Jerusalem In Quran; Chapter-7; Book by Sheikh Imran N. Hosein

JERUSALEM IN THE QUR’AN

By Imran N. Hosein

PART ONE

Chapter 7

TURN FROM JERUSALEM TO MAKKAH

“Will they not travel through the earth so that they may thus learn wisdom and their ears may

thus learn to hear? Truly it is not their eyes that are blind, but (rather) their hearts which are in

their chests.”

(Qur’an, al-Hajj, 22:46)

[I.e. Will they not travel through the earth perchance that their dead hearts might come alive, so

that with such hearts and minds, which are now internally alive, they may thus learn wisdom

and their ears may thus learn to hear, i.e., with internal hearing? Truly it is not their eyes that

are blind, but, rather, their hearts that are in their chests.]

Jewish religious scholarship recognized a Jewish relationship with the Holy Land,

the city of Jerusalem, and the Temple of Solomon (‘alaihi al-Salaam), to be matters

connected with the very substance of ‘faith’. As a consequence of that belief they

concluded that the religion of Judaism would forever remain incomplete unless and

until Jews returned to a liberated Holy Land, restored the State of Israel with Holy

Jerusalem as the capital of that State, and reconstructed the Temple of Solomon (‘alaihi

al-Salaam). Zionism had no such sacred attachment or relationship with the Land, the

city, or the Temple. The Zionist ties to these entities were based on grounds that were

essentially political, historic, secular and national.

The Qur’an declared, on the other hand, that the substance of religion resided in

‘faith’ (and righteous conduct) – ‘faith’ in Allah Most High, His Angels, His Revealed

Scriptures, His Messengers or Prophets, the Last Day, the Resurrection and Judgment,

Heaven and Hell, etc. Allah Most High is the ‘Truth’. ‘Faith’ resides in the human

heart. When ‘Faith’ is achieved then ‘Truth’ enters the heart! Allah Most High is

greater than a Land, or a City, or a Temple. “My heavens and My earth are too small

to contain Me. But the heart of My faithful servant can contain Me”(Hadith al-Qudsi).

When the Last Prophet (‘alaihi al-Salaam) came into the world Jewish scholarship was

incapacitated in respect of formally recognizing him as a Prophet because of this

fixation with the ‘external form’ of religion and inadequate recognition of the ‘internal

substance’ of religion. Muhammad (‘alaihi al-Salaam), the Arab, was not a Jew, hence,

they argued, he could not be a Prophet to the Jews. After the arrival of the Prophet

(‘alaihi al-Salaam) in their very midst in the Hejazi city of Yathrib (now Madina), he

fasted with the Jews on the days when they fasted and in accordance with the law of

fasting in the Torah (sunset to sunset). He also performed his Salat (prescribed

prayers) while facing in the direction of Jerusalem. When after seventeen months it

became clear that the Jews had not only rejected Muhammad (‘alaihi al-Salaam) as a

Prophet of Allah Most High and the Qur’an as the word of Allah Most High but were

also conspiring to destroy the unity and power of the community of Muslims, Allah

Most High ordered the Prophet to turn away from Jerusalem in prayer and to turn

instead to Makkah.

This change in Qiblah (direction of prayer) provoked the Jews to make many critical

comments. It was an affront to them that this change should have taken place since

they believed that the very substance of religion was located in attachment to

Jerusalem. The Qur’an responded to their criticisms with contempt:

“The fools among the people will say: What hath turned them from the Qiblah to

which they were used? Say: To Allah belong East and West: He guides whom He will

to a Way that is straight.”

(Qur’an, al-Baqarah,

2:142)

The Qur’an declared the Jews to be so imprisoned by the false belief that Jerusalem

belonged to the heart and center of faith that nothing in the world could change it:

“Even if you were to bring to the People of the Book all the Signs (together), they

would not follow your Qiblah… (Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:145)

Finally the Qur’an responded with a declaration that demolished the false belief that

Jerusalem, the city, and its Temple, were located at the substance of the religion of

Abraham (‘alaihi al-Salaam):

“It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards East or West; but it is

righteousness to have faith in Allah, and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book,

and the Messengers; to spend of your wealth, out of love for Him (or despite your love

for wealth) for your relatives, for orphans, for the needy, for the traveler, for those

who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; (righteousness is) to be steadfast in prayer, and

practice regular charity, to fulfill contracts which you make; and to be firm and

patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic.

Such

are the people of Truth, the God-fearing.” (Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:177)

And so no negative implication for Islam should be derived from this event of the

turning away by Muslims from Jerusalem, and turning to Makkah, other than the clear

Qur’anic attempt to correct the religious perspective of those who located the

substance of religion in a geographical framework. The Qur’anic message to the Jews

was very clear. The Jews were informed that although Muhammad (‘alaihi al-Salaam)

was not a Jew, and although he no longer prayed in the direction of Jerusalem, and

although he never made any attempt whatsoever to liberate Jerusalem, yet he was still

a true Prophet of the God of Abraham and the religion which he preached was the true

religion of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, and of the Messiah, the son of Mary!

And so the change in Qiblah was an ominous sign for the stubborn Jew who insisted

that Jerusalem was the spiritual heart of the religion of Abraham.

If the divine wrath did not come down upon Muhammad (‘alaihi al-Salaam) after he

turned away from Jerusalem, then the implication would be that a ‘true’ Prophet could

turn away from Jerusalem and yet remain a ‘true’ Prophet. Not only did Muhammad

(‘alaihi al-Salaam) suffer in no way in consequence of ‘turning away’ from Jerusalem,

but, rather, he went on to convincingly defeat a Jewish people who insisted that they

were the ‘chosen people’ of the God of Abraham.

And so it is clear that there were no such political implications to be derived from

the change of Qiblah to the effect that Islam, the religion, no longer had any ties with

Jerusalem... On the contrary, the Qur’an affirms that Muhammad (‘alaihi al-Salaam), and

those who follow him, are the true followers of the religion of Abraham:

“Without doubt, among men, the nearest of men to Abraham (i.e., closest to him in

respect of following his religion), are those who followed him, as are also this Prophet

(i.e., Muhammad) and those who believe (i.e., believe in him and in the Book which

was revealed to him): and Allah is the Protecting Friend of those who have Faith.”

(Qur’an, Ale ‘Imran, 3:68)

The implication of this declaration of the Qur’an is quite clear. It is those who

faithfully follow Muhammad (‘alaihi al-Salaam) who have the right to inherit the Holy

Land. It is the destiny of Jerusalem to confirm this truth.

Window of opportunity for Jews to earn Allah’s Mercy

The change in Qiblah had implications which were even more important that the

above.

When the Jews worshipped the ‘Golden Calf’ while Moses (‘alaihi al-Salaam) was on

Mt. Sinai, and when they changed the Torah and rewrote it to make Halal that which

Allah had made Haram, and when they boasted of how they had killed the Messiah,

the son of Mary, these constituted the most heinous incidents in their continuous

betrayal of their Covenant with Allah. Allah responded to all of these monstrously

sinful deeds with a declaration that they had but one ‘window of opportunity’ through

which they could avert the ‘greatest of all punishments’ that He had reserved for them.

That ‘window of opportunity’ would be the Arab Prophet, Muhammad (‘alaihi al-

Salaam), who would be the Last of all the Prophets. If they accepted him and believed

in him then they could earn Divine Forgiveness and Mercy. This promise was recorded

in the Qur’an in the following passage in which He addressed the Jews and delivered

His response to their monstrous sins and violations of the Covenant as follows:

“ … He said: “With My Punishment I visit whom I will; but My Mercy extendeth to all

things. That (Mercy) I shall ordain for those who do right, and practice regular

charity, and those who believe in Our Signs.”

“Those who follow the Messenger, the (Gentile) unlettered Prophet, whom they find

mentioned in their own (Scriptures) - in the Torah and the Gospel - for he commands

them what is just and forbids them what is evil; he allows them as lawful what is good

(and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure); he releases them from

their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them. So it is those who believe

in him, honour him, help him, and follow the Light which is sent down with him, it is

they who will prosper.”

(Qur’an, al-‘Araf, 7:156-7)

It was very clear that the (above) Qur’anic passage referred to Prophet Muhammad

(‘alaihi al-Salaam).

When the Prophet (‘alaihi al-Salaam) arrived in Madina he did a number of things that

should easily have convinced the Jews and their Rabbis that he was indeed a true

Prophet of Allah, and that he was the Prophet on whom they were in wait : -

· During the first seventeen months of his stay in Madina he prayed in

the direction of Jerusalem. He did so because that was the Qiblah to

which the Jews prayed, hence that was the Qiblah for those who

worshipped in accordance with the religion of Abraham (‘alaihi al-

Salaam). But for an Arab to do such a thing in Madina he had to turn

his back on the Ka’aba, the ancient House of Allah in Makkah that

every Arab venerated. That act of the Prophet (‘alaihi al-Salaam) was

sufficient to have convinced the Jews that he was indeed a true

Prophet.

· But he did more than that. He also fasted with the Jews on the days

when they fasted and in accordance with the law of fasting in the

Torah (from sunset to sunset). No Arab had ever fasted like that in all

history. But the entire Muslim community of Madina now fasted that

way. This should have convinced the Jews that Muhammad (‘alaihi al-

Salaam) was indeed a true Prophet.

· Finally something else occurred which should have sealed the matter

once and for all. The Jews brought before the Prophet (‘alaihi al-Salaam)

two people who had committed zina (sexual intercourse between two

people who are not married to each other). They sought to test him by

asking him what should be done to the two people. He asked them

what punishment did they enforce. They replied to the effect that they

made the faces black and then beat such people publicly. He then

asked whether this was the punishment that they found in their Book.

He asked them to bring their Book and to read from it (since he,

himself, could neither read nor write). As they read from the Torah

their Rabbi, Abdullah bin Salaam, who had become a Muslim, stood

beside the Prophet (‘alaihi al-Salaam). When the reader came to the verse

on rajm (stoning to death) in the Torah he put his finger over the verse

to hide it. Abdullah bin Salaam ordered him to stop reading and to

raise his finger. He then had to read the verse of rajm that prescribed

this punishment for zina. The recitation of this verse caused

considerable embarrassment to the Jews. They had been exposed as a

people who had betrayed their own sacred law and were trying to

conceal that betrayal. The Prophet (‘alaihi al-Salaam) then ordered that

the two people be stoned to death thus enforcing the Jewish law that

the Jews themselves were not enforcing. This should have been

sufficient to absolutely convince the Jews that he was, indeed, a true

Prophet.

After seventeen months had elapsed since the arrival of the Prophet (‘alaihi al-Salaam)

in Madina it became clear that the Jews had not only rejected him as a Prophet, and

rejected the Qur’an as the Word of Allah, but were conspiring to destroy Islam. It was

at this time that Allah, Most High, responded as follows : -

· He changed the Qiblah (turn from Jerusalem, turn to Makkah!). He

also sent down revelation making ‘fighting’ (Qital) and ‘fasting’

(Saum) compulsory! All three revelations came down in the same

month of Shaban.

· In the process of promulgating the fast of Ramadan Allah Most High

changed the Law of Fasting that was in the Torah. The new Law made

it compulsory to fast from ‘dawn’ to ‘sunset’. Permission was thus

given to eat and drink and to engage in sexual relations during the

hours of darkness.

· Finally, Allah Most High changed the law of punishment for zina. The

new law was a public flogging!

The first implication of the change of Law was that the Jewish Law was now

abrogated. It no longer had any operational validity.

But the more ominous implication became clear when, sometime later, the Prophet

(‘alaihi al-Salaam) had a dream or a vision in which it was revealed to him that the

release of Gog and Magog had commenced. He also dramatically confirmed the

release of Dajjal, the False Messiah, when he went with Umar (ra) to meet with a

Jewish boy named Ibn Sayyad whom he suspected to have been Dajjal. The message

that Dajjal was now released on earth was made quite clear when Umar sought

permission to cut off Ibn Sayyad’s head and Prophet (‘alaihi al-Salaam) refused

permission with the words: “If he is Dajjal you cannot kill him. And if he is not Dajjal

then it would be sinful to kill him.”(Sahih Muslim)

If Dajjal was now released, and so too Gog and Magog, then the implication would

be that the Last Age, or the Age of Fitan, commenced in the lifetime of the Prophet (s)

after the change of Qiblah. The ‘door’ or ‘window of opportunity’ for the Jews to earn

Divine Mercy was now forever closed and the greatest Divine punishment would now

commence. (See chapter 12, sub-heading 7)

Never again would the Jews ever qualify to inherit the Holy Land. The only time

they would ever return to it to take control over it would be at that time when Gog and

Magog have spread out in every direction and have therefore taken control of the

world in the World-Order of Gog and Magog. But that would be a part of the great

Divine Plan through which the Jews would now be inflicted with the greatest Divine

punishment ever.

(This book can be ordered from Islamic Book Trust at ibtkl@pd.jaring.my)

Sheikh Imran has talked on the subject extensively and here is one video. The reader may find many related videos by Sheikh Imran on You Tube.