The history of the people of Israel is narrated by the Qursan in
considerable detail. It provides the most instructive example of a people who were guided
by some of the greatest Messengers of God. They made a covenant with God that they will be
only His servants and obey only Him and be His witnesses. They rose to great heights and
contributed much to the good of mankind by fulfilling their covenant. But, finally, they
broke their covenant, suffered grievously, and thus became an object lesson in how people
chosen by God to be witnesses to His guidance may go astray and how they may earn God's
anger.
The purpose of narrating their history is neither to create hatred
against any particular religion and people nor to take pleasure and comfort in their
suffering and humiliation. This becomes evident from the fact that, despite very severe
strictures against the people of Israel by the Qur'an, the most peaceful and glorious days
of Jewish history, in the last two thousand years, have been lived under Islamic rule. In
fact their history is meant to act like a mirror which the Qur'an holds to the Muslims so
that they may recognize themselves when they go astray and may remain aware of the painful
consequences of such conduct. Another purpose, of course, was to awaken the Jews at the
time of the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, and to invite them to believe in the
Last Prophet and support him, as their own mission demanded. The Quranic account is
similar to the Biblical account; if anything, much milder in tone and language.
Firstly, the Qur'an shows that great blessings were conferred by God on
the people of Israel, the greatest of them being the Book and guidance from Him, and that
they were chosen to be His special servants.
Children of Israel,
remember My blessing with which I blessed you, and how I favoured you above all other
people (al-Baqarah 2: 47).
And when Moses said unto
his people: O my people, remember God's blessing upon you, when He appointed among you
Prophets, and made you kings, and gave you such as He had not given to any beings
(al-Ma'idah 5: 20).
And when We made a
covenant with the Children of Israel: You shall serve and worship none but God; and to be
good to parents, and the near kinsman, and to the orphan, and to the needy; and speak good
to man, and perform the prayer, and give the alms
(al-Baqarah 2: 83).
And when We made covenant
with you [O Children of Israel], and raised above you the Mount: hold fast with [all your]
strength unto what We have given you, and remember what is in it, so that you might remain
conscious of God. Then you turned away after that . . . (al-Baqarah 2: 63-4). Surely
We sent down the Torah, wherein was guidance and light; thereby the Prophets, who had
surrendered themselves [to God], gave judgement for those who were Jews; and so did the
men of God and the rabbis, following such portion of God's Book as they were given to
keep; and they bore witness to its truth
(al-Ma'idah 5: 44).
The Bible gives a similar account:
Do this because you belong to the
Lord your God. From all the peoples on earth, He chose you to be His own special people.
The Lord did not love you and choose you because you outnumbered other peoples; you were
the smallest nation on earth (Deut. 7: 6-7).
At Mount Sinai the Lord our God
made a covenant, not only with our fathers, but with all of us who are living today. There
on the mountain the Lord spoke to you face-to-face from the Fire . . . The Lord said, 'I
am the Lord your God, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Worship no god
but Me' (Deut. 5: 2-7).
Israel, remember this! The Lord
and the Lord alone is our God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your strength. Never forget these commands that I am giving you today.
Teach them to your children. Repeat them when you are at home and when you are away, when
you are resting and when you are working. Tie them on your arms and wear them on your
foreheads as a reminder. Write them on the door-posts of your houses and on your gates (Deut. 6: 4-9). [This is a very good exegesis of the Quranic
words 'and remember'.]
Never forget the Lord your God or
turn to other gods to worship and serve them. If you do, then I warn you today that you
will certainly be destroyed (Deut. 8: 19).
People of Israel, you are My
witnesses; I chose you to be My servant, so that you would know Me and believe in Me and
understand that I am the only God. Beside Me there is no other god; there never was and
never will be (Isa. 43: 10) .
Secondly, the Qur'an
exhorts and invites the people of Israel, as does the Bible, to fulfil their covenant with
God, to believe in His last message, and to bear witness to its truth, reminding them of
the promise and threat that were made to them. Children of Israel, remember My blessing
with which I blessed you, and fulfil My covenant [with you], and I shall fulfil your
covenant [with Me]; and of Me alone stand in awe!
(al-Baqarah 2: 40).
Remember that the Lord your God
is the only God and that He is faithful. He will keep His covenant and show His constant
love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and obey His commands, but He will
not hesitate to punish those who hate Him (Deut. 7:
9-10).
If you obey the Lord your God and
do everything He commands, He will make you His own people, as He has promised . . . The
Lord your God will make you the leader among the nations and not a follower; you will
always prosper and never fail . . . But if you disobey the Lord your God and do not
faithfully keep all His commandments and laws that I am giving you today, all these evil
things will happen to you . . . the Lord will curse everything you do . . . (Deut. 28: 9-19).
I will be your God, and you will
be My people (Lev. 26: 12) .
Thirdly, the Qur'an indicts the people of Israel for breaking their
covenant and neglecting their duty to worship and obey only God and to be His witnesses.
Not only did they themselves turn away from the message of their Lord, they also prevented
others from accepting and following it.
People of the Book, why
do you disbelieve God's revelations while you yourselves witness [their truth]? People of
the Book, why do you cloak the truth with falsehood and conceal the truth, and that
knowingly (Al 'Imran 3: 70-1).
Say: People of the book,
why do you bar from the path of God those who believe, trying to make it appear crooked,
you yourselves being witnesses to its truth?
(Al 'Imran 3: 99) .
Indeed, God made covenant
with the Children of Israel, when We raised from among them twelve of their leaders, and
God said: I am with you. Surely, if you perform the prayer, and pay the alms, and believe
in My Messengers, and succour them and lend to God a good loan, I will surely efface your
evil deeds and I will admit you to gardens through which running waters flow. But
whosoever of you thereafter disbelieves, surely he has gone astray from the right way.
Then, for their breaking their covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard . . .
(al-Ma'idah 5: 12-13).
Indeed, We made covenant
with the Children of Israel, and We sent Messengers to them; whenever there came to them a
Messenger with what they did not like [they rebelled], to some they gave the lie, while
others they slayed (al-Ma'idah 5: 70).
The People of the Book
will ask you to bring down upon them a Book from heaven; and they asked Moses for greater
than that, for they said: Make us see God face to face whereupon the thunderbolt overtook
them for their evil doing. Then, they took to [worshipping] the calf and this after the
clear Truth had come to them; yet We pardoned them that, and We bestowed upon Moses a
clear authority [for the Truth]. And We raised above them the Mount making covenant with
them; and We said to them: Enter the gate, prostrating; and We said to them: Transgress
not the Sabbath; and We made a solemn covenant with them. So [We cursed them] for their
breaking the covenant, and their denying the revelations of God, and their slaying the
Prophets without right, and for their saying, 'Our hearts are closed [to false guidance]'
nay, but God sealed them for their disbelief so they believe not, except a few and for
their disbelief and their uttering against Mary an awesome calumny, and for their saying,
'We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of God'
(al-Nisa' 4: 153-7).
Cursed were the
disbelievers among the Children of Israel by the tongue of David, and Jesus, the son of
Mary; this, because they rebelled [against God] and persisted in transgression. They did
not prevent one another from the wrongs they committed. Surely evil were the things they
did (al-Ma'idah 5: 78-9).
The Bible speaks in the same vein. Its indictment is no different from
that which the Qur'an says, although it is said more harshly and with severer strictures.
In addition, the leaders of
Judah, the priests, and the people followed the sinful example of the nations round them
in worshipping idols, and so they defiled the Temple, which the Lord Himself had made
holy. The Lord, the God of their ancestors, had continued to send prophets to warn His
people, because He wanted to spare them and the Temple. But they ridiculed God's
Messengers, ignoring His words and laughing at His prophets, until at last the Lord's
anger against His people was so great that there was no escape (2
Chr. 36: 14-16).
God told me to write down
in a Book what the people are like, so that there would be a permanent record of how evil
they are. They are always rebelling against God, always Iying, always refusing to listen
to the Lord's teachings. They tell the prophets to keep quiet. They say: 'Don't talk to us
about what's right. Tell us what we want to hear. Let us keep our illusions. Get out of
our way and stop blocking our path. We don't want to hear about your holy God of Israel'
(Isa. 30: 8-11).
But Your people rebelled and
disobeyed You; they turned their backs on Your law. They killed the prophets who warned
them, who told them to turn back to You. They insulted You time after time, so You let
their enemies conquer and rule them (Neh. 9: 26-7).
The Children I brought up have
rebelled against Me. Cattle know who owns them, and donkeys know where their master feeds
them. But that is more than my people Israel know. They don't understand at all . . . The
city that once was faithful is behaving like a whore! At one time it was filled with
righteous men, but now only murderers remain. Jerusalem, you were once like silver, but
now you are worthless; . . . Your leaders are rebels and friends of thieves; they are
always accepting gifts and bribes. They never defend orphans in court or listen when
widows present their case (Isa. 1: 2-23).
And this is how Jesus censures the people of Israel.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill
the prophets and stone the Messengers God has sent you! . . . And so your temple will be
abandoned and empty (Mt. 23: 37-8).
They tie on to people's backs
loads that are heavy and are hard to carry, yet they aren't willing even to lift a finger
to help them carry those loads. They do everything so that people will see them. Look at
the straps with Scripture verses on them which they wear on their foreheads and arms, and
notice how large they are! Notice also how long are the tassels on their cloaks! They love
the best places at feasts and the reserved seats in the synagogues; they love to be
greeted with respect in the market places and to be called 'Teacher' . . . You hypocrites!
You lock the door to the Kingdom of heaven in people's faces, and you yourselves don't go
in, nor do you allow in those who are trying to enter! . . . You clean the outside of your
cup and plate, while the inside is full of what you have obtained by violence and
selfishness . . . You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are
full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside . . . So you actually admit that you are
the descendants of those who murdered the prophets! Go on, then, and finish what your
ancestors started! You snakes and sons of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being
condemned to hell? And so I tell you that I will send you prophets and wise men and
teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify others, and whip others in the synagogues
and chase them from town to town (Mt. 23: 4-34).
Perhaps the most moving account of the fate of Israel is in the
lamentations of the Prophet Isaiah, peace be upon him. Describing Israel as a vineyard
planted by God, he first describes how He blessed it with every bounty, then goes on to
describe how it produced sour fruits, and how God punished it something very similar to
what Sayyid Mawdudi has said about the Muslims.
My friend had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug the soil and
cleared it of stones; he planted the finest vines. He built a tower to guard them, dug a
pit for treading the grapes. He waited for the grapes to ripen, but every grape was sour.
So now my friend says: 'You people who live in Jerusalem and Judah,
judge, between my vineyard and me. Is there anything I failed to do for it? Then why did
it produce sour grapes and not the good grapes I expected?
This is what I am going to do to
my vineyard; I will take away the hedge round it, break down the wall that protects it,
and let wild animals eat it and trample it down. I will let it be overgrown with weeds. I
will not prune the vines or hoe the ground; instead I will let briers and thorns cover it.
I will even forbid the clouds to let rain fall upon it
(Isa. 5: 14).
Finally, the Qur'an also makes it clear that, after Israel, it is the
Muslims who have been appointed to fulfil the same mission as was granted to Israel.
Indeed, We gave the Children of
Israel the Book, the Judgement, and the Prophethood; and We provided them with good
things, and We favoured them above all other people. And We gave them clear revelations
pertaining to the affair [of their Din]; so they did not take to different ways after the
knowledge had come to themexcept for the sake of mutual transgression . . . then We set
you [O Muhammad] on the Way [Shari'ah] pertaining to the affair [of your Din]; therefore
follow it, and follow not the likes ahd dislikes of those who do not know
(al-Jathiyah 45: 1S18) .
