly civilized people.

The Period from 115 BC to 300 AD

During this period, the Himyar tribe conquered the Sabaean kingdom. It was itself a tribe of Saba and was larger in number than all the other tribes. At this time, Marib was depopulated and the capital was established at Raydan, the central homeland of the Himyar tribe. Later, this city was called Zafar. Its ruins can now be seen on a round hill near the present city of Yarim. A small tribe called Himyar lives in the nearby region, but seeing them gives no indication that this tribe carries the memory of those who once held influence throughout the world. During this period, the word (Arabic text) was first used for part of the kingdom, and gradually the name Yemen came to denote the entire region. Yemen extended from Asir to Aden in the southwestern corner of Arabia and from Bab al-Mandab to Hadramawt. The decline of the Sabaeans began during this period.

The Period from 300 AD Until the Rise of Islam

This was the period of the destruction of the Sabaean people. As continuous civil war broke out among them, outside peoples began to intervene. Trade, commerce, and agriculture suffered a severe decline, and eventually the Sabaeans lost their independence as well. Taking advantage of disputes among Raydan, Himyari, and Hamdani groups, the Abyssinians occupied Yemen from 340 to 378 AD. Although independence was later restored, cracks began to appear in the famous Marib Dam. Finally, when the dam broke in 450 or 451 AD, a great flood occurred, which is mentioned in Surah Saba. Although the dam continued to be repaired until the time of Abraha, the population that had scattered throughout the region could not be brought together again. Once the irrigation system and agricultural administration had been ruined, they could not be restored. The Sabaean people became so scattered and dispersed that their fate turned into a proverb. Even today, when an Arab refers to someone’s becoming dispersed, he says that the person has become scattered like the people of Saba. When their prosperity began to decline by Allah’s decree, their various tribes left their homelands for different regions of Arabia. The two tribes of Aws and Khazraj settled in Yathrib. The Khuza’ah tribe settled in the Tihamah region near Jeddah. The Azd tribe settled in Oman. Lakhm, Judham, and Kinda were forced to leave the country. Eventually, no people called Saba remained in the world; its mention survived only in stories. (Surah An-Naml, note 29) In 523 AD, the Jewish king of Yemen, Dhu Nuwas, subjected the Christians of Najran to severe persecution; the Noble Qur’an refers to them as the People of the Trench. Then the Christian government of Abyssinia invaded Yemen in retaliation and conquered the entire country. Later, Abraha, the Abyssinian viceroy of Yemen, attacked Makkah in 570 or 571 AD, a few days before the birth of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in order to undermine the central status of the Ka’bah and bring the entire western region of Marib under Roman-Abyssinian influence. But such destruction befell his entire army that the Noble Qur’an describes it as the event of the People of the Elephant. Finally, the Iranians took control of Yemen in 575 AD, and Iranian rule in Yemen ended in 628 AD after the Iranian governor Badhan embraced Islam.

The Material Prosperity of the Sabaean People

The prosperity of the people of Saba was based on two things: first, agriculture, and second, trade and commerce. Through an excellent irrigation system, agriculture had been developed to such an extent that, in ancient times, no such irrigation system existed anywhere except Babylon. There were no natural rivers in their land. During the rainy season, water flowed down from the mountains through ravines. Dams were constructed at various places across these ravines, reservoirs were formed, and canals were dug from them so that water was conveyed throughout the country in such a manner that, according to the Qur’an, gardens and orchards could be seen in every direction. The largest reservoir in this irrigation system was in the valley between the Balak Mountains near the city of Marib, where it was formed by constructing a dam. But when Allah Almighty withdrew His merciful gaze from them, this enormous dam broke sometime in the fifth Christian century, and the powerful flood that poured from it caused all the other dams to break one after another. Thus the entire irrigation system was destroyed. It could never be restored. (The Qur’an contains a clear account of this destructive punishment.) For trade, Allah had granted this people an exceptionally favorable geographical region, and they took full advantage of it. For more than a thousand years, this people served as the link in trade between East and West. On one side, their ports received Chinese silk; the hot spices of Indonesia and Malabar; cloth and vegetables from India; Negro slaves, monkeys, ostrich feathers, and ivory from East Africa. On the other side, they sent these commodities to the markets of Egypt and Syria, from where they reached Rome, Greece, and other lands. In addition, frankincense, sandalwood, musk, and various other perfumes and aromatic extracts were found in their country. The people of Egypt, Syria, Rome, and Greece carried these goods away directly. This vast commerce followed two routes: one by sea and the other by land. The Sabaeans controlled maritime trade for a thousand years because they alone knew the secrets of the monsoon winds in the Red Sea, the mountains beneath its waters, and the places where ships could be anchored. No other nation dared to sail on this dangerous sea. By this sea route they transported their goods to the ports of Jordan and Egypt. The land route from Aden and Hadramaut converged at Marib. From there, a great highway ran through Mecca, Jeddah, Yathrib, al-‘Ula, Tabuk, and Aylah to Petra. From there, one branch went toward Egypt and another toward Syria, as the Qur’an states. Their colonies extended continuously from Yemen to the borders of Syria, and their merchant caravans traveled this route day and night. Ruins of many of their colonies still exist in this region, and inscriptions in the Sabaean and Himyarite languages have been found there.

The Beginning of Commercial Decline

Around the first Christian century, their trade and commerce began to decline. When powerful Greek and later Roman kingdoms were established in the Middle East, they began to claim that, since Arab merchants had monopolized trade and were charging whatever prices they pleased for Eastern goods, it was now necessary to advance and seize this commerce for themselves. For this purpose, Ptolemy II, the Greek-born ruler of Egypt (285–246 BCE), was the first to reopen the old canal that Pharaoh Sesostris had dug seventeen hundred years earlier to connect the Nile with the Red Sea. It was through this canal that the first Egyptian warship entered the Red Sea. But this effort achieved little against the Sabaeans. Subsequently, the Romans established their authority over Egypt. They then sent more powerful merchant ships into the Red Sea, accompanied by a warship. The Sabaeans were unable to confront this force. The Romans established commercial colonies at various ports and arranged for all the needs of the ships there. They then stationed military forces wherever they deemed necessary. Eventually, they established military control over Aden. In this matter, the Roman and Abyssinian rulers joined forces and deprived the Sabaeans of their independence.

After maritime trade slipped from their hands, only overland commerce remained with the Sabaeans. But many obstacles gradually crushed their power. First, the Nabataeans expelled the Sabaeans from the Hijaz plateau extending from Petra to al-‘Ula and from all their colonies in Jordan. Then, in 106 CE, the Romans brought the Sabaean Empire to an end and seized all the regions of Syria and Jordan along the Hijaz frontier. Thereafter, Abyssinia and Rome jointly sought to destroy the Sabaeans’ trade by taking advantage of their internal conflicts. For this reason, Abyssinia repeatedly intervened in Yemen. Eventually, they brought the entire country under their control.

Their Luxurious Civilization Before the Punishment Descended

Thus Allah’s wrath cast this people from the pinnacle of prosperity into such an abyss of destruction that no accursed nation could ever raise its head again from it. There was a time when the Greeks and Romans would salivate merely on hearing stories of their wealth. Strabo says that they used vessels made of gold and silver. The roofs, walls, and doors of their houses were inlaid with ivory, gold, silver, and precious gems. Pliny says that the wealth of Rome and Persia flowed toward them. This people was the wealthiest in the world of that time, and their fertile, well-watered land was filled with gardens, cultivated fields, and domestic animals. R. T. Midoros says that they were immersed in luxury and burned cinnamon, sandalwood, and other fragrant woods instead of ordinary firewood. Likewise, other Roman historians relate that the scent of those fragrant woods could be detected as merchant ships sailed along the coast near their territory. They were the first in history to construct skyscrapers on the elevated plateau of Sana’a; one of these, known as Qasr Ghumdan, remained famous for several centuries. Arab historians say that the building had twenty stories, each thirty-six feet high.

Their days of happiness lasted only as long as Allah’s favor remained with them. When, instead of showing gratitude for the wealth Allah had bestowed upon them, they exceeded all bounds in ingratitude and treachery, the Almighty Lord’s gracious gaze was withdrawn from them forever, and even their name and trace were erased. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Naml, note 30)

Illustration – The territory of the people of Thamud.

The People of Midian and the Companions of the Thicket

Exegetes differ over whether the people of Midian and the Companions of the Thicket were two separate peoples or two different names for the same people. One group holds that they were separate peoples. Their strongest evidence is that in Surah al-A‘raf, Shu‘ayb is called the brother of the people of Midian, whereas in the reference here to the Companions of the Thicket, it is merely said, “when Shu‘ayb said to them,” without using the word “their brother.” On the other hand, some exegetes regard both as one people, because in Surah al-A‘raf and Surah Hud the same statements are made concerning the Companions of the Thicket. Shu‘ayb’s call and counsel were of the same nature, and there was no difference in their ultimate fate.

Historical Investigation

Investigation shows that both views are correct. The people of Midian and the Companions of the Thicket were undoubtedly two separate tribes, but they were two distinct branches of the same lineage. Among the descendants of Abraham, those born to his bondwoman Keturah were known in Arab and Israelite history as the Children of Keturah. One of these, a very famous tribe descended from Midian son of Abraham, was called Midianite or the people of Midian. Their population spread from northern Hijaz to southern Palestine and from there to the far end of the Sinai Valley, along the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea. The city of Midian was their principal center; according to Abul-Fida, it lay a five-day journey from Aylah (present-day Aqaba) on the western shore of the Gulf of Aqaba. The remaining descendants of Keturah settled in northern Arabia, between Tayma, Tabuk, and al-‘Ula. Among them, the Banu Dedan (Dedanites) were the most renowned. Tabuk was their principal center, and in ancient times it was called al-Aykah. (In explaining the word al-Aykah, Mu‘jam al-Buldan says that it was the ancient name of Tabuk, and it is commonly held among the people of Tabuk that the Aykah once lived there.)

Why Was the Same Prophet Sent to Both Tribes?

The reason why the same prophet was sent to the people of Midian and the Companions of the Thicket was probably that both descended from the same lineage. They spoke the same language, and their inhabited regions adjoined one another. It is also possible that in some areas they lived together and, through intermarriage, became part of one society. Moreover, the people of these branches of the Children of Keturah were merchants, and the same kind of corruption existed in the commerce of both groups. They also shared the same religious and moral diseases. The books of the Bible’s Old Testament mention in several places that they worshiped Baal of Peor, and when the Children of Israel came out of Egypt and entered their territory, they too spread among them the epidemic of polytheism and adultery (Book of Numbers, chapter 25, verses 1–5). Their settlements lay along two major highways of international trade. One ran from Yemen to Syria, and the other from the Persian Gulf to Egypt. Because their settlements were situated along these highways, they engaged extensively in highway robbery and plunder. They would not allow caravans of other nations to pass without extracting a heavy levy from them. To preserve their monopoly over international trade, they had made security on these two routes precarious. The Qur’an describes their condition as follows: these two peoples—the people of Lot and the people of the Thicket—lived on the open highway. Their highway robbery is mentioned in Surah al-A‘raf in these words: “Do not sit on every road, threatening people.” For these reasons Allah sent the same prophet to both tribes and gave them the same kind of instruction. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Saba, note 35)

Further Details About the People of Midian (Since this was a larger tribe, and the Qur’an describes Shu‘ayb as a close relative of theirs, some details about them have been provided. —Compiler)

The actual homeland of Midian lay on the coast of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, northwest of Hijaz and south of Palestine, although some of their settlements were also scattered along the eastern shore of the Sinai Valley. They were a commercial people. In ancient times, one trade highway ran along the Red Sea from Yemen through Mecca and Yanbu to Syria, while a second trade highway ran from Iraq to Egypt. This people’s settlements lay at the junction of these two highways. Even after they were annihilated, their renown remained intact, because Arab merchant caravans traveling to Egypt and Syria passed day and night through their ruins.

Another important point about the people of Midian that must be kept in mind is that they were descendants of Midian, the son born to Abraham’s third wife, Keturah. According to ancient custom, those who had a genealogical connection with a great person were called the Children of So-and-so. All those who accepted Islam through the descendants of Jacob were called the Children of Israel. Similarly, all the inhabitants of the region of Midian who came under the influence of Midian son of Abraham were called the Children of Midian, and the name of their land became Midian or Madyan. Once this historical fact is known, there is no reason to suppose that Shu‘ayb was the first to convey the call to the true religion to this people. In reality, like the Children of Israel, they too were Muslims at the beginning; and by the time of Shu‘ayb’s appearance, their condition was that of a degenerate people, just as the condition of the Children of Israel was when Moses appeared. After Abraham, they lived for six or seven hundred years among polytheistic and immoral peoples, gradually becoming afflicted with the disease of polytheism and sinking into immorality. Even then, they retained their claim to faith and their pride in it. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Saba, note 35)

The Reaction to the Call for Reform

Arabic text

The chiefs of the people who refused to accept Shu‘ayb’s words said to one another, “If you follow Shu‘ayb, you will surely be ruined.” —Surah al-A‘raf: 90

In response to the call for reform that Shu‘ayb had presented, the chiefs and leaders of Midian would say—and assure the people—that if they accepted the kind of faith and honesty to which Shu‘ayb was calling them, and followed the eternal principles of morality and trustworthiness that he urged upon them, they would be destroyed. How would our commerce continue if we followed honesty and conducted our buying and selling fairly? We live at the junction of the world’s greatest trade routes and on the borders of two great civilized kingdoms, Egypt and Iraq. If we stopped harassing merchant caravans and became peaceful, upright people, all the economic and political advantages we currently enjoy because of our geographical position would come to an end. We would also lose the influence we possess over the neighboring peoples.

This view was not confined to the chiefs of Shu‘ayb’s people. In every age, misguided people have felt the same apprehension regarding truth, honesty, and trustworthiness. The evildoers of every age have believed that commerce, politics, and other worldly and material activities cannot function without dishonesty and corruption. Among the objections raised everywhere against the call to truth is also the claim that if a people abandons the customary ways of the world and follows the call to truth, it will be destroyed. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Saba, note 37)

The Punishment of the People of Midian

A terrible punishment descended upon the people of Midian in the form of a blast and an earthquake. Their destruction remained an example for the neighboring peoples for a long time. In one passage of the Psalms it says: “O God! Such-and-such peoples have sworn against You. Therefore deal with them as You dealt with Midian” (83:5–9). In one passage, the prophet Isaiah, while consoling the Israelites, says: “Do not fear the Assyrians. Although they have become tyrants over you like the Egyptians, soon the Lord of all armies will strike them with His whip, and their fate will be like that of the Midianites” (Isaiah 10:21–26). (Surah al-Shu‘ara, note 115)

The Punishment of the People of the Thicket

Arabic text

They rejected him as a liar. Then the punishment of the day of the canopy fell upon them, and it was the punishment of a terrible day. Surah al-Shu‘ara: 189

No account of the punishment that descended upon them is found in the Qur’an or in authentic Hadith. What can be understood from the literal wording is that, since they demanded a heavenly punishment, Allah sent them a cloud that spread over them like a canopy until the punishment destroyed them. It is clear from the Qur’an that the punishment of the people of Midian differed from that of the people of the Thicket. Here it is said that they were destroyed by the punishment of the canopy, whereas the punishment of the people of Midian came in the form of a blast and an earthquake. Therefore, it is not correct to attempt to combine the two into a single story. Some exegetes have offered explanations of the punishment of the day of the canopy, but we do not know the source of their information. Ibn Jarir, quoting a statement of ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas, says—Arabic text

If any scholar tells you what the punishment of the day of the canopy was, do not regard his statement as correct. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 69)

The People of Jonah

The Life Story of Jonah

In the Bible, Jonah is called Jonah, and his lifetime is placed at 860–784 BCE.

Jonah (in the Qur’an he is called by name in some places, Dhu al-Nun in others, and Sahib al-Hut or Mawla in still others). He was not called “the man of the fish” because he caught fish or traded in fish; rather, it was because, by Allah’s command, a fish swallowed him. See Surah al-Saffat, verse 142.

Although he was an Israelite, he was sent to Iraq to guide the Assyrians. For this reason, the Assyrians are called the people of Jonah. At that time, the central settlement of this people was the famous city of Nineveh, whose many ruins can still be seen directly opposite the city of Mosul, on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. A place called the Prophet Jonah also exists in this region. The extent of this people’s prosperity may be gauged from the fact that their capital, Nineveh, covered nearly sixty square miles.

Jonah in the Qur’an and the Bible

The Qur’an alludes to this story in only four places and gives no detailed account. Therefore, it cannot be stated with certainty why this people was exempted from Allah’s law that, once the decision to send down punishment has been made, no one’s faith benefits him. The Bible contains a short book called Jonah, in which some details are found, but it is not reliable. First, it cannot be regarded as a revealed book, nor was it written by Jonah himself. Rather, four or five hundred years after him, an unknown person recorded it as the history of Jonah and incorporated it into the Bible. Second, it contains some absurd statements that cannot be believed. Nevertheless, the Qur’anic allusions and the account in the Book of Jonah make clear what the exegetes have related: Jonah, after receiving news of the punishment, left his place of duty without Allah’s permission. (That is, he abandoned his people and left the country before receiving Allah’s command to emigrate. Had he left after the command came, it would have been permissible. Surah al-A‘raf, note 74.) Therefore, when the Assyrians repented and sought forgiveness after witnessing the punishment, Allah forgave them. (For a detailed discussion, see Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Saffat, note 85, where many objections are answered.) One permanent principle of the divine law described in the Qur’an is that Allah does not punish a people until His conditions have been fulfilled. Thus, when the prophet did not continue advising that people until the end of the respite granted to them, and emigrated of his own accord before the time appointed by Allah, Allah’s justice did not deem it appropriate to punish that people, because the completion of the proof, or the legal conditions, had not been fulfilled against them.

The Final Destruction of the People of Jonah

After this people believed, their lifespan was extended. Thereafter, they again fell into misguidance in thought and conduct. The prophet Nahum (720–698 BCE) warned them, but it had no effect. Then the prophet Zephaniah (640–609 BCE) cautioned them for the last time, but that too was fruitless. Finally, around 602 BCE, Allah gave the Medes victory over them. The king of Media attacked the Assyrians with the help of the Babylonians. The Assyrian army was defeated and besieged in Nineveh. They continued to resist for some time. Then a flood of the Tigris breached the city wall, allowing the attackers to enter. They set fire to the entire city and destroyed it. The surrounding regions were destroyed as well. The Assyrian king set fire to his own palace and committed suicide. With him, the Assyrian kingdom and civilization were permanently wiped out. In modern archaeological excavations in that region, many traces of fire have been discovered. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-A‘raf, note 75)

The Children of Israel

The Two Branches of Abraham’s Lineage

Two great branches emerged from the lineage of Abraham. One branch produced the descendants of Ishmael, who settled in Arabia. The Quraysh and some other Arab tribes belonged to this branch. Since the Arab tribes that were not descendants of Ishmael were nevertheless influenced by the religion he preached, they too associated themselves with him.

The second branch originated with Isaac. Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, John, Jesus, and many other prophets were born in this branch. Since Jacob’s name was Israel, this lineage came to be known as the Children of Israel. As a result of his preaching, other peoples who accepted his religion either merged their identity with theirs or, although distinct in lineage, became their followers in religious matters. When this branch became afflicted with humiliation and decline, Judaism and Christianity arose among them. (Surah al-Shu‘ara, note 117)

In verse 20 of Surah al-Ma’idah, Allah refers to the former influence and power of the Children of Israel. Their age of power and prosperity was long before Moses. On the one hand, great prophets such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph were born among this people; on the other, during the time of Joseph and afterward, they were fortunate to gain extensive governing authority in Egypt. For a long period, they were the greatest rulers in the civilized world of that time. Their influence and power prevailed all around them. People generally begin the history of the rise of the Children of Israel with Moses. But the Qur’an clearly states that their age of ascendancy had already passed before Moses. Moses presented it as the past heritage of his people. (Surah al-Anbiya, note 83)

The Age of Gross Polytheism in Palestine

After the death of Moses (peace be upon him), when the Children of Israel entered Palestine, various peoples lived there, such as the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Jebusites, and Philistines. The most debased forms of polytheism were prevalent among them. The name of their greatest deity was El, who was called the father of the gods. He was likened to a bull. His wife was named Asherah, and from them sprang a vast lineage of gods and goddesses, whose number reached seventy. The most powerful of their children was Baal, regarded as the god who brought rain and nourished crops, and as the lord of the heavens and the earth. In the northern regions she was called Ashtoreth, while in Palestine she was called Astarte. These two female deities were regarded as gods of sexual love and procreation. Besides them, one deity was the lord of death, another was entrusted with preserving health, and another was assigned responsibility for causing epidemics and famine. Thus, the entire realm of divinity was divided among numerous gods. Such vile attributes and deeds were ascribed to these gods and goddesses that even a thoroughly immoral person would not wish to be associated with them. It is therefore clear how those who make such obscene and base beings into gods and worship them could possibly avoid sinking to the lowest depths of morality. This is why the condition revealed by archaeological excavations bears witness to extreme moral degeneration. The practice of child sacrifice existed in their society. Their places of worship were dens of fornication. Making women into temple prostitutes and keeping them in the places of worship, and committing fornication with them, was regarded as an act of worship. Many other forms of immorality had likewise spread among them.

The Causes of the Moral Degeneration of the Children of Israel

The guidance given to the Children of Israel through Moses (peace be upon him) in the Torah clearly stated that Palestine was to be wrested from these idolatrous peoples, and that they were to keep away from living and mixing with them and from the harmful effects of their morals, ideas, and beliefs. But when the Children of Israel entered Palestine, they forgot the above-mentioned guidance. They did not establish a unified kingdom. Rather, they became engrossed in tribal chauvinism. Each tribe preferred to take a portion of the conquered territory and separate itself. Because of this division, no tribe became strong enough to cleanse its territory completely of the polytheists. Eventually, they accepted living alongside them. Not only that, but small city-states of these polytheistic peoples were established at various places in the territories they had conquered, and the Israelites were unable to bring them under control. This complaint is recorded in the Book of Psalms. The following complaint is made through the words of David (peace be upon him): “According to God’s command, they did not destroy those peoples; rather, they mingled with them, learned their wicked deeds, and began worshipping their gods, which became a snare around their necks. They sacrificed their daughters to Satan and shed the blood of their innocent sons and daughters. Therefore God’s wrath fell upon them; they became hateful to their inheritance, abandoned it to those peoples, and their enemies became their rulers.” Psalms, chapter 106, verses 34–41.

Atonement

The first punishment the Israelites had to suffer was that polytheism entered their midst through these peoples, and the way was thereby opened for other moral diseases as well. The Book of Judges in the Bible records the complaint in these words: “The Children of Israel did evil before God and began worshipping the Baals. They abandoned the God of their forefathers who had brought them out of Egypt, and they bowed down before the gods of the peoples around them, provoking God to anger. They abandoned God and worshipped Baal and Ashtoreth, and the fire of God’s wrath fell upon the Children of Israel.” Chapter 2, verses 11–13.

The second punishment they had to suffer was that the peoples whose city-states they had allowed to remain independent joined with the Philistines, whose entire territory had not been conquered, and formed an alliance against the Israelites. They then launched repeated attacks and drove them out of large parts of Palestine. They even seized from them the Ark of the Covenant. Eventually, the Israelites felt the need to establish a united kingdom under one ruler. At their request, the Prophet Samuel (1020 BCE) made Saul their king. This account is given in Section 32 of Surah al-Baqarah.

The Era of Prosperity and Well-Being

This united kingdom had three rulers: Saul (1020–1004 BCE), David (peace be upon him) (1004–965 BCE), and Solomon (peace be upon him) (965–926 BCE). These rulers completed the work that the Children of Israel had left unfinished after Moses (peace be upon him). Only the kingdom of the Phoenicians on the northern seacoast and that of the Philistines on the southwestern seacoast remained intact. They could not be conquered, and it was deemed sufficient to turn them into tributary allies.

The Era of Anarchy and Crisis

After Solomon (peace be upon him), the Children of Israel once again became absorbed in worldly greed and desire. Through mutual disputes and conflicts, they established two separate kingdoms. The kingdom of the Israelites in northern Palestine and eastern Jordan had Samaria as its capital, while the kingdom of Judah, established in southern Palestine and Edom, had Jerusalem as its capital. Rivalry and conflict continued between these two kingdoms from the very beginning and persisted to the end. The rulers and inhabitants of the Israelite kingdom were the first and most deeply influenced by the polytheistic beliefs and moral corruption of the neighboring peoples. This situation reached its extreme when the ruler Ahab married Jezebel, the polytheist princess of Sidon. At that time, with the help of the power and resources of the state, polytheism and immorality began spreading among the Israelites like a mighty flood. The Prophets Elijah and Elisha (peace be upon them) made every effort to stem this flood. But the nation did not turn back from the path of decline toward which it was rushing. Finally, God’s wrath fell upon the Israelite kingdom in the form of the Assyrians, and Assyrian attacks continued from the ninth century BCE onward. During this period, the Prophets Amos (787–747 BCE) and then Hosea (747–735 BCE) repeatedly warned the Israelites. But they were so immersed in negligence and indifference that the warnings produced the opposite effect. Finally, the Israelite ruler issued the Prophet Amos a notice to leave the country and cease his prophetic work within the kingdom of Samaria. Before long, God’s punishment descended upon the Israelite kingdom and its inhabitants. In 721 BCE, Sargon, the formidable Assyrian ruler, conquered Samaria and brought the Israelite kingdom to an end. Thousands of Israelites were killed. More than twenty-seven thousand influential Israelites were expelled from the country and forced to disperse throughout the eastern districts of the Assyrian kingdom. People of other nations were brought in from outside and resettled in Israelite territory. The few Israelites who remained gradually forgot their national civilization and culture as they lived alongside the newcomers.

The second state of the Children of Israel, established in southern Palestine under the name of Judah, also soon became involved in polytheism and immorality after Solomon (peace be upon him). Comparatively, however, the pace of their decline was slower than that of the Israelite kingdom. For this reason, they were granted somewhat more respite. Although, like the Israelite kingdom, the Assyrians repeatedly attacked them, destroyed their cities, and besieged their capital, this state nevertheless was not destroyed by the Assyrians. It survived only as a tributary ally. Then, when the inhabitants of Judah did not desist from idol worship and immorality despite the continued efforts of the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, conquered the entire kingdom of Judah, including Jerusalem, in 598 BCE, and the king of Judah was taken captive. Even this did not end their wrongdoing. Despite the counsel of Jeremiah, instead of reforming their character they rebelled against Babylon in an attempt to change their fate. Finally, in 587 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar launched a sudden attack and destroyed all the large and small cities of Judah. He utterly obliterated Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple, leaving not even a single wall standing. He expelled large numbers of Jews from the country and scattered them in every direction. Those who remained continued to live humiliated and subjugated by neighboring peoples. (Surah Yunus, note 98–100.)

The Role of the Children of Israel During Their Captive Life Under Babylon

They began accepting whatever Satan was presenting in the name of Solomon’s kingdom. Yet Solomon never adopted disbelief. It was these satans who were teaching people magic who were guilty of disbelief. They became particularly attracted to what had been revealed to the two angels, Harut and Marut, in Babylon. Yet whenever the angels taught anyone this matter, they clearly warned them: “Behold, we are only a trial, so do not become engrossed in disbelief.” Nevertheless, they learned from the angels that by which separation could be caused between husband and wife. It is clear, however, that they could harm no one through this means except by Allah’s permission. Yet they learned what was not beneficial but harmful to them, and they knew very well that whoever purchased this would have no share of good in the Hereafter. How vile was the thing in exchange for which they sold their lives. If only they had known. —Surah al-Baqarah 2:102.

The term Satan refers to both jinn satans and human satans. Both are meant here. When the era of the Israelites’ moral and material decline arrived, slavery, ignorance, misfortune, poverty, humiliation, and disgrace left them with no enthusiasm, inspiration, or firm resolve. Their attention then turned toward magic, sorcery, occult practices, and amulets. They began seeking methods by which all tasks could be accomplished through mere blowing and incantations, without any labor, effort, or moral striving. At that time Satan began deceiving them in this way: Solomon’s (peace be upon him) vast kingdom and astonishing power were all the result of certain designs and incantations, and “we are now telling you about them.” They became infatuated with these things, considering them unexpected blessings. Thereafter they had no interest in or affection for the Book of Allah, nor did the voice of any caller to the truth reach their ears.

Various statements have been made in explaining the above verse. But what I have understood is this: when the entire nation of Israel was living as captives and slaves in Babylon, Allah may have sent two angels to them in human form as a test. Just as the angels went to the people of Lot in the form of handsome youths, these two angels may likewise have gone to the Israelites in the form of pirs and fakirs. There, on the one hand, they opened a marketplace of magic, while on the other, as a final proof, they warned them, saying: “Behold, we have come only to test you. Do not ruin your Hereafter.” Despite this, they became frantic to obtain the occult practices and amulets offered by the angels.

There is nothing surprising about angels assuming human form in order to carry out a task. They are officials of Allah’s vast dominion. In fulfilling their duties, they can adopt whatever method is necessary at a given time. How much do we know about how many angels are working all around us at this moment while assuming human form? However, teaching angels something that is intrinsically evil may be illustrated as follows: suppose an ununiformed police constable gives marked notes as a bribe to a corrupt official. The purpose is to catch him red-handed while committing the crime, leaving him no opportunity afterward to claim his innocence.

In those days, what people most desired were occult practices and amulets by which one person could separate another man’s wife from him and make her fall in love with himself. This was the lowest level of moral degradation to which they had sunk. If the most cherished desire of a nation’s people is to try to seduce another man’s wife, separate a married woman from her husband and attract her to themselves, and regard this very act as a great victory, what greater moral degradation could there be?

The marital relationship is in reality the foundation of human civilization. When the relationship between men and women is sound and proper, human civilization will be sound and proper. Conversely, when a rift develops between men and women, human civilization too will be shattered. Therefore, the person who strikes with an axe at such a tree, upon whose standing securely the existence of both himself and the whole society depends, is the vilest criminal and spreader of disorder. It is mentioned in a hadith that Iblis sends representatives from his central headquarters to every part of the earth. Those representatives then return and submit their reports. One says, “I created such-and-such turmoil or calamity.” Another says, “I introduced such-and-such sin.” But Iblis tells each of them, “You have done nothing.” Then one comes and says, “I caused separation between husband and wife.” Hearing this, Iblis embraces him and says, “You have truly done an excellent deed.”

Reflecting on this hadith makes it quite clear why the angels sent to test the Children of Israel were commanded to teach them the practice of causing separation between husband and wife. (Surah al-Baqarah, note 100.)

The Era of Revival

The Samaritans and Israelites could never rise again from the abyss of moral and creedal degeneration into which they had sunk. But among those of the people of Judah who survived was a man who remained steadfast in goodness and called others to goodness. He continued working for reform among the remaining Jews and inspired those who had been exiled to Babylon and other regions to repent. Eventually, Allah’s mercy came to their aid. The Babylonian kingdom fell. In 539 BCE, the Iranian conqueror Cyrus, or Khusrau, conquered Babylon. The following year, he issued a decree stating that the Israelites were permitted to return to their homeland and be resettled there. Then Jews began going to Judah in groups. This continued for a long time. Cyrus permitted the Jews to rebuild Solomon’s Temple. But some neighboring peoples who had settled there in the intervening period created obstacles. Finally, in 522 BCE, Darius I appointed Zerubbabel, the grandson of Judah’s last king, as governor of Judah. Under the supervision of the Prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Joshua, he rebuilt the holy Temple. Then, in 450 BCE, the Prophet Ezra arrived in Judah with a group of exiles. By an edict, the Iranian emperor Artaxerxes granted him the following authority: “Appoint rulers and judges on the basis of the knowledge given to you by your God, so that justice may be established for all beyond the River who know the law of your God. Teach those who do not know it, and immediately impose legal punishment on those who disobey the law of your God and the decree of the king, whether it be death, exile, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.” Ezra, chapter 8, verses 25–26.

Taking advantage of this decree, Ezra undertook the great task of reviving the religion of Moses (peace be upon him). He gathered the righteous people of the Jewish nation from all directions and established a strong organization. He edited and published the fifth book of the Bible, which contains the Torah. He arranged religious education for the Jews. Through enforcing the law of the Shariah, he tried to remove the errors in belief and morality that had entered the Children of Israel under the influence of other nations. He ordered the Jews to divorce the polytheistic women whom they had married. He obtained a renewed pledge from the Children of Israel to worship Allah and follow His law.

In 445 BCE, another group of exiles returned to Judah under the leadership of Nehemiah. The Iranian emperor appointed Nehemiah governor of Jerusalem and permitted him to build a city for habitation. Thus, after a century and a half, Jerusalem once again became populated and turned into the center of Jewish religion and civilization. But the Israelites of northern Palestine and Samaria gained no benefit from Ezra’s work of reform and revival. Rather, they built their own religious center on Mount Gerizim in opposition to Jerusalem and attempted to make it the qiblah of the People of the Book. In this way, the distance between the Jews and Samaritans grew still wider.

Greek Domination and the Struggle Against It

The fall of the Iranian Empire, Alexander’s conquests, and the subsequent resurgence of the Iranians brought misfortune upon the Jews for some time. After Alexander’s death, his empire was divided into three kingdoms. Syria fell to the Seleucid kingdom, whose capital was Antioch. Its ruler, Antiochus III, conquered Palestine in 198 BCE. He was a polytheist and could not tolerate Jewish religion and civilization. Through political and economic pressure, he began expanding Greek civilization. A significant section of the Jews themselves became his puppets. This external interference created division within the Jewish nation. One group adopted Greek dress, language, way of life, and athletic games. The second remained steadfast upon its own civilization. When Antiochus IV, whose title was Epiphanes, meaning “manifestation of god,” ascended the throne in 175 BCE, he used his despotic power to try to uproot Jewish religion and civilization. He had a huge idol installed in the Temple at Jerusalem and forced the Jews to prostrate themselves before it. He stopped sacrifices at the altar and instead ordered the Jews to offer sacrifices at the altar of the polytheists. He prescribed the death penalty for all who kept the Torah in their homes, observed the Sabbath commandments, or circumcised their children. But the Jews did not submit to this tyranny. A great movement began among them, known in history as the Maccabean Revolt. Although the Greek-minded Jews in this conflict showed every kind of sympathy for the Greeks and in practice helped the tyrants of Antioch to thwart the Maccabean Revolt, the influence of the religious vitality that Ezra had instilled in the hearts of ordinary Jews was so great that everyone joined the Maccabean side. Eventually they expelled the Greeks and established an independent religious state of their own, which remained intact until 67 BCE. Its borders expanded to include the whole territory that had once been under the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Indeed, a large part of Philistia also came under its control, although it had not submitted even during the eras of David and Solomon (peace be upon them). (Surah al-Ma’idah, note 42.)

The Era of the Second Calamity

The moral and religious vitality with which the Maccabean movement had begun gradually faded. Then worldliness took hold of them. Eventually division arose among them, and they themselves invited the Roman conqueror Pompey to seize Palestine. Accordingly, in 63 BCE, Pompey conquered Jerusalem and deprived the Jews of their independence. It was the settled policy of the Roman conquerors to achieve their purposes through local rulers rather than establish law and order directly in conquered territories. Therefore, in Palestine they established, under their supervision, a native state that in 40 BCE came under the control of a shrewd Jew named Herod. He became known as Herod the Great. His rule extended over the whole of Palestine and eastern Jordan from 40 BCE to 4 BCE. On the one hand, he patronized the religious leaders and kept the Jews satisfied; on the other, he enriched Roman civilization and displayed the utmost loyalty to the Roman Empire. In this way, he won the favor of the Roman emperor Caesar. During this period, the religious and moral decline of the Jews reached its extreme.

After Herod, his kingdom was divided into three parts:

One of his sons, Archelaus, became ruler of Samaria, Judah, and northern Idumea. But in 6 CE, the Roman emperor Augustus removed him from office and placed his entire state under his own governor; this arrangement remained in force until 41 CE. It was during this very period that Jesus (peace be upon him) appeared to reform the Children of Israel. All the Jewish religious leaders united in opposing him, and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate tried to have him sentenced to death.

Herod’s second son, Herod Antipas, became ruler of the Galilee region in northern Palestine and of eastern Jordan. This was the man who, at the command of a dancing girl, had the head of John (peace be upon him) severed and presented to her as a gift.

His third son, Philip, became king of the extensive area from Mount Hermon to the Yarmuk River. He was more devoted and attached to Roman and Greek civilization than his father and brothers. In his region there was not even as much opportunity to preach a message of goodness as existed in other parts of Palestine.

In 41 CE, the Romans appointed Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, as ruler of the regions over which Herod the Great had ruled. After gaining power, he began severe persecution of the followers of Jesus (peace be upon him) and devoted all his strength to eliminating the movement for God-consciousness and moral reform that was being led by the disciples.

To gain an accurate idea of the condition of the ordinary Jews and their religious leaders in this era, one should read the criticisms of Jesus (peace be upon him) delivered in his sermons. These sermons are recorded in the four Gospels. Indeed, it is sufficient for estimating their condition to note that when, before the eyes of that nation, the head of a pure and pious sage such as John (peace be upon him) was severed, not a word of protest was raised against this extreme oppression. Not only that, the religious leaders of the entire nation demanded the death sentence for Jesus (peace be upon him). Yet, apart from a small number of people devoted to the truth, there was no one to lament this misfortune. The ultimate tragedy was that when Pontius Pilate asked those unfortunate people, “Today is your day of rejoicing. According to custom, I have the authority to release one of those deserving the death penalty. Tell me, shall I release Jesus, or the robber Barabbas?” the crowd shouted in unison, “Release Barabbas!” This was as though the final opportunity to accept the truth, from Allah, had been given to this nation.

The Punishment of Calamity

A short while afterward, a fierce conflict broke out between the Jews and the Romans. Between 64 and 66 CE, the Jews openly declared a rebellion. Herod Agrippa II and the Roman procurator Florus both failed to suppress it. Finally, the Roman Empire took severe military action, crushed the rebellion, and Titus conquered Jerusalem by the sword in 70 CE. In the massacre that followed, 130,000 people were killed. Sixty-seven thousand were taken captive and made slaves. Thousands were seized and sent to work in the mines of Egypt. Thousands more were taken to various cities, where they were thrust before savage beasts in amphitheaters and coliseums or forced to fight in sword games for public entertainment. All the tall and beautiful girls were selected for the conquerors’ pleasure. The city of Jerusalem and the Temple were reduced to ruins. Thereafter, Jewish influence and authority in Palestine were so completely eradicated that, for two thousand years, they had no opportunity to raise their heads again. The sacred Temple of Jerusalem could not be rebuilt either. Later, Caesar Hadrian repopulated the city and named it Aelia. For a long period afterward, Jews were forbidden to enter it. (Surah Al-Isra, notes 6–7)

The Final Opportunity

Because the Children of Israel had remained immersed in sin for several successive centuries, their national conduct continued to deteriorate despite repeated warnings and reprimands. They killed several prophets one after another, and became bloodthirsty toward every noble person who called them to righteous deeds and the true, correct path. Therefore, in order to complete the proof against them and present the truth conclusively before them, Allah the Exalted sent at the same time two great prophets like Jesus and John. They possessed such clear signs of being sent by Allah that only those whose blind hostility toward the truth was extreme and whose insolence against it had reached its peak could deny them. But the Children of Israel lost even this final opportunity. Not only did they reject the call of these two prophets; they also had a leading figure such as John, a sage, beheaded at the command of a dancer. After that, spending additional time and effort reproaching and censuring the Children of Israel was pointless. Therefore, Allah the Exalted called His prophet to His presence and wrote the curse of humiliation upon the destiny of the Children of Israel until the Day of Resurrection. (Surah Al-Baqarah, notes 104–106)

John and the Conduct of the Children of Israel toward Him

By bringing together the accounts concerning John that are scattered throughout various parts of the Bible, a picture of his holy life is presented here:

According to Luke’s account, John was six months older than Jesus. Their mothers were close relatives. At about the age of thirty, he was entrusted with the responsibility of prophethood. According to John’s account, he began calling people toward Allah in the region east of the Jordan. He used to say, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness: Make the way of God straight and easy.” John 1:23

Mark says that he led people to repent of their sins and baptized those who repented—that is, he bathed them after repentance so that their souls and bodies might become pure. Large numbers of people from Judea and Jerusalem became his followers. They went to him to be baptized (Mark 1:4–5). For this reason he became known as John the Baptist. Generally, the Children of Israel accepted his prophethood. Matthew 21:26 records Jesus as saying: “Among those born of women, no one greater than John the Baptist or John has arisen” (Matthew 11:11). He wore a garment of camel hair, with a belt tied around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4). Along with living this ascetic life, he proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2)—that is, the beginning of Jesus’ call was imminent. For this reason he was called the confirmer of Jesus. The Qur’an says of him that he was a confirmer of a decree from Allah, attesting to the truth of Jesus.

He advised people to perform prayer and observe fasting. Matthew 9:14; Luke 5:33; Luke 11:1.

He used to tell people: “Whoever has two garments should distribute one to the person who has none. Whoever has food should do likewise.” The tax collectors asked, “Sir, what should we do?” He said, “Do not take more than what has been prescribed for you.” The soldiers asked, “What command applies to us?” He said, “Do not oppress anyone, nor take anything from anyone unjustly. Be content with your wages.” Luke 3:10–14.

When the corrupted scholars of the Children of Israel, the Pharisees and Sadducees, came to him to receive instruction, he rebuked them, saying: “Brood of snakes, who warned you to flee from the approaching wrath? Do not even think of saying, ‘Abraham is our father.’ … The axe is now laid at the root of the trees. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matthew 3:7–10

During the reign of Herod Antipas, the Jewish ruler of his time, he was engaged in calling people to the truth. Herod Antipas was completely immersed in Roman civilization. Because of him, sin and corruption were spreading throughout the land. He had brought his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias, into his own household and kept her as his bedmate. For this, John rebuked Herod and criticized his sinful conduct. Because of this offense, Herod arrested him and sent him to prison. Nevertheless, he respected him, considering him a holy and truthful man, and was also terrified by the enormous influence he wielded among the people. But Herodias thought that the moral vitality John was instilling in the nation made a woman like her appear utterly base and contemptible in people’s eyes. Therefore, she became determined to have him killed. At last, she seized her opportunity at Herod’s birthday celebration. Her daughter performed an elaborate dance at the feast. Enraptured by her, Herod said, “Tell me what you want.” The girl asked her adulterous mother what she should request. Her mother said, “Ask for John’s severed head.” So she folded her hands and said to Herod, “Order John’s severed head to be brought before me at once on a platter.” Herod became troubled. But how could he reject the request of his beloved daughter? Immediately he presented the severed head of the Prophet John on a platter as a gift before the dancer. Matthew 14:3–12; Mark 6:17–29; Luke 3:19–20. (Surah Al-Isra, note 8)

Jesus and the Conduct of the Children of Israel toward Him

And mention Mary in this Book, when she withdrew from her people to a secluded place in the east and screened herself from them behind a curtain. —Surah Maryam: 16

It is stated in Surah Al Imran that Mary’s mother, in accordance with her vow, dedicated Mary to worship at the Bayt al-Maqdis, and that Zechariah undertook responsibility for her care and maintenance. It is mentioned there that the prayer chamber in which Mary performed spiritual retreat was in the eastern part of the Bayt al-Maqdis. In accordance with the customary practice, she hung a curtain and kept herself hidden from people’s sight. Those who, merely to maintain consistency with the Bible, have interpreted the term as Nazareth have erred. For Nazareth lies north of Jerusalem, not east of it.

Under these circumstances, I sent Our spirit to her, and it appeared before her in the form of a perfect man. Mary suddenly said, “If you are God-fearing, I seek the refuge of the Most Merciful from you.” He said, “I am only a messenger of your Lord. I have been sent to grant you a pure son.” Mary said, “How can I have a son when no man has touched me and I am not an immoral woman?” The angel said, “That is how it will be. Your Lord says, ‘It is easy for Me to do this,’ and We will make this child a sign for the people and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter decreed.” —Surah Maryam: 17–21

When Mary expressed her astonishment, the angel said, “That is how it will be.” This can never mean that a man would touch you and a son would then be conceived in your womb. Rather, its clear meaning is that you will have a son even though no man has touched you. Zechariah’s astonishment was expressed in similar words, and there too the angel gave this same answer. It is clear that the meaning established there must apply here as well. Likewise, in Surah Adh-Dhariyat (verses 28–30), when the angels gave Abraham the glad tidings of a son, Sarah said, “How can an old and barren woman like me have a son?” The angels gave her the same reply: “That is how it will be.” This means that she would have a child despite being old and barren. Moreover, if the expression were taken to mean that a man would touch you and a son would be born to you in the ordinary way in which children are born to all women, the following two sentences would become meaningless. Why, then, was it necessary to say that your Lord declares, “Doing this is very easy for Me,” and that “I wish to make this boy a sign”? The word “sign” is used here in the clear sense of a manifest miracle, and the preceding statement points to this meaning: “Doing this is very easy for Me.” Thus, the meaning of Allah’s declaration is nothing other than that He wished to present this very child before the Children of Israel as a miracle. The subsequent account itself makes clear how the person of Jesus was presented as a miracle. Mary conceived the child and withdrew with him to a distant place. Then the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date palm. She said, “Oh, would that I had died before this and had become a thing forgotten and unknown!” Then an angel called to her from beneath her: “Do not grieve. Your Lord has caused a stream to flow beneath you. Shake the trunk of this date palm toward yourself, and fresh dates will fall upon you in abundance. So eat, drink, and be comforted. Then if you see any person, say, ‘I have vowed a fast for the Most Merciful, so today I will not speak to anyone.’” Then she came to her people carrying the child. They said, “O Mary, you have certainly done an outrageous thing! O sister of Aaron, your father was not an evil man, nor was your mother unchaste.” Surah Maryam: 22–28

The distant place means Bethlehem. It was entirely natural for Mary to leave her place of spiritual retreat and go there. The daughter of the exceptionally pious family of the Children of Aaron had been devoted to worshipping Allah at the Bayt al-Maqdis. She suddenly became pregnant. Had she remained in her place of retreat and people learned of her pregnancy, not only her family but other members of society would have made her survival difficult. Therefore, after being subjected to this severe ordeal, the poor woman quietly left her retreat chamber. Thereafter, for as long as Allah willed, she would be protected from the reproach of her people, their condemnation, and public disgrace. This event itself is strong evidence that Jesus was born without a father. If Mary had been married and the child had been conceived by her husband, there would have been no reason for her to leave everything and go alone to a distant place to give birth instead of going to her parents’ or in-laws’ home.

From this, one can estimate the distress she was suffering. Anyone who considers the delicacy of the situation can understand that these words did not come from her mouth merely because of the pains of childbirth. Rather, she had become anguished by the thought of how she could safely emerge from the grave trial into which Allah had placed her. She had managed somehow to conceal her pregnancy until then. But where would she now go with this child? The angel’s subsequent words, “Do not grieve,” make clear why Mary had spoken those words. When a married woman has her first child, no matter how much she writhes in labor, she should have no such anxiety. “Do not grieve” means that you need not say anything about the child. If anyone questions his birth, the responsibility for answering them rests with Us. (It should be noted that in the society of the Children of Israel there was a practice of observing a fast of silence, refraining from speech. These words make it clear what the real cause of Mary’s anxiety was. It should also be noted that if a married woman’s first child were born according to the ordinary custom of the world, what need would there be for her to observe a fast of silence?)

The expression “O sister of Aaron” may have two meanings. One is that its apparent meaning should be accepted and that Mary had a brother named Aaron. The second is that, according to Arabic usage, “sister of Aaron” should mean a daughter of Aaron’s family, since this manner of expression is established in Arabic. For example, a person from the tribe of Mudar was addressed as “O brother of Hamdan.” Evidence for accepting the first meaning is that this meaning has also been reported from the Prophet. Evidence supporting the second meaning is that the circumstances and context demand it. The reason for the commotion that arose among the people does not outwardly seem to have been that the unmarried sister of an unknown man named Aaron had brought a child in her arms. Rather, the reason people gathered around Mary could only have been that a girl from the lineage of Aaron, belonging to one of the most pious families of the Children of Israel, had been found in this condition. Although, in principle, no other interpretation can be accepted when an authentic marfu‘ hadith exists, the wording in which this hadith is cited in works such as Muslim, Nasai, and Tirmidhi does not necessarily mean that these words must mean “Aaron’s sister.” The report of al-Mughira ibn Shu‘ba says only that the Christians of Najran asked al-Mughira: The Qur’an calls Mary “the sister of Aaron,” whereas Aaron had passed away several hundred years earlier. What is the meaning of this statement in the Qur’an?

Al-Mughira could not answer this question. Later, he presented the matter to the Prophet. The Prophet said, “Why did you not reply by saying that the people of the Children of Israel used to name themselves after the names of prophets and righteous people?” This statement of the Prophet clearly shows that, rather than remaining without an answer, one may confront such a question with this kind of reply. Mary pointed toward the child. They said, “How can we speak to one who is merely a child lying in a cradle?” The child then spoke: “Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. He has blessed me wherever I may be. He has commanded me to perform prayer and give zakat regularly as long as I live. He has made me dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me arrogant or wicked. Peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised again.” This is Jesus, son of Mary, and this is the statement of truth concerning him about which they doubt. —Surah Maryam: 29–34

This is the sign that was presented to the Children of Israel in the person of Jesus. Before subjecting the Children of Israel to exemplary punishment for their continual wrongdoing, corruption, and sin, Allah wished to present the fundamental truth conclusively before them and give them a final opportunity to reform. Therefore, He adopted this method: He caused the chaste, devout girl of the Children of Aaron, who was immersed in spiritual retreat at the Bayt al-Maqdis and under the care of Zechariah, to become pregnant while unmarried. The purpose was that when she returned to the populated area with her newborn child, an uproar would spread throughout the nation and everyone’s attention would be drawn toward her. Then, in accordance with this arrangement, when crowds began gathering before Mary, Allah caused the newborn child to speak. This was so that, when the child grew up and was honored with prophethood, numerous people of the nation would still be present to testify that they had witnessed a wondrous miracle in this person’s childhood. Yet if this nation still refused to accept his prophethood and, instead of acknowledging his obedience, tried to accuse him of a crime and crucify him, it would receive such a severe exemplary punishment as had never been inflicted on any nation in the world. (Surah Al-Isra, note 9)

(For a detailed explanation, see Tafhim al-Qur’an, volume 1, Surah Al Imran, notes 44 and 53; Surah An-Nisa, notes 212 and 213; volume 3, Surah Al-Anbiya, notes 88–90; and Surah Al-Mu’minun, note 43.) They are first mentioned in verse 38 of Surah Al-Furqan, and then mentioned a second time in verse 12 of Surah Qaf. At both places, however, their name is mentioned alongside those who sought to reject the prophets as liars. No details are given. (No reliable information has been found about the People of the Well identifying who they were. Commentators have offered various reports, but none can be accepted with certainty. At most, it may be said that they were a people who killed their prophet by throwing him into a well or suspending him in one. In Arabic, rass means an old well. —Tafhim al-Qur’an, volume 3, Al-Furqan, note 52.)

According to Arab tradition, two places known as Rass are famous: one in Najd and the other in northern Hijaz. It is now difficult to determine which of these two places was inhabited by the People of the Well. No reliable account of their story is found in any report. At most, it can be stated with certainty that they were a people who cast their prophet into a well. But since the Qur’an merely alludes to them and leaves it at that, it may be inferred that, at the time of the Qur’an’s revelation, the Arabs generally knew about this people. Their account could not be preserved in history in later times. (Surah Al Imran, note 51)

A Comprehensive View of the Entire Human World

When the Prophet Muhammad was commissioned to deliver the Islamic call, the world demanded solutions to various moral, civilizational, economic, and political problems. At that time, the Roman and Persian Empires also existed. Class divisions prevailed, and unjust economic exploitation was taking place. Moral corruption was widespread as well. Numerous complex problems existed even in the Prophet’s own country. The eastern and southern regions of Arabia, as far as Yemen, including the fertile province of Iraq, were under Persian rule. In the north, Roman rule extended to the borders of the Hijaz. In the Hijaz itself stood large fortresses belonging to Jewish capitalists. They had trapped the Arabs in a web of usury. Directly opposite the western coast, a Christian government had been established in Abyssinia, which had attacked Mecca only a few years earlier. A group sharing their religion and bound to them by a kind of economic and political relationship lived in Najran, between the Hijaz and Yemen. (Surah Maryam, note 12)

Rome, Greece, and India

The stories of Rome’s Colosseum are still preserved in the pages of history. Thousands of wretched people became victims of gladiatorial combat and of the entertainment enjoyed by Roman nobles. In most countries of Europe and Asia, it was not considered reprehensible to push slaves before savage beasts for the amusement of guests or the entertainment of friends, slaughter them like animals, or burn them alive for spectacle. Executing prisoners and slaves by punishing them in various ways was a common practice of that age. Not only ignorant and bloodthirsty nobles, but even the great thinkers and philosophers of Greece and Rome, in their intellectual investigations, considered many brutal methods of killing innocent people lawful. Moral teachers such as Aristotle and Plato did not consider it objectionable to grant a mother the right to separate a part of her body—the fetus or unborn child—from herself. Thus, abortion was not illegal in Greece and Rome. A father had the right to kill his son, and Roman lawmakers took pride in this feature of their law: that a father’s authority over his children was so unlimited. For the followers of Zeno, the Stoics, who were indifferent to happiness and sorrow, suicide was not a fault; rather, it was considered honorable to summon an assembly and commit suicide in it. Even a thinker such as Plato did not regard it as a crime. A wife killing her husband was regarded in the same way as killing a domestic animal; Greek law imposed no punishment for it. India, the cradle of life-preservation, was the most advanced of all in this respect. There, burning a living widow together with her dead husband’s body was considered lawful. (One might ask whether the wife was not burned on her husband’s funeral pyre, but instead burned herself. The fact is that social pressure in various forms compelled her to commit this terrible suicide, and religion also urged her to do so.) The lives of the Shudras had no value at all. These wretched people were said to have been born from Brahma’s feet; therefore, killing them was lawful for Brahmins. Listening to the recitation of the Vedas was such a great sin for Shudras that pouring molten metal into their ears and killing them was not only lawful but obligatory. The practice of immersing infants in water was age-old; according to it, parents cast their first child into the Ganges. They considered this cruelty a cause of good fortune. (Surah Maryam, notes 14–19, 21)

The Worldwide Affliction of Shirk

When the Messenger of Allah began calling people to monotheism, what were the world’s religious beliefs like? The pagan polytheists worshipped gods or deities made from various materials such as wood, stone, gold, and silver. They had forms, shapes, and bodies. The gods and goddesses reproduced in the ordinary manner. No goddess was without a husband, nor any god without a wife. They also needed food and drink. Their priests made a business of worshipping them. Many polytheists believed that God appeared in human form and that some people were His incarnations. Although the Christians claimed to acknowledge one Allah, their Allah had at least one son. Along with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit also had the honor of sharing in divinity. There was even a mother and mother-in-law of God. The Jews too claimed to acknowledge one God, but their god was not free from worldly, bodily, and other human attributes. He moved about, appeared in human form, and even wrestled with one of His servants. He also had a son, Uzair. Besides these religious groups, the Magians worshipped fire and the Sabians worshipped the stars. (The Way to the Islamic Revolution, Urdu edition, pp. 24–25)

The Mischief of Humanity’s False Social Divisions

From the earliest times until today, in every age people have generally ignored humanity and drawn a circle around themselves, considering those born within it their own and those born outside it strangers. This circle was not drawn on any intellectual or moral basis, but on the basis of accidental birth. In some places, birth into a particular family, tribe, or lineage was its basis; elsewhere, birth in a particular geographical region, or among a particular race or language group, was taken as the basis. The distinctions subsequently created upon this foundation did not remain limited merely to showing greater love, assistance, and sympathy toward those regarded as one’s own than toward others. Rather, they assumed the vilest forms of hatred, enmity, contempt, oppression, and persecution toward outsiders. Philosophies were devised for this, religions invented, laws made, and moral principles formulated. Nations and states adopted it as a permanent doctrine and enforced it for centuries. On this basis, the Jews consider the Children of Israel to be Allah’s chosen people, and even according to their religious injunctions, the rights and status of non-Israelites have been placed below those of Israelites. This class distinction gave rise among the Hindus to the caste system, under which the high status of the Brahmins was established. All people other than those of the higher castes were considered low and impure, and the dark-skinned were cast into the utmost humiliation. There is no need to search the pages of history to learn of the oppression and injustice inflicted on black people in Africa and America through the distinction between white and black. In the present twentieth century, everyone can see it with his own eyes. The attitude behind the conduct of Europeans who entered the American continent toward the Red Indians, and toward the weaker peoples of Asia and Africa over whom they established domination, was that the lives, property, honor, and chastity of those born outside the boundaries of their own country and nation were lawful for them, and that they had the right to plunder them, reduce them to slavery, and, when necessary, exterminate them from the face of the earth. The nationalism, or national worship, of Western peoples has made one nation savage toward other nations; its worst examples have been seen in the wars of recent times and can still be seen today. In particular, the racialist philosophy of Nazi Germany and the notion of the superiority of the Nordic race, when one observes the horrors they produced in the last world war, make it easy to estimate what a vast and destructive misguidance it was for the correction and reform of which this Qur’anic verse was revealed.

O humanity! We created you from a man and a woman, and then made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Indeed, the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is the one among you who is most God-fearing and righteous. Surely Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware. —Surah Al-Hujurat: 13

The Religion and Social Customs of the Arab Polytheists

A Glimpse of Arab Polytheistic Society

In that age of darkness, there was one region of the earth where the darkness had become especially dense. Among the countries regarded as civilized by the standards of that time, Arabia had remained isolated. In the neighboring lands of Iran, Rome, and Egypt, some rays of knowledge, science, art, civilization, and refinement could be found. But vast seas of sand kept the Arabs apart from them. Arab merchants traveled by camel for journeys lasting several months to conduct business in those countries, returning after merely exchanging goods. No light of knowledge or civilization came back with them. Their country had neither teachers nor libraries. There was neither a culture of learning among the people nor any interest in knowledge, science, or the arts. Across the entire country, only a few people of any consequence could read and write. They did, however, possess a highly developed language through which they had an extraordinary ability to express lofty ideas. They also had an exceptionally fine literary taste. But from whatever remains of their literature that has reached us, it is evident how limited their knowledge was, how low their position in civilization and culture, how steeped in superstition they were, how deeply ignorance and brutality marked their thoughts and character, and how ugly their moral ideas were.

There was no proper government there, nor any law or legal order. Every tribe was independent in its own territory. Only the law of the jungle prevailed. Whoever had power over another would kill him and seize his property. An Arab Bedouin could not understand why he should not kill someone who did not belong to his tribe, or why he should not become the owner of that person’s property.

Whatever notions of morality, civilization, and refinement they possessed were extremely low and incoherent. They scarcely knew the difference between pure and impure, lawful and unlawful, or courteous and discourteous. Their way of life was extremely filthy. Their customs were brutish. Adultery, drinking, theft, highway robbery, murder, and bloodshed had become ordinary habits of their lives. They would strip naked without hesitation in one another’s presence. Even their women would circumambulate the Kaaba naked. They would bury their own daughters alive with their own hands, out of the ignorant notion that no one should be able to become their sons-in-law. After their fathers’ deaths, they would marry their stepmothers. They had not even ordinary common sense concerning food and drink, dress, or taharah, that is, purity. In religious matters, they shared the ignorance and misguidance in which the world of that age was immersed (the religious condition of Arabia will be discussed later.—The compilers). Worship of idols, spirits, planets and stars—in short, every form of worship then practiced in the world in place of worship and obedience to the One God—was current among them. They had no sound knowledge of the earlier prophets or their teachings. They knew only that Abraham and Ishmael were their forefathers. But they did not know what religion those father and son followed or whom they worshipped. They were also familiar with the stories of ‘Ad and Thamud. But if one reads the accounts recorded by Arab historians, one will see that they contain not even a trace of the teachings of Salih and Hud. Through the Jews and Christians, accounts of the lives of the prophets of the Children of Israel had also reached them. A glance at the Israelite reports cited by the commentators of Islam to give an idea of what those prophets were like will suffice. It will show what kind of people the Arabs and the Children of Israel themselves knew those prophets to be, and how degraded their conception of prophethood was. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Introduction to Surah Al-Ikhlas)

Pride in Following Abraham and Ishmael

The Arabs of the Age of Ignorance considered themselves followers of Abraham and Ishmael. Therefore, they believed that the religion they followed was the religion pleasing to Allah. But in the religion they had learned from Abraham and Ishmael, religious leaders, tribal chiefs, family elders, and others had added various beliefs, practices, customs, and traditions over the succeeding centuries. Later generations regarded these additions as part of the true religion and followed them with reverence and devotion. Since no record had been preserved in traditions, history, or any book by which it could be known what the true religion had been, and when, by whom, and how each thing had subsequently been added to it, the whole of their religion had become doubtful to the Arabs. They could not confidently say of anything that it was part of the true religion sent by Allah. Nor did they know that these were innovations—things newly invented in the name of religion—and erroneous customs and traditions added later by people. (Surah Al-Hujurat, Note 12)

Some of the Most Famous Idols of the Arab Polytheists

Al-Lat

Her temple was in Ta’if. The Banu Thaqif were so devoted to her that when Abraha advanced with his elephant army to attack Mecca in order to destroy the Kaaba, the people of Banu Thaqif, solely to protect the sanctuary of their deity, arranged an armed escort to guide the tyrannical Abraha along the road to Mecca, so that he would not touch Al-Lat. Yet, like all the Arabs, the people of Banu Thaqif acknowledged that the Kaaba was the House of Allah.

Scholars differ concerning the meaning of Al-Lat. According to Ibn Jarir al-Tabari’s investigation, it is the feminine form of Allah; that is, the original word was Allahatun, which was transformed into Al-Lat. According to al-Zamakhshari, it derives from a word meaning to turn toward or incline toward someone. Since the polytheists turned their faces toward her for worship, bowed before her, and circumambulated her, she was called Al-Lat. Ibn Abbas said it derived from a word meaning to knead and mix. He and Mujahid said that it was a man who lived on a mountain rock near Ta’if and fed pilgrims sawiq and porridge. After his death, people built a temple over that rock and began worshipping it. However, the statements about Al-Lat attributed to two eminent men such as Ibn Abbas and Mujahid use the form ‘Al-Lat,’ not the other form. Secondly, the Qur’an mentions Al-Lat, Al-‘Uzza, and Manat as goddesses, whereas according to the account above, Al-Lat was male, not female.

Al-‘Uzza

The word Al-‘Uzza derives from ‘izzah, meaning ‘the possessor of honor.’ She was the principal goddess of the Quraysh, and her temple stood at a place called Hurad in the Nakhlah valley between Mecca and Ta’if. Members of Banu Shayban, allies of Banu Hashim, served as custodians of this temple. The Quraysh and members of other tribes visited her and presented offerings to her. They also sacrificed in her name. Animals bearing gifts were taken to her as to the Kaaba, and she was honored more than all the other gods and goddesses. Ibn Hisham says that when Abu Luhaifa was dying, Abu Lahab went to visit him and found him crying. Abu Lahab asked, ‘Why are you crying?’ He replied, ‘I am not crying from fear of death. I am crying because I do not know how Al-‘Uzza will be worshipped after me.’ Abu Lahab said, ‘Her worship did not continue during your life for your sake, nor will it cease after you.’ Abu Luhaifa said, ‘Now I am reassured that someone will succeed me after my death.’

Manat

Her temple was at a place called Qudaymah on the Red Sea coast between Mecca and Medina, and the people of Banu Khuza‘ah, Aws, and Khazraj were especially devoted to her. She was visited and circumambulated, and sacrifices were made as vows to her. During Hajj, when the pilgrims had completed the circumambulation of the House of Allah and the rites of ‘Arafat and Mina, they would proceed from there toward Manat’s shrine, chanting, ‘Here I am, here I am.’ Those who intended this second Hajj did not perform sa‘i between Safa and Marwah.

The Gods and Goddesses of Noah’s People

Among the gods and goddesses of Noah’s people, Surah Nuh mentions only the names of those whom the Arabs later began to worship. At the beginning of Islam, temples dedicated to them stood in various places throughout Arabia. It is possible that later generations heard about the ancient gods and goddesses of Noah’s people from those who had survived the Flood, and when ignorance once again spread among their descendants, they made images of those gods and resumed worshipping them.

The Gods and Goddesses of Noah’s People

Among the gods and goddesses of Noah’s people, Surah Nuh mentions only the names of those whom the Arabs later began to worship. At the beginning of Islam, temples dedicated to them stood in various places throughout Arabia. It is possible that later generations heard about the ancient gods and goddesses of Noah’s people from those who had survived the Flood, and when ignorance once again spread among their descendants, they made images of those gods and resumed worshipping them.

1. Wadd: Wadd was the deity of Banu Kalb ibn Wabrah, a branch of the Quda‘ah tribe. They had built his temple at Dumat al-Jandal. His name is found in ancient Arabian inscriptions as Waddam Abam. According to al-Kalbi, the idol was made in the form of a large-bodied man. The Quraysh also regarded him as a god, calling him Wadd. History mentions a man named ‘Abd Wadd, named after him.

2. Suwa‘

She was the goddess of the Hudhayl tribe, and her idol was in the form of a woman. Her temple was at a place called Rubat near Yanbu‘.

3. Yaghuth

Yaghuth was the deity of An‘um, a branch of the Tayy tribe, and of some branches of the Madhhij tribe. The people of Madhhij had installed his idol at a place called Jurnah between Yemen and the Hijaz. It was shaped like a lion. Some members of the Quraysh were also named ‘Abd Yaghuth.

4. Ya‘uq

He was the deity of Khaywan, a branch of the Hamdan tribe in Yemen. He was shaped like a horse.

5. Nasr

Nasr was the deity of Dhul-Kula‘, a branch of the Himyar tribe in the Himyar region. His idol had been installed in the form of a donkey at a place called Balkha. His name is found in the ancient inscriptions of the people of Saba as Nasur. People called his temple Bayt Nasur and his worshippers Ahl Nasur. Among the ruins of ancient temples found in Arabia and its adjoining regions, donkey statues can be seen at the doors of many temples. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Al-An‘am, Note 109)

The Famous Idol Baal

Do you call upon Baal and abandon the best of creators? —Surah Al-Saffat: 125

The literal meaning of Baal is lord, chief, or master. The word is also used for a husband. In various places in the Qur’an, it is used in the latter sense, such as Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 228; Surah Al-Nisa, verse 128; Surah Hud, verse 72; and Surah Al-Nur, verse 31. But the ancient peoples of the Semitic lineage used this word to mean deity or god. They called a particular deity Baal. In particular, Baal was the greatest god of the Phoenicians of Lebanon, and his wife Ashtoreth was the greatest goddess of all. Researchers differ over whether Baal referred to the sun or the planet Jupiter, and whether Ashtoreth referred to the moon or the planet Venus. In any case, it is historically proven that worship of Baal spread throughout the Middle East, from Babylon to Syria. The polytheistic peoples of Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine were especially deeply involved in it.

When the Children of Israel came out of Egypt and settled in Palestine and eastern Jordan, they began to marry and form social relations with polytheistic peoples, in defiance of the strict prohibitions of the Torah. They too then became afflicted with this disease. The Bible says that this moral and religious decline began among the Children of Israel immediately after the death of Joshua son of Nun, the first successor of Moses.

The children of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. They abandoned the Lord and followed other gods, the gods of the peoples around them, bowing down to them. —Judges 2:11–13

Thus the children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites; they married their daughters, gave their own daughters in marriage to their sons, and served their gods. —Judges 3:5–6

At that time, worship of Baal had penetrated the Israelites so deeply that, according to the Bible, a place of sacrifice to Baal had been built in one of their settlements, where sacrifices were offered. Unable to tolerate this state of affairs, a God-fearing Israelite secretly demolished the place of sacrifice at night. The next day, in a large assembly, the people demanded the death penalty for the man who had destroyed this gathering place of polytheism. Eventually, Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon radically changed this situation. They not only reformed the Children of Israel, but also generally suppressed polytheism and idol worship throughout their entire kingdom. But after Solomon’s death, the mischief raised its head again, and the Israelite state of northern Palestine in particular became immersed in the worship of Baal. (Surah Al-Najm, Note 15)

A Higher Concept of Allah Alongside Idol Worship

The Arab polytheists acknowledged that Allah is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He alone causes the alternation of day and night. He alone brought the sun and moon into existence. None of them believed that these acts belonged to Al-Lat, Hubal, Al-‘Uzza, or any other deity. (Surah Nuh, Note 17)

The Qur’an states in various places what the Arab polytheists believed about Allah. For example, Surah Al-Zukhruf says: If you ask them who created them, they will surely say, ‘Allah’ (verse 87). Surah Al-‘Ankabut says: If you ask them who created the heavens and the earth and subjected the sun and moon, they will certainly say, ‘Allah.’ And if you ask them who sends down water from the sky and gives life to the earth after its death, they will certainly say, ‘Allah.’ Verses 61, 63.

Surah Al-Mu’minun says: Ask them, ‘To whom belongs this earth and everyone on it, if you know?’ They will surely say, ‘To Allah.’ Ask them, ‘Who is Lord of the seven heavens and Lord of the Mighty Throne?’ They will surely say, ‘Allah.’ Ask them, ‘Who holds sovereignty over everything, and who protects while none can protect against Him?’ They will surely reply, ‘All this belongs to Allah.’ —Verses 84–89

Surah Yunus says: Ask them, ‘Who provides you with sustenance from the heavens and the earth? Who controls your hearing and sight? Who brings the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living? And who governs the entire order of the universe?’ They will surely say, ‘Allah’ (verse 31). Elsewhere in Surah Yunus it says: When you travel joyfully in a ship with a favorable wind, then a fierce opposing wind comes, waves strike them from every direction, and the travelers feel that they are surrounded by a storm, they sincerely devote their religion to Allah and pray to Him: ‘If You save us from this danger, we will certainly be grateful servants of Yours.’ But when He saves them, they turn away from the truth and begin to rebel on earth (verses 22–23). This is stated in Surah Bani Isra’il as follows: When adversity befalls you at sea, all those you call upon besides that One Allah disappear, but when He saves you and brings you safely to land, you turn away from Him (verse 67). (Surah Al-Saffat, Note 71)

A Share of Wealth for the Gods Alongside Allah

The polytheists themselves acknowledged that the earth belonged to Allah and that He produced the crops. Allah was also the Creator of those animals, and they benefited from those animals during their lives. But they believed that, because those gods and goddesses, angels, jinn, stars in the sky, and the spirits of deceased saints looked upon them with favor, Allah’s blessings had reached them through their intercession and blessing. Therefore, they set aside two portions from the produce of their fields and from their animals. One portion was in Allah’s name, as an expression of gratitude that He had given them the crops and animals. The second portion was for offerings to the patron gods and goddesses of their tribe or family, so that their favor might continue to descend upon them. (Surah Al-Ikhlas, Note 2)

Giving Idols Preference over Allah

They would reduce, through various tricks and evasions, the portion of wealth they set aside in Allah’s name. In every way they tried to increase the share of their self-made partners. This shows that they attached greater importance to these partners than to Allah. For example, if some of the grain or fruit set aside in Allah’s name fell away, it would be assigned to the partners’ share. If something fell from the partners’ share or became mixed with Allah’s share, it would be assigned to the partners’ share. But the reverse never happened: nothing was added to Allah’s share. If, because of drought, they needed to eat the produce set aside as offerings, they would consume Allah’s portion. But they feared touching the portion of Allah’s partners, lest some misfortune befall them. If the partners’ share fell short for any reason, it would be made up from Allah’s share. But if Allah’s share fell short, not a single grain would be given from the partners’ share. If anyone criticized such conduct, they offered various soothing excuses. They would say, ‘Allah is wealthy; if His share is reduced, it makes no difference to Him. But these poor servants are not as rich as Allah. If their share is slightly reduced or increased, they will hold us accountable.’

To understand what lay at the root of these superstitions, it should be remembered that the portion of their wealth which the ignorant Arabs set aside for Allah was spent to help the poor, needy, orphans, travelers, and others. The portion set aside as offerings to Allah’s partners, however, either went directly into the religious leaders’ stomachs or was presented as an offering at the shrine. Thus, indirectly, it ended up in the bellies of the idolatrous priests. For this reason, their self-serving religious leaders had firmly impressed upon them, through centuries of religious instruction, that reducing Allah’s portion did no harm, but that the portion of Allah’s favorites should not be reduced. Rather, it was better for it to be increased. (Surah Al-Ikhlas, Note 2)

What Was the Real Misguidance of the Polytheists?

Although the polytheists of Mecca did not deny that all wealth was bestowed by Allah, and they acknowledged Allah’s favor upon that wealth, the mistake they made was that, along with thanking Allah in word and deed for these wealth and blessings, they also thanked many other beings. They considered them, without any proof or argument, to have a role and a share in bestowing these blessings and wealth.

The Qur’an has referred to this itself as denial of Allah’s favor. The Qur’an presents it as a complete rule that if gratitude for the favor of a benefactor is shown to someone who is not the benefactor, then it is in reality ingratitude toward, or betrayal of, the true benefactor. Similarly, the Qur’an presents it as a principle that if, without any reason or proof, it is assumed about the benefactor or giver of wealth that he did not grant these things through his own favor and mercy, but rather through such-and-such a person, or in honor of such-and-such a person, or through someone’s intercession or intervention, then that too is in reality a denial of his gift. (Surah al-An‘am, note 105)

The Arabs’ conception of their own gods

Although the Arabs were involved in polytheism and were extremely bigoted in this regard, the root of their polytheism was confined only to the surface and had not reached the depths. Nowhere and at no time has the root of polytheism been able to penetrate deeply into human nature. On the other hand, the greatness of pure worship of Allah existed deep within their hearts. To awaken and stir it, it was only necessary to rub the surface forcefully a little.

Various events from the history of the Age of Ignorance testify to these two matters. For example, at the time of Abraha’s attack, every Quraysh man, woman, old person, and child knew that the idols kept in the Ka‘bah could not avert this danger; rather, only Allah could protect this House. Even today, the poems and laudatory verses recited by contemporary poets in celebration of the destruction of the People of the Elephant have been preserved. Every word of them testifies that they regarded this event simply as a wondrous manifestation of Allah’s power. They had not the slightest notion that their gods had any role in it. In this event, the most despicable working of polytheism was also exposed before the Quraysh and all the polytheists: when Abraha reached Ta’if on the way to Makkah, the people of Ta’if became terrified, fearing that he might destroy the temple of their god al-Lat as well. Therefore, they offered their services to Abraha for the destruction of the Ka‘bah and sent their own armed guard with him so that they could safely escort him to Makkah through the mountain route. The bitter experience of this event continued to torment the Quraysh for a long time, and for several years they threw stones at the grave of the man who had led the guard from Ta’if.

Moreover, the Quraysh and the other Arabs associated their religion with Ibrahim (peace be upon him). They regarded many of their religious and social customs, especially the rites of Hajj, as part of the religion of Ibrahim.

They also knew that Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was a pure worshipper of Allah. He never worshipped idols. Their traditions also recorded when idol worship had first become prevalent among them and who had brought which idol, when and from where.

An idea of how much ordinary Arabs revered their gods and goddesses can be gained from the fact that when something happened contrary to their prayers and wishes, they would sometimes insult their gods and stop presenting offerings to them. An Arab once wanted to avenge his father’s murder. He went to the god Dhu’l-Khalasah and cast lots to determine his fortune. The lot that came out said, “Do not do this.” He became angry and began to say:

O Dhu’l-Khalasah, if you were in my place and your father had been killed, you would never have said this falsehood: “Do not avenge the wrongdoer.”

Another Arab took his camels to a temple called Sa‘d in the hope of receiving some blessing. But the idol was tall, broad, and grotesque, and sacrificial blood was smeared over it. When the camels saw it, they fled in fear in every direction. Seeing the camels fleeing all around, he became furious and, throwing stones at the god, began to say, “May Allah destroy you! I came for a blessing, and you drove my camels away?” From this and various other aspects, it can easily be understood that a deep reverence for the worship of Allah existed in their hearts. But, on the one hand, their ignorance-inspired conservatism, and on the other, the Quraysh priests and custodians were engaged in spreading hostility toward the worship of Allah. They feared that if devotion and reverence for the gods and goddesses ended, their central position in Arabia would also disappear. Moreover, their livelihood would come to an end. The religion of polytheism established on these supports could not stand honorably against the call to monotheism. For this reason, the Qur’an addresses the polytheists and says that the most important reason the followers of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) attained superiority in your society was their freedom from polytheism and their establishment upon pure worship of Allah. In this respect, whether or not the polytheists acknowledged the Muslims’ superiority verbally, they felt its importance in their hearts. (Surah al-Nahl, note 64)

There were many gods and goddesses about whom vile and obscene stories were told. The idols of Isaf and Na’ilah were placed on the two hills of Safa and Marwah. It was popularly said about them that they had been a man and a woman who committed adultery in the Ka‘bah. For this offense, Allah turned them into stones. When the true nature of such gods and goddesses was this, no reverence or respect for them could find a place in the hearts of their worshippers. (Surah al-An‘am, note 106)

Worship of idols of the righteous predecessors

There were many Jews and Christians among various Arab tribes, such as Rabi‘ah, Ghassan, Kalb, Taghlib, Quda‘ah, Kinanah, Harith, Ka‘b, and Kindah. Both these religions were involved in venerating and worshipping prophets, saints, and martyrs. Furthermore, although not most of the Arab polytheists’ deities, many of them had originally been human beings. Later generations made them gods. It is narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas in Bukhari that Wadd, Suwa‘, Yaghuth, Ya‘uq, and Nasr were the names of righteous people. Later people made them into deities to be worshipped. It is narrated from ‘A’ishah that Isaf and Na’ilah had both been human beings. Similar reports are also found concerning al-Lat, Manat, and al-‘Uzza. It has also been reported as the belief of the polytheists that al-Lat and al-‘Uzza were so beloved to Allah that Allah stayed near al-Lat in winter and near al-‘Uzza in summer. Allah forbid! Glory be to Him and exalted is He above what they describe. (Surah al-Furqan, note 84)

Worship of the inhabitants of graves

The fabricated deities refuted particularly in verse 21 of Surah al-Nahl are not angels, jinn, devils, or idols made of wood and stone. Rather, they are the inhabitants of graves. Angels and devils are living beings, so the relevant words cannot be applied to them; and the question of resurrection after death cannot arise for wooden and stone idols. The other expressions therefore also exclude them from consideration. In this verse, the meaning necessarily refers to prophets, saints, martyrs, the righteous, and other distinguished Muslims whom extremist devotees began addressing with various titles—giver, remover of calamities, hearer of pleas, benefactor of the poor, savior of the poor, bestower of treasures, and the like—and began appealing to them to fulfill their wishes. If someone says in response that no such deities existed in Arabia, we will say that this merely proves his ignorance of the history of Arabia’s Age of Ignorance. (Surah al-Furqan, note 84)

Worship of female representations of angels

It can be learned from the foundational accounts that the Quraysh, Juhaynah, Banu Salimah, Khuza‘ah, Banu Mulayh, and other tribes in Arabia believed that the angels were daughters of Allah. (This ignorant notion and belief has been refuted in various places in the Qur’an. See, for example, Surah al-Nisa’, verse 117; Surah al-Naml, verses 57–58; Banu Isra’il, verse 40; al-Zukhruf, verses 16–19; and al-Najm, verses 21–27.) They regarded the angels as goddesses, made idols of them in female form, dressed them in women’s clothing and ornaments, and said, “These are all Allah’s daughters.” They worshipped them and made vows in their names to fulfill their wishes.

Appealing to fate

When their ignorance was challenged, they would appeal to fate. They would say, “If Allah did not approve of this, how could we worship these idols?”

Yet the means of knowing what Allah approves and disapproves are His Books, not those things that occur in the world by His will. In this world, not only idol worship but theft, robbery, murder, and adultery all occur by His will. Can every evil deed taking place in the world be declared lawful or justified on this basis? The fact that something occurs by Allah’s will does not mean that Allah is pleased with it.

Blind imitation of forefathers

If they were asked whether they had any sound proof besides this false argument, they would reply, “It has come down from our forefathers.” In other words, for them this was sufficient proof of the truth of any religion. Yet Ibrahim (peace be upon him), whose descent was a source of pride and honor for them, had abandoned the religion of his forefathers and left home. He rejected such blind imitation of his ancestors because it had no rational evidence or proof. If these people had to follow their ancestors, why did they leave aside their greatest ancestors, Ibrahim (peace be upon him) and Isma‘il (peace be upon him), and follow their most ignorant forefathers?

The argument of the idolatrous Arabs based on the deviation of the Christians

If they were asked whether any prophet or any Book sent by Allah had taught that anyone besides Allah was worthy of worship, they would cite the conduct of the Christians as evidence and say, “They too accepted Jesus son of Mary as the son of Allah and worshipped him.” Yet the question was not whether any prophet’s followers had committed polytheism. Rather, the question was whether any prophet himself had taught polytheism. Did Jesus son of Mary ever say, “I am the son of Allah, so worship me”? The teaching of every prophet in the world was the same as his: “My God is Allah and your God is Allah. Therefore, worship Him alone.” (Surah al-Nahl, note 19)

Types of deities worshipped by the polytheists

The beings besides Allah to whom the polytheists of the world prayed, and to whom the Arabs also prayed, were of three types. (Elsewhere the author has expressed this differently, writing that idolatrous religions contain three distinct things. First are the images, representations, or symbols that become objects of worship. Second are the people or things actually regarded as objects of worship, represented in the form of idols, images, and the like. Third are the beliefs that govern these acts of idolatrous worship and practice. (Surah al-Nahl, note 19)) One: lifeless and unintelligent creatures. Two: righteous and honored people who had departed from the world. Three: misguided people who were themselves misguided and led others astray. It is quite clear that the deities of the first type know nothing at all about the prayers of their worshippers. The deities of the second type, who were beloved of Allah in the world, also have two reasons for being unaware. First, they are with Allah in such a state that no human voice can reach them with the news that those whom they taught throughout their lives to pray to Allah are instead praying to them. This news is not conveyed to them because nothing could be more distressing for them. Allah does not wish to cause pain to the souls of His righteous servants. As for the deities of the third type, reflection shows that they too have two reasons for being unaware. One is that they are imprisoned as accused persons in the court of God, where no worldly voice can reach. Second, Allah and His angels inform them that their mission in the world is achieving great success and that after their death people have made them gods. Such news would be very pleasing to them. But Allah by no means wishes to please the souls of wicked sinners. (Surah al-Zukhruf, introduction)

Those angels who were regarded as gods and goddesses and worshipped in the world, and those jinn, spirits, forefathers, prophets, saints, and martyrs whom people regarded as partners in God’s attributes and granted rights that in reality belonged to God, will clearly tell their worshippers there—in the Hereafter—“We had no knowledge whatsoever that you worshipped us. None of your prayers, supplications, pleas, cries, offerings, sacrifices, praises, invocations in our names, prostrations, kissing of shrines, or worship at tombs reached us.” (Surah al-A‘raf, note 148)

Methods of prostitution in Arabia

Two methods of prostitution were prevalent in Arabia. One was domestic prostitution, and the second was prostitution in public brothels. Domestic prostitution was practiced mostly by emancipated slave women who had no guardians, or by free women who had no family or tribe to support them. They would stay in a house for this occupation and make agreements with several men that those men would provide their maintenance and continue fulfilling their needs. When a child was born, the man whom the woman declared to be the father would acknowledge the child as his own. It was apparently a recognized institution in society that the people of the Age of Ignorance regarded as a kind of marriage. Abu Dawud

The second method, that is, outright prostitution, was conducted by slave women. It was of two kinds. One was that men would set a fixed amount for their young slave girls and tell them that they had to earn that amount every month. The unfortunate women would meet their masters’ demands through prostitution. There was no other way for them to earn such an amount. Moreover, there was no other way for young slave women to receive payment several times greater than their ordinary wages.

The second was that men would place their young slave girls in brothels, with flags hung over the doors so that people could understand from a distance that they could satisfy their desires there. These women were called public prostitutes, and their brothels were known as houses of prostitution. Prominent hypocrites maintained such brothels. Even ‘Abdullah ibn Ubayy himself, the chief of the hypocrites, had one. Yet before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to Madinah, the people of Madinah had decided to make him their king, and he was the person foremost in spreading the false accusation against ‘A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her). Six beautiful slave girls lived in his brothel. He used them not only to earn money but also to entertain guests who came from various regions of Arabia. The illegitimate children born to them increased the number of servants and attendants available for his household. (Surah al-Ahqaf, note 6)

Divination at idol temples

The polytheists of Makkah had designated the god Hubal, located inside the Ka‘bah, for divination. People would ask it about their fortunes, learn about the future, or settle mutual disputes. Seven arrows were kept in its temple, bearing various words and sentences. When the question arose whether to do something or not, people would go to Hubal’s keeper of the arrows. The keeper would determine the fortune with the arrows. Whatever was written on the arrow that came out was accepted as Hubal’s decision. (Surah Yunus, note 37)

The method of making vows and offerings

It was the custom of the Arabs to vow concerning an animal or a field’s produce that it was designated as an offering for such-and-such a temple or god. Not everyone could eat from this offering. There were rules governing it, according to which only particular types of distinguished people could eat different offerings. (Surah al-Nur, note 59)

Some animals vowed and offered by the Arabs were such that they considered it impermissible to pronounce Allah’s name over them. Performing Hajj while riding them was forbidden, because one had to recite “Here I am, O Allah, here I am” for Hajj. Similarly, when milking them, riding them, slaughtering them, or eating their meat, they took care not to mention Allah’s name. (Surah al-Ma’idah, note 14)

They also had a fabricated religious law concerning vowed animals: if an offspring was born in the animal’s womb, only men could eat it, while it was forbidden for women. But if that offspring was born dead or later died, it was lawful for everyone, men and women alike, to eat. (Surah al-An‘am, note 111)

Releasing animals after dedicating them in the name of religion

During the Age of Ignorance, the Arabs released animals in various ways in the name of religion. The animals released in this manner were given different names.

Bahirah referred to a she-camel that had given birth five times, the last time to a male calf. Its ear was split and it was released to roam freely. No one could then ride on its back. Its milk could not be drunk, it could not be slaughtered, and its wool could not be cut. It could graze wherever it wished and drink water wherever it wished.

Sa’ibah referred to camels or she-camels released in gratitude after a vow had been fulfilled, an illness had been cured, or a danger had passed. In addition, a she-camel that had given birth ten times, each time to a female calf, was also released to roam freely.

Wasilah: if a goat’s first offspring was male, it was slaughtered in Allah’s name. If the first offspring was female, it was kept for themselves. But if a goat gave birth to a male and a female together, the male was not slaughtered; it was released in Allah’s name. This was called Wasilah.

Ham: if a camel’s grandson became fit for riding, the old camel was released to roam freely. Moreover, any camel from which ten offspring had been born was also released to roam freely. (Surah al-An‘am, note 112)

The Hajj of the Arabs in the Age of Ignorance

In short, one of the superstitious ritual customs prevalent in Arabia was that when someone entered ihram for Hajj, he would not enter his house through the door. Rather, he would climb over the rear wall or make a hole in it and enter through there. Even after returning from a journey, he would enter his house by climbing over the rear wall or making a hole in it. In other words, after returning from a journey as well, he would enter through the back door. (Surah al-An‘am, note 114) Another ignorant belief of ancient Arabia was that it was blameworthy to engage in any means of earning a livelihood during Hajj. They considered earning a livelihood a worldly activity, and regarded it as highly reprehensible during a religious act such as Hajj. (Surah al-Ma’idah, note 118) After Hajj, the Arabs would gather together, and at that gathering they would proudly recount the deeds of their forefathers and boast about their own pride and glory. (Surah al-Baqarah, note 199)

Determining auspicious and inauspicious omens from natural phenomena

The waxing and waning of the moon is a phenomenon that has attracted people’s attention in every age, and various superstitions, beliefs, and customs concerning it have existed among the nations of the world and still exist today. Such superstitions were also prevalent among the Arabs. They drew auspicious and inauspicious omens from the moon, designated certain dates for travel and others for beginning work, regarded certain dates as favorable or unfavorable for marriage, and believed that the moon’s rising and setting, waxing and waning, movement, and conjunction with planets affected people’s fortunes. Like other nations, the Arabs also held such beliefs, and various superstitious customs and practices concerning them were prevalent among them. (Surah al-Baqarah, note 221)

Superstitions concerning the jinn

Ibn ‘Abbas says that during the Age of Ignorance, when an Arab spent the night in an uninhabited wilderness, he would shout, “We seek the protection of the master of this wilderness—the jinn.” This is also mentioned in other accounts of the Age of Ignorance. For example, when water and fodder for the animals ran out somewhere, the nomadic Bedouins would send one of their number elsewhere to search for water and pasture. When they later went to the new place identified by that person, they would shout before dismounting, “We seek the protection of the lord of this wilderness, so that we may remain safe from every danger here.” They believed that any place uninhabited by humans belonged to some jinn, and that if one stayed there without seeking its protection, it would either cause harm itself or allow other jinn to cause harm. (Surah al-Nisa’, note 88)

Polygamy

In the Age of Ignorance, there was no limit on the number of marriages. Some men kept ten or twelve wives each. When the expenses increased because of maintaining many wives, they were compelled to interfere with the rights of orphaned nephews, nieces, and other helpless relatives. (Surah al-Baqarah, note 198) They would even marry their stepmothers. (Surah al-Jinn, note 7)

Treatment of menstruating women

Since the people of Madinah were influenced by the Jews, women in their society were regarded, like Jewish women, as impure during menstruation. Food prepared by them could not be eaten, nor could water be drunk from their hands. One could not sit on the same bed with them. Even touching their hands was considered bad. During these few days, a woman remained untouchable in her own home. (Surah al-Nisa’, note 4)

The practice of divorcing and taking back a wife repeatedly

A great social injustice in Arabia during the Age of Ignorance was that a man had the right to divorce his wife repeatedly. If a husband became dissatisfied with his wife, he would divorce her and then take her back again and again. As a result, the unfortunate woman could neither live with her husband nor free herself from his bond and marry another husband. (Surah al-Nisa’, note 88)

Excesses against orphans

In the Age of Ignorance, they would marry orphaned girls who lived under another’s guardianship, either after seeing their wealth and beauty or thinking that, since they had no guardian, they could be subdued as they pleased, and they would oppress them. (Surah al-Nisa, Note 49)

Hazrat Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) explains that those under whose guardianship such orphaned girls lived, and with whom the property left by their parents remained, treated them with various kinds of injustice. If a girl was both wealthy and beautiful, they themselves wished to marry her and enjoy both her wealth and beauty. But if she was unattractive, they would neither marry her themselves nor allow anyone else to marry her, lest someone pose as her guardian and demand that her rights be fulfilled. (Surah al-Baqarah, Note 250)

How were orphaned girls treated?

Qadi Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi has related a remarkable incident concerning this in his book Alam al-Nubuwwah. He says that Abu Jahl was the guardian of an orphan girl. One day, she came to him unclothed and asked that she be given something from the property her father had left behind. But the wicked Abu Jahl did not even turn toward her. The poor girl stood there, became despondent, and went away. The Quraysh chiefs mocked her, saying, “Go and complain to Muhammad (peace be upon him). He will intercede with Abu Jahl and arrange for you to receive your property.” The poor girl did not know what relationship existed between Abu Jahl and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), nor why those evildoers were giving her this advice. She went directly to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and told him her situation. The Prophet (peace be upon him) immediately rose and went with her to Abu Jahl, his worst enemy. Abu Jahl welcomed him when he saw him. Then, when the Prophet (peace be upon him) told Abu Jahl to give the orphan girl her due, he immediately handed her property over to her. The Quraysh chiefs had been waiting for this opportunity so that they could enjoy watching what would happen between the two men. But when they saw this, they came to Abu Jahl in astonishment and reproached him, saying, “Have you abandoned your religion?” Abu Jahl replied, “By Allah, I have not abandoned my religion. But it seemed to me that Muhammad (peace be upon him) had a weapon on each side of him, and if I did not obey him, those weapons would pierce my body.” (Surah al-Nisa, Note 4) This incident shows not only how the chiefs of the most advanced and noble tribes of Arabia treated orphans and other helpless people at that time; it also shows what a sublime character the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) possessed and how much awe his character inspired in the heart of his bitterest enemy. Another incident of this kind is mentioned in Tafhim al-Qur’an, volume three, page 146. 390)

Methods of Killing Children

Three methods of killing children were prevalent among the Arabs.

1. If a daughter remained alive, someone would eventually marry her; she might fall into the hands of an enemy during tribal warfare, or might otherwise become a cause of shame. Under the influence of this notion, daughters were killed.

2. Children were killed out of the belief that, because of insufficient earnings, they would become an unbearable burden and their maintenance would have to be undertaken.

3. Children were sacrificed to win the favor of gods and goddesses. (Surah al-Ma‘un, Note 5)

Depriving Women and Children of Inheritance

In Arabia, women and children were deprived of inheritance. The prevailing view was that only men who could fight and were capable of maintaining a family were entitled to inherit. Moreover, among the heirs of a deceased person, whoever was strongest would gather up and appropriate the entire inheritance without opposition, while depriving those who lacked the power to claim their shares. They attached no importance to rights and responsibilities, so that they might conscientiously regard it as their duty to fulfill the rights of those entitled to them, whether or not those people had the power to obtain them. (Surah al-Ma‘un, Note 5)

A Custom Regarding Inheritance

It was customary among the Arabs that those who entered into a pact of friendship or brotherhood with one another became heirs to each other’s property. In this way, adopted children, or those who were called sons, also inherited. (Surah al-An‘am, Note 107)

Burying Daughters Alive

In ancient Arabia, the cruel practice of burying daughters alive had become prevalent for various reasons. The first was financial hardship: people wanted the number of mouths to feed to remain small and did not want the heavy responsibility of raising many children to fall upon them. Sons were raised in the hope that later they would help earn a livelihood. Daughters, on the other hand, were killed because they would have to be supported until they reached maturity. The second reason was insecurity. Sons were raised because the more sons a man had, the more helpers he would possess. Girls, by contrast, were killed because they would have to be protected during tribal warfare and were of no use in defense. Third, amid the general insecurity, there was the fear that when enemy tribes suddenly attacked one another, any women they captured would be taken away and kept as slave women or sold to someone elsewhere. For these reasons, it became customary in Arabia to dig a pit in front of a woman while she was in labor, so that if she gave birth to a girl, the child could be thrown into it and covered with earth. If the mother did not agree, or if her family members intervened, the father would reluctantly raise the girl for a few days. Then, at some point, he would take her into the open country and bury her alive. A man once related an incident from his Age of Ignorance to the Prophet (peace be upon him) concerning the wickedness practiced in this matter. He said, “I had a daughter who was very attached to me. Whenever I called her, she would come running to me. One day I called her and set out with her. On the way I found a well. I took her by the hand, pushed her, and threw her into the well. The last words I heard from her were, ‘Oh father! Oh father!’” Hearing this, the Prophet (peace be upon him) began to weep, and tears continued to flow from his eyes. One of those present said, “O man, you have caused the Prophet (peace be upon him) distress.” The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Do not stop him; let him be questioned about the matter that has affected him deeply.” Then he said to the man, “Relate your story.” He repeated his account. This time the Merciful Prophet (peace be upon him) wept so much that his blessed beard became wet with tears. Then he said, “Allah has forgiven whatever happened in the Age of Ignorance. Now begin your life anew.” (Sunan al-Darimi, first chapter)

It should not be thought that the Arabs had no feeling whatsoever regarding such extreme inhuman cruelty. It is true that no matter how degenerate a society becomes, people cannot become entirely insensible to such oppressive acts. For this reason, the Holy Qur’an did not elaborate on the brutality of this practice. Rather, in spine-chilling language it says only that a time will come when these girls buried alive will be asked for what crime they were killed. (And when the girls buried alive are asked for what crime they were killed—Surah al-Takwir 81:8–9.) The manner of expression in this verse conveys such anger that it is impossible to imagine anything greater. In Allah’s sight, the parents who buried their own daughters alive are so detestable that they will not be addressed and asked, “Why did you kill these innocent children?” Instead, turning away from them, the innocent child will be asked, “You wretched ones, for what crime were you killed?” They will then relate their horrifying story: how cruel fathers and mothers wronged them and how they buried them alive. Moreover, this brief verse contains two immense matters that, though not expressed in words, can be understood from its manner of expression. First, it instilled in the Arabs the realization that the Age of Ignorance had brought them to such an extreme depth of moral degradation that they killed their own children by burying them alive with their own hands. Yet they remained stubbornly determined to persist in this ignorance and were unwilling to accept any reform, or what the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) sought to introduce into their misguided and degraded society. Second, it presents clear proof of the inevitability of the Hereafter. The children who were killed by being buried alive ought to receive justice somewhere, and a time ought to come when those who committed such inhuman oppression would be questioned. There was no one on earth to hear the cries of the children buried alive. In the society of ignorance, this had even been made lawful. Neither the parents felt any shame, nor was there anyone in the family to reproach them, nor anyone in society to hold them accountable for the deed. Would such oppression, then, remain without redress in God’s kingdom? (Surah al-Nisa, Note 55)

Arab history also shows that even in the Age of Ignorance many people felt revulsion toward this cruel practice. Al-Tabarani says that al-Farazdaq’s grandfather, Sasaya ibn Najiyah al-Mujashi‘i, came before the Messenger (peace be upon him) and said, “O Messenger of Allah! I did some good deeds during the Age of Ignorance. One of them was that I saved 360 girls from being buried alive. For each life I saved, I paid two camels as ransom. Will I receive any reward for this?” The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Certainly you have a reward for it, and it is that Allah has granted you the blessing of Islam.”

Retaliation for Killing

In the Age of Ignorance, the practice was that when a person of a group or tribe was killed, his people sought to take a life of equivalent value from the family, tribe, or group of the killer. They were not satisfied merely with killing the murderer in retaliation for the slain person. They were prepared to take hundreds of lives in exchange for one. If one of their respected people was killed by an inferior member of another group, they did not consider it sufficient to kill the actual murderer. Rather, they wanted a respected member of the murderer’s tribe to be killed, or several members of the opposing side to be killed in exchange for the slain person. Conversely, if in their view the slain person was of low status and the killer was more highly respected, they would not tolerate the killer’s being killed in exchange for the slain person. (Surah al-Tanwir, Note 9)

The Concept of Clothing and Nudity

The Arabs used clothing merely to protect the body from the effects of beauty and weather. But they attached no importance to its foremost and basic purpose—covering the shameful parts of the body. They felt no fear or shame about exposing their private parts before others. Bathing naked in public places, squatting to urinate or defecate while walking along, and not caring if their private parts became exposed when their clothing came off were ordinary daily practices. More shameful still, most of them performed tawaf around the Ka‘bah naked during Hajj, and their women were even more shameless than the men in this regard. In their view this was a religious act, and they did it believing it to be a good deed. (Surah al-Tanwir, Note 9)

Insecurity and Anarchy Throughout Arabia

Insecurity prevailed throughout Arabia, as a result of which terror had spread across the country, with killing and plundering taking place everywhere. Tribes launched sudden attacks against one another. No one could spend the night safely, because everyone feared that the enemy might attack their settlement at any moment. This was a condition of which everyone was aware and whose horror everyone felt. Although those whose property had been looted lamented and the looters rejoiced, when misfortune befell the looters in turn, they too realized that they were involved in a reprehensible practice. (Surah al-Baqarah, Note 177)

It was the custom of the Arabs that when they intended to attack a settlement, they advanced under cover of darkness so that the enemy would not be alerted, and at dawn they suddenly fell upon the enemy, so that everything could be seen in the morning light while the daylight was not yet so bright that the enemy could observe their movements and prepare to confront them. (Surah al-A‘raf, Note 15)

The condition of Arabia in that age was such that there was no settlement anywhere in the country whose inhabitants could live in peace. They were constantly terrified that a band of raiders might suddenly attack. There was no person who could travel beyond the boundaries of his tribe, because it was impossible for one or two people to return alive and avoid being captured and enslaved. There was no caravan that could travel safely, since there was always a fear of being robbed at various points along the route. Yet a caravan could cross the entire route safely by bribing influential tribal chiefs. (Surah al-‘Adiyat, Introduction)

Some Other Religions of the Arabs

Hanifs

Although people in the Age of Ignorance did not possess detailed knowledge of religion, it was not hidden from them that the true religion was Tawhid and that the Prophets, peace be upon them, had never taught the worship of idols. This truth was preserved in the accounts that had reached them from the prophets of their own land. They were also aware of it through the teachings of prophets who had come to nearby lands, such as Hazrat Musa, Hazrat Dawud, Hazrat Sulayman, and Hazrat Isa, peace be upon them.

It was widely known in Arab tradition that in ancient times the true religion of the Arabs was the religion of Ibrahim, and that idol worship had been introduced among them by a man named Amr ibn Luhay. Despite the general prevalence of shirk and idolatry, there were people in various places who rejected shirk, proclaimed Tawhid, and openly condemned idol worship. Shortly before the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), there were many people whose condition is known from history and who were Hanifs. Among the notable ones were Quss ibn Sa‘idah al-Iyadi, Umayyah ibn Abi al-Salt, Suwayd ibn Amr al-Mustaliqi, Waki‘ ibn Salam ibn Zuhayr al-Iyadi, Amr ibn Jundub al-Juhani, Abu Qays Salamah ibn Abi Anas, Zayd ibn Amr ibn Jundub al-Juhani, Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl, Waraqah ibn Nawfal, Uthman ibn al-Huwayrith, Ubaydullah ibn Jahsh, Amir ibn al-Zarib al-Adwani, Allaf ibn Shihab al-Tamimi, al-Mutalammis ibn Umayyah al-Kinani, Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma, Khalid ibn Sinan ibn Ghayth al-Absi, Abdullah al-Quda‘i, and many others. These people openly declared Tawhid to be the true religion and clearly stated that they had no connection with the religion of the polytheists. It is certain that this conviction had developed in their minds through the influence of the teachings of the prophets. Furthermore, archaeological discoveries of inscriptions in Yemen during the fourth and fifth centuries CE show that a monotheistic religion existed there in that period, whose followers regarded al-Rahman and the Lord of the heavens and the earth as the one God. An inscription from 378 CE was found among the ruins of a place of worship, bearing the words that this place of worship had been built for the worship of the God or Lord of heaven. An inscription from 465 CE contained words that testify to a monotheistic creed. Another inscription from this period was found in a grave, bearing certain words. Similarly, an inscription from 512 CE was found at a place called Zabad in northern Arabia, between the Euphrates and the Qinnasrin rivers, bearing other words. All this proves that before the advent of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the influence of the prophets’ teachings had not entirely disappeared from Arabia. At the very least, there were many means of reminding people that their God is One. (Surah al-‘Adiyat, Note 3)

The monotheists found among the Arabs abstained from three sins in which most Arabs were involved: associating partners with Allah, unjust killing, and adultery. (The Prophet (peace be upon him) related this in many hadiths. For example, Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger (peace be upon him) was once asked, “Which sin is greatest?” The Prophet (peace be upon him) replied: “To set up a rival to Allah, although He created you.” He was asked, “Then what?” He replied: “To kill your child for fear that he will share your food with you.” He was then asked, “Then what?” The Prophet (peace be upon him) replied: “To commit adultery with your neighbor’s wife.” (Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Nasa’i, Ahmad). Although there are many other major sins, these three were the most prevalent in Arab society at that time. For this reason, the distinctive quality of the Muslims was highlighted: within the society there were some people who abstained from these sins. (Surah Quraysh, Note 5)

Sabians

In ancient times, two groups were known by the name Sabians. One group followed Hazrat Yahya, peace be upon him, and many of them lived in the Jazira region of upper Iraq. Following Hazrat Yahya (peace be upon him), they practiced initiation into the religion (Baptism). The second group worshipped the stars. They claimed that their religion came from Hazrat Seth and Hazrat Idris, peace be upon them. They believed that the planets and satellites ruled over the elements, and the angels ruled over the planets and satellites. Harran was their center, and their branches spread throughout various parts of Iraq. This second group was more famous because of its great advances in philosophy, science, and medicine. It is very likely that the first group is intended here, because the second group was probably not known by this name when the Qur’an was revealed. (Regarding this, Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi collected the following information: The Sabians are one of the great communities. There is as much disagreement about their religion as there is knowledge of it. They are of two kinds, believers and unbelievers. They belonged to the nation of Hazrat Ibrahim al-Khalil (peace be upon him), who was sent to them. Their dwelling place was Harran, where the Sabians’ homes were located. They were divided into two groups: one established upon the Hanif religion, and the other polytheistic. The polytheists revered seven stars and twelve dignitaries, and kept their images in their temples. They had special temples for these stars. These were their greatest places of worship, like the churches of the Christians and the synagogues of the Jews. They had a great temple for the sun, one for the moon, one for Venus, one for Jupiter, one for Mercury, another for Mercury, one for Mars, one for Saturn, and one for the First Cause. They had specific worship and supplications for each star, and, like the Muslims, they also performed prayer five times a day.)

Some of them also fasted during Ramadan. They prayed facing the Ka‘bah, respected Mecca, and believed in traveling to Mecca for Hajj. They considered carrion, blood, and pork unlawful. Regarding marriage, they too regarded as unlawful those whom Muslims considered unlawful. A group belonging to this religion served on the royal council of Baghdad. One of them, named Bilal ibn al-Muhsin al-Sabi, was skilled in writing prose and poetry and was the editor of a famous military journal. He fasted with the Muslims, worshipped with them, paid zakat, and considered unlawful things unlawful. It is thought that the essence of their religion was that they accepted the good aspects of the religions prevalent in the world and kept away from their evil aspects. For this reason they were called Sabians, or kharij, meaning one who has departed. They abandoned the complete systems of rules and customs of each religion and followed only as much of them as they considered right.

The unbelieving Quraysh called the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) a Sabian and called his companions Subat. When someone left one thing and went over to another, this proverb was used. (Taken from the Urdu translation of Bulugh al-Adab—compiled by the two compilers.) (Surah al-Sajdah, Note 5)

Magians

Apart from the Jews and Christians, the other nations to whom heavenly scriptures had been sent had either obliterated or distorted their scriptures, and nothing of the prophets’ teachings could be found in their beliefs or practices. Therefore, they could not be called the People of the Book. For this reason the Magians were not designated as the People of the Book, although they followed Zoroaster, who may plausibly have been a prophet. Concerning the Magians of Hajar, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “Treat them like the People of the Book.” He did not say that they were the People of the Book. Later, when he wrote to the Magians of Hajar, he stated clearly: “If you accept Islam, you will have the rights that we have and the obligations that rest upon us will rest upon you. Those among you who reject it will be subject to jizyah.” However, neither may anything slaughtered by them be eaten, nor may their women be married.

Fire Worshippers of Iran (Regarding the fire worshippers of Arabia, Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi says: There were various kinds of such people among the Arabs. It seems that this religion entered among them through the Iranians and the Magians. It is said that it has existed in the world since the time of the fire worshippers. Cain was the first person to build a temple for fire worship and worship it. This religion then found a place among the Magians. They built many fire temples and arranged endowments, custodians, guards, and other provisions for them. They did not allow this fire to be neglected even for a moment. The Faridites built one fire temple in Tul and another in Bukhara. Bahman built one in Sijistan, and Abu Qatadah built one beside Bukhara.)

There are several kinds of fire worshippers. One group considers it unlawful to throw any living creature into fire or to burn a body with it. Another group goes so far in fire worship that they offer themselves and their children to the fire.

Some among the fire worshippers are also devout. They sit beside the fire while fasting and perform spiritual retreats. Their practice is to encourage truthfulness, fidelity, trustworthiness, chastity, and justice.

Ibn Qutaybah says in his book Kitab al-Ma‘arif that the customs of the Magian religion existed among Banu Tamim. Zurara ibn Uddus al-Tamimi and his son Hajib ibn Zurara belonged to them. He had married his daughter, but later regretted it. One of them, Aqra ibn Habis, later accepted Islam and joined the Companions. Abu al-Aswad, the grandfather of Waki‘ ibn Hassan, was also a Magian. —Taken from the translation of Bulugh al-Adab, volume 3, pp. 138–141.) Two Gods of Light and Darkness (We believe that various groups and forms of the Magian religion reached Arabia. Someone has written a chapter entitled “The Two Gods of the Zoroastrian Group among the Arabs and Their Belief in Light and Darkness,” as follows:)

These people said that there are two creators. The creator of good is light, or nur, and the creator of evil is darkness. They are beginningless and eternal, powerful, sentient, endowed with sensory perception, hearing and seeing.

Some people held that after remaining alone for some time, God became despondent and evil thoughts arose in His mind (God forbid), and that He assumed a body and fell into darkness, from which Iblis was produced. —Taken from the translation of Bulugh al-Adab, vol. 3, pp. 130–131—Compilers’ note) They were Manichaeans. They called themselves followers of Zoroaster. The misguidance of the Mazdak sect left their religion and morality distorted. Even the practice of marrying one’s own sister became prevalent among them.

Atheism

The essence of atheism

Those who see only the surface of things are led into much confusion by worldly life. Some think that life and death are confined to this world alone, and that there is no second life. Therefore, whatever you have to do, do it here. (Tafhimat, vol. 2, pp. 322–323).

Some people absolutely refuse to acknowledge that Allah Almighty is the Creator of all these things. They are the result of the agitation of matter, or the result of an accident in which there is no hand of any craftsman or artistic skill. (It should be noted that the Qur’an also gives a brief account of atheists and refutes the error of their doctrine. This means that this group also existed in Arabia, but in very small numbers. On this basis, Maulana Maududi has discussed this group briefly. Regarding the atheists of Arabia, Allama Mahmud Ali discussed the following observation. Regarding the atheists of Arabia, Allama Shukri Alusi made the following observation: There was a class of atheists in Arabia who regarded the product entirely separately from the producer. Their statement, as mentioned in the Qur’an, was this: (Arabic ******), meaning that life is only the life of this world. (We are born and die), and nothing destroys us except time, or the cycle of time.

Of the two classes, their more acceptable doctrine has been described as follows—

In reality, there is absolutely no origin or beginning. Matter proceeds from energy toward activity. Thus, when matter that initially possesses energy emerges into activity, its compound substance and properties arise spontaneously; they are not created from anything else. Moreover, they say that the universe has existed from the beginning and will continue in this way forever. It will undergo no change, nor will it be destroyed despite remaining active.

Shahristani discussed the atheists in his work al-Milal wa al-Nihal; the brief gist is as follows:

They deny the resurrection of creation. They say that nature gives life and time destroys. —Taken from the Urdu translation of Bulugh al-Adab—Compilers’ note

Refutation of atheism along with polytheism

In this connection, see verse 60 of Surah An-Naml. It says: Who is it that created the heavens and the earth and sent down water for you from the sky, then produced with it beautiful gardens whose trees you could never have produced? Is there another deity besides Allah who shares in these acts? (No.) Rather, these people are deviating from the true path. —Tafhim al-Qur’an

In this question and the questions that follow, not only the polytheism of the polytheists has been refuted; atheism has also been refuted. For example, in this first question it is asked: Who sends down the rain and produces various kinds of vegetation from it? If one reflects deeply, one can understand that the elements necessary for various forms of plant life are incorporated into the earth in the correct quantities, or somewhat lesser quantities; that they are continually lifted from the sea and accurately poured down over different parts of the earth at different times; and that proportionality, mutual assistance and cooperation have been established among the powers of the earth, water, air and heat for the nourishment and growth of the plant world and the fulfillment of all the needs of the bird world. Could all this occur spontaneously and accidentally without the sound planning, wise management, invincible power and indomitable will of an All-Wise Being? Is it possible that every accidental event would continue to occur so accurately for thousands—or rather, millions of millions—of years? Only a reckless person, driven by blind hostility, can claim that this is an accident. It is utterly impossible for any truthful, sensible person to make such a meaningless claim and accept it as true. (Surah As-Saba, note 76)

Order and harmony are not accidental

Nor is it a simple matter for the earth to be the abode of countless settlements of various kinds. This globe hangs in outer space, resting on nothing. Yet despite this, it has no instability or trembling. Had it trembled even slightly, we can easily imagine the terrible consequences in the event of an earthquake. No settlement would then have been possible upon it at all. A delicate, dense layer of air is maintained around this globe up to a height of five hundred miles, protecting the earth from the impact of deadly meteorites. Otherwise, the twenty million meteorites that fall toward the earth every day at a speed of thirty miles per second would create a devastating destruction upon the earth. This atmospheric layer also regulates temperature. It raises vapor from the sea, forms clouds and causes rain to fall in different places. It supplies the gases necessary for humans, animals and vegetation. (It is also the medium through which we transmit and receive sound; without it, conversation would not be possible.) Minerals and chemicals, absolutely essential for plants, animals and human beings, have been supplied in vast quantities. Upon this earth, an inexhaustible store of underground water has been kept in the form of seas, rivers, lakes, ponds, waterfalls and springs. Provision has also been made for water to freeze on mountain peaks and then melt and flow down. Attraction has then been established to keep this water, air and all the substances available on earth together. —Furthermore, attraction has been established to keep all the substances available on earth together. —Furthermore, this earth has been placed at a particular distance from the sun, extremely favorable for all living beings inhabiting it. —

Only a few of the harmonies that have made the earth fit for habitation have been mentioned here. If a sensible person reflects on these matters, he cannot for even a moment imagine that these harmonies came into being by themselves through an accident, without the plan of a Wise Creator. Nor can he imagine that any deity, jinn, prophet, saint or angel possesses even the slightest authority in designing and implementing this vast creative plan. (Rasail-o-Masail, vol. 1, p. 38)

Life and its resurrection or reproduction

The doctrine that the factors necessary for the emergence of life happened to come together entirely by chance, in exactly the required quantities, and that life consequently came into existence by itself may certainly be an unscientific fantasy of atheists. But if the mathematical law of chance occurrences (Law of Changes) is applied to it, the probability of such an event occurring will be nothing other than zero.

Life is found not in only one form, but in countless forms. To date, nearly one million types of living beings and approximately two hundred thousand types of plants have been discovered on earth. These millions of kinds of living beings are clearly different from one another in structure and species characteristics. This difference is so clear and indisputable that, from the earliest known period, they have continuously preserved their respective species forms and shapes so distinctly that no Darwin could provide any other rational explanation or analysis for this vast variety of differences among the species of life except the creative design of one Allah.

Now let us reflect somewhat on the reproduction of creation. The Creator has placed in the form and composition of every species of animal and plant a mechanism that continually produces, from its countless individual members, innumerable descendants bearing the same species form, nature and characteristics. In these billions of tiny factories, the factory producing one species never produces a different type of specimen, even by mistake. The observations and experiments of modern genetics have presented astonishing information in this regard. Every seedling has been endowed with the ability to ensure the continuation of its own species through subsequent generations in such a complete manner that its descendants can possess all the distinguishing characteristics of their species, and each individual can accurately preserve its distinct species form and nature compared with individuals of every other species. The elements responsible for species stability and reproduction are preserved in a portion of a single cell of each seedling. They cannot be seen at all without a more powerful microscope. This tiny engineer precisely guides the nourishment and development of the seedling along the proper course—or along the unique course of its species form! —A similar condition is also found in the world of living beings and in the human race.

The creation of none of them stopped after occurring just once. Rather, it is impossible to imagine how extensively a vast factory of reproductive creation is operating all around us. There, countless beings of similar species continue to come into existence from the various individuals of each species.—-

The initiation of these systems does not merely necessitate the existence of a profoundly knowledgeable and subtle Creator; for their accurate continuation at every moment, it absolutely requires a Director and Controller, an Ever-Living, Eternal Being (God), who will not be heedless of operating this factory for even a moment.

Just as these great truths and realities uproot the atheism of the atheist, so do they uproot the polytheism of the polytheist. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah An-Naml, note 73)

The two aspects of the essence of the universe

(Arabic *****)

Have they never reflected within themselves? Allah created the earth and the heavens and all that lies between them in truth and for a specified term. —Surah Ar-Rum: 8

In this phrase, two additional proofs concerning the Hereafter have been presented. It says that if a person observes deeply the system of the universe outside his own existence, two truths will be revealed.

The first is that this universe has been created in truth. It is not a child’s game in which, merely to amuse himself, he builds a playhouse out of mud. Both building the house and demolishing it would be meaningless. Rather, this universe is a purposeful and responsible system. Every atom within it clearly testifies that it was made with complete intelligence and subtle judgment. A law and order operates in every object. Everything has a purpose. The whole of human civilization, its entire economic system, and all knowledge, science and art themselves testify that, after knowing the active laws behind every object in the world, if each thing had been made into a purposeless toy and kept like a doll, no conception of science or civilization and culture would have been possible here. How could it enter human reason and conscience that the Great Knower who created this world with such subtle intelligence, purpose and aim, and who placed in the hands of a creature like man—giving him superior mental and physical powers, authority, the freedom to choose, and moral feeling—the countless resources of the world He made, created man without purpose? Man will perform constructive or destructive acts upon the earth, commit sin or virtue, justice or injustice, and adopt honesty or falsehood; then he will simply die and merge into the soil, with no consequence for his good or evil deeds? Through each of his actions he will leave good or bad effects upon his own life, the lives of countless people like him, and countless things in the world, and then, immediately upon death, the entire record of his deeds will be folded up and cast into the river? What could be more absurd than this? If one observes the system of this universe deeply, the second truth becomes clear. That is, nothing here is everlasting. Everything has a fixed time limit, and when it reaches that limit, it ends. The same applies collectively to the entire created universe. All the forces active here are limited. They remain effective up to a certain time. At some point, their existence inevitably disappears, and this system also comes to an end. In ancient times, the words of philosophers and scientists who called the earth beginningless and indestructible carried some weight because of their limited knowledge. But regarding the earth’s constant newness and antiquity, the long-standing dispute between atheists and believers in Allah has been decisively settled by modern science in favor of the believers in Allah. There is no longer any room for atheists, in the name of intelligence and knowledge and science, to say that the world has existed forever, will remain forever, and the Day of Resurrection will never occur. Ancient materialism relied on the idea that matter is never destroyed and can only change its form. On this basis it could be said that the material world has neither a beginning nor an end. But the discovery of atomic energy has now completely proved that idea false. It has now been discovered that energy changes into matter and matter into energy, and that at that point it retains neither shape nor any formless form. The second law of thermodynamics has now proved that this material world is neither beginningless nor eternally enduring and indestructible. It must inevitably have a beginning and an end. Therefore, it is no longer possible to deny the Day of Resurrection on scientific grounds. When science has surrendered on this matter, on what grounds will philosophy deny the Day of Resurrection? (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah An-Naml, note 74)

The Era Before Moses

Prophets Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, Jesus and the other noble prophets, peace be upon them all, were born in the lineage of Jacob, son of Isaac, peace be upon them. Since Jacob’s name was Israel, his descendants came to be known as the Children of Israel. As a result of their preaching, the nations that accepted their religion either abandoned their separate identity and merged into them, or, although genealogically distinct from them, became their followers in religion. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah An-Naml, note 80)

The legendary story of this nation is that Allah wrestled with their exalted forefather Jacob, peace be upon him. The wrestling continued throughout the night. Dawn came, but Allah could not defeat him. Then Allah said, “Now let Me go.” Jacob said, “I will not let You go until You grant me a blessing.” Allah said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob; it will be Israel, because you have prevailed in a test of strength between God and man.” (God forbid.) (See the modern translation of The Holy Sepulchre, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1954, Genesis, chapter 32, verses 25–29. The Christian translation of the Bible also states the matter in this way. The note in the Jewish translation gives the meaning of the word Israel as “He who striveth with God”—he who wrestles with God. Then, in the Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature, Christian scholars explained the word Israel as “Wrestler with God,” that is, one who wrestles with God. In the biblical Book of Hosea (Arabic ***) Jacob is described in these words: He wrestled with God while he had strength, then with the angels, and prevailed—chapter 12, verse 4. 418 (Surah Ar-Rum, note 6)

The Glorious Past of the Children of Israel

On the one hand, great prophets such as Abraham, Isaac and Joseph, peace be upon them, were born in this lineage; on the other hand, during the era of Joseph and afterward, they were fortunate enough to attain governing authority in Egypt. For a long period, they were the greatest rulers of the civilized world of that time, and their influence and power prevailed all around.

People generally begin the history of the rise and progress of the Children of Israel with Moses, peace be upon him. But the Qur’anic explanation in this regard is that the true era of the rise and progress of the Children of Israel had already passed before Moses, peace be upon him. Moses would present their glorious past before his people. (Surah Al-Ma’idah: 20)—Surah Al-Baqarah, note 123

The Origin and Naming of Judaism

The religion of truth preached by Moses and the earlier prophets was Islam. None of these prophets was Jewish, nor did Judaism originate in their era. Based on its name, this religion arose much later. It was attributed to Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, when this family became the rulers of the state called Judea. The other tribes of the Children of Israel established a separate state, which became known as Samaria. Then the Assyrians not only destroyed Samaria, but also erased the identity of those Israelite tribes that had founded that state. Only the lineages of Judah and Benjamin remained. Because of the influence and authority of the tribe of Judah, they were called Judaeans or Jews. Over hundreds of years, the priests, rabbis and scholars of this lineage developed, according to their individual ideas and inclinations, a framework of beliefs, customs, practices and religious rites. This came to be called Judaism or the Jewish religion. The formation of this framework began in the fourth century BCE and continued until the fifth century CE.

Only a very small part of the divine guidance that had come to the prophets was incorporated into it, while its distinctive teachings were distorted. For this reason, in many places in the Qur’an they are addressed as (Arabic ****), meaning, “O you who have become Jews.” Not all of them were Israelites; rather, they also included people who had adopted the Jewish religion. Wherever the Qur’an addresses the Children of Israel, it uses the words “Children of Israel.” And wherever it addresses the adherents of Judaism, it uses the words (Arabic ***). (Surah Al-Ma’idah, note 42)

The Jews in the Era of Joseph

After comparing the Bible with Egyptian history, modern researchers hold that the ruler among the Shepherd Kings (Kykoss Kings) whose name is given as Apophis in Egyptian history was a contemporary of Joseph, peace be upon him.

The capital of Egypt was Memphis. Its ruins can be seen fourteen miles south of Cairo. Joseph, peace be upon him, reached there at the age of seventeen or eighteen. He stayed in the house of the Aziz of Egypt for two or three years, and spent eight years in prison. At the age of thirty, he became the ruler of Egypt and continued to govern it independently for eighty years. In the ninth or tenth year of his rule, he brought his father and the entire family from Palestine to Egypt. He resettled them in the region between Cairo and Damietta. In the Bible, this region is called Goshen or Dothan. (The Talmud states that when news of Jacob’s arrival reached the capital, Joseph went out to welcome him with the kingdom’s eminent nobles and high-ranking military and civilian officials, and brought him to the capital with great ceremony. Festivities were held for two days. Everyone—women, men and children alike—joined the procession at the festival. A wave of joy and celebration swept through the entire country. (Surah Al-Hashr, note 4) They lived in this region until the era of Moses, peace be upon him. According to the Bible, Joseph, peace be upon him, lived for one hundred and ten years. At the time of his death, he instructed the Children of Israel that when they left Egypt, they should take his bones with them. (Surah Al-Jumu‘ah, note 10)

It was through him that they became established in Egypt. He—that is, Joseph, peace be upon him—was himself a prophet. For four or five centuries after him, political power in Egypt remained in their hands. During this period, they must certainly have conducted extensive preaching of Islam in Egypt. Those Egyptians who accepted Islam were distinguished from the non-Muslim Egyptians not only in religion, but also in their civilization and entire way of life, and became imbued with the same character as the Children of Israel. Just as the Hindus of India regarded Muslims as foreigners before Partition, the Egyptians likewise regarded all of them as outsiders. They called the Egyptian Muslims Children of Israel, just as non-Arab Muslims were called Muhammadans. Because of their religious, cultural and marital ties, they too became distinct from the non-Muslim Egyptians and attached to the Children of Israel. For this reason, when a powerful nationalist movement began in Egypt, persecution and oppression fell not only upon the Children of Israel; the Egyptian Muslims also became its victims. Then, when the Children of Israel left the country, the Egyptian Muslims departed with them and were counted among the Children of Israel. (Various indications in the Bible support this view. For example, while describing the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt in the Book of Exodus, the biblical author says that a large mixed multitude accompanied them (12:38). These non-Israelite Muslims were called foreign outsiders. Among the guidance given to Moses, peace be upon him, in the Torah, we find: “The same law shall apply throughout your generations to you and to these outsiders residing with you. In the sight of God, the outsider too shall have the same status that you have” (25:14–15). The author. (Surah Yusuf, note 69)

The Nationalist Revolution in Egypt

After the era of Hazrat Yusuf (peace be upon him) had passed, a nationalist revolution took place in Egypt. When the Copts once again seized political power, the nationalist government made every effort to crush the power of the Children of Israel. In this regard, they not only humiliated and disgraced the Children of Israel and employed them in menial tasks, but also adopted a policy of killing their male children and sparing their female children in order to reduce their population, so that their women might gradually come under the control of the Copts and, instead of the Israelite lineage, a Coptic lineage might arise from them. The Talmud further states that this revolution took place somewhat more than a century after the death of Hazrat Yusuf (peace be upon him). The new nationalist government first deprived the Israelites of their fertile lands, homes, and other property, and then removed them from all positions of responsibility in the government. Even after this, when the Coptic rulers realized that the Children of Israel and the Egyptians sharing their faith were sufficiently influential, they began humiliating and disgracing them in various ways. They continued to extract hard labor from them for meager wages. This explains the Quranic statement that Pharaoh continued to humiliate and disgrace a group of the inhabitants of Egypt (Arabic****), and the statement in Surah al-Baqarah that the people of Pharaoh subjected the Children of Israel to severe punishment. (Surah Yusuf, Note 68)

The Advent of Hazrat Musa

The Children of Israel had been living a life of humiliation and poverty for several centuries. In these circumstances, Allah Most High brought Musa (peace be upon him) forth among them. Through him, He freed this nation from the chains of slavery. He then revealed a Book to them, and through its influence that trampled and oppressed nation received the light of guidance and became a renowned nation in the world. (Surah Yusuf, Note 68)

The Da’wah of Hazrat Musa

Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) went to Pharaoh with a call based on two matters. First, that he should accept the worship of Allah (Islam); and second, that he should free the nation of the Children of Israel, who had already been Muslims, from his oppression and persecution. (Surah al-Qasas, Note 5)

On the other hand, Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) taught the Children of Israel:

Seek Allah’s help and remain patient. This land belongs to Allah, and He makes whomever He wills its inheritor. Those who act in fear of Him are the ones who attain ultimate success.

The Base Mentality of the Children of Israel

In this critical period, a few young men and women showed the courage to accept the truth and acknowledge the bearer of the banner of truth, Musa (peace be upon him), as their leader. But the parents and elders of the nation were not granted this good fortune. Opportunism, worldly interests, and the mentality of living an undisturbed life had so overwhelmed them that they could not accept this truth. They considered this path extremely risky. Rather, they would restrain the younger generation, saying, “Do not approach Musa (peace be upon him). Otherwise, you will yourselves incur Pharaoh’s wrath and bring disaster upon us as well.” (Surah al-Sajdah, Note 36)

The reason for such conduct was not that they had the slightest doubt that Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) was truthful and that his call was founded upon truth. Rather, the reason was that they and their elder leaders were not prepared to suffer Pharaoh’s cruelty by supporting Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him). Although, in lineage and religion, they belonged to the community of Ibrahim, Ishaq, Yaqub, and Yusuf (peace be upon them), the cowardice produced by a life of slavery had left them with no strength to become themselves bearers of the banner of faith and guidance against the authority of disbelief and misguidance, or to support its bearer. (Surah al-A’raf, Note 86) It should be noted that one period of persecution occurred during the reign of Ramses II, before the birth of Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him). The second period of persecution began after Hazrat Musa’s arrival, during the time of Pharaoh Merneptah. In both periods, the same practice prevailed: the male children of the Children of Israel were killed and the female children were allowed to live. (Surah Yunus, Note 78)

The role played by the ordinary Israelites in this conflict between Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) and Pharaoh can be inferred from the following passage of the Bible:

When they (Musa and Harun) came out from Pharaoh, they saw that they (the Israelites) were standing in the road to meet them. They said, “May God judge between you and us. You have made us detestable to Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” Exodus 6:20–21.

It is narrated in the Talmud that the Children of Israel used to say to Musa (peace be upon him) and Harun (peace be upon him): “Our example is like that of a wolf that has seized a goat while the shepherd is trying to save it. Then, as both pull at it, the goat is torn apart. In the same way, we will be destroyed by the tug-of-war between you and Pharaoh.” (Surah Yunus, Note 79)

The Migration of the Children of Israel from Egypt (Leaving aside the detailed discussion of the methods by which Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) presented his call before Pharaoh, the accusations made against him, the warning punishments sent down upon the Pharaohites during his time, and the condition of the Israelites themselves, we highlight this historically important aspect: since they responded to Hazrat Musa’s (peace be upon him) call only with rejection, Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him), on Allah Most High’s command, adopted the path of migration to liberate the Children of Israel. —The Compilers)

The Desert Life of Musa’s Nation

Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him), taking the Children of Israel with him, came toward Mount Sinai through the Sinai Peninsula, following the route of Marah, Elim, and Rephidim. He then stayed there for somewhat more than a year. (The story of the Children of Israel’s desert life is highly important in many respects. During this period, they were miraculously granted special blessings. At this time, signs of their former life of slavery became manifest through various misguided practices. Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) worked hard to reform them. In this respect, it was a period of training. —The Compilers) It was here that most of the injunctions of the Torah were revealed to him.

The Command to Attack Palestine

Thereafter, he was commanded: “Conquer Palestine along with the Children of Israel. It has been made your inheritance.” Thus Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him), with the Children of Israel, reached the Desert of Paran by way of Abir and Hazeroth. From there, he sent a delegation to assess the condition of Palestine. At a place called Kadesh, that delegation presented its report. Except for Yusha and Caleb, the report of the delegation was discouraging. Upon hearing it, the Children of Israel cried out and refused to undertake the campaign into Palestine.

The Second Period of Wandering in the Desert as Punishment

It was decided by Allah Most High that the Children of Israel would wander like the lost for forty years in this region, and that none of their present descendants, except Yusha and Caleb, would see Palestine. The Children of Israel then wandered bewildered between the Desert of Paran, the Wilderness of Shur, and the Desert of Sin, engaging in conflicts and disputes with the Amalekites, Amorites, Edomites, Midianites, the people of Moab, and others.

The Conquest of Palestine and the Subsequent Period

The Conquest of Palestine

Shortly before the forty years had passed, Hazrat Harun (peace be upon him) died on Mount Hor. Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) then entered the region of Moab with the Children of Israel, conquered the entire area, and reached Heshbon and Shittim. Here, on Mount Abarim, Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) breathed his last. After his death, his first successor, Hazrat Yusha, crossed the Jordan River from the east and conquered the city of Jericho, or Ariha. This was the first city of Palestine to come into the possession of the Children of Israel; soon afterward, the whole of Palestine came under their control. (Before the conquest of Palestine, the Children of Israel had been involved in various seditions. After the conquest, lawlessness and wickedness raised their heads among them. They also had to suffer the consequences.)

Hazrat Musa’s Warning to Save the Children of Israel from Decline

In verse 7 of Surah Ibrahim, Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) advised them as follows: “And remember when your Lord proclaimed: If you are grateful, I will surely increase you in favor; but if you are ungrateful for My blessings, then surely My punishment is severe.” (This advice was necessary because, after being blessed with the wealth granted by Allah, the Children of Israel repeatedly displayed disobedience and ingratitude. Hazrat Musa, peace be upon him, tried to reform them and inspired them to repent. It was not unfounded to suspect that, if they reached the height of victory in Palestine, Satan would easily plunge them into disobedience. Therefore, their attention was drawn to Allah’s principle, which operates through the disobedience of nations that acquire wealth. —The Compilers)

A detailed explanation of the sermon delivered on this subject is quoted in the fifth book of the Torah in the Bible. A few days before his death, Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him), in this sermon, reminded the Children of Israel of the important events of their history. He then repeated from the Torah the injunctions sent to the Children of Israel through him. After that, he delivered a lengthy sermon. —Some parts of his sermon are profoundly moving and instructive. By way of example, some of them are quoted below:

“But if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord your God and carefully observe all the commandments and statutes that I command you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. —— In whatever work you undertake, the Lord will send upon you curse, confusion, and rebuke. —- Until you are destroyed from the land you are going to possess, the Lord will afflict you with pestilence. —- The sky above your head will be bronze, and the ground beneath you will be iron. —- The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out against them by one road, but flee before them by seven roads. You will be betrothed to a woman, but another man will lie with her. You will build a house, but will not dwell in it; you will plant a vineyard, but will not enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, — the enemies whom the Lord sends against you will enslave you while you suffer hunger, thirst, nakedness, and lack of everything; and until they destroy you, they will place an iron yoke on your neck. — The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other.” —(28:15–16) (Surah Ta-Ha, Notes 53–54)

The Reformative Da’wah of Hazrat Yusha

Seventy years after leaving Egypt (when the Children of Israel became involved in idol worship —the Compiler), it can easily be inferred from what Hazrat Yusha bin Nun, the first successor of Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him), said in his final address before a public gathering that the life of slavery in Egypt had distorted the mentality of the Children of Israel to a great extent. His address was as follows:

“Now therefore fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt; and serve the Lord. If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve,—- but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” —Joshua 24:14–15

From this it may be inferred that, even after living for forty years under the guidance of Musa (peace be upon him) and for twenty-eight years under the guidance and training of Hazrat Yusha, this nation could not remove from its minds the influences that had spread into its very marrow during the age of obedience to Pharaoh. (The distortion and cowardice of this nation’s nature are described in detail in the Holy Quran. Its reluctance to respond to Hazrat Musa’s (peace be upon him) call in Egypt; its worship of the calf under the influence of the Samaritan immediately after being freed from Egypt; its repeated questioning instead of sincerely obeying Hazrat Musa’s (peace be upon him) command to slaughter a cow; its demand for the old food of the city instead of expressing gratitude for receiving manna and quails free of charge as Allah’s blessing in the Sinai desert; its refusal to obey commands during jihad; its violation of the injunctions of the Sabbath; its distortion of Allah’s Book; its killing of prophets and giving knowledge in exchange for money to make false accusations against them; its concealment of the truth—in short, the entire history of the Children of Israel is stained with such things. —The Compilers)

After the Conquest of Palestine

When the Children of Israel entered Palestine after the death of Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him), various nations lived there, such as the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Hivites, Jebusites, Philistines, and others. The most depraved forms of shirk were prevalent among them. —- The entire divine realm was divided among numerous gods and goddesses. —– Such vile attributes and acts were ascribed to these gods and goddesses that even people of extremely immoral character did not wish to be associated with them.—– The practice of sacrificing children was widespread in their society. Their places of worship had become haunts of adultery. Making women into goddesses, keeping them in places of worship, and committing adultery with them were counted among acts of worship.

The guidance given to the Children of Israel through Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him) in the Torah clearly stated that they should destroy those nations and wrest Palestine from their hands, and that they should keep away from living with them and from their moral and religious defects.

But when the Children of Israel entered Palestine, they forgot this guidance. They did not establish a unified state. They were afflicted with tribal fanaticism. Each tribe preferred to separate itself with a portion of the conquered territory. (The tribes among which the small territory of Palestine was divided were: the Children of Judah, the Children of Simeon, the Children of Dan, the Children of Benjamin, the Children of Ephraim, the Children of Reuben, the Children of Gad, the Children of Manasseh, the Children of Asher, the Children of Zebulun, the Children of Naphtali, the Children of Asher, and others. —The author’s research.)

Because they became separated in this way, none of their tribes was strong enough to keep its own area completely free of the polytheists. Eventually, they accepted coexistence with them. The first consequence they had to suffer was that shirk entered among them through those nations, and with it the way was opened for other moral filth and corruption. (The second consequence they had to suffer was that the nations whose city-states had been left independent, together with the Philistines, whose entire territory remained unconquered, formed an alliance against the Children of Israel and repeatedly attacked them, dispossessing them of a large part of their land. They even seized from them the Ark of the Covenant. Finally, the Children of Israel felt the need to establish a unified kingdom under one ruler. — This unified kingdom had three rulers: Hazrat Talut, Hazrat Dawud (peace be upon him), and Hazrat Sulayman (peace be upon him). These rulers completed the tasks that the Children of Israel had left unfinished after Musa (peace be upon him). —The Author, 437 (Surah Ibrahim, Note 12)

It is known from the Bible that, until the time of Talut, cities such as Sidon, Tyre, Dor, Megiddo, Beth-shan, Jazer, Jerusalem, and others were in the possession of the polytheists, and the pagan civilization of these cities continued to exert a tremendous influence over the Children of Israel. Moreover, genuinely powerful states had been established on the borders of the Israelite tribes by the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites. They repeatedly attacked and seized extensive territories from the Israelites. Ultimately, the situation became such that the Children of Israel would have been expelled from there by the ear if Allah Most High had not, at the proper time, united the Israelites under the leadership of Talut. (Surah al-A’raf, Note 98)

The Period of the First Calamity of the Children of Israel

After Hazrat Sulayman (peace be upon him), the Israelites became terribly engrossed in worldly greed and desire. They fought among themselves and established two separate kingdoms. The kingdom of Israel was established in northern Palestine and eastern Jordan. Eventually, its capital was fixed at Samaria. The kingdom of Judah was established in southern Palestine and the region of Edom, with Jerusalem as its capital. From the very first day, intense rivalry, conflict, and dispute began between these two kingdoms and continued until the end.

Among them, the rulers and inhabitants of the Israelite kingdom were the first and most deeply influenced by the polytheistic beliefs, ideas, and moral corruption of the neighboring nations. —– Hazrat Ilyas and Hazrat al-Yasa, peace be upon them, made every effort to resist this tide. But the nation did not turn back from the decline toward which it was rushing. Eventually, Allah’s wrath came upon the Israelites in the form of the Assyrians, and the victorious Assyrians continued their attacks on Palestine until the ninth century before Christ.—–

In 620 BCE, Sargon, the ruthless ruler of Assyria, conquered Samaria and brought the kingdom of Israel to an end.

The second state of the Children of Israel, established in southern Palestine under the name of Judah, also soon became involved in shirk and immorality after Hazrat Sulayman (peace be upon him).

Although the Assyrians repeatedly attacked it as they had the Israelite kingdom, destroying its cities and besieging its capital, this state did not come to an end at the hands of the Assyrians. It merely remained a tributary ally. —- Finally, in 587 BCE, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, launched a massive attack and reduced all the large and small cities of Judah to ruins. He obliterated Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple so completely that not one of its walls remained standing. He expelled large numbers of Jews from their region and scattered them across various countries. (Surah al-Isra, Note 7)

Another Opportunity Granted by Allah

After the Assyrian conquest, the people of Samaria and Israel could no longer recover from their utter decline in faith, creed, and morality. But a number of people remained among the inhabitants of Judah. Among those who remained in Judah, they continued the work of reform and correction. They inspired repentance among those who had been exiled to Babylon and other regions. Thereafter, the grace of Allah Most High came to their aid. The Babylonian state fell. In 531 BCE, the Persian conqueror Cyrus (Khurs or Khusrau) captured Babylon. In his second year, he issued a decree permitting the Israelites to return to their own country and be resettled there.

Cyrus permitted the Jews to rebuild Solomon’s Temple. But the neighboring tribes that had settled in that region continued to create obstacles for some time. Finally, in 522 BCE, Darius I appointed Zerubbabel, the grandson of the last king of Judah, as governor of Judah. Under the supervision of the prophet Haggai, the prophet Zechariah, and the chief priest Ishr, he rebuilt the Sacred Temple.

During this period, Uzair (peace be upon him) did tremendous work to reestablish the religion of Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him). He gathered all the righteous and benevolent people of the Jewish nation from every place and established a strong organization. He edited and published the books of the Bible, including the Torah. He arranged for the religious education of the Jews. By enforcing the laws of the Shariah, he began correcting the mental and moral defects that had entered the Israelites through the influence of foreign nations. The Jews who had married polytheist women were made to divorce them. A new pledge was taken from the Children of Israel to worship Allah and follow His law. After one hundred and fifty years, Bayt al-Maqdis was newly populated and became the center of Jewish religion and civilization.

Greek Domination and the Maccabean Movement

Antiochus III seized Palestine in 98 BCE. He was the ruler of the Seleucid kingdom, whose capital was Antioch. This Greek conqueror was a polytheist in religious terms and was tyrannical. He could not tolerate Jewish religion, civilization, or culture. He began promoting Greek civilization by exerting political and economic pressure against it, and a large section of the Jews themselves became his pawns. This external interference created division within the Jewish nation. One group adopted Greek dress, language, social system, and games, while the other remained steadfast in its own civilization.

When Antiochus IV ascended the throne in 157 BCE, he sought, through the use of despotic force, to eradicate Jewish religion and civilization (the detailed orders he issued, which targeted the general religious beliefs, worship, religious symbols, and basic principles of the Jews’ social system, have not been mentioned here). —— But the Jews did not submit to this tyranny. Rather, a great movement began among them, which became famous in history as the Maccabean revolt. Although the Greek-influenced Jews sympathized with the Greeks and fully cooperated with the tyrants of Antioch in suppressing the Maccabean revolt, the spiritual vitality that Hazrat Uzair had instilled in the ordinary Jews through his piety was so powerful that they all joined the Maccabean camp. Eventually, they expelled the Greeks and established their religious state. This state remained until 67 BCE. Its borders expanded to encompass the entire region that had once been under the two states of Judah and Israel. Moreover, a large part of Philistia also came under their control, a part that had not been brought under control even during the time of Hazrat Dawud (peace be upon him). (Surah al-Isra, Note 7)

The Second Calamity and Its Consequences

The Maccabean movement, which had proceeded with religious and moral inspiration, gradually began to disintegrate. Religious inspiration degenerated into worldly greed and lifeless outward ceremonies. Eventually divisions arose among them, and they called upon the Roman conqueror Pompey to come to Palestine. Accordingly, in 63 BCE Pompey turned his attention to conquering Palestine, captured Bayt al-Maqdis, and destroyed the Jews’ independence. However, the established policy of the Roman conquerors was to appoint local rulers in conquered regions and achieve their objectives through them rather than rule directly. Therefore, he established a native state in Palestine under his authority. Eventually, in 40 BCE, this state came under the control of a shrewd Jew named Herod, who became famous as Herod the Great. On the one hand, he kept the Jews satisfied by patronizing their religious leaders; on the other, he satisfied Caesar by promoting Roman civilization and demonstrating the utmost loyalty to the Roman Empire. At that time, the Jews’ religious and moral decline reached its extreme.

In 41 CE, the Romans appointed Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, ruler of all the areas that had been under Herod the Great’s rule. After gaining power, Herod Agrippa subjected the followers of Jesus (peace be upon him) to severe persecution.

To gain a correct understanding of the condition of the Jewish religious leaders in that age, it is necessary to know the criticism that Jesus (peace be upon him) made of them in his discourse.

Before the eyes of this nation, a man of pure and flawless character like John (peace be upon him) was beheaded. Yet none of them raised a word of protest against this barbarity. Then the entire nation demanded the execution of Jesus (peace be upon him). Indeed, when Pontius Pilate asked these wretched people, “Tell me, shall I release Jesus, or Barabbas the robber?” the entire crowd replied with one voice, “Release Barabbas.” This was as though it were the final outcome of all the arguments and proofs presented by Allah against this nation.

Then, before much time had passed, a fierce conflict began between the Jews and the Romans. Between 164 and 166 CE, the Jews openly declared rebellion.

Eventually, the Roman Empire launched harsh military action, suppressed the rebellion, and in 70 CE Titus conquered Jerusalem by force. At that time, 133,000 people were killed in the massacre. Seventy-six thousand were taken captive and enslaved. Thousands were forcibly sent to work in Egyptian mines. In various cities, thousands were used to be thrust before wild animals in amphitheaters and coliseums or made victims of sword fights. Tall, beautiful girls were selected for the victors. The city of Jerusalem and the Temple were reduced to ruins. Thereafter, Jewish influence in Palestine disappeared so completely that for two thousand years they had no opportunity to raise their heads again. (Surah al-Isra, note 7)

Alterations in the Torah (The structure of Judaism was formed from the changes and additions that Jewish preachers, commentators, orators, and scriptural scholars inserted on their own into the Divine Word in the Torah. —The compilers)

In the fifth book of the Torah, where the final sermon of Moses (peace be upon him) is quoted, the following oath is repeatedly imposed upon the Children of Israel:

Take the instructions I have delivered to you firmly into your hearts; teach them to future generations; recite and practice them when you rise and sit, in sleep and wakefulness; and write them on the doorposts of your homes.

Thereafter, in his testament he said that, after entering the borders of Palestine, their first task would be to place large stones on Mount Ebal and engrave the instructions of the Torah upon them.

Moreover, Moses (peace be upon him) gave the Levites a copy of the Torah and instructed them, every seven years on the day of the Feast of Tabernacles, to gather everyone—men, women, and children alike—in various places and recite the entire Book (the Torah) to them, word for word. Despite this, the Children of Israel’s indifference toward Allah’s Book gradually became so great that, seven hundred years after Moses (peace be upon him), the successor to Solomon’s Temple and the Jewish ruler of Jerusalem did not even know that they possessed a Book called the Torah.

The greatest fault of the Jewish scholars was that, instead of disseminating knowledge of Allah’s Book, they kept it hidden within a special class of rabbis and religious profiteers, keeping it away not only from the common people but even from the Jewish populace itself. Then, when corruption began to spread among them because of the people’s ignorance, the scholars not only made no effort to reform them; rather, to preserve their popularity among the masses, they certified as legitimate—through their words and actions or by remaining silent—the misguidance and innovations that had become prevalent among the people. (Surah al-Isra, note 9)

They not only changed the meaning of the Divine Word according to their own wishes; they also mixed their own commentaries, national history, superstitions and conjectures, fanciful philosophies, and laws produced by their own thinking with the Divine Word in the Bible. (In the words of the Qur’an, the condition of the Jewish scholars was as follows: Most Jewish scholars, saints, and ascetics unlawfully consumed people’s wealth and kept them away from Allah’s path (Surah al-Tawbah 34). The oppressors sold religious verdicts, accepted bribes, plundered offerings, and invented religious practices through which people could purchase their arguments from them. Nothing concerning people’s lives, deaths, marriages, or other affairs could take place without pleasing them, and people regarded them as the contractors responsible for determining their destinies. Not only that, these religious profiteers, for their own interests, trapped people in the net of misguidance. Whenever a voice of truth arose, they were the first to spread their web of deception and become determined to block its path.) They presented all these things before the people as though they had come from Allah. Every historical philosophy, every commentator’s explanation, every philosopher’s belief and conception concerning Allah, and every scriptural scholar’s legal research found a place in the Bible, and all of it became the Word of God. Belief in it was made obligatory, and turning away from it was treated as turning away from religion.

To the best of our knowledge, the fifth book of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch) is not the actual Torah. The actual Torah has vanished from the face of the earth. Support for this view is found in the Old Testament itself. From it we learn that, near the end of his life, Moses (peace and blessings be upon him), with the help of Joshua, compiled the Torah and placed it in a chest (Genesis 31:24–27). After his death, when Nebuchadnezzar set fire to Bayt al-Maqdis in the sixth century BCE, that sacred chest, along with the books composed by the renewers of his law after Moses (peace be upon him), was also burned. Two hundred or two hundred and fifty years after this destruction, Ezra (peace be upon him), according to the Bible’s own account, composed this book anew with the priests of the Children of Israel, assisted by heavenly inspiration. But the passage of time did not allow this newly composed book to remain in its original form either. When the flood of Alexander the Great’s universal conquests spread through the Middle East along with the Greek Empire, knowledge, science, and literature, all the books of the Torah were translated into Greek in 280 BCE. The Hebrew manuscripts were then gradually abandoned, and the Greek translation became current. Therefore, the Torah now before us has no chain of transmission reaching back to Moses (peace be upon him). But this does not mean that no part of the original Torah is included in the present Torah, or that it is entirely fabricated. What we mean to say is that much else has been mixed into this Torah along with the original Torah. What we mean to say is that much else has been mixed into this Torah along with the original Torah. Nor is it impossible that much of the original Torah was not incorporated into it. If anyone studies this book today with deep insight, he will clearly feel that the commentaries of Jewish scholars, the national history of the Children of Israel, the legal research of Israelite scriptural scholars, and many other things have been mixed with Allah’s Word in such a way that separating Allah’s Word from them is extremely difficult. It is extremely difficult to separate Allah’s Word from them.

Alongside this, we wish to make clear that, according to the Qur’an, the religion of the Torah was the same as the religion of the Qur’an; and just as Muhammad (peace be upon him) was a prophet of Islam, Moses (peace be upon him) was also a prophet of Islam. At the beginning, the Children of Israel followed this very religion. Later, however, they made many additions and omissions in the original religion according to their own desires and devised a new religious system under the name of Judaism. (That is, the present Torah is not the Islam brought by Moses (peace be upon him); rather, it is the manifestation of Judaism, the distorted form of that religion of Islam. —The compilers) (Surah al-Baqarah, note 16)

In reality, the Torah refers to those instructions revealed to Moses (peace be upon him) over approximately forty years, from the beginning of his prophethood until his death. Among them were the Ten Commandments, which were given to him engraved on stone tablets. Moses (peace be upon him) had the remaining instructions written down, made twelve copies, and distributed them among the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel. One copy was also given to the Levites so that they could preserve it. This book was called the Torah. It was preserved as a permanent book until the first destruction of Bayt al-Maqdis. The copy given to the Levites was kept, together with the stone tablets, in the Ark of the Covenant. The Children of Israel knew it precisely as the Torah. Their neglect of it reached such a degree that, during the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, when Solomon’s Temple was being repaired, the high priest suddenly found a Torah book kept in one place. Considering it a remarkable object, he handed it to the royal scribe. The scribe then presented it to the king as though something extraordinary had been discovered. Thus, when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and reduced the entire city, including the Temple, to ruins, the forgotten original Torah of the Children of Israel—which existed in only a very small number of copies—vanished forever. Later, in the time of Ezra, the remaining people of Israel were freed from their captivity in Babylon and returned to Jerusalem, and Bayt al-Maqdis was rebuilt. Ezra then compiled the entire history of the Children of Israel with the assistance of some elders of the nation. This is now contained in the first seventeen books of the Bible. Four books of this history—namely, the second book (Exodus), the third book (Leviticus), the fourth book (Numbers), and the fifth book (Deuteronomy)—describe the life of Moses (peace be upon him). The sayings of the Torah that came into the possession of Ezra and his elder companions were also inserted in their proper places in this biography, according to the chronological order of their revelation. Now the collection of the portions of the Torah scattered throughout the life story of Moses (peace be upon him) is called the Torah. The sign by which they may be recognized is that, where the biographer says, “God said this to Moses (peace be upon him),” or, “Moses (peace be upon him) says, ‘Your God says this,’” a portion of the Torah begins. Where the narrative of the biography begins again, a portion of the Torah ends. In between, whatever the authors of the Bible added as commentary and explanation is very difficult for ordinary people to determine: is it a part of the original Torah, or is it commentary and interpretation? This distorted Torah is the source of Judaism. But the instructive point is that the Jews never tried to establish the Torah in the form and shape in which they themselves accepted it. Nor did they faithfully proclaim its instructions or implement them. That is why the Qur’an posed the question. (Arabic *****) (Surah al-Baqarah, note 90)

The Religious and Social Condition of the Jews at the Time of the Advent of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

There is no reliable history of the Jews of Arabia

No reliable history of the Jews of Arabia exists anywhere in the world. They left no account in any book or inscription from which their past could be illuminated. Nor did any Jewish historian or author outside Arabia mention them. For this reason, it is said that when they came to Arabia they became separated from their own people, with the result that the Jews of the world did not count them among themselves at all. They had abandoned even the Hebrew language, civilization, and names, and adopted a different way of life. Among the inscriptions found in the ruins of the Hijaz, no trace of Jews from before the first Christian century has been found; only some Jewish names appear. Therefore, most of the history of the Jews of Arabia rests on the legends current among the Arabs, and part of it was circulated by the Jews themselves.

The Jews of the Hijaz claimed that they first settled here near the end of the time of Moses (peace be upon him). They narrated their story as follows: Moses (peace be upon him) sent a group of soldiers to expel the Amalekites from Yathrib. They were also instructed not to leave a single member of that nation alive. The Israelite soldiers came here and carried out the Prophet’s command. However, the young son of the Amalekite king was extremely handsome. They spared him and returned with him to Palestine. By that time Moses (peace be upon him) had died. His successors severely criticized this action, saying that sparing an Amalekite was completely contrary to the Prophet’s decree and the injunctions of the Shariah. For this reason, they expelled those soldiers from their group, and the soldiers had to return to Yathrib and settle there. —Kitab al-Aghani, vol. 19, p. 94.

Thus, the Jews claimed that they had settled here twelve hundred years before Jesus (peace be upon him). But there is no historical proof of this. The Jews probably invented this story so that, by claiming descent from an ancient noble lineage, they could establish influence and authority over the Arabs.

According to the Jews’ own accounts, their second migration took place in 587 BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, destroyed Bayt al-Maqdis and scattered the Jews throughout the world. The Jews of Arabia said that, at that time, their various tribes came to Arabia and settled in Wadi al-Qura, Tayma, and Yathrib (Futuh al-Buldan by al-Baladhuri). But this too has no historical proof. Perhaps by this means as well they wished to establish their antiquity.

The established fact is that, when the Romans massacred the Jews wholesale in Palestine in 77 CE and then expelled them from there in 102 CE, many Jewish tribes fled and took refuge in the Hijaz. This region lay adjacent to southern Palestine, and after arriving there they remained wherever they found springs and fertile land. Gradually, through conspiracies and the business of usury, they extended their influence and authority over the region. It was at that time that they established their dominance over Aylah, Maqna, Tabuk, Tayma, Wadi al-Qura, Fadak, and Khaybar. The tribes of Banu Qurayzah, Banu Nadir, Banu Bahdal, and Banu Qaynuqa, among others, also seized Yathrib at that time.

Among the settlers in Yathrib, the tribes of Banu Nadir and Banu Qurayzah were the most renowned, because they belonged to the priestly class. They were regarded as noble among the Jews. Within their own nation they possessed religious authority. When they settled in Madinah, several Arab tribes were living there. They defeated them and took possession of the fertile land. Nearly three centuries later, in 450 or 451 CE, a great flood occurred in Yemen, which is mentioned in the second section of Surah Saba. Because of this flood, various tribes of the people of Saba were forced to leave Yemen and scatter throughout different parts of Arabia. Among them, the Ghassanids settled in Syria, the Lakhmids in Hirah (Iraq), Banu Khuza‘ah between Jeddah and Makkah, and Aws and Khazraj in Yathrib. Since Jewish dominance had been established over Yathrib, at first they gave Aws and Khazraj no opportunity to establish themselves. These two Arab tribes were forced to live on barren tracts of land. Eventually, they brought an army and crushed the Jews’ power. Thus, full authority over Yathrib was established by Aws and Khazraj. The two major Jewish tribes, Banu Nadir and Banu Qurayzah, were forced to settle outside the city. Since the third tribe, Banu Qaynuqa, had disagreements with those two tribes, it remained in the city. But to stay there, it had to seek the protection of the Khazraj tribe. In return, Banu Nadir and Banu Qurayzah sought the protection of the Aws tribe, so that they could live safely in the suburbs of Yathrib.

The Condition of the Jews at the Time of the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) Advent

Before the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) came to Madinah, up to the beginning of the Hijrah, the condition of the Jews generally in the Hijaz and particularly in Yathrib was as follows:

In dress, language, civilization, and culture, they were colored by the ways of the Arabs. Indeed, the names of the overwhelming majority of them had also become Arabic. Of the twelve Jewish tribes that settled in the Hijaz, only Banu Zaura had a Hebrew name. Apart from a handful of their scholars, no one even knew Hebrew. In the poetry of the Jewish poets of the Age of Ignorance that has come down to us, no feature in language, style, or subject matter can be seen that distinguishes it from the poetry of Arab poets. Marital relations were also established between them and the Arabs. In reality, the only difference between them and the ordinary Arabs was religion. Nevertheless, they did not merge with the Arabs and maintained a strict Jewish bigotry. They adopted Arab identity publicly because otherwise they could not have lived in Arabia.

Illustration: ——————–

Because they adopted this Arab identity, Orientalists were misled into thinking that perhaps they were not the Children of Israel at all, but Arabs who followed Judaism, or at least that the majority of them were Arab Jews. Yet there is no historical evidence that the Jews ever conducted religious missionary work in the Hijaz, or that their scholars invited the Arabs to Judaism like Christian priests and missionaries. On the contrary, we find among them an intense bigotry and genealogical pride in being Israelites. They called the Arabs ummiyyun. Ummiyyun does not mean illiterate, but wild and barbaric. Their belief was that the ummiyyun were not entitled to the human rights to which the Israelites were entitled. For Israelites, plundering the Arabs’ wealth by lawful or unlawful means was halal and pure. Apart from Arab chiefs, they did not consider ordinary Arabs worthy of being initiated into Judaism and granted equal status. No historical evidence exists, nor does Arab tradition provide any testimony, that any Arab tribe or major family adopted Judaism. There are, however, references to some individuals becoming Jews. Moreover, instead of preaching religion, the Jews were attracted only to business. Therefore, Judaism did not spread in the Hijaz as a religion. Rather, the pride and arrogance of a few Israelite tribes were all that remained as its capital. Jewish scholars and holy men did, however, keep the trade in amulets, divination, and magic very active, which caused their knowledge and practice to influence the Arabs. (Al-Jihad fi’l-Islam, pp. 380–382)

Their Economic Condition

Compared with the Arab tribes, their economic condition was very strong. Since they had come from the more civilized regions of Palestine and Syria, they knew many skills and techniques unknown to the Arabs. They also had commercial relations with the outside world. For these reasons, they controlled the import of food grains into Yathrib and northern Hijaz, as well as the export of dates from those regions. Most poultry farming and fish farming was in their hands. They manufactured textiles. They maintained wine shops in various places, importing wine from Syria and selling it there. Most members of Banu Qaynuqa worked as goldsmiths, blacksmiths, and potters. The Jews engaged in excessive profiteering in these trades and businesses. But their greatest business was usury. Through this web of usury, they had ensnared the Arab inhabitants around them. In particular, the shaykhs and chiefs of the Arab tribes were afflicted with the desire to display their splendor and power by borrowing money. They became trapped in the Jews’ debt network. The Jews lent money at high rates of interest, and the borrowers then became so entangled in compound interest that escaping from it was extremely difficult. In this way they left the Arabs economically hollow. The natural result was that hatred generally prevailed among the Arabs against them. Their commercial and economic interests required that they not become the friend of one Arab and the enemy of another, nor participate in their mutual disputes. On the other hand, their interests also required that the Arabs not be allowed to remain united, but rather be kept engaged in fighting one another. They knew that if the Arab tribes united, they would no longer allow the Jews to retain the vast estates, orchards, and fertile lands they had acquired through usurious dealings. Moreover, for their own security, each Jewish tribe needed the protection of a powerful tribe so that no one could attack them. On this basis, they not only had to participate in the mutual fighting of the Arab tribes; often a Jewish tribe would join its allied Arab tribe in fighting another Jewish tribe on behalf of the Khazraj tribe. In the bloody battle fought between Aws and Khazraj at a place called Bu‘ath shortly before the Hijrah, they fought alongside their respective allies. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah Al ‘Imran, note 2)

The Showy Shell of Piety

The Jews believed in tawhid, prophethood, revelation, the Hereafter, and the angels. They also acknowledged the laws of the Shariah that had been revealed by Allah to their prophet Moses (peace be upon him). In principle, their religion too was the same Islam taught by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). However, centuries of decline had cast them far away from the original religion. (At that time, approximately nineteen centuries had passed since the time of Moses (peace be upon him). According to Israelite history, Moses (peace be upon him) died in 1272 BCE, while Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was granted prophethood in 610 CE. —The author)

They tried to prevent him from succeeding in his reformative work. In reality, they were misguided Muslims. Because of innovations, distortion of the truth, obsession with hair-splitting details, factionalism, abandoning important matters and wasting time on unnecessary ones (chewing bones after throwing away the meat), and becoming absorbed in worldly greed while forgetting Allah, their decline reached such an extreme that they even forgot their original name, Muslims, and remained merely Jews instead of calling themselves Muslims. They turned Allah’s religion into an inherited possession of the Israelite lineage. (Surah al-Hashr, Introduction)

Religious and Genealogical Bigotry

The Jews held that honesty, integrity, truthfulness, and faithfulness were required only in dealings among Jews. There was no harm in usurping the wealth of those who were not Jews. This was not merely an ignorant notion held by the Jewish masses; in fact, the entire religious system of Judaism was designed in such a way that, in moral matters, it distinguished at every step between Israelites and non-Israelites: whatever was unlawful for Israelites was lawful for others, and whatever was the right of Israelites was not the right of non-Israelites. Thus, the Bible commands: “You may exact it from a foreigner, but your hand shall release whatever you have from your brother” (Deuteronomy 15:3). Elsewhere, taking interest is prohibited: “You may lend to a foreigner at interest, but you shall not lend at interest to your brother” (Deuteronomy 23:20). It is also written: “If anyone is found stealing one of his fellow Israelites—whether he treats him as a slave or sells him—and is caught, that thief shall be put to death” (Deuteronomy 24:7). The Talmud states that if an Israelite ox injures a non-Israelite’s ox, no compensation is due; but if a non-Israelite’s ox injures an Israelite’s ox, compensation must be paid. If someone finds something lying somewhere, he should determine to whom the neighboring settlement belongs. If it belongs to Israelites, he must announce the find; if it belongs to non-Israelites, he should take it. Rabbi Ishmael says: if a case between a gentile and an Israelite comes before a judge, and the judge can make his religious brother prevail according to Israelite law, he should do so and say that it was decided according to their law. If he can make him prevail according to the gentiles’ law, he should do so and say, “This has been decided according to your law.” But if he cannot make him prevail under either law, he should use any stratagem to make him win the case. Rabbi Shammai says: every opportunity to exploit a non-Israelite’s mistake must be taken. (Surah al-Hashr, Introduction)

Abandoning the essential matters and clinging to trivial details

The Jewish scholars observed the minor details of the Shariah with great care. Indeed, they spent all their time discussing these details exhaustively. Their legal scholars reached decisions on such minutiae after much thought and deliberation. But shirk was so insignificant in their eyes that they neither thought of avoiding it themselves nor made any effort to protect the nation from polytheistic ideas and practices. Their conscience did not prevent them from befriending polytheists or helping and cooperating with them. (Surah al-Baqarah, Introduction)

Distorting the Shariah for the sake of the nobles

An example of how the Jews had turned away from their religious commandments is found in the case that the Jews of Khaybar brought before the Prophet (peace be upon him) for judgment. The case was that a woman of noble lineage from Khaybar had engaged in an illicit sexual relationship with a man. According to the Torah, their punishment was rajm—that is, death by stoning (Deuteronomy 22:23–24). But the Jews did not want to enforce this punishment. So they consulted among themselves and decided to make Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) the arbiter in the case. If he gave a verdict other than rajm, they would accept it; but if he gave a verdict of rajm, they would not accept it. The case was then presented to the Prophet. He ordered rajm, but they refused to accept it. The Prophet (peace be upon him) asked them, “What is the punishment for this in your religion?” They replied, “Beating with a whip, blackening the face with soot, and making the offender ride backward on a donkey.” The Prophet (peace be upon him) then adjured their scholars and asked whether the Torah prescribed this punishment for a married adulterer or adulteress. They again gave a false answer. But a man named Ibn Suriyya, who by the Jews’ own account was the leading Torah scholar of that time, remained silent. Addressing him, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “I ask you by the One who delivered you from Pharaoh and who gave you the Law on Mount Tur: what punishment for adultery is truly written in the Torah?” He replied, “Had you not adjured me in this manner, I would not have said so. The punishment for adultery is indeed rajm. But when adultery became widespread in our society, our rulers adopted the practice of releasing a noble person who committed adultery, while stoning a person of the lower classes who committed adultery. Then, when discontent arose among the people, the law was changed so that the adulterer or adulteress would be flogged, have the face blackened with soot, and be made to ride backward on a donkey. (Surah Al Imran, note 64)

Altering what the Shariah declares lawful and unlawful

When the Jews rebelled against the Shariah revealed by Allah and seated themselves as legislators of the Shariah, they subjected many pure and lawful things to hair-splitting analysis. One such category was animals with split hooves, such as ostriches, geese, and the like. The second was the fat of cattle and goats. In the Bible, rulings declaring these two categories unlawful were inserted into the Torah. Yet these things were not unlawful in the Torah; rather, they were declared unlawful after Moses (peace be upon him). History also bears witness that the present Jewish religious law was formulated by Rabbi Judah toward the end of the second Christian century. (Surah al-Nisa, note 80)

The Jews’ unreasonable conduct toward Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

The Qur’an says—(Arabic text)—And now, when a Book came to them from Allah, how did they behave toward it? Although this Book confirmed the truth of what they already possessed, and before its arrival they used to pray for victory and help against the unbelievers, when that very thing came before them and they recognized it, they nevertheless refused to accept it. —Surah al-Baqarah: 89

Before the Prophet (peace be upon him) came, the Jews eagerly awaited and invoked the coming of the prophet whom their prophets had foretold. They prayed that, when he arrived soon, the domination of the unbelievers would end and their own era of advancement would begin. The people of Madinah themselves testify that, before the arrival of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the Jews counted the days in anticipation of the future prophet and would say repeatedly, “Go on oppressing whomever you please for now. When that prophet comes, we shall deal with the wrongdoers.” The people of Madinah heard these words. Therefore, when they came to learn the true circumstances of the Prophet (peace be upon him), they began saying to one another, “Look, do not let these Jews gain an advantage over you. Come, let us believe in him before them.” Yet it is astonishing that those very Jews who had eagerly awaited the coming prophet became his greatest opponents after his arrival.

Evidence was also found at that very time for the Qur’an’s statement that they recognized him. The most reliable testimony is that of the Mother of the Believers, Safiyyah (may Allah be pleased with her). She was the daughter of a renowned Jewish scholar and the niece of another scholar. She relates: when the Prophet (peace be upon him) arrived in Madinah, both my father and my uncle went to meet him and conversed with him for a long time. When they returned home, I heard them with my own ears saying:

Uncle: Is he truly the prophet whose glad tidings are given in our Scriptures?

Father: By Allah, yes.

Uncle: Do you believe that?

Father: Yes, I do.

Uncle: Then what do you intend to do now?

Father: As long as I live, I shall continue to oppose him and shall not let him say a word. (Ibn Hisham, vol. 2, p. 165, new edition) (Surah al-Ma’idah, note 70)

The Jews’ creation of hostile mischief

The Arabs were generally illiterate. Compared with them, the Jews naturally had a much stronger tradition of learning. Among them were individuals of great scholarship whose fame had spread beyond Arabia. Consequently, the Jews exercised considerable educational influence in Arabia. Their scholars and priests further strengthened and broadened that influence through the outward splendor of their religious establishments and through the business of incantations, charms, and amulets. The people of Madinah in particular were strongly influenced by them, because large Jewish tribes lived around them and they mixed with them day and night. Through this association they were influenced as deeply as an illiterate population is influenced by neighbors who are more educated, more civilized, and distinguished by religious prestige. Under these circumstances, when the Prophet (peace be upon him) presented himself as a prophet and began inviting people to Islam, the illiterate naturally went to the Jewish People of the Book and asked: “You follow a prophet and adhere to a Scripture; tell us, what is your opinion of this man among us who claims to be a prophet, and of his teachings and instruction?” Even after the Prophet (peace be upon him) came to Madinah, many people continued to ask Jewish scholars in this way. But those Jewish scholars never told them the truth. It was difficult for them to say that the tawhid he presented was wrong, or that anything he said about the prophets, the heavenly Books, the angels, and the Hereafter was mistaken, or that any of the moral principles he taught was wrong. Yet they were not prepared openly to acknowledge that everything he presented was true. They could neither reject the truth openly nor accept it straightforwardly. Between these two alternatives, they adopted the method of planting in every questioner’s mind some insinuation against the Prophet (peace be upon him), his community, and his great mission; making some accusation against him; fabricating an absurd allegation capable of creating doubt and hesitation; and raising various embarrassing questions, so that the people themselves would feel perplexed and would try to embarrass the Prophet and his Companions. This was their conduct, and for this reason they were addressed in Surah al-Baqarah: “Do not cover the truth with the cloak of falsehood; do not try to suppress and conceal the truth through false propaganda, mischievous doubts, and accusations; and do not try to deceive the world by mixing truth with falsehood.” —Surah al-Baqarah: 42. (The scope of the Jews’ mischief was very extensive. Hypocrites arose within the Islamic community after becoming caught in their web of insinuations. In every matter they displayed some insolence toward the Prophet (peace be upon him), repeatedly attempted to assassinate him, and showed their greatest insolence by engaging in destructive activities at decisive moments in war. These acts of insolence will be mentioned at their appropriate places. —The author)

The emergence and development of Christianity

The explanation of the word Nasara

It is mistaken to think that the word Nasara is derived from Nazareth, which was the birthplace of the Messiah (peace be upon him). In reality, the word is derived from nusrah, meaning help. Its basis is the statement made by the disciples in response to the Messiah’s question, “Who will help me in the cause of Allah?”—“We are helpers in the cause of Allah.” Christian writers generally fell into this mistaken notion merely because of the outward similarity between the two words: in early Christian history there was a group called the Nazarenes, who were contemptuously called Nazarenes and Ebionites, and it was assumed that the Qur’an used their name for all Christians. But the Qur’an clearly says that they themselves declared, “We are Nasara” (Surah Al Imran: 52). It is also certain that Christians never called themselves Nazarenes. (Surah al-Baqarah, note 95)

It should be noted in this connection that Jesus (peace be upon him) never named his followers Christians or Messianics. He did not come to establish a new religion in his own name. His mission was to revive the religion brought by Moses (peace be upon him) and by the prophets before and after him. Therefore, he did not form a separate community apart from the ordinary Children of Israel and the followers of the Mosaic Law, nor did he give his followers any permanent name. His early followers did not consider themselves separate from the Israelite nation; they had not yet become a permanent sect, nor had they chosen any distinctive name or emblem for themselves. They worshipped with the ordinary Jews in the Temple of Bayt al-Maqdis and considered themselves adherents of the Law of Moses. See Acts 3:1; 10:14–15; 21:21.

The Christians’ separation from the Israelite people

Later, the process of separation began from two directions. On the one hand, Saint Paul, among the followers of Jesus (peace be upon him), abolished the obligation to follow the Shariah and declared that belief in the Messiah alone was sufficient for salvation. On the other hand, the Jewish scholars regarded the followers of the Messiah as a deviant sect and separated them from the Israelite people. Despite this separation, the new group was not initially given any particular name. The followers of the Messiah themselves sometimes used the word disciples for themselves, sometimes used the words brothers and believers for their companions, and sometimes called them the holy ones (Acts 2:44; 4:32; 9:26; 11:29; 13:52; 15:1–23; Romans 15:25; Colossians 1:2). The Jews, on the other hand, sometimes called them Galileans and sometimes called them the heretical sect of the Nazarenes (Acts 24:5; Luke 13:2). They used these names mockingly because Jesus’ (peace be upon him) birthplace was Nazareth, which belonged to the Galilee district of Palestine. But this mocking name never became sufficiently established to acquire status as the designation of the Messiah’s followers.

How did they come to be called Messianics or Christians?

The name Christian was first given to this group in 43 or 54 CE by the polytheistic inhabitants of Antioch, when Paul and Barnabas went there and began missionary work (Acts 11:26). They were given this name mockingly by their opponents, and the followers of the Messiah refused to adopt it for themselves. But when their enemies continued to address them by that name, their leaders said: “If you are called Messianic because you are associated with the Messiah, what shame is there in that?” (1 Peter 4:16). Thus, they gradually began to call themselves by the very name that their enemies had imposed on them in mockery. Eventually, even the awareness disappeared among them that it had originally been a mocking name.

For this reason, the Qur’an did not call the followers of the Messiah Messianics or Christians. Rather, it reminded them that they were in fact the descendants of those whom Jesus, son of Mary (peace be upon him), addressed by asking, “Who will help me in the cause of Allah?” and who replied, “We are helpers in the cause of Allah.” Thus, in their original and fundamental sense, they are Nasara, or Ansar. Yet today Christian missionaries, instead of expressing gratitude for this reminder from the Qur’an, complain that the Qur’an calls them Nasara rather than Messiah-followers or Christians. (Surah al-Baqarah, note 58)

The period of Christianity’s emergence

Judaism and Christianity are later developments. Judaism, with its name, characteristics, and practices, arose in the third and fourth centuries before Christ. Christianity—the name given to the collection of beliefs and distinctive religious doctrines—came into existence long after the Messiah (peace be upon him). The question naturally arises: if being guided or remaining on the true path depends on Judaism or Christianity, then from what did Abraham (peace be upon him) and the other prophets, who lived many centuries before these two religions and whom Jews and Christians themselves acknowledge to have been guided, receive guidance? Certainly, it was not from Judaism or Christianity. It therefore becomes clear that human guidance does not depend on those religious characteristics from which various groups such as Jews and Christians arose. Rather, it truly depends on following the universal Sirat al-Mustaqim, through which people in every age continue to receive guidance.

Secondly, the sacred Scriptures of the Jews and Christians themselves testify that Abraham (peace be upon him) worshipped, glorified, served, and obeyed no one besides Allah alone. His mission was that no one besides Allah could be made a partner in Allah’s attributes and qualities. It is therefore perfectly clear that both Judaism and Christianity have deviated from the true path on which Abraham (peace be upon him) walked, because shirk has become mixed into both religions. (Surah al-Ma’idah, note 36)

The Christians’ designation of Jesus (peace be upon him) as God

First, the Christians made the mistake of regarding the personality of the Messiah as a compound of humanity and divinity. As a result, the reality of the Messiah has remained an enigma to them. The more their scholars tried to resolve this enigma through verbal embellishment and conjecture, the more entangled they became in complexity. Those in whom the human aspect of this composite personality predominated emphasized that the Messiah was the son of God and one of the three eternal gods. Those in whom the aspect of divinity predominated regarded the Messiah as the bodily manifestation of Allah, made him Allah Himself, and worshipped him as Allah. Those who sought a middle course devoted all their energies to verbal interpretations by which the Messiah continued to be called human while also being regarded as Allah. Allah and the Messiah are two separate beings, yet are also one. (Surah al-Ma’idah, note 36)

The meaning of Jesus (peace be upon him) being the Word of Allah

(Arabic text)

The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was nothing but a Messenger of Allah and a command from Him. —Surah al-Nisa: 171

In reality, the word kalimah was used. Sending a kalimah to Mary means that Allah issued the command to Mary’s womb that it should receive conception without being touched by the sperm of any man. At first, Christians had been told this very explanation of the mystery of the Messiah’s birth without a father. But, being misled by Greek philosophy, they initially took the word kalimah as synonymous with speech or the power of speech. They then understood this speech and power of speech as referring to Allah’s intrinsic attribute of speaking. From this they reached the conjectural conclusion that this intrinsic attribute of Allah entered Mary’s womb and assumed a physical form, appearing as the Messiah. Thus the false notion arose among Christians that the Messiah (peace be upon him) was Allah, and the misconception became entrenched that Allah Himself, or the attribute of speech among His eternal attributes, manifested itself in the form of the Messiah. (Surah al-Baqarah, note 135)

The concept of the Trinity

In verse 171 of Surah al-Nisa, the Messiah is described as a ruh from Allah, and in Surah al-Baqarah the matter is stated as: “We strengthened him with the Holy Spirit.” The meaning of both original statements is that Allah granted the Messiah (peace be upon him) a pure spirit, elevated above sin, completely truthful, and adorned with perfect moral excellence. This explanation had been given to the Christians. They exaggerated it, regarding Ruh min Allah as Allah’s own spirit, and interpreting the Holy Spirit to mean that it was Allah’s holy spirit which assumed form within the Messiah. Thus, alongside Allah and the Messiah, they made the Holy Spirit into a third god. This was the second extreme exaggeration of the Christians, because of which they went astray. It is interesting that this statement still appears in the Gospel of Matthew: an angel said to Joseph the carpenter in a dream, “O Joseph, son of David, do not fear taking Mary, your wife, into your home, for what is in her womb is by the power of the Holy Spirit” (chapter 1:2). (Surah al-Ma’idah, note 39)

The actual situation is that Christians affirm tawhid and also affirm the Trinity. On the basis of the clear statements of the Messiah (peace be upon him) found in the Gospels, no Christian can deny that Allah is One and that there is no second god besides Him. They have no choice but to acknowledge that tawhid is the true religion. But they first became subject to the false notion that Allah’s Word manifested itself in the form of the Messiah and that Allah’s spirit took shape within him. For this reason, they unnecessarily made it obligatory upon themselves to affirm the divinity of the Messiah and the Holy Spirit alongside the divinity of Allah, the Creator of the universe. Because they imposed this upon themselves by force, it became an insoluble enigma for them: how can they accept the doctrine of the Trinity despite their belief in tawhid, and the doctrine of tawhid despite their belief in the Trinity? Christian scholars have been pondering this problem, created by themselves, for nearly eighteen hundred years. Because of various interpretations, many small sects have arisen; each group calls the others unbelievers or kafirs, quarrels over the matter, and causes churches to separate from one another. All the power of their theology has been devoted to this task. Yet this problem was created neither by God nor by the Messiah sent by Him, and there is no solution by which three gods can be accepted while God’s unity remains intact. Their exaggeration and excess created the problem. Its only solution is that they abandon exaggeration and hyperbole, reject the notion of the divinity of the Messiah and the Holy Spirit, accept Allah alone as the only God, and regard the Messiah as His prophet, without considering him a partner in divinity in any respect. (Surah al-Nisa, note 212)

Shirk and the worship of religious figures

Around the middle of the fifth Christian century, shirk, the worship of religious figures, and the worship of graves became widespread among ordinary Christians, particularly in the Roman Catholic churches. Worship began to be offered at the shrines of saints, and statues of the Messiah, Mary, and heavenly maidens were placed in churches. In 431 CE, shortly before the rise of the People of the Cave, a council of the religious leaders of the entire Christian world was held at a place called Ephesus. At this council, the doctrine of the Messiah’s divinity and the belief that Mary was the mother of God were formally established. In light of this history, it can clearly be understood that the Qur’anic statement (Arabic text) refers to those people who, at that time, had become the leaders and officials of the Christian masses in opposition to the devoted followers of the Messiah, and who held religious and political authority in their hands. They were in reality the standard-bearers of shirk. They were the ones who decided that a mausoleum would be built over the People of the Cave and worshipped. (Surah al-Nisa, note 212)

Modern Christianity and Saint Paul

The earliest followers of Hazrat Isa regarded him simply as a prophet. They followed the Shariah of Moses. In matters of creed, beliefs, commands, rulings, worship and devotion, they did not consider themselves different in any way from the other Israelites. Their disagreement with the Jews concerned only this: they acknowledged Hazrat Isa as the Messiah and believed in him, whereas the Jews refused to accept him as the Messiah. Later, when Saint Paul joined this group—the followers of Isa—he began spreading this religion among the Romans, Greeks and other Gentile and non-Israelite peoples. For this purpose he introduced a new religion whose beliefs, fundamental principles and directives were entirely different from the faith Hazrat Isa had presented. Saint Paul never had the company of Hazrat Isa. On the contrary, during his lifetime he was his bitterest opponent. Even afterward, for several years he remained the great enemy of his followers. Then, when he joined this group and began introducing a new religion, he still did not present any saying of Hazrat Isa as authority. Rather, this new religion was based on his visions and inspirations, or on spontaneous emotional impulses, enthusiasms and inspirations. His aim in introducing this new religion was that it should be one which the Gentile masses of the world would accept. He declared that a Christian was free from all the restraints of the Jewish Shariah. He abolished the prohibitions concerning what was lawful and unlawful in food and drink. He also abolished circumcision, which the Gentile peoples of the world disliked. Finally, he formulated the doctrines of the divinity of the Messiah, his being the son of God, and his being crucified as an expiation for the sins of all humanity, because these ideas were compatible with the nature and disposition of the ordinary polytheists. The early followers of the Messiah opposed this new innovation and religious belief. But through the door Saint Paul had opened, such a great flood of Gentile Christians entered this new religion that those few people could not withstand it. Nevertheless, until the end of the third century there were still many people who denied the doctrine of the Messiah’s divinity.

The Spread of Pauline Beliefs

At the beginning of the fourth century (325 CE), the Council of Nicaea declared Pauline beliefs to be the definitive and universally accepted religion of Christianity. Thereafter the Roman emperor accepted Christianity, and during the reign of Emperor Theodosius this religion became the state religion. Naturally, all books that opposed these beliefs were discarded, while those compatible with this new creed were accepted as reliable. In 367 CE, Athanasius I announced, through one of his letters, the names of the books regarded as reliable and universally accepted. Thereafter they were approved at a meeting presided over by Damasus. At the end of the fifth century, when Pope Gelasius declared this collection of books universally accepted, he also prepared a list of the books considered unacceptable. Yet concerning the Pauline beliefs on which the decision regarding the reliability or otherwise of the religious books was based, no Christian scholar has ever been able to claim that any one of their doctrines was taught by Hazrat Isa. Indeed, no evidence for this new creed can be found even in any saying of Hazrat Isa contained in the Biblical books included among the accepted collection. (Surah al-Nisa, note 215)

The Emergence of Asceticism and Its Causes

For two hundred years after Hazrat Isa, asceticism did not touch the Christian churches. But its seeds could be found in Christianity (in its corrupted form) from the beginning, and it contained the ideas that gave birth to this phenomenon. Both foundations of asceticism—regarding renunciation and indifference to material things as ideal qualities, and considering a life of dervishhood superior to marriage and worldly living—were present in Christianity from the outset. In particular, because celibacy was considered synonymous with purity, it was regarded as undesirable for those who performed religious duties in the church to marry and, as parents, to bear the burdens of family life. By the third century this had assumed the form of a tribulation, and asceticism began spreading through Christianity like an epidemic.

Three Causes

Historically, it had three major causes:

First: To counter the widespread sexual immorality, sinfulness and attachment to the world in ancient polytheistic society, Christian scholars adopted an extremist approach instead of maintaining balance. They placed such importance on chastity that they considered relations between men and women impure, even when established through marriage. They adopted such severity against worldliness that merely possessing wealth became sinful for a religious person, and the standard of character became that a person should be penniless and renounce worldly life in every respect. Thus, in response to the luxury and indulgence of polytheistic society, they adopted an extreme position in which renouncing pleasure, destroying the instincts and eliminating desires became the aim of character. Inflicting pain on the body through various forms of austerity was regarded as the perfection and proof of spirituality.

Second: As Christianity achieved success and began spreading among the people, the Church, hoping to promote and expand its religion, incorporated every practice that was sinful but pleasing to the people. In place of the ancient worship of idols, worship of saints, dervishes and sages began. In place of the idols of Horus and Isis, the worship of images of the Messiah and Mary began. The festival of Saturnalia was replaced by the festival of the sun. All the practices of ancient times involving amulets, talismans, magic, fortune-telling and exorcising jinn and demons were begun by Christian ascetics.

Since the masses considered a person who remained dirty and naked and lived in a pit or a mountain cave to have been sent by Allah, this idea of attaining Allah’s favor became popular in the Christian Church, and books of miraculous tales about such people were produced among the Christians.

Third: The Christians possessed neither a detailed Shariah nor any clear Sunnah or tradition by which to define the limits of religion. They had abandoned the Shariah of Moses, and no complete guidance was found in the Gospel alone. Therefore, influenced by certain outside philosophies and customs, and guided by some of their own inclinations, Christian scholars continued introducing various kinds of innovations into the religion. Asceticism was one of these innovations.

The Originators and Leaders of Asceticism

The scholars and leaders of Christianity adopted the philosophy and methods of asceticism from Buddhist monks, Hindu yogis and ascetics, the anchorites of ancient Egypt, the ascetics of Iran, and Plato and his followers. They regarded it as a method of self-purification, a means of spiritual development and a way of attaining nearness to Allah. This error was not made by people of an ordinary rank. From the third to the seventh century—that is, until the era in which the Qur’an was revealed—all those who were revered in the East and West as Christianity’s eminent religious scholars, sages and leaders, such as Saints Athanasius, Basil, Gregory, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Benedict and Gregory the Great, were allworld-renouncing advocates of asceticism. It was through their efforts that asceticism became established in the Church.

The First Monk and the First Monastery

History tells us that asceticism among the Christians began in Egypt. Its founder was Saint Anthony (250–350 CE), the first Christian monk. In the Fayoum region, at a place called Pispir—now known as Deir al-Maymun—he established his first monastery. Then he built a second monastery on the shore of the Red Sea, now called Deir Mar Antonios. The fundamental rules and methods of asceticism among the Christians were adopted from his writings and guidance.

Monasteries Built Everywhere

After this beginning, a rush to build monasteries started throughout Egypt, and monasteries for monks and nuns were built in different places. Some of them were constructed to accommodate three thousand monks together. In 325 CE, a Christian monk named Pachomius appeared in Egypt and built ten large monasteries for monks and nuns. Thereafter this movement spread to Syria, Palestine, and various countries of Africa and Europe. At first the administrators of the Church faced terrible difficulties concerning this asceticism. They regarded renunciation of the world, celibacy, poverty and being penniless as ideals of spiritual life, but they did not consider marriage, having children or possessing wealth sinful in the same way as the monks did. Finally, under the influence of people such as Athanasius (d. 303 CE), Saint Basil (d. 379 CE), Saint Augustine (d. 430 CE) and Gregory the Great (d. 609 CE), many ascetic practices properly entered the administration of the Church.

Characteristics of the Development of Asceticism

Some characteristics of this ascetic innovation are briefly described below:

First: Its first characteristic was severe austerity and inflicting pain on the body through ever-new methods.

Second: The second characteristic was always remaining dirty and unclean. They kept away from cleanliness. In their view, bathing or putting water on the body was contrary to worshipping Allah. They considered bodily cleanliness a defilement of the mind.

Third: Asceticism effectively made married life completely unlawful and ruthlessly eliminated marital relations. All the writings of the fourth and fifth centuries are filled with the assertion that celibacy is the highest moral standard, and that chastity means completely abstaining from sexual relations, even between husband and wife. The perfection of a pure life was considered to lie in completely destroying the self so that no desire for physical pleasure remained in it. In their view, desires had to be eliminated because they strengthened the animal instinct. Pleasure and sin were used as synonymous terms. Indeed, merely enjoying pleasure was, in their view, like forgetting Allah. Saint Basil declared both laughter and smiling prohibited. On the basis of these ideas, marital relations between men and women were considered impure. For a monk, not only was marriage forbidden, but even looking at the form of a woman was prohibited. If he was married, he had to leave his wife and depart. Women were also firmly taught that if they wished to enter the kingdom of heaven, they must remain virgins throughout life; they would become the bride or betrothed of the Messiah and would have the honor of becoming the mother of God—that is, the Messiah’s mother-in-law (Mother in Law of God). He says elsewhere that the first task of a wayfarer on this path is to cut the wood of marital relations with the axe of chastity. As a result of these teachings, when religious inspiration was awakened, the first effect upon a Christian man and woman was that their happy married life ended forever.

For three centuries the Church administration resisted this extreme and radical idea to the best of its ability. During the fourth century, the notion gradually became entrenched that it was extremely reprehensible for anyone serving in the Church to be married. In 362 CE, the Council of Gangra was the last body or assembly at which such beliefs were considered contrary to religion. But shortly afterward, in 386 CE, the Roman Synod advised all priests to abstain from marital relations. The following year, Siricius ordered that any priest who married or continued relations with his wife after marriage would be deposed.

Fourth: The most painful aspect of asceticism is that it also severed relations with parents, siblings and children. In the eyes of Christian holy men and monks, a child’s love for parents, a brother’s love for a sister, and a father’s love for his children were all sins. In their view, spiritual advancement required a person to sever every relationship. The ascetic perspective was that whoever desired the love of God must break all the bonds of human love that tied him in this world to parents, siblings and children.

Fifth: Their habit of treating close relatives with brutality, cruelty and harshness caused their human feelings to disappear. The consequence was that they inflicted extreme oppression and persecution upon those with whom they differed in religious opinion. By the fourth century, Christianity had split into eighty or ninety small sects. Saint Augustine counted eighty-eight such groups in his own time. These groups held extreme hatred for one another. It was the monks who kindled the fire of this hatred. The monks were also foremost in burning their opponents who held differing views. The center of these sectarian conflicts was Alexandria.

Sixth: Alongside renunciation, indifference to material things and the life of poverty and dervishhood, the acquisition of worldly wealth was by no means neglected. At the beginning of the fifth century, matters had reached the point that the bishop of Rome lived in his own palace like a king. When his conveyance went out onto the streets, its splendor and grandeur were in no way less than those of the Roman emperor. By the seventh century—the era of the Qur’an’s revelation—the flow of wealth into monasteries and churches had become a raging flood. The particular cause of this decline was that when the masses began excessively venerating the monks because of their extraordinary austerities and extreme suppression of their desires, many greedy people donned the dress of dervishes and joined the monks. Under the disguise of renouncing the world, they made the business of acquiring worldly gain so flourishing that the greatest worldly seekers were surpassed by them.

Seventh: In the matter of chastity too, asceticism repeatedly suffered defeat in its struggle against nature. In the monasteries there were certain severe practices for suppressing the passions in which ascetic priests lived together, and sometimes, for stricter training, the two spent the night in the same bed. Saint Evagrius (St. Evagrius), praising the suppression of the passions by such priests in Palestine, says that they bathed together with women undergoing spiritual discipline; they looked at, touched and embraced one another. Yet nature could not be overcome. Those who struggle against nature do not escape its vengeance. After opposing nature, asceticism eventually fell into the deep abyss of moral depravity, and its shameful history is an indelible stain on the religious history of the period from the eighth to the eleventh century. In the works written by medieval authors, many accusations have been recorded that the priests’ monasteries had become arenas of depravity. Within their four walls, the reckless killing of newborn infants took place. Priests and religious workers of the Church also formed illicit relations with those with whom marriage was forbidden. Crimes against nature in the monasteries also became widespread. (Surah al-Kahf, note 20)

The Historical Status of the Biblical Books

Like the Jews, the Christians were also unable to preserve the revealed Scripture. For this reason, false beliefs and directives entered the religion through the path of distortion. Had the true Bible (Gospel) been preserved, Christianity would not have appeared in its present form. Below is presented the research of Maulana Sayyid Abul A‘la Maududi concerning the Biblical books. (Compilers)

Research into the Sources

The collection of books that we today call the Gospel or the Bible actually contains four major books: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But not one of them is a book revealed to Hazrat Isa. Just as the Qur’an contains together all the verses and surahs revealed by Allah to Muhammad, the revelation sent down to Hazrat Isa is not found together in any single book. Rather, these books contain the counsels and guidance transmitted by the disciples of Hazrat Isa or by the disciples of his disciples. In these books they recorded, according to their knowledge, the circumstances of Hazrat Isa and his teachings.

The Book Attributed to Matthew

Since no source for the aforementioned books is known, they are not particularly reliable. The first book is attributed to Matthew, a disciple of the Messiah, but history proves that it was not written by Matthew. Matthew’s original book, Logia, has disappeared. The book attributed to Matthew was written by an unknown person. In composing it, he also used the Logia book along with other books. In it, Matthew himself is described as though by an unknown person. (Matthew, chapter 9, verse 9, says: ‘Jesus went forward and saw a man named Matthew at the tax office.’ Clearly, an author cannot describe himself in this manner.) Furthermore, study of this book shows that most of its contents were taken from Mark’s Gospel, for 470 of its 1,068 verses are found verbatim in Mark’s Gospel. If its author had been a disciple, there would have been no need for him to rely on someone who was neither a disciple nor had ever seen Hazrat Isa. Christian scholars say that this book was written in 70 CE, that is, 41 years after Hazrat Isa. Some say that the book was composed in 70 CE.

The Book Attributed to Mark

The second book is attributed to Mark, and it is generally accepted that Mark himself was its author. But it is established that he never met Hazrat Isa and was not his disciple. (Some say that he stood watching when Hazrat Isa was crucified. There is, of course, no proof of this either.—Author.) In reality, he was a disciple of the apostle Peter (St. Peter). He wrote in Greek whatever he heard from him. For this reason Christian writers called him Peter’s spokesman. It is presumed that this book was composed between 63 and 70 CE.

The Book Attributed to Luke

The third book is attributed to Luke. It is universally acknowledged that Luke never saw the Messiah and received nothing from him. He was a disciple of Saint Paul. He was always Paul’s companion, and in his Gospel he recorded everything as Paul’s spokesman. Yet Paul himself calls this Gospel his own Gospel. It is established, however, that Saint Paul himself was deprived of the company of the Messiah and, according to the Christian account, accepted Christianity six years after the Messiah’s crucifixion. Therefore, no link at all can be found between Luke and the chain of transmission of the Messiah’s account. There is also no established history of the composition of Luke’s Gospel. Some place its composition in 57 CE and others in 74 CE. But according to research experts such as Harnack, Miksghifart and Plummer, this book was not written before 80 CE.

The Book Attributed to John

The fourth book is attributed to John. According to modern research, this book was not written by the famous apostle John. Rather, it was written by an obscure person named John (Yahya or John). This book was written long after the Messiah, in 90 CE or later. Harnack places it as late as 110 CE. The chain of transmission of none of these books reaches the Messiah. It cannot be stated with certainty, regarding their authority, what the Messiah said and what he did not say. But deep research shows that there is considerable room for doubt concerning the evidence and proofs of these books.

Six Reasons for the Unreliability of the Gospels

There are differences in the accounts of the first four Gospels. Indeed, the Sermon on the Mount, which forms the basis of Christian teachings, is described in Matthew, Mark and Luke in three different and contradictory ways.

Second: The thoughts and reactions of their authors are evident in all four Gospels. Matthew appears to have addressed the Jews and seems to have offered them a final opportunity. Mark addressed the Romans and wished to acquaint them with Israelite teachings. Luke was Saint Paul’s spokesman and wished to support his claims against the other disciples. He appears to have been influenced by the philosophical ideas that spread among Christians toward the end of the first century. Thus, the differences in meaning among the four Gospels became greater than their verbal differences.

Third: All the books of the Gospels were written in Greek, whereas the language of Hazrat Isa and all his disciples was Syriac. Because of the difference in language, differences in the interpretation of ideas were entirely natural.

Fourth: No effort was made to record the Gospels before the second Christian century. Until 150 CE, the general view was that oral transmission was more useful than written transmission. Toward the end of the second century, the desire to record them arose. But written material from that period was not considered reliable. The first reliable canon of the New Testament was approved at the Council of Carthage held in 397 CE.

Fifth: The oldest existing manuscripts of the Gospel date from the middle of the fourth Christian century. The second manuscript dates from the fifth century, and the third incomplete manuscript, which is held in the library of the Roman Pope, is also no older than the fourth century. Therefore, it is difficult to say how closely the present Gospels correspond to the Gospels in circulation during the first three centuries.

Sixth: Unlike the Qur’an, no effort was made to memorize the Gospel books. Their transmission depended on conveying the meaning. Naturally, they could not remain free from weaknesses of memory and the influence of the narrators’ personal ideas. Later, when the task of writing began, it depended on the discretion of copyists. While copying, each person could easily omit anything he considered contrary to his ideas and add anything he felt was missing or desired.

For these reasons we cannot say with certainty that the four Gospels contain the true teachings of the Messiah. This entire discussion has been based on the following books:

Dummelow – Commentary on the Holy Bible

W. K. Cheyne – Encyclopaedia Biblica

Willman – History of Christianity

The True Teachings of Hazrat Isa

The finest documentary evidence of Jesus’ teachings and instruction

The four Gospels that the Christian Church calls reliable and universally accepted scriptures (Lanocical Gospcls) are not a reliable means of learning about the life and teachings of Jesus. Rather, a far more reliable means does exist. Christians have made special efforts to keep it concealed. For several centuries it could not be found anywhere in the world. (In the sixteenth century, a volume of an Italian translation of this book was found in Pope Sixtas’s (Sixtas) library, and no one was permitted to read it. At the beginning of the eighteenth century it came into the possession of a man named John Tuckland. After passing through various hands, it reached Vienna’s Imperial Library in 1738. In 1907, an English translation of the book was published by Oxford’s Clarigun Press. It is probable that as soon as it was published, the Christian world realized that this book was cutting away the very roots of the religion attributed to Jesus. For this reason, the printed copies were made to disappear by special means. Thereafter, it was never possible to reprint it. Another volume was available in the eighteenth century, translated from Italian into Spanish. George Sale mentioned it in the introduction to his English translation of the Qur’an. That too was suppressed. No trace of it can now be found. —The author) This is an example of the intellectual liberality of the Western world: no book was allowed to survive merely for research or as a historical record. —The compilers

Recently, Lonsdale and Laura Ragg translated into Italian the manuscript of the Gospel of Barnabas preserved in Vienna’s Imperial Library. This book was published by the Begum Ayesha Bawani Waqf of Karachi. —Translator)

I had the opportunity to read a photostat copy of the English translation published in Oxford, and I read it thoroughly from beginning to end. I realized that it is a tremendous treasure from which Christians have stubbornly deprived themselves because of their extreme bigotry. (Wherever the above-mentioned Gospel has been mentioned in Christian literature, it has been rejected on the claim that it is a forged Gospel, probably written by a Muslim and passed off under Barnabas’s name. But this is a terrible falsehood. The reason for this lie is that the book contains clear prophecies about Muhammad at various points. First, anyone who reads the book can clearly understand that it was not written by a Muslim. Second, if it had been written by a Muslim, it would have been widely available among Muslims, and Muslim scholars’ books would have mentioned it. Yet the fact is that, until the introduction to George Sale’s English translation of the Qur’an, no Muslim even knew of its existence. Tabari, Yaqubi, Masudi, al-Biruni, Ibn Hazm, and other authors who were acquainted with Christian literature among Muslims—none of them, while discussing Christianity, even hinted at the Gospel of Barnabas. Among the best catalogues of books found in the libraries of the Islamic world are Ibn al-Nadim’s al-Fihrist and Haji Khalifa’s Kashf al-Zunun. Neither contains any mention of it. Before the nineteenth century, no Muslim scholar had even uttered the name of the Gospel of Barnabas. Third, and the greatest proof, is that the Gospel of Barnabas (Evngelium Barnabe) was among the books declared forbidden in the time of the first Gelasius, seventy-five years before the birth of the Prophet. The question is: which Muslim wrote this forged book at that time? —The author)

None of the authors of the four books that were considered lawful and reliable and incorporated into the Bible was a companion of Jesus. Nor did any of them claim that he had learned something from Jesus’ companions and added it to the Gospel he composed. They made no mention of the sources from which they acquired that knowledge—something that might have shown that the narrator described only what he had personally witnessed and heard, or that these reports had reached them through one or more sources. In contrast, the author of the Gospel of Barnabas says: “I am one of the first twelve apostles of the Messiah. I was with the Messiah from beginning to end, and I am recording in this book what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.” Not only that, at the end of the book he says that, when the Messiah was about to leave the world, he told him: “It is your responsibility to remove the mistaken ideas about me that have spread among people and to present the true situation before them.” (Who was this Barnabas? In the original books of the Bible, the name of this person is repeatedly mentioned; he belonged to a Jewish family of Cyprus. His contribution to spreading Christianity and assisting the Messiah is praised. But nowhere is it said when he accepted Christianity. His name does not appear in the list of the first twelve apostles given in the Gospel. Therefore, it cannot be said whether the author of this Gospel was that Barnabas or someone else. The lists of the apostles given by Matthew and Mark differ from Barnabas’s list in two names. One is Luke, in whose place Barnabas records his own name. The second is Simon the Cananaean, in whose place he gives the name Judas son of Jacob. This second name also appears in Luke’s Gospel. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that, at some later time, Luke’s name was inserted to exclude Barnabas from the apostles and thereby escape his Gospel. Making such alterations in religious books is not considered unlawful by Christian scholars. —The author)

Distinctive Features of the Gospel of Barnabas

If someone studies this Gospel with an open mind, free from every kind of blind hostility, and compares it with the four Gospels of the New Testament, he will have no choice but to conclude that the Gospel of Barnabas is many times superior to those four Gospels. It gives a detailed account of the circumstances of Jesus and records them in such a way that one feels as though an actual eyewitness is seeing everything. Compared with the inconsistent narratives of the four Gospels concerning those events, these historical accounts of Barnabas are far more coherent and enable the sequence of events to be understood clearly.

Jesus’ Correct Teachings and Captivating Style of Narration

Compared with the four Gospels, the Gospel of Barnabas presents Jesus’ teachings in detail and in moving language. The teachings of monotheism, refutation of polytheism, the attributes of Allah, the spiritual force of worship, and noble character are discussed very logically and thoroughly. Not even a tenth of the instructive parables through which Jesus explained these matters is found in the four Gospels. This also makes clear how wisely Jesus educated and trained his disciples. Anyone even slightly familiar with his language, style of narration, temperament, and taste will be compelled, after reading this Gospel, to admit that it is not a fabricated story composed later by someone else. Rather, none of the inconsistencies found in his various sayings in the four Gospels is present in this book.

Harmony with the Teachings of All Prophets

In the Gospel under discussion, Jesus’ life and teachings appear exactly like the life and teachings of a prophet. He presents himself as a prophet and affirms the truth of all earlier prophets and scriptures. He clearly says that there is no other way to attain the truth except through the teachings of the prophets. Whoever abandons the prophets has in reality abandoned Allah. He presents precisely the same conception of monotheism, prophethood, and the Hereafter taught by all the prophets. He inspires prayer, fasting, and zakat. From Barnabas’s descriptions of his prayers in many places, it is known that he prayed at the times of Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha, and Tahajjud. He always performed ablution before prayer. He acknowledged David and Solomon as prophets, although the Jews and Christians have excluded them from their lists of prophets. He regarded Ishmael as the one intended for sacrifice, and had a scholar acknowledge that Ishmael was in fact the one to be sacrificed. The Israelites have, through forced arguments, made Isaac the one intended for sacrifice. His teachings concerning the Hereafter, the Resurrection, Hell, and Paradise are almost identical to those of the Qur’an.

The Purpose of Writing the Book

It was stated above that the author of this book explained at its beginning the purpose for writing it. He says that the purpose of writing this book is to correct the thinking of those who, under Satan’s instigation, regard Jesus as the son of Allah, consider circumcision unnecessary, and make unlawful food lawful—among whom the deceived Paul was one.

He further says that, while Jesus was present in the world, Roman soldiers were the first to begin calling him God, and some called him the son of God, after seeing his miracles. This idea then spread among the Israelite populace. As a result, Jesus became deeply distressed. He repeatedly and most sternly refuted this false conception about himself and cursed those who spoke of him in such terms. He then sent his disciples throughout Judea to refute this belief, and through his prayer caused the same miracles to appear through the disciples, so that people would abandon the idea that whoever performed such miracles was God or the son of God. He records in this book a detailed account of the sternness with which Jesus refuted this false doctrine. He also says in various places how greatly Jesus was distressed by the spread of this misguidance.

Furthermore, he refutes Saint Paul’s belief that the Messiah died after being crucified. Describing what he witnessed, he says that when Judas Iscariot, having accepted a bribe from the chief priest of the Jews, brought soldiers to arrest Jesus, four angels, by Allah’s command, lifted Jesus away, and Judas Iscariot’s appearance and voice became exactly like those of Jesus. Judas himself was crucified, not Jesus. Thus this Gospel cuts away the roots of the Christianity introduced by Saint Paul, and Christian priests rejected it solely on the basis of the account given in the Qur’an. (It is a great misfortune for Christians that, through the Gospel of Barnabas, they had the opportunity to correct their beliefs and learn Jesus’ true teachings, but lost it merely out of stubbornness.) —The author (Surah al-Hadid, note 54)

Jesus’ Teachings in the Four Current Gospels

Since the conditions and circumstances in which our master the Messiah presented the call to divine governance to the people of Palestine resemble our present circumstances, there is guidance for us in his method of action.

The Call to Monotheism

And one of the teachers asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The teacher said to him, “Well said, Teacher, you have spoken the truth that He is one and there is none besides Him.” —Mark 12:28–32

You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him alone. —Luke 4:8

Divine Governance

Therefore pray in this manner: Our Father in heaven, may Your name be held holy; may Your kingdom come; may Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. —Matthew 6:9–10

In the final verse, the Messiah makes his objective clear. The common mistaken idea was that God’s kingdom meant a spiritual kingdom. The verse quoted above proves this idea false. His clear purpose was that God’s law and Shariah should be implemented just as His natural laws operate throughout the entire created universe. He was preparing people for this revolution.

The Call to Struggle against Falsehood

Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s own family will be his enemies. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Trials Are Inevitable on the Path of Truth

And whoever does not take up his own cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever preserves his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will preserve it. —Matthew 10:38–39

If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. —Matthew 16:24

And brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by everyone because of my name, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved. —Matthew 10:21–22

If anyone comes to me and does not regard his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even his own life as less dear, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross cannot be my disciple. For which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, after laying the foundation, if he cannot finish it, everyone who sees it will begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build but could not finish.” Or what king, going to engage another king in war, will not first sit down and consider whether, with ten thousand soldiers, he can meet the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, while the other is still far away, he sends an envoy and asks for terms of peace. In the same way, whoever among you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. —Luke 14:26–34

A Revolutionary Movement

These verses or passages clearly prove that Jesus did not appear merely to preach a religion. Rather, his principal objective was to change the entire cultural and political system, which necessarily entailed conflict with the Jewish state, the authority of the jurists and Pharisees—in short, with all worshippers of their desires and self-interest. Therefore, he plainly told people that the work he was undertaking was extremely dangerous, and that only those prepared to face every kind of danger and hardship could accompany him.

The Inspiration of Forbearance

But I tell you, do not resist an evildoer. Rather, whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. And whoever wishes to sue you and take your cloak, let him have your coat as well. And whoever presses you to go one mile, go with him two miles. —Matthew 5:39–41

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell. —Matthew 10:28

The Call to Abandon Worldly Attachments and Think of the Hereafter

Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust consume them and where thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes them and where thieves do not break in and steal. —Matthew 6:19–20

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single cubit to his lifespan? And why worry about clothing? Consider the flowers of the field, how they grow; they neither labor nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. —Matthew 6:24–33

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened for you. —Matthew 7:7

The Purpose of Teaching Endurance in Hardship

The common misconception is that Jesus taught renunciation and indifference to material things. Yet at the beginning of this revolutionary movement, there was no alternative but to teach people patience, forbearance, reliance on Allah, and the like. Where a cultural and political system has been established and expanded over the world with all its power, holding in its grasp all the means of life, no group can rise for revolution until it removes the love of life and possessions from its heart, is ready to endure hardship, and is prepared to suffer great losses. Struggling against an established system in reality means inviting every kind of danger and calamity upon oneself. Those who undertake this work must be prepared for a second blow after receiving one. If their shirt is taken away, they must also be ready to give up their coat. They must erase concern for food and clothing from their minds. One cannot hope to obtain sustenance by fighting those who control the treasuries of sustenance. Therefore, only those who can turn away from material means, rely solely on Allah, and plunge into this path can fight against them.

The Comprehensive Manifesto of Divine Governance

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon yourselves and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. —Matthew 11:28–30

A manifesto of divine governance could perhaps not be composed in language more concise yet more touching than this. The yoke of human rule over human beings is extremely hard and heavy. To people crushed beneath this difficult and heavy burden, the herald of divine governance can deliver this message: the yoke of governance, or the great responsibility, that he wishes to place upon them is as gentle as it is light.

Ruling Power Is a Great Service

But he said to them, “The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But you must not be so; rather, let the greatest among you become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant.” —Luke 22:25–26

The Messiah gave these instructions to his apostles and companions. Various sayings on this subject are found in the Gospels. Their essence is this: after driving out Pharaoh and Nimrod, do not yourselves become Pharaoh and Nimrod.

Criticism of the Jewish Religious Scholars and Sages

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. Therefore do and observe whatever they tell you, but do not do what they do, for they say and do not do. They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling even to move them with a finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by people; they enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments, and they love the place of honor at feasts, the chief seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and being called Rabbi (teacher) by people. —Matthew 23:2–7

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces; you yourselves do not enter, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel over sea and land to make a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a child of Hell as yourselves. —Matthew 23:13–15

You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. —Matthew 23:24

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead people’s bones and every kind of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you appear righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. —Matthew 23:27–28

Such was the condition of the custodians and bearers of the Shariah in that era. Despite possessing knowledge of the religion, they themselves were going astray because they worshipped their desires. On the path of this revolution, they created greater obstacles than the Roman rulers.

The Conspiracy of the Religious Leaders against Jesus

Then the Pharisees went and conferred about how they could trap him with words. And they sent their disciples to him with the Herodians (in the time of Jesus, there was a Jewish state in part of Palestine, like a native kingdom, which acknowledged the supremacy of the Roman Empire. It was generally called the Herodian state after its founder, Herod. Here, “Herodians” means the state police and CID personnel.—Author), saying to him, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God truthfully, and that you are not afraid of anyone, for you do not look to the status of men. Tell us, then, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay tax to Caesar?” But Jesus, understanding their wickedness, said, “Hypocrites, why are you testing me? Show me the coin used for the tax.” Then they brought him a denarius. He said to them, “Whose image and inscription are these?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” —Matthew 22:15–21

From this incident it is known that this was in fact a stratagem. To sabotage this movement, the Pharisees wanted to provoke a confrontation between Jesus and the government before the proper time, so that the movement could be crushed by the power of the government before it became strong. For this reason, the question of whether tax could be paid to Caesar was raised before the Herodian CID. Christians and non-Christians alike have always understood the meaningful reply given by Jesus to mean: worship is the tax owed to God, and obedience is the tax owed to the government existing among you. But in reality, he did not say that it was proper to pay tax to Caesar, for that would have contradicted his mission. Nor did he say that tax should not be paid to him, because at that time his movement had not yet reached a stage at which he could order the payment of tax to be stopped. Therefore he expressed the subtle point that Caesar’s name and image should be returned to Caesar himself, while the gold created by Allah should be spent in His way. After this conspiracy failed, the Pharisees bribed another person from among the Messiah’s own disciples and persuaded him that the Messiah must be arrested at a time when there was no fear of a mass confrontation. This tactic succeeded. The Jewish scoundrel Judas had the Messiah arrested.

The Trial of Jesus by the Notable Jews

Then the whole assembly rose and led him to Pilate. They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation, forbidding the payment of tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” —Luke 23:1–2. Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the assembled people, “I find no fault in this man.” But they insisted more vehemently, saying, “He stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.” (Luke 23:4–5) — But they continued to demand in loud and violent voices that he be crucified, and their shouting prevailed. —Luke 23:23

A Resemblance to the Mission of the Prophet Muhammad’s Meccan Period

Thus, the Messiah’s mission in the world was defeated through the efforts of those who considered themselves heirs of Moses. In light of historical evidence, the total period of the Messiah’s prophethood was between one and a half and three years. In this brief period he accomplished as much as the Prophet Muhammad accomplished during the first three years of his Meccan life. If someone compares the foregoing statements of the Gospels with the Meccan surahs of the Qur’an and the hadiths from the period of his residence in Mecca, they will find considerable resemblance between the two. (Al-Jihad fi al-Islam, pp. 407–410)

The Real Cause of the Christians’ Misguidance

(Arabic)————————

Say: O People of the Book! Do not commit excesses unjustly in matters of religion, and do not follow the ideas of those who went astray before you, led many others astray, and deviated from the straight path. —Surah al-Ma’idah: 77

The Christians’ Excesses and the Disease of Others’ Blind Following

Here an indication is given of those misguided nations whose erroneous beliefs and false methods the Christians adopted. In particular, an indication is made of Greek philosophy; influenced by its ideas, they deviated from the straight path to which they had initially been guided. The beliefs held by the early followers of the Messiah were largely similar to the truth that they themselves witnessed and that their guide and leader taught them. But later Christians, on the one hand, went to extremes in expressing their reverence for the Messiah, and on the other, influenced by the blind beliefs and philosophies of neighboring nations, began giving exaggerated philosophical interpretations of their own creed. Then they created an entirely new religion, which had not even the remotest connection with the Messiah’s genuine teachings.

A Critical Review by a Christian Scholar

In this regard, the account of a Christian religious scholar named Reverend Charles Anderson Scott is particularly noteworthy. His lengthy article, entitled “Jesus Christ,” can be found in the fourteenth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In this article he says:

There is nothing in the first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) from which it could be inferred that their authors regarded Jesus as anything other than a human being. In their view, he was a man—such a man as was blessed by receiving the Spirit of God and maintained such an unbroken relationship with God that it would be appropriate to call him the son of God. Matthew himself describes him as the son of a carpenter, and in another place says that after Peter accepted him as the Messiah, he took him aside and rebuked him—(Matthew 16:22). In Luke we find that, after the crucifixion, when two of Jesus’ disciples were going toward Emmaus, they referred to him as a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. Luke 24:19

It is particularly noteworthy that, although before the composition of the Gospel of Mark it had become customary among Christians to use the word Lord for Jesus, neither Mark’s Gospel nor Matthew’s Gospel ever refers to Jesus by this word. On the contrary, in both books the word is used much more frequently for Allah. All three Gospels mention Jesus’ suffering emphatically and with due respect. But apart from Mark’s words concerning ransom (Mark 10:45) and a few words near the end, nowhere is there any indication that Jesus’ death had any connection with human sin and its atonement.

He further says:

That Jesus presented himself as a prophet is clear from various speeches in the Gospels. For example: “Nevertheless I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” (Luke 13:33). Most of the time he referred to himself as the son of Adam. Jesus never referred to himself as the son of God. When his contemporaries used this expression about him, its meaning was nothing other than that he was regarded as the Messiah. Indeed, he intended to designate himself merely by the word son. Moreover, he used the word Father figuratively to describe his relationship with God. He did not consider himself unique in this relationship. Rather, he regarded the people of the early age as his companions in this profound relationship with God. However, later experience and deep study of human nature compelled him to believe that in this respect he was unique and alone.

The author of this work says again:

These words spoken by Peter at the time of Pentecost present Jesus, a man sent by God, exactly as his contemporaries knew and regarded him. From the Gospels we learn that, from childhood through youth, Jesus passed quite naturally through the stages of physical and mental development. He felt hunger and thirst, became tired, and slept. He was astonished and bewildered. He also needed to learn facts from people. He suffered pain and hardship and died. Not only did he fail to claim that he heard and saw everything; rather, he denied it. In fact, to claim that he was present everywhere and saw and heard everything would contradict the entire conception we derive from the Gospels. Moreover, such a claim is wholly inconsistent with the ordeals he underwent at the places called Gethsemane and Calvary. To make them consistent, those events would have to be considered entirely baseless. It must be acknowledged that when the Messiah faced these conditions, he was confined within the ordinary limitations of human knowledge. If there was any exception within those limitations, it was only that he possessed prophetic foresight and certain direct knowledge of God. There is even less room in the Gospels for considering the Messiah omnipotent. Nowhere is there any indication that he acted independently, disregarding God. On the contrary, by repeatedly offering such prayers—that there was no way to escape this danger except through prayer—he clearly acknowledged that he was wholly dependent on God. This is important evidence of the historical reliability of these Gospels: although they were not composed before the Christian Church began to regard the Messiah as divine, these documents preserve, on the one hand, testimony that the Messiah was in reality human, while on the other hand they contain no testimony that he considered himself God.

Reverend Scott further says:

Only Saint Paul declares that, at the time of the Resurrection, Jesus was openly endowed with the status of the son of God through the act of resurrection itself and with full authority. The expression “son of God” evidently carries the implication of actual physical descent. Saint Paul clarified the matter elsewhere by calling Jesus God’s own son. Whether the early Christians or Saint Paul first used the title Lord for the Messiah in its proper religious sense cannot now be determined. Perhaps it was the former group who did so. But there is no doubt that Paul began to use this title in its fullest sense. He then applied to the Lord Jesus Christ many ideas and technical terms that were reserved for the Lord Jehovah (Allah) in the ancient sacred books. In this way he made his position still clearer. At the same time, he regarded the Messiah as equal to God in knowledge, intellect, and greatness, and called him, in the plain sense, the son of God. Nevertheless, even after making the Messiah equal to God in various respects, he refrained from proclaiming him to be Allah Himself.

A Review by Another Christian Expert

In an article entitled “Christianity” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Reverend George William Fox, while discussing the fundamental creed of the Christian Church, says: “The conceptual framework of the doctrine of the Trinity was borrowed from the Greeks. Jewish doctrine was rearranged and cast upon it. In this respect, it is a remarkable kind of jumble for us. The religious ideas are biblical, but they have been rearranged in the form of foreign philosophy.”

The terms Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were adopted from Jewish sources. Although Jesus rarely used the last term, and even when Saint Paul used it its meaning was completely unclear, in Jewish literature the word had almost assumed the form of a personality. Thus, the elements of this creed were Jewish—although before becoming part of that composite substance, Judaism itself had been influenced by Greek thought—while the matter as a whole was purely Greek. The question on which this creed was based was neither moral nor religious. Rather, it was entirely a philosophical question: what is the nature of the relationship among the three—Father, Son, and Spirit? The answer given by the Church is included in the creed adopted at the Council of Nicaea. In every respect, it is a symbol of Greek thought.

Evidence from the History of the Church

In this regard, the article entitled “Church History” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica is particularly noteworthy:

Before the end of the third Christian century, the Messiah had generally come to be accepted as the bodily manifestation of the Word. But many Christians did not acknowledge the Messiah as God. In the fourth century, fierce controversy arose over this matter, shaking the foundations of the Church. Finally, in 325 CE, at the Council of Nicaea, the concept of the Messiah’s divinity was duly recognized at the official level as a Christian creed and was formulated in specific terms. Although controversy continued for some time afterward, in the end the decision of Nicaea prevailed. In the East and the West it was accepted that Christians who held the correct creed ought to believe in it. Along with acknowledging the Son as God, the Spirit was also acknowledged as God and given a place with the Father and the Son in the baptismal formula and the established religious rites. Thus, as a consequence of the concept of the Messiah established at Nicaea, the doctrine of the Trinity became an inseparable part of Christianity. Then the claim that the Son’s divinity had taken form in the person of the Messiah created a second problem. Debate over this continued throughout the fourth century and for some time thereafter. The question was: what was the relationship between divinity and humanity in the person of the Messiah? In 451 CE, the Council of Chalcedon offered the solution that the person of the Messiah possessed two complete natures. Even after being united, both remained intact in their distinct characteristics without any alteration. At the Council held in Constantinople in 680 CE, it was added that both natures also possessed separate wills. That is, the Messiah possessed wills simultaneously. During this period, the Western Church devoted particular attention to sin and grace, and for many years debated the respective roles of God and man in salvation. Finally, at the Second Council of Orange in 529 CE, the doctrine was adopted that, because of Adam’s expulsion from Paradise, every human being is in such a condition that he cannot take a single step toward salvation until he receives new life through God’s grace by undergoing Christian baptism. Even after beginning this new life, he will not remain steadfast in goodness unless God’s grace continues to assist him forever. And this eternal grace of God can be obtained only through the Catholic Church.

The Result of the Controversy

From these accounts by Christian scholars, it becomes clear that the first thing that led the Christians astray was creed and excess in devotion and reverence. On the basis of this excess, the terms Lord and son of God were used for the Messiah. Divine attributes were ascribed to him, and the doctrine of atonement was invented. Yet there was not the slightest trace of these ideas in the teachings of the Messiah. Then, when the poisonous atmosphere of philosophy permeated the hearts and minds of the Christians, instead of recognizing this initial misguidance and trying to escape from it, they began supporting and explaining the errors of their earlier leaders. Rather than returning to the Messiah’s true teachings, they continued inventing new creeds with the help only of scripture and philosophy. In these verses of the Noble Qur’an, Christians have been warned about these misguidances. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Saff, note 8)

The Belief that Humans Are Sinful by Birth

The heavenly scriptures presented no concept of humans being sinful by birth, yet Christianity has regarded it as one of its fundamental creeds for fifteen or twenty centuries. Today, Catholic scholars themselves have begun saying that this creed has no basis. Reverend Herbert Haag, a renowned biblical scholar, says in his recent book, “Is Original Sin in Scripture,” that among the early Christians, at least until the third century, there was no such creed that humans were sinful by birth. As this idea began to spread among people, Christian scholars continued to oppose it for two centuries. Finally, in the fifth century, Saint Augustine, through the force of his logic, incorporated it into the fundamental creed of the Christians: that humankind inherited the burden of Adam’s sin. Now there is no way to attain salvation except through the atonement of the Messiah. (The Freedom Movement in India and the Muslims, vol. 2, pp. 191–199)

Calling Mary the Mother of God

In 431 CE, a council of the religious leaders of the Christian world convened at Ephesus. At this council, the doctrine that Jesus was God and that Mary was the Mother of God became the official creed of the Church. The Christians did not stop at making only the Messiah and the Holy Spirit gods; rather, they also made the Messiah’s mother a permanent deity. There is no indication in the Bible that Mary was divine or possessed divine holiness. For three hundred years after the Messiah, the Christian world remained unaware of this concept. Toward the end of the third century, certain religious scholars in Alexandria first spread the doctrine of Mary’s divinity and the worship of Mary. At first, however, the Church was not prepared to accept it; rather, it regarded Marian worship as a false creed. Then, when a storm of controversy arose in the Christian world over Nestorius’s idea that two permanently separate persons were joined in the person of the Messiah, this council convened in the city of Ephesus in 431 CE to settle the matter. After this council, the idea spread rapidly within the Church itself. By the time of the revelation of the Qur’an, Mary had become such a great goddess that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had become insignificant before her. Her images were installed in churches in various places. Worship ceremonies were held before her image. Prayers were addressed to her. She was regarded as the hearer of supplications, the remover of afflictions, and the helper of the helpless. For a Christian servant, the greatest means of faithfulness was to obtain the support and patronage of the Mother of God. In the preamble to a law, Emperor Justinian declared Mary to be the helper of his empire. His famous general Narses sought Mary’s help on the battlefield. Heraclius, the contemporary emperor of the Prophet Muhammad, believed that through the blessing of this image the banner would not be lowered. Although later, under the influence of the Reformation, Protestant Christians raised their voices against the worship of Mary, the Roman Catholic Church still believes in this doctrine today. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Ma’idah, note 101)

Prophecies about the Last Prophet in the Torah and the Gospel

(The prophecies mentioned in the Torah should have been described separately in the chapter on the Jews, and the statements of the Gospel separately. But the learned author has presented both prophecies together in such a way that separating them would diminish the importance of the discussion. Therefore, he has described them together.)

(Arabic———-)

And remember what Jesus, son of Mary, said: “O Children of Israel! I am Allah’s Messenger to you, confirming the Torah that came before me and remains, and giving glad tidings of a Messenger who will come after me, whose name will be Ahmad.” —Surah al-Saff: 6. (An important discussion of this disputed verse has been given; the discussion will appear later.)

These words of Jesus point to the glad tidings that Moses gave to his people concerning the Messenger of Allah. (Christians also believe in the teachings of Moses and the Torah.) In it he says:

The Appearance of a Prophet

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from among your brothers; you must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’ Then the LORD said to me, ‘They have spoken well. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him.’” —Deuteronomy 18:15–19

The Clear Prophecy of the Torah

This is the clear prophecy of the Torah, which cannot be attributed to anyone other than the Prophet Muhammad. Here Moses is conveying this command of Allah to his people: “I will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers.” It should be clear that the “brothers” of a nation cannot mean a tribe or lineage belonging to that very nation. Rather, it can mean a nation that has a close genealogical relationship with it. If the coming of a prophet from among the Children of Israel themselves were meant, it would have been said: “I will raise up for you a prophet from among you yourselves.” Therefore, the brothers of the Children of Israel must necessarily mean the people who are their relatives by descent because they are descendants of Abraham. Furthermore, this prophecy cannot concern any prophet of the Children of Israel, because after Moses not just one prophet, but many prophets came among the Children of Israel, and they are mentioned throughout the Bible.

The second point mentioned in this glad tiding is that the prophet who will be sent will be like Moses. It is absolutely clear that this resemblance does not concern facial appearance, physical form, or the circumstances of life, for in these respects no person is like another. Nor does it mean merely a resemblance in the qualities of prophethood, because these qualities are found alike in the prophets who came after Moses. Therefore, it cannot be the distinctive feature of any particular prophet that he resembles Moses in this quality. Once resemblance in these two respects is excluded from the discussion, the only other basis of resemblance by which the characteristics of the coming prophet can be understood is that this prophet—the prophet who would come in the future—would resemble Moses in bringing a permanent, self-sufficient Shariah. This characteristic is found in no one other than Muhammad. For before him, every prophet who came among the Children of Israel followed the Shariah of Moses. Not one of them came with a permanent, self-sufficient Shariah.

This interpretation is made even stronger by these words of the prophecy: this will occur according to your (that is, the Children of Israel’s) prayer which you offered to the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor see this great fire anymore, lest I die.” Then the LORD said to me, “They have spoken well. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put My words in his mouth.”

Here, Horeb refers to the mountain where Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) was first given the commandments of the Shariah. The prayer of the Children of Israel mentioned here means that if a Shariah were to be given in the future, it should not be given amid the terrifying circumstances that had arisen when the Shariah was revealed at the foot of Mount Horeb. This situation is mentioned both in the Qur’an and in connection with the giving of the covenant; it is also mentioned in the Qur’an and the Bible. (Surah al-Baqarah, verses 55–56; Surah al-A‘raf, verses 155, 171; the Bible, Book of Exodus 19:17–18.) In reply, Moses (peace be upon him) told the Children of Israel that Allah the Exalted had accepted this prayer of theirs. He said: “I will raise up for them a prophet in whose mouth I will place My words.” That is, when the future Shariah was to be given, the terrifying circumstances that had occurred at the foot of Mount Horeb would not be created. Rather, whenever he was appointed to the rank of this prophethood, Allah’s words would be placed in his mouth, and he would convey them to the people. After considering these clear statements, there can be no room for doubt that the one concerning whom this prophecy was made could be none other than the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). After Moses (peace be upon him), the permanent and complete Shariah was given specifically to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). When this Shariah was given, there was no public gathering such as had occurred for the Children of Israel at the foot of Mount Horeb. Nor were circumstances created at the time of laying down the laws of the Shariah like those created there. (Surah al-Taghabun, note 5)

A detailed discussion of the aforementioned verse of Surah al-Saff

The verse of Surah al-Saff whose translation was given at the very beginning of this chapter is a highly important verse of the Holy Qur’an. Opponents of Islam have raised vehement objections to this verse and committed the worst kind of breach of faith. For this verse states that the glad tidings of his coming were given with the name of Jesus (peace be upon him) explicitly mentioned. Therefore, a detailed discussion of this matter is necessary.

First: The name Ahmad is given here for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Ahmad has two meanings. One is a person who praises Allah the Exalted the most. The second is a person who is praised the most, or the most praiseworthy among servants. It is established from authentic hadiths that this too was one of the names of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). According to a narration from Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari (may Allah be pleased with him) in Muslim and Abu Dawud, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: (Arabic——) “I am Muhammad, I am Ahmad, and I am al-Hashir.” Imam Malik, al-Bukhari, Muslim, al-Darimi, al-Tirmidhi, and al-Nasa’i have narrated this statement from Jubayr ibn Mut‘im (may Allah be pleased with him). This name of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was well known among the noble Companions. In his poetry, Hassan ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) says: (Arabic*******)

Allah, the angels crowding around His Throne, and all holy beings send blessings upon the blessed Ahmad.

History also proves that the name of the revered Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was not only Muhammad but also Ahmad. No example can be found in the whole of Arabic literature of anyone before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) being named Ahmad. After him, countless people have been named Ahmad or Ghulam Ahmad. What greater proof could there be than that, from the time of his prophethood until today, this name of his has been so famous and well known throughout the Muslim ummah? If this had not been his name, then which Ahmad did those who named their sons Ghulam Ahmad consider them servants of?

Second: The Gospel of John bears witness that, at the time of the coming of the Messiah, the Children of Israel were awaiting three persons: first, the Messiah; second, Elijah, that is, the return of Prophet Elijah; and third, that Prophet.

The wording of the Gospel is as follows:

And this is John’s testimony: when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” he confessed and did not deny it; he confessed, “I am not the Christ.” They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you that Prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” They had been sent from the Pharisees. They also asked him, “If you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor that Prophet, why then are you baptizing?” —John 1:19–25

These words prove that, in addition to Jesus the Messiah and Elijah, the Children of Israel were awaiting another prophet. Nor was he John. Belief in the coming of that prophet was so famous and universally known among the Children of Israel that merely saying “that Prophet” was sufficient to indicate him; there was no need to say that he was the one whose glad tidings had been given in the Torah. Moreover, it is clear that the coming of the prophet to whom they were referring was certain. For when John was asked these questions, he did not say, “No other prophet will come; whom are you talking about?”

The Gospel according to John’s glad tidings

Third: Now consider the prophecies narrated successively in the Gospel of John, from chapter 14 through chapter 16: “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may remain with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth; the world neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, because He dwells with you and will be in you.” —John 14:25–26

“I will not speak with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” —14:30

“The Spirit of truth, whom I will send to you from the Father, who proceeds from the Father—when that Helper comes, he will bear witness concerning me.” —15:26

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is better for you that I go, for if I do not go, that Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” —16:7

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will tell you about things to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he takes what is mine and will declare it to you.” —16:12–15

The Coming One Will Be a World Leader

In the statements quoted above from the Gospel written by John, Jesus (peace be upon him) gives the glad tidings of someone who would come after him. He says of him that he will be the leader of the world, or its world leader (Sardar of the World), and will remain forever. He will show all the paths of truth and himself bear witness to Jesus. In these statements of John, attempts have been made to obscure the subject by using terms such as the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of truth. Nevertheless, if all the statements are read carefully, it becomes clear that the one whose coming is announced is not a spirit, but a human being—an extraordinary person whose teaching will be comprehensive and universal and will remain intact until the Day of Resurrection. In the Urdu translation, this special person is called a helper; and regarding the Greek word used in the original Gospel written by John, Christians insist that it was Paracletus.

Confusion among Christians over the word Paracletus

Christian scholars themselves face extreme difficulty in determining the meaning of the word. In the original Greek, the word Paraclete has several meanings: calling toward a place, crying out for help, warning, inspiring, urging, praying, and so forth. The Greek meaning of this word is also rendered as consoling, calming, or encouraging. Wherever this word is used in the Bible, none of these meanings is entirely appropriate. Origen used the word Consolator (one who consoles) in some of his translations and Deperecator in others. Other commentators, however, rejected both. First, they are not correct according to Greek grammar. Second, this meaning does not work wherever the word occurs. Some other commentators used the word Teacher in translating it, but according to Greek usage this meaning cannot be accepted. Tertullian and Augustine gave preference to the word Advocate. Others used words such as Assistant, Confortur, and Consoler. —(See Encyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, “Word Paracleture.”)

The possibility of a verbal alteration

Now the interesting point is that there is another word in Greek—Periclytos. It means “praised.” This word is completely synonymous with the word Muhammad, and there is a great similarity in pronunciation between Periclytos and Paracletus. It is not impossible that Christian scholars and priests, who were accustomed to altering their scriptures freely according to their own wishes, considered this word in the prophecy quoted by John contrary to their creed and beliefs and made some change in it. Since the original Gospel written by John in Greek is no longer extant anywhere, it is difficult to prove which of these two words was used there.

The original Syriac word

It is not possible to decide solely on the basis of which word John used in Greek, because that was a translation from the original language. The language of the Messiah was the Syriac language of Palestine. Therefore, the word he used in his glad tidings must necessarily have been a Syriac word. Fortunately, we find that original Syriac word in the biography written by Ibn Hisham (the Sirah of Ibn Hisham). From that same book we also learn what its Greek equivalent was. Citing Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham quotes the complete translation of chapters 15, verses 23–27, and chapter 16, verse 1, of the Gospel written by John. In it, instead of using the Greek word Fāraqlit (Paracletus/Periclytos), he uses the word Munhamanna. Ibn Ishaq or Ibn Hisham then explains that Munhamanna means Muhammad in Syriac and Periclytos in Greek. (Ibn Hisham, vol. 1, p. 248.)

It is important to note that, historically, the language of the general inhabitants of Palestine remained Syriac until the ninth century. From the middle of the seventh century, this region became part of the territories conquered by Islam. Ibn Ishaq died in 768 CE and Ibn Hisham in 828 CE. This means that, in the era of both historians, the Christians of Palestine spoke Syriac. It was not difficult for these two historians to establish contact with the Christian subjects of their own country. Moreover, at that time millions of Greek-speaking Christians lived in the territories conquered by Islam. Thus, it was not at all difficult for them to know which Greek word was equivalent to a given Syriac word. Now, if the Syriac word Munhamanna was used in Ibn Ishaq’s translation, and Ibn Ishaq, in his explanation, gave its equivalent in Arabic as Muhammad and in Greek as Periclytos, then there is no room for doubt that Jesus (peace be upon him) gave the glad tidings of the coming of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), mentioning him by name. At the same time, it becomes clear that the original word used in the Greek Gospel written by John was Periclytos, which Christian scholars later changed to Paracletus.

King Negus’s acknowledgment of the truth

An even earlier historical testimony is found in the narration of Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him). He says that when the emigrants to Abyssinia were summoned by the Negus to his court, and he heard from Ja‘far ibn Abu Talib about the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), he said:

“Congratulations to you and to the One from whom you have come. I testify that he is the Messenger of Allah, and that he is the very person whose coming Jesus son of Mary gave glad tidings of.”

This story is narrated in various hadiths from Ja‘far himself and from Umm Salamah. It proves not only that, at the beginning of the seventh century, the Negus knew that Jesus (peace be upon him) had prophesied the coming of a prophet; it also proves that a clear indication of that prophet existed in the Gospel, making it easy for the Negus to conclude that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was that prophet. Of course, this account does not tell us whether the Negus learned of Jesus’s (peace be upon him) glad tidings through the Gospel written by John or through some other means.

The glad tidings in the Gospel of Barnabas

In the prophecies quoted by Barnabas in his Gospel concerning the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), Jesus (peace be upon him) sometimes mentions the name of the Prophet Muhammad, sometimes calls him the Messenger of Allah, sometimes uses the word Messiah for him, and sometimes calls him “the Praised” (Admirable). In other places he uses such explicit words that they are entirely synonymous with “There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah” (peace and blessings be upon him). It is not possible to quote all these glad tidings in full, because they are so numerous and are presented in different places with varying preceding and following contexts that an entire book could be written from them. A few examples are quoted below: (The Gospel of Barnabas was translated into English by Lonsdale and Laura Ragg and published in 1907 by Clarendon Press, Oxford. For English-educated readers, quotations from that book are given in English—translator.)

“The prophets whom God sent into the world, numbering one hundred and forty-four thousand, spoke in obscure terms. But after me shall come the Splendour of all the Prophets and holy ones, and shall shed light upon the darkness of all that the prophets have said, because he is the Messenger of God.” (Chapter 17, Gospel of Barnabas.)

The Pharisees and Levites said, “If you are not the Messiah, Elijah, or any other prophet, why then are you giving a new teaching and presenting yourself as greater than the Messiah?” Jesus replied, “The miracles that God is showing through my hands demonstrate that I do what God wills. Otherwise, I do not consider myself worthy to be greater than the one you are speaking of. I am not worthy even to unfasten the laces of the socks or the straps of the shoes of that Messenger of God whom you call the Messiah, who was created before me and will come after me, and who will bring the words of truth, so that his religion will never end.” —Verse 42 (They said: If thou be not the Messiah nor Elihah, or any Prophet, wherefore, dost thou preach new doctrine, and make thyself of more account than the Messiah?

Jesus answered: The miracles which God worketh by my hands show that I speak that which God willeth, nor indeed do I make myself to be accounted as him of whom ye speak, for I am not worthy to unloose the ties of the hosen or the latchets of the shoes of the Messenger of God whom ye call Messiah, who was made before me, and shall come after me, and shall bring the words of truth, so that his faith shall have no end—(Chapter 42, The Gospel of Barnabas).

“Truly I tell you that every prophet who comes has been born only for one nation, as a sign of God’s mercy. Therefore, the words of the prophets reach no one other than the people for whom they were sent. But when the Messenger of God comes, God will give him, as it were, the seal of His own hand. He will come with authority over the ungodly and eradicate idolatry so completely that Satan will be confounded.” (After a lengthy conversation with the disciples,) Jesus (peace be upon him) states explicitly that this prophet would be born among the Children of Ishmael, not among the Children of Isaac. —Chapter 43. (Verily I say unto you that every prophet when he is come hath borne to one nation only the mark of the mercy of God. And so their words were not extended save to that people to which they were sent. But the messenger of God, when he shall come, God shall give to him as it were the seal of his hand, insomuch that he shall carry salvation and mercy to all the nations of the world that shall receive his doctrine. He shall come with power upon the ungodly, and shall destroy idolatry, insomuch that he shall make Satan confounded. Believe me, for verily I say to you, that the promise was made in Ishmael, not in Isaac—Chapter 43, Gospel of Barnabas.)

“Therefore I tell you that the Messenger of God is a radiance through which almost every creature of God will find joy. For he is adorned with the spirit of understanding and counsel, wisdom and strength, fear and love, vigilance and restraint. He is endowed with the spirit of generosity and mercy, justice and God-consciousness, gentleness and patience. Compared with those of God’s creatures whom He has granted these qualities, he has received them threefold. How blessed will be the time when he comes into the world. Believe that I have seen him and shown him respect. Thus all the prophets have seen him. As soon as God saw his spirit, He granted him prophethood; and when I see him, my soul finds peace. Then I say: O Muhammad, may God be with you, and may He make me worthy to tie your shoelace. For if I attain this distinction, I shall become a great prophet and a holy being of God.” —Chapter 44. (I therefore say unto you that the Messenger of God is a splendor that shall give gladness to nearly all that God hath made, for he is adorned with the spirit of understanding and of counsel, the spirit of wisdom and might, the spirit of fear and love, the spirit of prudence and temperance, he is adorned with the spirit of charity and mercy, the spirit of justice and piety, the spirit of gentleness and patience, which he hath received from God three times more than he hath given to all his creatures. O blessed time, when he shall come to the world! Believe me that I have seen him and have done him reverence, even as every prophet hath seen him: Seeing that of his spirit God giveth to them prophecy. And when I saw him my soul was filled with consolation, saying: O Mohammed, God be with thee and may He make me worthy to unite thy shoelatchet, for obtaining this I shall be a great prophet and holy one of God—Chapter 44.)

“Do not become burdened with sorrow, and do not be afraid. For I did not create you; rather, God is our Creator, and He created you. He will protect and sustain you. As for me, I have now come into the world to prepare the way for that Messenger of God—he will bring salvation to the world. But beware lest you be deceived, for many false prophets will come and, using my name, corrupt my Bible.”

Then Andrew said, “Master, tell us some of his signs so that we may recognize him.”

Jesus said, “He will not come in your era. He will come a few years after you, when my Gospel (Bible) has become so corrupted that at most thirty believers will remain. At that time God will show mercy to the world and send His Messenger, over whom a cloud will cast its shadow. Through this, he will be recognized as God’s chosen one, and through him God will become known in the world. He will possess immense power against the godless and eradicate idolatry from the world. I rejoice greatly, because through him our God will be known and His holiness will be proclaimed. The world will learn of my truth. He will take revenge on those who regard me as something greater than a human being. He will bring a truth clearer than the truth of all the prophets.” —Chapter 72. (Let not your heart be troubled, neither be ye fearful: for I have not created you, but God our creator who hath created you will protect you. As for me, I am now come to the world to prepare the way for the messenger of God, who shall bring salvation to the world. But beware that ye be not deceived, for many false prophets shall come who shall take my words and contaminate my gospel. Then said Andrew, Master, tell us some sign, that we may know him. Jesus answered: He will not come in your time, but will come some years after you, when my gospel shall be annulled, insomuch that there shall be scarcely thirty faithful. At that time God will have mercy on the world, and so He will send His messenger, over whose head will rest a white cloud, whereby he shall be known as one elect of God, and shall be manifested by him to the world. He shall come with great power against the ungodly, and shall destroy idolatry upon the earth. And it rejoiceth me, because that through him our God shall be known and glorified, and I shall be known to be true, and he will execute vengeance against those who shall say that I am more than man. He shall come with truth clearer than that of all the prophets—Chapter 72, The Gospel of Barnabas.)

“By God’s oath, the oath was taken in Jerusalem, at Solomon’s Mosque, and nowhere else. But believe that a time will come when God will send down His mercy upon another city. Then true worship of Him will be possible everywhere, and through His mercy God will accept valid prayers in every place.”

Jesus said, “I was indeed sent as the prophet of salvation for the descendants of Israel. But after me the Messiah will come, sent by God for the whole world, for whose sake God created this entire world. Then Allah will be worshipped throughout the world and His mercy will descend.” —Chapter 82. (For the promise of God was made in Jerusalem, in the temple of Solomon, and not elsewhere. But believe me, a time will come that God will give His mercy in another city, and in every place it will be possible to worship Him in truth. And God in every place will have accepted true prayer with mercy—I am indeed sent to the house of Israel as prophet of salvation, but after me shall come the Messiah, sent of God to all the world, for whom God hath made the world. And then through all the world will God be worshipped, and mercy received—Chapter 82, The Gospel of Barnabas.)

Jesus said, “By the oath of the Ever-Living God, in whose grasp is my life, I am not that Messiah whose coming all the nations of the world await, concerning whom God promised our father Abraham, saying, ‘Through your descendants all the nations of the world will receive blessing.’”

But when God takes me away from the world, Satan will again raise this accursed sedition, causing the irreligious to believe that I am God and the son of God. Thus they will corrupt my words and teaching. So much so that scarcely thirty believers will remain. Then, when God shows mercy to the world, He will send His Messenger, for whom He created all these things, who will come from the south with power and destroy the idols and the idol-worshippers. He will take from Satan the dominion he has acquired over mankind. He will bring God’s mercy for those who believe in him. Blessed are those who accept his words. — (Chapter 96) (Jesus answered, As God liveth in whose presence my soul standeth I am not the Messiah whom all the tribes of the earth expect, even as God promised to our father Abraham, saying, In thy seed will bless all the tribes of the earth. But when God shall take me away from the world, Satan will raise again this accursed sedition, by making the impious believe that I am God and son of God, whence my words and my doctrine shall be contaminated, insomuch that scarcely shall there remain thirty faithful ones, whereupon God will have mercy upon the world, and will send his Messenger for whom he hath made all things, who shall come from the south with power, and shall destroy the idols with the idolators, who shall take away the dominion from Satan which he hath over men. He shall bring with him the mercy of God for the salvation of them that shall believe in him, and blessed is he who shall believe his words. — (Chapter 96 — The Gospel of Barnabas).

The priest asked, What will that Messiah be called, and what signs will announce his coming?

Jesus replied, The name of that Messiah is Praiseworthy. For when God created his soul, He Himself gave him this name and placed him in a celestial rank. God said, O Muhammad! Wait, for your sake I shall create Paradise, the world, and many other things, and I shall grant all these to you as a reward. Those who show you kindness will be shown kindness, and those who curse you will be accursed. When I send you into the world, I shall send you as the Prophet of salvation. Your word will be true, so much so that neither earth nor heaven will endure, but your religion will endure. Therefore, his blessed name is Muhammad. — Chapter 97) (Then said the priest: How shall the Messiah be called, and what sign shall reveal his coming?)

Jesus answered: The name of the Messiah is Admirable. For God Himself gave him the name when He had created his soul and placed it in celestial splendor. God said, Wait, Muhammad, for your sake I will create Paradise, the world, and a great multitude of creatures, of which I make you a gift; so that whoever blesses you shall be blessed, and whoever curses you shall be accursed. When I send you into the world, I shall send you as my messenger of salvation, and your word shall be true, so much so that heaven and earth shall pass away, but your faith shall never fail. Muhammad is his blessed name. (Chapter 97 — The Gospel of Barnabas).

The priest asked, Will other prophets come after that Messenger of God? Jesus replied, No true prophet sent by God will come after him. But many false prophets will come, for which I am greatly saddened. Satan will bring them forth by God’s just decree, and they will hide behind the pretext of my Gospel. — (Chapter 97) (The priest answered, After the coming of the messenger of God shall other prophets come? Jesus answered, There shall not come after him true prophets sent by God, but there shall come a great number of false prophets, whereat I sorrow, for Satan shall raise them up by the just judgment of God, and they shall hide themselves under the pretext of my Gospel. — Chapter 97 — The Gospel of Barnabas) Jesus said, Know, O Barnabas, that one of my disciples will sell me to my enemies for thirty pieces of silver. I am certain that the one who sells me will be killed in my name. For God will raise me up from the earth and change the appearance of that traitor so that everyone will think that he is me. Nevertheless, when he suffers that humiliating death, my humiliation will be recounted in the world for a long time. But when God’s holy Messenger Muhammad comes, my disgrace will be removed. God will do this because I have acknowledged his truth. He will reward me in such a way that people will know that I am alive and have no connection with that humiliating death. — (Chapter 112) (Know, O Barnabas, that I shall be sold by one of my disciples for thirty pieces of money, whereupon I am sure that he who shall sell me shall be slain in my name, for God shall take me up from the earth and shall change the appearance of the traitor so that everyone shall believe him to be me. Nevertheless, when he dies an evil death, I shall abide in that dishonor for a long time in the world. But when Muhammad shall come, the sacred Messenger of God, that infamy shall be taken away. And this shall God do because I have confessed the truth of the Messiah, who shall give me this reward, that I shall be known to be alive and a stranger to that death of infamy. — Chapter 112 — The Gospel of Barnabas).

Indeed, I tell you that if the truth had not been distorted in the Book of Moses, God would not have given a second Book to our father David. And if David’s Book had not been corrupted, God would not have given me the Gospel. For our God is unchanging, and He has given the same message to all people. Therefore, when the Messenger of God comes, he will cleanse my Book of the distortions introduced into it by the godless. — (Chapter 124) (Verily I say unto you that if the truth had not been erased from the book of Moses, God would not have given to David our father the second. And if the book of David had not been contaminated, God would not have committed the Gospel to me, seeing that the Lord our God is unchangeable and hath spoken but one message to all men. Wherefore, when the Messenger of God shall come, he shall come to cleanse away all wherewith the ungodly have contaminated my book. — Chapter 124 — The Gospel of Barnabas).

Christianity in Arabia

Additions by the two compilers

[When some material was gathered under this heading, it became apparent that the matters needed to begin the discussion were lacking. This gap could be filled by collecting material from the works of other authors. These are given below as quotations. — [The two compilers]

First: Christianity entered Arabia in the third century CE, when corruption and innovations (newly invented doctrines) were gradually spreading in the churches of the East. General historians say that this was the age of Dhu Nuwas. But I do not agree with this, because he died nearly four hundred years earlier. This religion spread most widely in Najran, but did not become widespread elsewhere in Arabia. It did, however, spread among Banu Rabi‘ah and the Ghassan tribes, and to some extent among Quda‘ah. Notes to the Urdu translation of Ibn Khaldun’s History, Volume One, Allama Hakim Ahmad Husain Allahabadi.

Second: Christianity became established among Rabi‘ah, Ghassan, and parts of Quda‘ah. It seems that they adopted Christianity from the Romans, since Arabs frequently traveled to their lands for trade and commerce. In Hirah, various Arab tribes collectively embraced Christianity. They were called the ‘Abbad, among whom was ‘Adi ibn Zayd al-‘Abbadi. There were also Christian Arabs among Banu Aghlab. (Urdu translation of Bulugh al-Adab, Pir Muhammad Hasan, Volume Three, p. 152.)

Third: Banu Ghassan adopted Christianity in 330 CE. Thereafter the religion spread through Iran, Arabia, Bahrain, the Faran Desert, Dumat al-Jandal, and the regions along the Euphrates and Tigris. The Negus and the Caesar jointly worked to spread it. From 395 to 513 CE, special efforts were made to propagate the religion, and numerous copies of the Gospel were circulated in Yemen. — Rahmatul-lil-‘Alamin, Volume One, p. 31, note.

Fourth: Before the Tubba‘ kings, all classes of the Sabaeans were star-worshippers. Their greatest gods were Shams and al-Makkah. In the Himyarite language, the moon is called al-Makkah. In 330 CE, Christianity began causing upheaval under the influence of the Egyptian Romans on the African coast behind Yemen. With the help of the Romans of Syria, the city of Najran on the Yemeni frontier embraced Christianity. Under these surrounding influences, Yemen’s Tubba‘ kings could not protect themselves from Christianity either. Although star worship ceased, their idols were not removed. The names Shams, al-Makkah, and Ashtar began appearing alongside the name al-Rahman, a name assigned in the pre-Islamic period to the Jews and Christians.

Fifth: In this region, Judaism and Christianity were the two civilized and revealed religions. They were rivals. It was learned in the preceding chapter that the Sabaean people of Himyar were in continual conflict with the Romans and Abyssinians. Therefore, the Tubba‘ kings of Himyar favored Judaism over Christianity. No evidence has been found that any Tubba‘ king besides ‘Abd Kalil embraced Christianity. According to Arab accounts, ‘Abd Kalil was also a Christian. Their Christianity is confirmed by a stone inscription. Among the remaining Tubba‘ kings were a small number of star-worshippers and a larger number of Jews. al-Tabari’s history says that the first to embrace Judaism was As‘ad Abu Karib (Arabic***). The royal religion spread among the common people as well. Thus conflict arose between Judaism and Christianity in Yemen.

Sixth: The Romans opened up the sea route and caused the markets of Saba to decline. Not content with this, they invaded Yemen in 20 BCE. The Abyssinian Aksumites, who had initially been born in the same land as the Roman Egyptians and later adopted this religion, repeatedly expressed annoyance at the Romans’ incitement. Himyar did not miss any opportunity; whenever possible, it plundered Roman merchants at sea. In northern Arabia, Iran and Rome were engaged in mutual conflict. It was natural for Himyar to sympathize with the Iranians.

The Romans wanted to settle the matter through a treaty. Toward the end of the sixth century CE, the Roman Caesar Justinian sent an ambassador to Yemen to the Tubba‘ ruler. ——- This treaty proposal could not extinguish the fire of hostility. Dhu Nuwas was ruler at that time.

Seventh: Roman merchants reached the coastal regions of Yemen with commercial goods, and wherever they traveled, they distributed the gifts of Christianity along with their merchandise. Christian priests also traveled into the interior of the country for special purposes. Christianity first flourished in Aden and then in Adanane, where tree worship had previously prevailed. The techniques seen in Europe today existed in the past as well. Religious and political objectives have always been pursued under the cover of trade. The same religious and political objectives were pursued under the cover of trade in that era. Through these methods, Najran in Yemen was transformed into a center of Christianity. In other words, it became a place of hope and support for the Romans and Abyssinians. The Himyarite Jews burned with anger at this.

The Story of the People of the Trench

(The author’s own writing begins here)

Various incidents are narrated in which fires were lit in trenches and believers were thrown into them. This shows that such satanic persecution has been inflicted many times in the world.

The Account Narrated by Suhaib al-Rumi (may Allah be pleased with him)

Among these is an incident narrated by Suhaib al-Rumi (may Allah be pleased with him) to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): A king had a magician. When the magician grew old, he said to the king, Give me a boy who can learn magic from me. The king assigned a boy to this task. As the boy traveled to the magician, he began meeting a priest, who was perhaps a follower of Jesus (peace be upon him). Influenced by the priest’s words, the boy embraced faith. After receiving instruction from the priest, he acquired miraculous powers. Through him, the blind began to regain their sight and lepers began to recover. When the king learned that the boy had believed in monotheism, he first killed the priest and then tried to kill the boy. But no instrument could kill him. Finally, the boy said, If you wish to kill me, then shoot an arrow at me in a public gathering while saying, ‘In the name of the Lord of this boy.’

The king killed the boy in this manner. After this, the people cried out together, We believe in the Lord of this boy. The king’s counselors said, This is precisely what you were trying to avoid. The people have abandoned your religion and adopted the boy’s religion. Seeing this, the king became extremely enraged. He then ordered trenches to be dug beside the road and filled with blazing fire. Everyone who refused to renounce faith was thrown into the fire. (Ahmad, Muslim, al-Nasa’i, al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Jarir, ‘Abd al-Razzaq, Ibn Abi Shaybah, al-Tabarani, ‘Abd ibn Humayd).

An Incident Narrated by ‘Ali (may Allah be pleased with him)

A second incident was narrated by ‘Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). He said that a Persian king drank wine, became intoxicated, and committed adultery with his own sister. Thus an illicit relationship developed between them. When the matter became known, the king declared that God had made marriage to one’s sister lawful. The people did not accept this, so the king compelled them to accept it through various punishments. Those who refused were thrown into fiery trenches. ‘Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said that from then onward, the practice of marrying prohibited women began among the Magians (fire-worshippers). — Ibn Jarir

An Israelite Account

A third incident was narrated by Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him). Perhaps he quoted it from an Israelite account. He said that the people of Babylon forced the Children of Israel to renounce the religion of Moses (peace be upon him). Those who refused were thrown into fire-filled trenches. — Ibn Jarir, ‘Abd ibn Humayd.

The Incident of Najran

The incident of Najran is the most famous. Islamic historians such as Ibn Hisham, al-Tabari, Ibn Khaldun, and the author of Mu‘jam al-Buldan have narrated it. In summary, the Himyarite (Yemeni) king Tubban As‘ad Abu Karib once went to Yathrib and, influenced by the Jews, embraced Judaism. He then took two scholars of Banu Qurayzah to Yemen. There he propagated Judaism extensively. After his death, his son Dhu Nuwas succeeded him. He attacked Najran, the Christians’ stronghold in southern Arabia, in order to eradicate Christianity there and force its inhabitants to embrace Judaism. Ibn Hisham says that these people were followers of the true religion of Jesus (peace be upon him). Having reached Najran, he invited the people to accept Judaism, but they refused. He then threw many people into fire-filled trenches and burned them alive, while many others were killed. A total of twenty thousand people were killed. A man named Dhu Tha‘labان fled from among the people of Najran. According to one account, he went to the Caesar of Rome, and according to another, to the Abyssinian king, the Negus, and sought redress for this oppression. According to the first account, the Caesar informed the Negus; according to the second, the Negus asked the Caesar to send warships. In any event, eventually seventy thousand Abyssinian soldiers under a commander named Aryat invaded Yemen. Dhu Nuwas was killed. The Jewish state came to an end, and Yemen became part of the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia.

Christian Missionaries in Yemen

The accounts of Islamic historians are not merely corroborated by other historical sources; those sources also provide much more detailed information. The first Abyssinian Christian control over Yemen was established in 34 CE and remained intact until 378 CE. From that time Christian missionaries began entering Yemen. Around that period, a devout worshipper and Christian wandering ascetic named Faymiyun, who possessed the ability to reveal miracles, arrived in Najran. He explained to the people there how evil idolatry was. Through his preaching, the people of Najran embraced Christianity. Their government was administered by three leaders. The first was a powerful chief, like the leader of a tribal confederation, responsible for foreign affairs, international treaties, and the army. The second was a custodian who oversaw internal affairs. The third was the usquf, or bishop, whose task was religious leadership. Najran was a highly important city in southern Arabia. It was a center of trade, commerce, and industry. Factories producing silk, leather, and weapons were located there. The famous Yemeni hallah (garment) was made there. Therefore, Dhu Nuwas attacked this important place not only for religious reasons but also for political and economic ones. He killed Harithah, the leading man of Najran (Arethas, according to Syriac historians). In front of his wife Ruma, his two daughters were killed, and she was forced to drink their blood. She too was then killed. The bones of the bishop Paul were removed from his grave and burned. Men and women, children and old people, priests and clerics—all were thrown into fire-filled trenches. It is reported that between twenty and forty thousand people were killed. This event took place in 523 CE, and in 525 CE the Abyssinians invaded Yemen, killed Dhu Nuwas, and brought his Himyarite kingdom to an end. Evidence of its truth has been found in the inscription of Hisn al-Ghurab discovered in Yemen by modern archaeologists.

Contemporary Witnesses to the Incident of the People of the Trench

Detailed accounts of the incident of the People of the Trench appear in various sixth-century Christian writings and essays; some were written at that time and based on what eyewitnesses reported. Three of the authors were contemporaries of the event. One was named Procopius, and the second was Cosmas Indicopleustes. At the direction of the Negus Elesboan, he translated the Greek works of Ptolemy into English and lived in the Abyssinian coastal city of Adulis. The third was Johannes Malala. Later historians quoted the incident from him. Then Johannes of Ephesus (died 585 CE) recorded the persecution of the Christians of Najran in his ecclesiastical history. He quoted the incident from a letter by the contemporary narrator, Bishop Simeon. The letter was written in the name of Abbot Von Gabula. In his letter, Simeon quoted the incident from an eyewitness account by the people of Yemen. The letter was published in Rome in 1881 and again in 1890 in connection with an account of the condition of the Christian martyrs. Patriarch Dionysius and Zacharia of Mitylene also described the incident in their Syriac histories. Bishop Paulus of Edessa wrote a lament or elegy for those killed in Najran, which is still available. The Syriac work al-Himyar and its English translation, Book of Himyarites, were published in London in 1924. This work acknowledges the truth of the accounts of Muslim historians. Some Abyssinian manuscripts from that period and nearby periods are preserved in the British Museum, providing support for this account. Philby wrote in his travelogue Arabian Highlands that the place in Najran where the incident of the People of the Trench occurred is still well known. Some images carved in stone have been found at a place near Umm Khariq, and present-day residents of Najran know the location where the Ka‘bah of Najran stood (they had given it that name, and it was called the Ka‘bah of Najran. — Author).

Construction of a Palace in the Form of the Ka‘bah

After the Abyssinian Christians conquered Najran, they built a building there in the shape of the Ka‘bah. They wanted to give it central status in place of the Ka‘bah in Makkah. Its priests wore turbans and regarded it as a sanctuary. Financial assistance for this Ka‘bah was sent from the Roman Empire. At this Ka‘bah of Najran, priests led by their chief bishop and others appeared before the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) for debate, and the famous incident of mutual imprecation took place, which is mentioned in verse 61 of Surah Aal ‘Imran. (Surah al-Saff, note 7)

Establishment of Christian Control in Yemen

To avenge the persecution inflicted by Dhu Nuwas, Yemen’s Jewish ruler in Najran, upon the followers of the Messiah (peace be upon him), the Christian government of Abyssinia invaded Yemen, ended Himyarite rule, and established Abyssinian rule over the entire region in 525 CE. All this occurred through the mutual cooperation of the Roman government in Constantinople and the government of Abyssinia, because the Abyssinians had no significant warships at that time. The Romans supplied warships, and with their help the Abyssinians landed on the Yemeni coast with seventy thousand soldiers. It should first be understood that these events were not merely the result of religious motives. Rather, economic and political objectives lay behind them, and these motivated them to undertake this action. Avenging the blood of the persecuted Christians was nothing more than a pretext. From the day the Roman Empire established its control over Egypt and Syria, it had sought to take from the Arabs the monopoly they had enjoyed for centuries over the trade between East Africa, India, Indonesia, and other lands and the territories under Roman rule, and to bring that trade under its own control. Thus it could enjoy the full profits and destroy the mediation of Arab merchants. For this purpose, in 24 or 25 BCE, Caesar Augustus sent a large fleet to the western coast of Arabia under the command of General Aelius Gallus, so that it could bring under Roman control the land stretching from southern Arabia to Syria. But Arabia’s difficult geography defeated this attempt. The Romans then stationed their fleet in the Red Sea, as a result of which all Arab maritime trade was halted. Only trade by land remained available to them. To gain control of this land route as well, they formed an alliance with the Christian government of Abyssinia and helped it conquer Yemen with their warships.

How Abraha Became the Ruler of Yemen

Historians have given various accounts of the Abyssinian army’s invasion of Yemen. Ibn Kathir says that the campaign was led by two commanders, one named Aryat and the other Abraha. Muhammad ibn Ishaq says that both agree that Aryat and Abraha later came into conflict and Aryat was killed. Abraha then gained control of the country. Thereafter, he persuaded the emperor to appoint him as the Abyssinian emperor’s representative in Yemen. Greek and Syriac historians, however, say that after the Abyssinians conquered Yemen and began killing the Yemeni chiefs who opposed them one by one, a certain chief—called Esymphaesus by the Greek historians—submitted to the Abyssinians, agreed to pay tribute, and obtained from the emperor of Abyssinia an appointment as governor of Yemen. But the Abyssinian army revolted against him and made Abraha governor in his place. This man had been the slave of a Greek merchant from the Abyssinian port of Adulis. He succeeded in gaining influence over the Abyssinian army invading Yemen. Every army sent by the Abyssinian emperor to suppress him either joined him or was defeated. Finally, after the emperor of Abyssinia died, his successor accepted Abraha as his representative in Yemen. Greek historians refer to him as Abrames, and Syriac historians as Abraham. Abraha was probably the Abyssinian pronunciation; in Arabic, his name was pronounced Ibrahim.

Gradually, this man, Abraha, became the independent king of Yemen, while acknowledging only nominal supremacy of the emperor of Abyssinia. He presented himself as the emperor’s representative. The extent of his influence may be gauged from the fact that when he completed the repair of the Marib Dam and held a grand celebration, ambassadors of the Roman emperor, the emperor of Iran, the ruler of Hira, the ruler of Ghassan, and others attended it. An account of this is found in an inscription installed on the Marib Dam. The inscription still exists, and Glaser quoted it.

The Campaign to Establish Political, Commercial, and Religious Authority over the Arabs

After fully consolidating his rule in Yemen, Abraha began working toward the very objective intended by the Roman Empire and its Abyssinian Christian allies from the beginning of this campaign: on the one hand, spreading Christianity in Arabia, and on the other, capturing the trade that passed through the Arabs between the lands of the East and the territories under Roman control. This need became urgent because the power struggle between Rome and Iran’s Sasanian kingdom had closed all Roman trade routes with the eastern lands. Therefore, Abraha built a magnificent church in San‘a, the capital of Yemen. Arab historians called it al-Qalīs, al-Qulays, or al-Qulayyās. This is the Arabic pronunciation of the Greek word Ekklesia or Ecclesia. The Urdu word kalisa is also derived from the Greek word. Muhammad ibn Ishaq says that after completing this work, Abraha informed the emperor of Abyssinia that he would not rest until he had diverted the Arabs’ pilgrimage from the Ka‘bah to this church. (After gaining political authority over Yemen, the Christians continually sought to establish a second Ka‘bah opposite the Ka‘bah and make it the central place of the Arabs. They also built a Ka‘bah in Najran, mentioned above.—Author) Ibn Kathir says that Abraha openly declared and publicized his ambition in Yemen. His purpose was to provoke the Arabs so that they might do something which could serve as a pretext for invading Makkah and destroying the Ka‘bah. Muhammad ibn Ishaq says that after this declaration, an Arab somehow entered his church and defecated and urinated there. Ibn Kathir says that it was a Qurayshi who did this. Muqatil ibn Sulayman says that some Qurayshi youths went and set fire to the church. If any such incident occurred, there would be nothing surprising about it. Abraha’s declaration created intense agitation, and in the conditions of the ancient Age of Ignorance it would not have been incomprehensible for an Arab, a Qurayshi, or some youths, in their agitation, to desecrate the church or set it on fire. Nor is it impossible that Abraha secretly had someone carry out the act himself in order to create a pretext for attacking Makkah. In this way he intended to destroy the Quraysh, terrify all the Arabs, and achieve both his objectives. In any case, whichever of the two incidents occurred, when Abraha learned that people who revered the Ka‘bah had insulted his church, he swore that he would not rest until he had reduced the Ka‘bah to dust.

Abraha’s Aggression against Makkah

Then, in 570 or 571 CE, he marched toward Makkah with sixty thousand soldiers and thirty-one elephants—or, according to another account, nine elephants. On the way, a Yemeni chief named Dhu Nafar first opposed him with an Arab army, but was defeated and captured. Then, in the region of Khash‘am, an Arab chief named Nufayl ibn Habib al-Khash‘ami prepared to confront him with his tribesmen. He too was defeated and captured, and agreed to guide them in order to save his life. When they reached the vicinity of Ta’if, Banu Thaqif realized that they had no power to resist this huge army. They feared that it might destroy their temple of al-Lat. Their chief Mas‘ud therefore met Abraha with a delegation. He said, “The temple you have come to destroy is not this one; it is in Makkah. Do not destroy this temple. We will give you men to escort you and show you the road to Makkah.” Abraha accepted what they said. Banu Thaqif then sent a man named Abu Righal with Abraha. When Makkah was three miles away, Abu Righal died at a place called al-Mughammis or al-Mughammis. For a long time the Arabs pelted his grave with stones. For years they reproached Banu Thaqif because they had helped the attackers of Makkah in order to protect the temple of al-Lat.

The Meccans’ Reaction

Ibn Ishaq says that Abraha ordered his advance troops to move forward from al-Mughammis. They plundered many domestic animals belonging to the people of Tihamah and the Quraysh, including two hundred camels belonging to the Prophet’s grandfather, ‘Abd al-Muttalib. Abraha then sent a representative to Makkah, who conveyed his words: “I have not come to fight you. I have come to destroy that House, the Ka‘bah. If you do not fight me, I will not touch your lives or property.”

Through his representative he also announced that, if the people of Makkah had anything to say, they should send their chief to him. At that time, the foremost chief of Makkah was ‘Abd al-Muttalib. Abraha’s representative met him and delivered Abraha’s message. ‘Abd al-Muttalib said, “We have no strength to fight Abraha. This is Allah’s House; if He wills, He will protect it.” The representative said, “Come with me to Abraha.” He agreed and set out with him.

‘Abd al-Muttalib was such an impressive man that Abraha was deeply affected by him. He rose from his seat, approached him, and said, “What do you want?” He replied, “Return to me the camels you have seized.” Abraha said, “When I saw you, I was greatly impressed. But you ask for the return of your camels and say nothing about the House that is the sanctuary of your religion and that of your forefathers. Your standing has therefore fallen in my eyes.” He replied, “I am merely the owner of my camels, and I am asking you for them. As for this House, why should I speak of it? It has a Lord who will Himself protect it.” Abraha said, “He cannot protect His House from my attack.” ‘Abd al-Muttalib said, “You know, and He knows.” Saying this, he rose. Abraha returned his camels to him.

The account transmitted by Ibn ‘Abbas is different; it contains no mention of a demand for the camels. In the account transmitted from him by ‘Abd ibn Humayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Marduyah, al-Hakim, Abu Nu‘aym, and al-Bayhaqi, it is said that when Abraha reached a place called al-As­safah, located near the Haram boundary between the mountains of ‘Arafat and Ta’if, ‘Abd al-Muttalib himself went to him and said, “What need brought you this far? If you needed anything, you could have told us, and we would have brought it to you.” He replied, “I have heard that this House is a house of peace and security. I have come to put an end to its security.” ‘Abd al-Muttalib said, “This is Allah’s House. Until today, He has not allowed anyone to interfere with it.” Abraha said, “We will not leave until we have reduced it to dust.” ‘Abd al-Muttalib said, “Take whatever you want from us and return.” But Abraha did not accept this and ordered his army to advance, leaving ‘Abd al-Muttalib behind.

If we leave the discrepancy between these two accounts where it belongs and do not give one precedence over the other, it becomes clear that Shank and the tribes around it had no power to fight such a huge army and protect the Ka‘bah. It can therefore be understood that the Quraysh made no attempt to resist it. During the Battle of the Confederates, the Quraysh could gather only ten or twelve thousand men, even together with the polytheist and Jewish tribes. How could they confront sixty thousand soldiers?

Muhammad ibn Ishaq says that after returning from the site of Abraha’s army, ‘Abd al-Muttalib told the Quraysh to seek refuge in the mountains with their children, so that they would not be massacred. Then he and several Qurayshi chiefs went to the Haram and began praying before Allah at the chain-ring of the Ka‘bah’s door, asking Him to protect His House and its attendants. There were then 360 idols inside the Ka‘bah. Yet at this critical moment they forgot them and raised their hands only to pray to Allah. In the prayers quoted in the historical accounts, no one besides Allah was mentioned. Ibn Hisham copied the following verses from ‘Abd al-Muttalib’s biography: (Arabic *******)

O Allah! A servant protects his own house; You too protect Your House.

(Arabic *******)

Do not let them prevail tomorrow over their Crusade and stratagems.

(Arabic *******)

If You wish to leave them and our qiblah as they are, then do what You will.

Al-Suhayli has quoted a poem about this in Rawd al-Unuf:

(Arabic ******)

Today, help Your own descendants against the descendant of the Crusader and his worshippers.

Ibn Jarir quotes the following poem of ‘Abd al-Muttalib, which he recited while praying:

(Arabic ******)

O enemy of the House, Your enemy! Prevent them from destroying their own settlement.

Allah’s Miracle in Protecting the Ka‘bah

After making the above prayers, ‘Abd al-Muttalib and his companions went up into the mountains. The next day Abraha advanced to enter Makkah. But his special elephant, named Mahmud, which was walking at the head of the army, suddenly sat down. It was beaten severely and wounded by blows to its eyes and back, but it did not move at all. When driven east, south, or north, it ran; but when turned toward Makkah, it sat down and refused to advance. Meanwhile, flocks of birds came from the direction of the Red Sea, carrying small stones in their beaks and feet, and began throwing them at Abraha’s army. Whoever was struck by one of these stones had his body melt away. Muhammad ibn Ishaq and ‘Ikrimah say that whoever was struck began to itch; the scratched area split open and the flesh fell away. Another account from Ibn ‘Abbas says that flesh and blood flowed like water and the bones became exposed. Abraha himself suffered the same fate. The flesh of his body began to fall apart in pieces. Wherever a piece fell, pus and blood flowed. Amid this turmoil and confusion they fled toward Yemen. They found Nufayl ibn Habib, whom they had captured in Khash‘am to guide them, and said, “Now show us the way back.” He plainly refused and said, “(Arabic *****) Where is there any place to flee now that Allah is pursuing from behind? The shameless one, Abraha, is defeated, not victorious.”

During this flight they began falling and dying everywhere. ‘Ata ibn Yasar says that they did not all die at once: some died there, while others fell and died on the road during the flight. Abraha died after reaching Khash‘am. (Allah did not limit the Abyssinians’ punishment to this alone. Rather, within three or four years He permanently eradicated Abyssinian rule from Yemen. History shows that after the Elephant Incident their power in Yemen was completely shattered. Yemeni chiefs revolted in various places. Then a Yemeni chief named Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan sought military assistance from Iran. Only one thousand soldiers came from Iran in six ships. This was sufficient to eliminate Abyssinian rule. This occurred in 475 CE.—Author.)

This event took place at a place called Muhassir, near the Muhassab valley between Muzdalifah and Mina. In the account of the Prophet Muhammad’s Farewell Pilgrimage transmitted in Sahih Muslim and Abu Dawud by Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq from his father, Imam al-Baqir, and by him from Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah, it is stated that when the Messenger of Allah was traveling from Muzdalifah toward Mina, he hastened his pace in the valley of Muhassir. Imam al-Nawawi says in his commentary that the event of the Companions of the Elephant occurred here. It is therefore Sunnah to cross this place quickly. Imam Malik relates in the Muwatta that the Prophet said, “All of Muzdalifah is a place for stopping, but do not stop in the valley of Muhassir.”

Evidence of This Event in Arabic Literature

In the poem of Nufayl ibn Habib quoted by Muhammad ibn Ishaq, he gives a firsthand account of this event: (Arabic *******)

O Rudaynah! Ah, if only you could see! You could never see what we saw near the Muhassab valley.

(Arabic ******)

I give thanks to Allah when I saw the birds, though I feared that the stones might fall upon us.

(Arabic *******)

Everyone among them was searching for Nufayl, as though the Abyssinians had some debt to collect from him.

This was such a momentous event that it became famous throughout Arabia, and poets composed verses about it. These poems make it clear that everyone described the event as a miraculous act of Allah’s power. No one even hinted that any of the gods worshipped in the Ka‘bah had a hand in it. For example, ‘Abdullah ibn Ayzibara says:

(Arabic ******)

They were sixty thousand who could not return to their land; and after they failed to return, their sick man, Abraha, was still alive.

(Arabic *******)

Before them, ‘Ad and Jurhum were here. Allah watches over His servants; He has kept them established.

Abu Qubays ibn Aslat says:

(Arabic *******)

Rise and worship your Lord, and wipe the corners of the House of Allah between the mountains of Makkah and Mina.

(Arabic ********) When the help of the Lord of the Throne reached you, He drove the king’s army away from those people, leaving some fallen on the ground and others killed by stones.

Some Important Accounts Concerning This

Furthermore, Umm Hani and al-Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwam say that the Prophet said: “For ten years—or, according to another report, seven years—the Quraysh worshipped no one other than Allah, without partner.” Imam al-Bukhari recorded Umm Hani’s account in his History, and al-Tabarani, al-Hakim, Ibn Marduyah, and al-Bayhaqi recorded it in their respective hadith collections. Al-Tabarani, Ibn Marduyah, and Ibn ‘Asaf quoted the account of al-Zubayr. It is supported by the mursal narration of Sa‘id ibn al-Musayyab, recorded by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi in his History.

The Birth of the Prophet

The Arabs called the year in which this event occurred ‘Am al-Fil, or the Year of the Elephant. The Prophet was born in that same year. Hadith scholars and historians are almost unanimous that the event occurred in Muharram and that the Prophet was born in Rabi‘ al-Awwal. According to most scholars, he was born fifty days after the Elephant Incident.

Why Is This Event Mentioned Only Briefly in the Qur’an?

In light of the detailed historical account given above, reflection on Surat al-Fil makes it clear why this surah mentions so briefly only Allah’s punishment of the Companions of the Elephant. The event was not at all remote. Every child in Makkah knew about it, and the Arabs generally knew it as well. All the Arabs said that no deity had protected the Ka‘bah from Abraha’s attack; rather, Allah had protected it when the Qurayshi chiefs sought His help. For several years the Quraysh were so deeply affected by this event that they worshipped no one besides Allah. Therefore, there was no need to mention it in detail in Surat al-Fil. It was considered sufficient simply to remind them of the event, so that the Quraysh in particular and the Arabs in general might reflect that the message to which the Prophet Muhammad called them was nothing other than this: abandoning all deities and worshipping Allah alone. They should also reflect that if they used force and oppression to silence this call to truth, they too would face the punishment that had shattered the Companions of the Elephant. (Surat al-Saff, note 8)

Christianity after the Advent of the Seal of the Prophets

[Because they were bearers of heavenly scriptures, both the Jews and the Christians should have been very close to Islam. In essence, their religion too was Islam. The Christians in particular should have had a closer relationship with the Prophet Muhammad for two reasons. First, the work left by Jesus would be completed through the Prophet Muhammad’s mission. Second, prophecies of the advent of the Final Prophet were more abundant in Christian religious books than in those of the Jews. Many who knew these prophecies were awaiting the arrival of the Final Prophet. The renowned Christian scholar Waraqah ibn Nawfal was one of them. The interesting fact is that certain events occurred between the Christians and the Final Prophet which should have led the Christians to behave differently toward him and the Muslims. But Jewish Judaism and Christian Christianity created such a division concerning the Muslims that it gradually grew enormous. In response to the Muslims’ excellent conduct, they harbored intense hostility. This hostility was transformed into the Crusades. After these Crusades, the worldwide policy of the Christians, together with the Jews, against the Muslim community became extremely hateful. —Compilers]

Waraqah ibn Nawfal’s Acknowledgment of the Truth of Prophethood (Historical sources indicate that before Waraqah ibn Nawfal, when the monk Bahira saw the Prophet during his journey to Syria, he perceived in him the signs of prophethood. Ibn Khaldun says concerning this: When the Prophet reached the age of twelve, he traveled to Syria with Abu Talib. Having recognized the signs of prophethood in him, the monk Bahira called his people to him and informed them about Muhammad’s prophethood. This account appears in the biographical works and is widely known. Later, on a second occasion, he traveled to Syria with Maysarah, his servant, carrying the merchandise of the Mother of the Believers, Khadijah al-Kubra, daughter of Khuwaylid ibn Asad ibn ‘Abd al-‘Uzza. As he passed by the monk Nestor, the monk recognized signs of prophethood in him and informed Maysarah about him. When Maysarah returned, he told Khadijah everything. After hearing this, Khadijah, may Allah be pleased with her, proposed to Muhammad that he marry her. —Ibn Khaldun, Urdu translation, volume 1, p. 36, translated by Allamah Hakim Ahmad Hasan Osmani. Whether or not this account is given any historical value, there is nothing surprising if, upon seeing the Prophet’s countenance and imposing personality, someone expressed the opinion that he was the very prophet promised in the ancient scriptures. Moreover, the fact that two Christian monks—Bahira and Nestor—saw the Prophet in his youth and recognized signs of prophethood in him is, in some degree, conclusive evidence for Christians. If Christians accept as true the account that their own two monks recognized signs of prophethood in Muhammad, then they should also acknowledge that a prophet who would receive revelation in the future could not need to learn the work of prophethood from any other prophet. Maulana Maududi refuted the erroneous argument that Christians constructed on the basis of Bahira’s account as follows: None of the Prophet’s contemporary enemies ever said that when he met the monk Bahira in his childhood, he learned all these things from him. Nor did any of them say that, when he traveled abroad for business in his youth, he acquired this knowledge from Christian monks and Jewish rabbis. They knew every detail of his journeys. He did not travel alone; rather, hundreds of people from his own city called them liars. Every person in Makkah would ask them: If this man acquired such knowledge from Bahira at the age of twelve or thirteen, or began acquiring it when he started traveling abroad for business at the age of twenty-five, then why did you conceal it until he reached the age of forty? For he did not live anywhere else; rather, he lived among you. —Compilers)

After the first meeting with the angel in the Cave of Hira, when the Prophet (peace be upon him) reached home terrified and trembling, Hazrat Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) first comforted him. Then she took him to her cousin, Waraqah ibn Nawfal. During the Age of Ignorance, Waraqah had adopted Christianity. He used to write the Gospel in Arabic and Hebrew. He had become very old and blind. Hazrat Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) said to him, “Dear brother, listen to what happened to your nephew.”

Waraqah said to the Prophet (peace be upon him), “Nephew, tell me what you saw.”

The Prophet (peace be upon him) told him everything he had seen. Waraqah said, “This is the Namus—the angel who brought revelation—whom Allah Most High sent down to Hazrat Musa (peace be upon him). If only I were strong during your prophethood and remained alive until the time when your people drive you out.”

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Will these people drive me out?”

Waraqah said, “Certainly. Whenever anyone has brought what you have brought, hostility has been shown toward him. If I remain alive until that time, I will support you with all my strength.”

But Waraqah died only a few days later. —Hitni was a very old resident of Makkah. He had known the Prophet since his childhood and, because of fifteen years of close kinship, had observed his condition at close quarters even more deeply. When he heard this account, he did not regard it as a whispering or prompting of the mind. Rather, as soon as he heard it, he said, “This is the same Namus whom Allah Most High sent down to Musa (peace be upon him).” This means that, in his view, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was also a person of such lofty rank that his being honored with prophethood was not at all surprising. (Surah al-Buruj, Note 4)

The First Migration of Muslims to a Christian Kingdom

When conditions in Makkah became unbearable, in Rajab of the fifth year of prophethood, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: (Arabic ******)

“It would be better for you to leave and go to Abyssinia. There is a king there under whom no one is wronged. It is a land of goodness. Stay there until Allah removes this hardship from you.” —The Prophet (peace be upon him) spoke these words of praise about the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia with such generosity. In view of the justice of its ruler, this one instance of the Muslims’ migration there was sufficient to have made relations between Muslims and Christians friendly and strong. But, regrettably, they erected a wall of hostility. —Compilers

In accordance with this instruction of the Prophet (peace be upon him), eleven men and four women first set out for Abyssinia. The people of Quraysh pursued them as far as the seashore. Fortunately, they found ships at the port of Shu‘aybah at the proper time. Thus they escaped capture. Then, after several months, more people migrated. In the end, seventy-three men, eleven women, and seven non-Qurayshites gathered in Abyssinia. Only forty people remained in Makkah with the Prophet (peace be upon him). (Surah al-‘Alaq, Introduction)

The Christian King of Abyssinia’s Truthfulness

The account of the migration will be described in detail later. Here it is appropriate to say only that when the diplomatic representatives of the polytheists of Makkah pursued the Muslim emigrants, presented their claims against them, and raised objections against the prophethood of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his mission, the Christian king, the Negus, asked Hazrat Ja‘far (may Allah be pleased with him) to recite some of the revelation sent down to the Prophet. Hazrat Ja‘far (may Allah be pleased with him) recited the opening verses of Surah Maryam, which concerned Hazrat Yahya and Hazrat ‘Isa (peace be upon them). The Negus listened and wept, until his beard became wet. When Hazrat Ja‘far (may Allah be pleased with him) finished his recitation, the Negus said, “This message and what Hazrat ‘Isa (peace be upon him) brought have sprung from the same source.” The king before whom the Muslim emigrants of Makkah appeared acknowledged the truth of the Muslims’ beliefs and outlook. He also accepted the Prophet’s teachings as true. In this respect, the outlook of the Negus was closest to Islam. Later, when the Prophet (peace be upon him) invited various kings and rulers to Islam by letter, he sent a similar letter to the king of Abyssinia. He accepted the invitation of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and sent a reply. —Rahmatul-lil-‘Alamin, Qazi Salman Mansurpuri, vol. 1, pp. 209–212 —Compilers. (Surah al-Furqan, Note 12)

That diplomatic delegation from Makkah bribed the religious leaders of the royal court and won them over to its side. The next day, ‘Amr ibn al-‘As raised this question in the court:

“Call them and ask what they believe and think about ‘Isa ibn Maryam.”

The Negus summoned the emigrants again and put before them the question raised by ‘Amr ibn al-‘As. Hazrat Ja‘far ibn Abi Talib then stood up and said without hesitation:

(Arabic ******)

Hearing this, the Negus picked up a blade of grass from the ground and said, “By Allah, what you have said makes ‘Isa (peace be upon him) no more than this blade of grass.” (Surah Maryam, Introduction)

The Muslims’ Special Policy Regarding Abyssinia

A saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him) is recorded in Abu Dawud and Musnad Ahmad in which he laid down this policy regarding Abyssinia: (Arabic ********). In another narration: (Arabic ********), meaning, “As long as the Abyssinians allow you to live freely, you should also allow them to live freely.”

It seems that, in accordance with this instruction, no action was taken against Abyssinia during the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. The significance of this instruction was perhaps that respect had to be shown for the refuge the Abyssinians had given the Muslims in their time of danger, and that, remembering this, the Muslims should not be the first to advance against them, lest the people of the world develop the mistaken impression that Muslims were an ungrateful people. Another reason is also apparent. Considering Abyssinia’s geographical position and past history, the Prophet (peace be upon him) may have concluded that friendly relations with Abyssinia were necessary for the defense of the Hijaz, the geographical center of Islam. For this reason, he may have instructed that the Islamic mission should reach that country by peaceful means and that war and conflict should be avoided as far as possible. (Surah Maryam, Introduction)

The Conduct of the Muqawqis of Egypt

After the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, the rulers to whom the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, sent letters in the surrounding regions—according to the author of Rahmatul-lil-‘Alamin, the Prophet (peace be upon him) wrote to various rulers on the first of Muharram in the seventh year after the Hijrah and sent the letters through messengers—were mostly Christians, and their reactions were also favorable. The Negus of Abyssinia, Ashamah ibn Abjar, accepted Islam. The ruler of Bahrain, Mundhir ibn Sawa, accepted Islam, and most of his subjects became Muslim. The rulers of Oman, Jaifar and ‘Abd, sons of Julanda, also submitted to Islam after reflection. The governor of Damascus, Mundhir ibn al-Harith ibn Abi Shamir, became very angry upon receiving the Prophet’s letter, but later restrained himself and dismissed the messenger with gifts. The ruler of Yamamah, Hawdhah ibn ‘Ali, demanded half of the Islamic state, but he died soon afterward. In Bayt al-Maqdis, Heraclius was the ruler under the emperor of Constantinople. He convened a great court after receiving the Prophet’s letter and made thorough arrangements to gather necessary information about the Prophet (peace be upon him). At that time, Abu Sufyan happened to go there on business. Heraclius summoned Abu Sufyan to the court and asked him various questions about the Prophet so that he could form an opinion about his being a prophet. Finally, addressing Abu Sufyan, he described his own reaction as follows:

“We have been told of all these signs of the promised prophet. I believed that a prophet would appear, but I did not think he would arise from Arabia. Abu Sufyan, if you have answered truthfully, he will one day certainly rule over this place where I am sitting (Syria and Bayt al-Maqdis). How wonderful it would be if I could reach him and have the honor of washing his feet.” —Rahmatul-lil-‘Alamin, vol. 1, pp. 206–224. Farwah ibn ‘Amr al-Khuza‘i was a governor in the Syrian region under the Roman emperor. He accepted Islam. Caesar summoned him and ordered him to renounce Islam. When he refused, he was martyred. —Compilers. Among those to whom he sent letters was the Roman ruler of Alexandria, the Patriarch. The Arabs called him the Muqawqis. When Hazrat Hatib ibn Abi Balta‘ah (may Allah be pleased with him) came to him with the Prophet’s letter, he did not accept Islam in reply to the letter, but received the bearer warmly. In his reply, he said, “I know that a prophet is still to come, but I think he will arise from Syria. Nevertheless, I have warmly welcomed your messenger and am sending you two maidens. They are from a noble Coptic family.” —Ibn Sa‘d

One of these two maidens was Sirin and the other was Maria al-Qibtiyyah. (The Christians called Hazrat Maryam Maria.)

On the return journey from Egypt, Hazrat Hatib presented Islam’s invitation to both of them, and both accepted Islam. When they were presented at the Prophet’s court, Sirin was given into the possession of Hazrat Hassan ibn Thabit, while Hazrat Maria (may Allah be pleased with her) was received into the Prophet’s blessed household. In the eighth year after the Hijrah, Hazrat Ibrahim, the son of the Messenger (peace be upon him), was born from her blessed womb. —Al-Isti‘ab; Al-Isabah (Surah Maryam, Introduction)

The Prophet (peace be upon him) and the Christians of Najran

In the ninth year after the Hijrah, a Christian delegation from Najran came to the Prophet (peace be upon him). Najran lies between the Hijaz and Yemen. At that time, the region had seventy-three settlements, and it is said that it had 120,000 men fit for war. All the inhabitants were Christians, and they were led by three chiefs. One was called the ‘Aqib, who was regarded as the leader of the nation. The second was called the Sayyid, who supervised political and cultural affairs. The third was an Usquf (bishop), whose duty was to provide religious leadership. After the conquest of Makkah, all the Arabs came to believe that the future of the country was now in the hands of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Consequently, delegations from different parts of the country began coming to the Prophet’s court. Three chiefs of Najran arrived in Madinah with forty delegates. At that time, the Prophet (peace be upon him) presented to the delegates the invitation to the doctrine of monotheism described in the Qur’an. While explaining the continuity of prophethood, he refuted the Christians’ elevation of Hazrat ‘Isa (peace be upon him) to the position of divinity and their other false beliefs. Some members of the delegation were influenced by this invitation, but the obstinacy of the bishop and priests became an obstacle. Finally, by Allah’s command, the Prophet (peace be upon him) invited them to a mutual imprecation and said, “If you have complete faith in the truth of your beliefs, then come and let us pray together to Allah, saying: May Allah’s curse fall upon whichever of us is lying.” But none of them agreed to this. As a result, not only the simple-hearted members of the delegation but also the ordinary Christian and non-Christian public clearly realized that the Christian leaders of Najran held beliefs in which they themselves had no faith.

Finally, at the request of the people of Najran, the Prophet (peace be upon him) wrote a treaty and sent it to them. We shall record it in a later section. —Compilers) (Rasail wa Masa’il, vol. 1, p. 290)

Appendix

Two more matters are related to this chapter. First, in the conflict between Rome and Iran, the Muslims’ moral support was on the side of the Christians. Second, at Tabuk, the Muslims were compelled to take up arms against the Christians.

A detailed account of the conflict between Rome and Iran appears in the article entitled “The Prophecy of Rome’s Victory.” (See Prophecies, volume 1.) The account of the Tabuk expedition may be found in volume 3.)

The Arabs’ Extensive Connections with Various Countries

If we consider the economic history of Arabia in the pre-Islamic period and its relations with the outside world, we can infer that there was no country isolated from the Arab world whose inhabitants were unfamiliar with the world beyond their valleys and deserts.

Establishment of Extensive Trade Centers

The information available from ancient history proves that, in those days, the trade conducted between China, India, other eastern countries, and East Africa on the one hand, and Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome on the other, all passed through Arabia. This trade followed three major routes. One was the main land route from Iran through Iraq and Syria. The second was the maritime route of the Persian Gulf. Through this route, all goods were unloaded on Arabia’s eastern coast and then moved onward via Dumat al-Jandal or Tadmor (Palmyra). The third was the maritime route of the Indian Ocean. Goods transported along this route passed through Hadramawt and Yemen. Arab settlements lay along all three routes. The Arabs bought goods on one side and sold them on the other. They also carried out the transport trade. They collected substantial taxes from merchants passing through their territory and undertook to ensure their safe passage. Through these three circumstances, they had deep connections with international trade. The commercial activities of the Children of Israel in 1700 BCE are mentioned in the Torah. Fifteen hundred years before Hazrat ‘Isa (peace be upon him), this trade was conducted in Midian and Dedan in the northern Hijaz, and continued for several centuries thereafter. During the era of Hazrat Sulayman and Hazrat Dawud (peace be upon them) (100 BCE), the Sabaean tribe of Yemen, followed by the Himyarite tribe during the first centuries CE, traveled for commercial purposes. Around the time of the Messiah (peace be upon him), Jews from Palestine came to Arabia and settled in places such as Khaybar, Wadi al-Qura (present-day Al-Ula), Tayma, and Tabuk. Their religious, cultural, and commercial relations with Jews in Syria and Egypt continued. It was mostly the Jews who imported grain and wine from Syria and Egypt. From the fifth century onward, the Quraysh began to participate actively in foreign trade. Until the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), they had extensive commercial relations with Yemen and Abyssinia on one side, and with Iraq, Egypt, and Syria on the other. Most of the trade from Iran to Yemen in eastern Arabia traveled from Hira to Yamamah (present-day Riyadh), and then through the territory of Banu Tamim to Najran and Yemen.

Political and Cultural Relations

Besides these commercial relations, the Arabs also had deep political and cultural relations with the neighboring civilized countries. In the sixth century BCE, the Babylonian king Nabonidus established his summer capital at Tayma in the northern Hijaz. How could the people of the Hijaz have been unaware of Babylon’s economic and political administration? From the third century BCE until the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), first the Nabataean state of Petra, then the Syrian state of Tadmor (Palmyra), and afterward the Arab states of Hira and Ghassan existed continuously from Iraq to the borders of Egypt and from the borders of the Hijaz and Najd to Algeria and the Syrian frontier. These states maintained deep political, cultural, and economic relations with Greece and Rome on one side and Iran on the other. Moreover, on the basis of genealogical ties, the tribes of inner Arabia also maintained extensive relations with them. The Ansar of Madinah and the rulers of Ghassan were descended from the same lineage and maintained mutual relations. During the Prophet’s time, his distinguished poet, Hazrat Hassan ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him), used to visit the Ghassanid rulers. The Quraysh had good relations with the emirs of Hira. Indeed, the Quraysh learned from them, and the script they acquired from Hira later became known as the Kufic script.

Furthermore, in every part of Arabia, large numbers of male and female slaves from Rome, Greece, and Iran were held by prominent shaykhs, noble families, and renowned merchants. Among the prisoners of war enslaved by both sides in the wars between Iran and Rome, those considered surplus to requirements were sold in open markets. Arabia was the largest market for this merchandise. Many of these slaves were highly educated and civilized people. Some were skilled in the arts, commerce, and various professions. The shaykhs and merchants of Arabia employed them for many tasks. Large numbers of slaves were present in Makkah, Ta’if, Yathrib, and other central cities, and they rendered valuable service to their owners as skilled workers.

A Distinctive Economic Condition

Another aspect of Arabia’s economic history must also be considered. Arabia was never self-sufficient in food, nor had any industries developed there that could meet people’s needs. Food was always imported into the country, and most manufactured goods—even clothing—were also imported. Around the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), this import trade was largely in the hands of two groups. One was the Quraysh and Banu Thaqif, and the second was the Jews. But they imported goods only for wholesale sale. It was not their task to travel around selling them in the country’s small settlements and among the tribes. Nor were the tribes willing to accept that these people should enjoy all the profits of trade and that their own people should have no opportunity in this monopolistic business. Therefore, as wholesalers, these people sold goods worth millions to retail merchants within the country, and considerable quantities of goods were sold on credit. (Tafhim al-Qur’an, Surah al-Tahrim, Note 2)

The Political Situation

What was the political situation in the country when Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) received prophethood? What course of action did he adopt in those circumstances? History testifies that, at that time, Arabia was surrounded on all sides by oppressive states. Imperial influence from neighboring nations had also spread within the country. Shortly before the Prophet’s birth, an Abyssinian army advanced as far as the city in which he was born. Yemen, Arabia’s most fertile province, was first subjugated by the Abyssinians and later by the Iranians. The southern and eastern coasts of Arabia were under Iranian influence. Iranian influence had spread as far as the borders of Najd. To the north, the influence of the Roman Empire extended to ‘Aqabah and Ma‘an, and indeed as far as Tabuk. The two neighboring states kept Arabia’s tribes engaged in mutual disputes and conflicts for their own interests. In this way they extended their influence inside Arabia. The Caesar of Constantinople intervened at various times in the affairs of small city-states such as Makkah. Every great power wanted to bring the Arab nation under its control, because although the land of this nation was barren, the nation itself was not. The finest warriors for conquering the world could be recruited from this nation. (Surah Al ‘Imran, Note 29)

The Message of the Sirah

[The Maulana’s address delivered at a gathering convened by the Students’ Union of the University of the Punjab at the university’s new campus on October 22, 1975.]

Mr. Vice-Chancellor, President of the Students’ Union, and students!

I have been invited to say a few words at today’s gathering about the message of the Sirah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). When we approach this matter on the touchstone of reason, the first question that arises is: Why the message of the Sirah of only one prophet? Why not the message of someone else? It is necessary to begin by discussing the Sirah of Sayyiduna Muhammad (peace be upon him) alone because we are certain that it is not in the life history of any guide from the ancient or modern world, but only in the life history of a prophet, that we can find guidance or the way. It is not in the life of any other prophet or religious leader; rather, it is in the life history of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that we can obtain the correct and complete guidance of which we are truly in need.

The Need for Guidance from Allah Most High

There is no way to deny the truth that Allah Most High alone is the source of knowledge. He alone created the universe and human beings. Who besides Him could possess knowledge of the profound realities of the universe and of human nature and its realities? It is the Creator who can know His creation; creation can know only as much as its Creator makes known to it. Creation has no independent means by which it can know the true reality.

Two matters in this regard should be clearly understood so that no confusion arises in the discussion. One is information that you can acquire through your senses; from it, the tasks of thought, research, reasoning, experimentation, observation, and discovery are your responsibility. Investigate whatever you find around you. Acquire knowledge of the forces operating within it. Understand the natural laws functioning within it. Then advance along the path of progress. But your Creator has not left you alone in this matter. At different stages of history, He has gradually introduced you, through imperceptible means, to His created world. He has continued to open doors to new information. From time to time, through the method of inspiration, He has given some people indications enabling them to discover something new or learn a new principle or method. Nevertheless, all this falls within the sphere of human knowledge, for which no prophet or heavenly book is needed. The means and resources for acquiring the necessary information in this field have also been given to humanity. The second kind of matter is beyond our sensory perception. It lies completely beyond our reach. We can neither measure it nor learn it through our own knowledge. If philosophers and scientists offer an opinion about it, they do so merely on the basis of conjecture and speculation. It cannot be called knowledge. These are their ultimate conclusions, and even those who propose such controversial theories cannot declare with certainty that their limits are definitive. If the limits of their knowledge were known, they could neither believe in it themselves nor call upon anyone else to believe.

The Need to Follow the Prophets

Now, if the second kind of knowledge described above is to be acquired, it can only be by the command of Allah, Exalted is He, because He knows all truths and facts. The means through which Allah grants this knowledge to human beings is revelation, which is sent down only to the prophets. Allah has never done this up to now: printed a book, placed it in the hands of every person, and told them, “Read this book and learn what the profound truths of your own nature and of the universe are. Rather, learn from it also what your conduct in the world should be according to these truths.” Instead, to convey this knowledge to humanity, He has always used the prophets as intermediaries, so that they would not merely teach this knowledge, but explain it to people, demonstrate its practical application through their own lives, strive to guide its opponents to the right path, and organize those who accepted it into a society in which that knowledge would be manifested at every level of life.

This brief account makes it clear that, for guidance, we are dependent upon the life of a prophet alone. If a non-prophet is not a follower of a prophet, then no matter how great a scholar or learned and accomplished person he may be, he cannot be our guide. For he does not possess true knowledge, and one who does not possess true knowledge cannot provide us with a true and correct system of life.

Why We Do Not Receive Guidance from the Other Prophets Besides Muhammad (peace be upon him)

The question now is this: Among those whom we know to have been prophets, and those religious leaders who may perhaps have been prophets, why do we seek guidance only from the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)? Is this due to some kind of fanaticism, or is there a reasonable basis for it?

I say that there is a very justifiable reason for this. Although we certainly know and believe that the prophets mentioned in the Qur’an were prophets, none of their teachings or lives has reached us through any reliable source from which we could follow them. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus (peace be upon them) were undoubtedly prophets. We believe in all of them. But none of the books sent down to them exists today in a preserved form from which we can receive guidance. Nor has the life of any of them reached us in such a preserved and reliable manner that we could accept them as guides in the various spheres of our individual and collective lives. If anyone wished to write about the teachings and lives of these prophets, he could not write more than a few pages, and even that only with the help of the Qur’an. For apart from the Qur’an, no authoritative material or source concerning them exists.

The State of the Books of the Jewish Religion and of the Prophets

It is said that the matters concerning Moses (peace be upon him), the prophets who came after him, and their teachings are found in the Old Testament of the Bible. But examine the Bible from the historical point of view. It was destroyed when Jerusalem was destroyed in the sixth century before Christ. Along with it, the scriptures of the other prophets who had passed away before that age were also destroyed. In the fifth century before Christ, when the Israelites were freed from captivity in Babylon, Ezra (peace be upon him), with the help of other elders, compiled the life of Moses (peace be upon him) and the history of the Children of Israel. Into it he inserted, as appropriate, those verses that had come into his and his assistants’ possession. Then, from the fourth to the second century before Christ, various people—whose identities are unknown—compiled the scriptures of prophets who had passed away several centuries earlier. It is not known what sources they used. For example, three hundred years before Jesus (peace be upon him), someone wrote a book in the name of Jonah (peace be upon him) and inserted it into the Bible, although Jonah had been a prophet in the eighth century before Christ. The Psalms were written five hundred years after David’s (peace be upon him) death, and poems by one hundred other poets besides David were included in them. It is not known how this information reached those who compiled the Psalms. Solomon (peace be upon him) died 933 years before Jesus (peace be upon him), while his proverbs were written 250 years before Jesus. The sayings of many other wise men were also included in them.

In short, the chain of transmission of no book of the Bible reaches the prophets to whom it is attributed. Moreover, the Hebrew Bible and these books were destroyed when Jerusalem was destroyed for the second time in 70 CE. Only their translations into Greek remained. These translations were made sometime between 258 BCE and the first century BCE. In the second century CE, Jewish scholars compiled a Hebrew Bible from all the manuscripts that remained. The oldest book found is dated 916 CE. No other Hebrew Bible exists. The Hebrew scrolls found in the caves of Qumran near the Dead Sea are, at most, from the second and first centuries BCE. They contain only scattered portions of the Bible. The collection of the first five books of the Bible in circulation among the Samaritans has an oldest manuscript dating from the eleventh century CE. The Greek translation made in the third and second centuries BCE contained countless errors. It was translated from Greek into Latin in the second and third centuries CE. By what standard can these materials concerning the circumstances and teachings of Moses (peace be upon him) and the prophets after him be called authentic?

In addition, among the Jews there were some fundamental accounts transmitted from one generation to another, known as the Oral Law. These remained unwritten for thirteen or fourteen hundred years. At the end of the second century and the beginning of the third century CE, Rabbi Judah ben Shimon committed them to writing under the name Mishnah. Jewish scholars of Palestine wrote commentaries on it under the name Halakha, and the scholars of Babylon under the name Haggadah, during the third and fifth centuries CE. The collection of these three works is called the Talmud. None of their accounts has a chain of transmission by which it could be known from whom, and through whom, they were transmitted.

The State of the Books of Christianity and of Jesus (peace be upon him)

The condition of the life and teachings of Jesus (peace be upon him) is somewhat similar. The original Gospel that was sent down through revelation from Allah was conveyed orally by Jesus (peace be upon him) to the people. His disciples likewise passed it on orally to others, with the result that accounts of the prophet and the verses of the Gospel became intermingled. Nothing of it was written during the lifetime of Jesus (peace be upon him) or after him. The writing was done by Christians whose language was Greek, whereas the language of Jesus was Syriac or Aramaic. His disciples also spoke this language. Many Greek-speaking authors heard these accounts in Aramaic and wrote them in Greek. None of the books written by these authors was written before 70 CE. None of them gave a chain of transmission for any event or saying of Jesus (peace be upon him) from which it could be known from whom they had heard those words. Moreover, their written works have not been preserved. Thousands of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament were collected, but not one of them is earlier than the fourth century CE. Rather, most are from the eleventh through the fourth centuries CE. Some scattered passages written on papyrus have been found in Egypt, but none of them is earlier than the third century. Nothing is known about who translated them from Greek into Latin, or when and where. In the fourth century they were reexamined on the order of the Pope. Then, in the sixteenth century, those translations were abandoned and a new translation was made from Greek into Latin. The four Gospels were probably translated from Greek into Syriac around 200 CE, but the oldest manuscript of that translation now available is from the fourth century. The fifth-century manuscript written by hand that has been found is considerably different. None of the translations from Syriac into Arabic is earlier than the eighth century. The interesting fact is that nearly seventy Gospel books were written, but Christian leaders approved only four of them and rejected the rest. I do not know why some were approved or why the others were rejected. Can the life and teachings of Jesus (peace be upon him), written on the basis of such material, be accepted as authentic in any degree?

The State of the Life and Teachings of Zoroaster

The condition of other religious leaders is no different. Take Zoroaster, for example, whose exact date of birth is still unknown. At most, it may be said that he lived 250 years before Alexander’s conquest of Iran—that is, 550 years before Jesus (peace be upon him). His book, the Avesta, no longer exists in its original language, and the language in which it was written or orally transmitted is now dead. In the ninth century CE, portions of it were translated, with commentary, into nine volumes. The first two volumes were lost, however, and the oldest volume now available dates from the middle of the thirteenth century. This is the state of the book presented by Zoroaster. As for his personal biography, I know little more than that he began preaching at the age of forty. Two years later, King Gushtasp accepted his allegiance, and his religion became the official religion. He died at the age of seventy-seven. As more and more time passed after his death, various fanciful stories began to be composed about him. None of them can be given historical status.

The State of Buddhism

Among the world’s renowned religious figures, Buddha is one. As with Zoroaster, it may be supposed that he too was perhaps a prophet. But he presented no book at all. Nor did his followers claim that he had brought any book. Nor did his followers claim that he had brought any book. Nor did his followers claim that he had brought any book. The work of collecting his sayings and circumstances began one hundred years after his death. It continued for several centuries. Yet none of the works regarded as the foundational books of Buddhism contains a chain of transmission by which it could be known through what source the circumstances, sayings, and teachings of Buddha reached those who compiled them. Only the life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) have been preserved.

It is known from this that if we turn to other prophets and religious leaders, no authoritative medium is available concerning them by which we can obtain guidance from their teachings and lives with certainty and firm conviction. Therefore, we have no alternative but to turn to a prophet who left us a reliable book, above every kind of distortion and admixture, and whose detailed circumstances, sayings, and teachings have reached us through reliable sources from which we can receive guidance. In the entire history of the world, the only such person is the sacred person of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The Qur’an: The Perfectly Preserved Book of Allah

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) presented a book, the Qur’an, with the clear claim that it is the word of Allah sent down to him. When we examine this book, we feel certain that no admixture has entered it. No saying of the Prophet himself (peace be upon him) has been incorporated into it; rather, his sayings have been kept entirely separate. Unlike the Bible, the circumstances and actions of his life, the history of Arabia, and the events that arose during the revelation of the Qur’an have not been mixed or combined with this word of Allah. Not a single word of anyone besides Allah has been inserted into this pure Word of God. Not one word has been omitted from it. It has come down exactly as it was from the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to our own time.

From the time this Book began to be sent down to the Prophet (peace be upon him), he began having it written. Whenever revelation came to him, he immediately summoned one of the scribes and dictated it to him. After it was written, it was read back to him, and when he was certain that the scribe had written it correctly, he placed it in a secure location. Regarding every revelation that was sent down, he instructed the scribe in which surah and after or before which verse it was to be inserted. In this way he continued arranging the Qur’an in sequence, until at last it was completed.

From the very beginning of Islam, it was commanded concerning prayer that the Qur’an must be recited in it. For this reason, the noble Companions began memorizing it as soon as it was revealed. Many memorized the entire Qur’an, while an even greater number preserved various portions of it, more or less, in their memories. In addition, among the Companions, those who could read and write also wrote down various portions of the Qur’an themselves. Thus, during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace be upon him), the Qur’an was preserved in four ways:

First: He himself had it written in full by the scribes of revelation.

Second: Many Companions memorized the entire Qur’an, including every word.

Third: There was no Companion who had not memorized some portion of the Qur’an, whether little or much.

Fourth: Numerous literate Companions wrote down the Qur’an through their own efforts and read it aloud to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), thereby confirming its accuracy.

Therefore, it is an undeniable historical fact that the Qur’an we have today is, letter for letter, exactly the same thing that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) presented as the word of Allah. After the Prophet’s death, his first Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him), gathered all the memorizers and written portions and had the complete Qur’an written in book form. During the caliphate of Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), copies of it were officially sent to the central locations of the Islamic world. Two of those copies still exist in the world—one in Istanbul and the other in Tashkent. Anyone who wishes may take any printed copy of the Noble Qur’an and compare it with them. He will find no difference. And how could there be any difference, when from the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him) until today, millions upon millions of memorizers have existed through successive generations? If anyone changed even one word, these memorizers would detect the error. In the latter part of the last century, an institute at the University of Munich in Germany collected 42,000 handwritten and printed Qur’ans from every period and from various parts of the Islamic world. They were studied for fifty years. The report finally presented stated that, apart from scribal errors, there was no difference among these books. These Qur’ans ranged from the first Hijri century to the fourteenth Hijri century, and they had been collected from every part of the world. Sadly, the institute was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War. But the results of its research did not disappear from the world.

Another noteworthy fact about the Qur’an is that the language in which it was revealed is a living language. From Iraq to Morocco, approximately 120 million people use Arabic as their mother tongue, while countless millions of non-Arabs throughout the world read and teach it. The grammar, dictionaries, pronunciation of its words, and idioms of the Arabic language remain today as they were fourteen hundred years ago. Even today, every educated Arab can read it and understand it in the same way that the Arabs of fourteen hundred years ago could understand it.

This is an important distinction of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), which no other prophet or religious leader possessed. The Book sent down to him by Allah for the guidance of humanity remains in existence unchanged, in its original language and with its original wording.

The Complete Reliability of the Messenger’s Life and Sunnah

When we consider his second distinction, we find that in this respect he stands alone among all the prophets and religious leaders. That distinction is that, just as the Book given to him has been preserved, so has his life been preserved, from which we can obtain guidance in every area of life. From childhood until the final moment of his life, the vast number of people who saw him, observed his circumstances and actions, heard his sayings and sermons, and heard him give commands or prohibit things, engraved everything in their hearts and transmitted it to later generations. According to some experts, there were one hundred thousand such people who conveyed accounts of what they had seen and heard to later generations. The Prophet (peace be upon him) had certain commands and regulations written down and gave or sent them to some people, and people of later times received them. At least six of the noble Companions wrote down hadiths and read them to the Prophet (peace be upon him), so that no error could remain in them. Later generations received this written material, and after the death of the Noble Prophet (peace be upon him), at least fifty Companions compiled written accounts of his circumstances, activities, and sayings. These stores of knowledge also came into the hands of those who undertook the collection and compilation of hadith. Then the number of Companions who orally transmitted information about his life, as I mentioned earlier, reached one hundred thousand. Nor is this surprising. One hundred and forty thousand people attended the Farewell Pilgrimage performed by the Prophet (peace be upon him). So vast a number saw him perform the pilgrimage, learned its rites and procedures from him, and heard the sermon he delivered during it. How could it be possible that, when so many people returned to their own regions after participating in the pilgrimage with the Prophet at such an important time, their relatives, friends, and neighbors did not ask them about their pilgrimage and learn the rites and procedures from them? From this, imagine how eagerly people would seek information about the circumstances and actions, sayings, commands, and guidance of such a great personality after he departed from the world, from those who had seen him and heard his instructions.

From the very beginning, the reports transmitted by the noble Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) to later generations were handled according to this method: anyone who attributed a statement to the Prophet (peace be upon him) had to say from whom he had heard it, and from whom that person had heard it in turn, continuing through the chain. In this way, the entire chain of transmission reaching the Prophet (peace be upon him) was examined, so that it could be ascertained that the statement had truly been narrated from him. If all the links in the chain could not be found, doubt arose concerning its authenticity. Again, if the chain reached the Prophet (peace be upon him) but one of the narrators in the middle was considered untrustworthy, such a report could not be accepted. Reflecting on this, you will realize that no human being’s life has been compiled in this manner. This distinction belongs solely to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): no statement concerning him was accepted without a chain of transmission. In examining the chain, it was not only determined whether the chain of a hadith reached the Prophet; it was also determined whether all the narrators concerned were reliable. For this purpose, the biographies of the narrators were examined in minute detail, and extensive books were written on the subject. From them it can be learned who was reliable and who was not, what each person’s character and conduct were like, whose memory was strong and whose was not, who had met the person from whom the report was copied, and who recorded a report in that person’s name without meeting him. Information about narrators was collected on such a vast scale that even today we can determine whether a hadith was transmitted through reliable or unreliable sources. Can a second person in human history be found whose biography was recorded through such reliable sources? Is there any example of books being written about the lives of thousands of people in order to establish the authenticity of one person’s biography, when those people had narrated something about him? The real reason why Christian and Jewish scholars in the present age have exerted every effort to cast doubt on the authenticity of hadith is nothing other than their resentment, because no chain of transmission whatsoever exists concerning their scriptures and religious leaders’ biographies. It is because of the pain caused by this that they have abandoned intellectual honesty in criticizing Islam, the Qur’an, and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Every Aspect of the Prophet Muhammad’s Life Was Well Known and Widely Reported

It is not merely a distinctive feature of the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) life that it has reached us through extremely reliable sources; it is also a special distinction that such detailed information is available about every aspect of his life as is unavailable concerning any other person. What was his family like? What was his life before prophethood like? How did he receive prophethood? How was revelation sent down to him? How did he spread the Islamic call? How did he confront opposition and obstacles? How did he train his companions? How did he live with his family? How did he treat his wives and children? How did he deal with friends and enemies? What moral teachings did he give, and what did he command through his own character? What acts did he prohibit, which acts did he see but not prohibit, and which acts did he see and prohibit? All of this is recorded in minute detail in the books of hadith and sīrah. He was also a military general, and we have detailed accounts of all the battles fought under his command. He was also a judge, and we can see the complete proceedings of all the cases brought before him. We also know what judgments he gave in each case. He would go out to inspect the marketplace and observe how people conducted buying and selling. When he saw wrongdoing, he prohibited it, and when he saw something being done correctly, he approved it. In short, there is no area of life concerning which he did not provide detailed guidance.

For this reason, with complete knowledge and conviction, and without bias, we say that among all prophets and religious leaders, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) alone is the person to whom all humanity can turn for guidance and direction. This is because the Book he presented has been preserved with its original wording, and the detailed account of his life, essential for guidance, has reached us through reliable sources.

What deserves attention now is what message and guidance his pure life gives us.

His Message Is for All Humanity

The first thing that strikes us in his call is that, setting aside distinctions of color, lineage, language, and homeland, he addresses people as human beings and presents certain principles beneficial to all humanity. Whoever accepts these principles becomes a Muslim and a member of the universal Muslim ummah, whether black or white, Eastern or Western, Arab or non-Arab. Wherever a human being exists, regardless of the country, nation, lineage, language, or color into which he was born, the call of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is for him. If he accepts the principles he presented, he becomes part of the Muslim ummah with equal rights. There is no discrimination, no high or low status, no distinction of lineage or class, and no linguistic, national, or geographical difference within this ummah that separates one person from another after the unity of faith has been established.

The Finest Remedy for the Bigotry of Race and Lineage

If you reflect, you will realize that this is a tremendous blessing which humanity has received through the Prophet Muhammad the Arab (peace be upon him). The thing that has most destroyed humanity is this distinction established among people. In some places, people were deemed impure and untouchable, deprived of the rights enjoyed by Brahmins. Elsewhere, they were deemed fit to be exterminated because they had been born in Australia and America at a time when outsiders needed to drive them from their land. In other places, they were captured and made slaves, and forced to work like animals because they had been born in Africa and had black skin. In short, distinctions of nation, homeland, lineage, race, and language have been a tremendous source of danger to humanity from ancient times until today. Wars have been waged on this basis. On this basis one country has occupied another, one nation has plundered another, and many lineages have been destroyed completely. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) provided a remedy for this disease that even the enemies of Islam acknowledge: no one has achieved the success Islam has achieved in resolving distinctions of race, lineage, and homeland.

When Malcolm X, the renowned leader of Americans of African descent and former standard-bearer of extreme hatred propagated by blacks against whites, went on pilgrimage after accepting Islam and saw people of every lineage, race, country, and language arriving for Hajj from east and west, north and south; all wearing the same kind of ihram clothing, all proclaiming “Labbayk, labbayk” in one voice, performing tawaf together, and praying in the same congregation behind the same imam, he cried out that this alone was the proper solution to the problem of race and lineage—not what we had been doing all this time. This unfortunate man was killed by wrongdoers, but his published autobiography still exists. From it we can learn how deeply he was affected by Hajj.

Hajj is only one of Islam’s acts of worship. If someone opens his eyes and considers the teachings of Islam as a whole, he cannot point to any part of them and say that these teachings serve the interests of a particular nation, tribe, lineage, or class. The entire religion testifies that it is for all humanity, and that in its view all people are equal who accept its principles and join the universal brotherhood it has created. It does not behave toward a non-Muslim in the way whites behaved toward blacks, or in the way imperialist powers behaved toward the non-communists under their rule—or even toward undesirable members of their own party.

We must now examine the principle that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) presented for the welfare of humanity, and what it contains that not only guarantees humanity’s welfare but can also bind all humanity together by one bond and make it a single ummah.

The Most Comprehensive Concept of the Oneness of Allah

The foremost matter in this principle is accepting the wahdaniyyah, or oneness, of Allah. Not merely in the sense that Allah exists, nor merely in the sense that Allah is one, but in the sense that Allah alone is the Creator, Owner, Controller, and Ruler of the universe. Throughout the entire creation there is no second being possessing authority over governance, the right to command and prohibit, or the power by whose declaring something haram it becomes haram and by whose declaring something halal it becomes halal. No one besides Allah possesses this right and authority. For the Creator, Owner, and Lord alone has the right to command His servants in the world He created to do whatever He wills and to forbid them whatever He wills. Islam’s call is that you accept Allah in this capacity. Accept Him in such a way that we are servants of no one besides Him; no one has the right to rule over us contrary to His law; our heads were not created to bow before anyone other than Him; and our life and death are in His authority. Whenever He wills, He can cause us to die, and for as long as He wills, He can keep us alive. If death comes from Him, there is no power in the world that can save us. And if He wills to keep us alive, no power in the world can destroy us. This is Islam’s concept of Allah.

According to this concept, all creation, from earth to heaven, is obedient and submissive to Allah, and the duty of human beings who live within this creation is likewise to remain obedient and submissive to Allah. If a person becomes independently self-willed or accepts obedience to anyone besides Allah, the entire system of his life will become opposed to the system of the universe. In other words, try to understand it this way: the whole universe operates under Allah’s command, and no one can change this objective reality. If we now live under the command of someone besides Allah, or go in whichever direction we please, it will mean that the entire vehicle of our lives is moving in the opposite direction from the vehicle of the universe. Thus an everlasting conflict continues between us and the universe.

Consider the matter from another angle: according to Islam, the only correct way of life for human beings is to obey Allah alone. They are created, and Allah is their Creator. As created beings, it is wrong for them to be independently self-willed, just as it is wrong for them to serve and obey anyone besides the Creator. Whichever of these two paths they adopt will conflict with the truth, and the bitter consequences of conflict with the truth must be suffered by the one who conflicts with it; the truth itself suffers no harm.

The Call to Serve Allah

The call of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is: End this conflict. The law and way of life you follow should be those of the Lord of the entire universe. Do not set yourself up as a lawmaker, nor acknowledge anyone else’s right to impose his law upon Allah’s servants on Allah’s earth. The law of the Creator of the universe is the true law, and all other laws are false and invalid.

The Call to Obey the Messenger

Having reached this point, we come to the second aspect of the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) call. It is his unequivocal declaration: I am Allah’s Prophet, and for humanity He has sent His law through me. I myself am subject to that law. I myself have no authority to alter it. I have merely been commanded to follow it. I have no right to create anything new on my own. This Qur’an is the law revealed to me by Allah. My Sunnah is the law that I implement by Allah’s command. I am the first of all to bow my head before this law. Then I call upon all people to abandon obedience to other laws and obey this law.

After Allah, the Messenger of Allah Is Entitled to Be Obeyed

No one should wonder how the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) could himself obey his Sunnah when that Sunnah consisted of his own words and deeds. The reality is that just as the Qur’an came from Allah, so too whatever command he gave as a Messenger, whatever he prohibited people from doing, and whatever method he prescribed also came from Allah. This is called the Sunnah of the Messenger, and he himself obeyed it in precisely the way obedience was obligatory for all believers. This becomes completely clear when the noble Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, asked the Prophet (peace be upon him) about something, “O Messenger of Allah, are you saying this on Allah’s command, or is it your own opinion?” In reply, the Prophet would say, “It is not by Allah’s command; rather, it is my own opinion.” After learning this, the noble Companions would not simply agree with the Prophet’s view but would present their own proposals. The Prophet (peace be upon him) would then set aside his opinion and accept their proposal. The same point became clear when the Prophet (peace be upon him) consulted the Companions. Such consultation proved that no instruction had come from Allah regarding that matter, for if there had been a command from Allah, there would have been no question of consultation. This occurred many times in the Prophet’s life, as we learn from the hadith. Indeed, the noble Companions said, “We have never seen anyone consult more than the Prophet (peace be upon him).” If you reflect on this, you will understand that it too was part of the Prophet’s Sunnah: matters concerning which there was no instruction from Allah were to be decided through consultation. Far from any other ruler, even the Messenger of Allah never declared his personal opinion binding upon others. In this way, the Prophet (peace be upon him) trained the ummah to act through consultation and showed people that whatever Allah has commanded must be followed without hesitation, while where there is no command from Allah, the right to exercise independent judgment should be used fearlessly.

The True Charter of Freedom

This is a charter of freedom for humanity such as no one except the true religion has ever given humanity. The servant of Allah will be the servant of Allah alone. He will not be the servant of anyone else—not even the servant of the Messenger of Allah. This charter has freed people from serving and obeying everyone besides Allah, and has permanently ended human divinity, lordship, and authority over other human beings.

Along with this came a supreme blessing granted by this message: the supremacy of a law that no king, dictator, democratic legislature, or nation that has accepted Islam has the right to abolish, distort, or alter. This law gives humanity permanent values of good and evil that cannot be changed so that good becomes evil and evil becomes good.

The Concept of Accountability Before Allah

The third thing the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught people is that you must answer before Allah. You have not been released into the world like an unrestrained animal to do whatever you please, grazing wherever you like without anyone to question you. Rather, you must give your Creator and Lord an account of every word you speak and all the actions of your voluntary life. After death, you will be resurrected and brought before your Lord for questioning. This is such a tremendous moral force that, if it takes root in a person’s conscience, his condition will be as though a watchman is always with him, warning him against every inclination toward wrongdoing and stopping him at every step. Whether or not there is an arresting police force and a punitive government outside him, within him there will sit a fault-finding critic, and for fear of being caught by it he will never be able to disobey Allah in solitude, in the wilderness, in deep darkness, or even in a deserted place. There is no better way to reform human morality and build a strong character. However much you try to develop character by other means, you will not advance beyond the idea that good deeds benefit one in worldly life, evil deeds cause harm, and honesty is a noble principle. This means that if, in principle, wrongdoing and dishonesty are beneficial and involve no risk of harm, they may be committed without hesitation. The result of this outlook is that those who behave honestly in their personal lives become, in national conduct, extremely dishonest, deceitful, plundering, oppressive, and tyrannical. Indeed, even in their personal lives, although they may be honest in some matters, they become extremely dishonest in others. You will find that on the one hand they are honest in transactions and courteous in conduct, while on the other they are drunkards, adulterers, gamblers, utterly immoral, corrupt, and disgraced. They say that a person’s private life is one thing and social or public life another. When a fault in their private life is pointed out, they quickly reply, “Mind your own business.”

The belief in the Hereafter is precisely the opposite. It teaches that sin is always sin, whether it is beneficial or harmful in worldly life. For the person who feels accountable before Allah, the private and social spheres of life cannot be separate. He does not adopt honesty merely because it is a good principle. Rather, honesty becomes part of his very being, and he cannot even imagine that dishonesty could ever be possible for him. His belief teaches him that if he acts dishonestly, he will sink below the level of animals. As the Qur’an says:

We created man in the finest form. Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low.

Thus, under the leadership of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), humanity gained not only an unalterable law containing permanent moral values, but also a completely firm and steadfast foundation for personal and national character and conduct. This law does not depend on circumstances such that you can follow the right path only if a government, police force, or court exists; otherwise you must remain a criminal.

Applying Character in Worldly Life Instead of Asceticism

The call of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gives us another important lesson: character is not meant for the secluded rooms of those who renounce the world, nor for the khanqahs of dervishes; rather, it is meant to succeed in every sphere of worldly life. The spiritual and moral advancement that the world seeks among faqirs and dervishes, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) placed upon the throne of government and the seat of judgment. He taught people to conduct business with fear of Allah and integrity, and taught the police and soldiers piety and fear of Allah. He dispelled the mistaken notion that a wali of Allah is someone who abandons the world and does nothing but repeat Allah’s name. He said that sainthood is not this; true sainthood is for a person to be a ruler, judge, army commander, police-station officer, merchant, industrialist, or anything else in the world, yet at every moment prove himself God-fearing, honest, and trustworthy when his faith is put to the test. Thus he drew character and spirituality out of the secluded corners of asceticism and brought them into economics and social life, politics and the courts, and the fields of war and peace. Then he established the rule of pure and virtuous character in all these spheres.

The Excellent Effects of the Prophet’s Guidance

This was the magnificent effect of his guidance and direction: those who had been robbers at the beginning of prophethood were left by him in such a condition that they became trustworthy and protectors of people’s lives, property, and honor. Those whom he had found taking others’ property, he left as people who granted rights, protected rights, and urged others to give people their due rights. Before him, the world knew only rulers who suppressed their subjects through oppression and tyranny and asserted their authority while living in towering palaces. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) introduced the world to rulers who walked through markets like ordinary people and won people’s hearts through justice and fairness. Before him, the world knew soldiers who, upon entering a country, carried out massacres everywhere, set towns on fire, and violated the honor and chastity of the women of conquered nations. He introduced the world to armies that, upon entering a city as conquerors, did not interfere with anyone except the enemy forces and even returned to the people the taxes collected from the conquered city. Human history is full of accounts of the conquest of various countries and cities, but history contains no parallel to the conquest of Makkah. In that very city whose people had oppressed and persecuted the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) for thirteen years, he entered as a conqueror with his head bowed before Allah. His forehead almost touched the camel’s howdah, and there was not the slightest trace of pride or arrogance in his conduct. When those people who had persecuted and tortured him for thirteen years, forced the Messenger to migrate, and continued fighting against him for eight years after the migration were defeated and came before him pleading for mercy, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), instead of taking revenge, said: “No retribution will be taken from you today. Go; you are free.”

If anyone wishes to understand the effect the example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had on the Muslim ummah, let him look at history. He will see how the Muslims behaved when they entered Spain as conquerors, and how the Christians behaved when they conquered them. During the Crusades, when the Christians entered Bayt al-Maqdis, how did they treat the Muslims, and when the Muslims recaptured Bayt al-Maqdis from the Christians, how did they treat the Christians?

The Sirah of the Noble Prophet (peace be upon him) is an ocean so vast that it cannot be contained in any book, nor can it be contemplated in a single lecture. Nevertheless, I have shed light as briefly as possible on some of its noteworthy aspects. Fortunate are those who will receive guidance for life through this sole source of guidance.

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