From ‘Jerusalem’ to ‘The Holy Land’ - JERUSALEM IN THE QUR’AN

From ‘Jerusalem’ to ‘The Holy Land’

The mystery of Jerusalem in the Qur’an is compounded by the fact that the Holy Book sometimes refers to the city ‘Jerusalem’ synonymously with the ‘Holy Land’ (as in … Surah al-Anbiyah, 95-96) and then proceeds to refer to the ‘Holy Land’ in the same mysterious way in which it referred to ‘Jerusalem’. For example in Surah Banu Israil the Qur’an declared that it was the destiny of Banu Israil that they would commit Fasad (i.e., destructive corruption) in the Holy Land (al-Ard al-Muqaddasah) on two occasions. But the Qur’an did not refer in the verse to the Holy Land by name. Rather the Qur’an referred to it simply and enigmatically as ‘the earth’ or ‘the land’:

“And We gave (clear) warning to the Children of Israel in the Book that twice would they commit Fasad on ‘the land’ and be elated with mighty arrogance (and twice would they be punished)!”

(Qur’an, Banu Israil, 17:4)   

And then when the Qur’an addressed the crucially important subject of the divine conditions for inheritance of the Holy Land, again it referred to it simply and enigmatically as ‘the earth’ or ‘the land’, and not as the ‘Holy Land’:

 

“Before this We wrote in the Psalms after the Message (i.e., the Torah given to Moses): My servants the righteous shall inherit ‘the land’.”

(Qur’an, al-Anbiyah, 21:105)

 

Finally, the Qur’an refers to a moment in time when Allah Most High would raise D’abatul ard (a ‘Beast of the Earth or Land’):

“And when the Word is fulfilled against them (i.e., Banu Israil) We shall produce from the land a beast to (face) them (Banu Israil). He will speak to them for the people did not believe with assurance in our Signs.”

(Qur’an, al-Naml, 27:82)

This ‘Beast of the Earth’ or the ‘Land’ is, like Dajjal and Gog and Magog, one of the major Signs of the Last Age. It is clear that the word ‘land’ or ‘earth’ with reference to the Beast is no other than the ‘Holy Land’. 

And so, when Allah Most High is prepared to commence His punishment of the Jews, He raises a ‘Beast’ in the Holy Land’. This ‘Beast’ is readily identifiable as no other than the modern Jewish State of Israel.

Source: Jerusalem in the Qur'an by Imran N. Hosein

to be continued....