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
alSalaam), 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, 7:156-157)
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
alSalaam). 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
alSalaam) 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 they
enforced. 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.
to be continued....
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