The Îsâwî (Nazarene) religion is a
continuation of the Sharî’at of Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’. It will therefore be
useful to give some information about Jews and their Holy Book. First, we shall
present a brief history of Judaism:
Ibrâhîm ‘alaihis-salâm’ is one of those Prophets who are called Ulul-azm. He was neither a
Jew, nor a Christian. He was a true Muslim. Ibrâhîm ‘alaihis-salâm’ is the
forefather of the Israelites, that is, Jews, and of the Arabs. He is at the
same time one of the grandfathers of Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’.
The capital of Chaldea was Babylon. Their
kings were called Nemrűd (Nimrod). At that time Chaldeans
worshipped the moon, the sun and stars. They had made various idols to
represent these celestial beings. Nimrods, too, were among these idols. Allâhu
ta’âlâ sent forth Ibrâhîm ‘alaihis-salâm’ as a Prophet to them. Yet they would not have îmân. They wanted to burn that blessed Prophet in a fire, but Allâhu ta’âlâ made the
fire salvation for him. This fire, which they made after piling up wood for
many days, became a verdure for him. Although they saw this miracle, most of
them would still not have îmân. Ibrâhîm ‘alaihis-salâm’ went to Egypt. Then,
commanded by Allâhu ta’âlâ, he returned to Palestine. After Ibrâhîm’s
‘alaihis-salâm’ death, his son, Ishaq (Isaac) ‘alaihis-salâm’, became the Prophet, and after Ishaq ‘alaihis-salâm’ prophethood was granted to his son, Ya’qűb (Jacob)
‘alaihis-salâm’. Another name of Ya’qűb ‘alaihis-salâm’ was Isrâîl (Israel).
Therefore, people descending from the twelve sons of Ya’qűb ‘alaihis-salâm’ are
called (Benî Isrâîl), which means ‘the sons of Isrâîl’, (or Iraelites). Yűsuf
(Joseph) ‘alaihis-salâm’, one of Ya’qűb’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ sons, was envied by
his brothers. They threw him into a well and lied to Ya’qűb ‘alaihis-salâm’,
saying that he was dead. Then he was saved by some travellers going by the
well. They took him out of the well, took him along to Egypt, and sold him as a
slave there. His purchaser was Azîz (Potiphar), Egypt’s Minister of the
Exchequer. He took Yűsuf ‘alaihis-salâm’ to his home. His wife, Zelîha, fell in
love
with him. But when Yűsuf ‘alaihis-salâm’ refused her, she
slandered him. Upon this slander, Yűsuf ‘alaihis-salâm’ was imprisoned in a
dungeon. Later, when he interpreted a dream of Pharaoh, the Egyptian Ruler, he
was taken out of the dungeon and was made Egypt’s Minister of the Exchequer by
the Pharaoh. Yűsuf ‘alaihis-salâm’ brought his father Ya’qűb ‘alaihis-salâm’
and his brothers to Egypt from Canaan, that is, from (today’s) Palestine. The
Pharaoh treated Ya’qűb ‘alaihis-salâm’ and his children with respect and deep
interest. Thus the Israelites settled in Egypt, where they led a comfortable
life for a while. Later, however, they were subjected to countless torments and
persecutions and were reduced to slavery. Who saved them from these troubles
and took them to the (Ard-i-Maw’űd), that is, to the Promised Land
[Palestine], was Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’.
Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ was raised in Pharaoh’s
palace and by Pharaoh himself. When he reached forty years of age, he left the
palace and began to live with his kin, especially with his elder brother Hârűn
(Aaron).
One day he saw an Egyptian unbeliever [a
gypsy] bullying an Israelite. As he tried to rescue him, the gypsy died. Being
frightened, Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ fled to the Median city (Midian) in the
vicinity of Tebuk.[1] There, he married
the daughter of Shu’ayb (Jethro) ‘alaihis-salâm’, and served him ten years.
Then he left for Egypt. On the way, on Mount Tűr (Sinai), he spoke with Allâhu
ta’âlâ. When he arrived in Egypt, he invited the Pharaoh to the religion of
Allâhu ta’âlâ. He asked him to grant freedom to the Israelites. The Pharaoh
refused it and said, “Moses is a powerful magician. He wants to cheat us out of
our country.” He asked his viziers what they thought. They advised him to
convene the magicians to outvie him. The magicians came and, as the Egyptians
watched, they dropped the ropes they were holding in their hands on to the
ground. Each of the ropes changed into a snake and began to crawl towards Műsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’. Upon this, Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ left his rod to the ground. It
became a gigantic serpent and swallowed (all) the snakes. Bewildered, the
magicians became Believers. The Pharaoh became angry and said, “So he was your
master. I shall have your hands and feet cut off and hang you all on date
branches.” They said, “We believe Műsâ. We trust ourselves to his Rabb (Allah).
Him, alone, do we beg for forgiveness and mercy.” The water
---------------------------------
[1] An
Arabian town, about half way between Medina and Damascus.
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which the unbelievers had been using became blood. It rained
frogs. Cutaneous diseases broke out and spread. Darkness fell and the whole
country remained in darkness for three days. Awed by these miracles, the
Pharaoh permitted the Israelites to leave Egypt. However, as Műsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’ and the Israelites were on their way to Jerusalem, the Pharaoh
repented having let them go and, rallying his army, fell to follow them. The
Suez Isthmus opened and the Believers walked to the other side. As the Pharaoh,
too, was passing to the other side, the sea closed in, drowning him and his
army. The Israelites saw people worshipping an ox on their way, and said to Műsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’, “We wish to have a god like this.” Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’
answered them. “There is no god other than Allâhu ta’âlâ. Allâhu ta’âlâ saved
you.” Then they fell into a wilderness called Tîh, where they lost their way
and suffered dire deprivation of food and drink. (Menn) and (Selva), that is,
manna and meat, rained down from heaven. They ate these. When he tapped the
ground with his rod, water came out. And they drank this water. They hurt Műsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’ by saying. “We are tired of manna and meat. We wish other
things such as broad-beans and onions.” For this reason they remained in the
wilderness for forty years. Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’, leaving Hârűn ‘alaihis-salâm’
for his place, went to Mount Tűr (Sinai), where he prayed for forty days. He
heard the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ. Allâhu ta’âlâ sent down the Holy Book (Taurah) and the Ten
Commandments inscribed on two tablets. A munafîq (hypocrite) named Sâmirî
collected gold wares and ornaments from the people, melted them, and made a
gold calf. He said, “This is Moses’ god. Worship this.” So they began to
worship it. They would not listen to Hârűn’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ remonstrations.
When Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ came back and saw their practices, he was very angry.
He cursed Sâmirî. He held his elder brother’s beard and reproached him. They
repented and begged him for forgiveness. Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ preached them the
Taurah and the Ten Commandments. They began to perform their worships as
prescibed in the Taurah. Afterwards, they deviated from the right course again
and finally parted into seventy-one sects.
Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ and his ummat went to the
region south of the Dead Sea. He made war against a king named Űj bin Űnq (King of Bashan). He captured the land east of the Sharî’a River.
He climbed the mountain opposite Erîha City. He saw the land of Canaan from the
distance. Then, leaving his place to Yűshâ (Joshua) ‘alaihis-salâm’, he passed
away there, according to a narrative, 1605 years before the birth of Îsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’, when he was one hundred and twenty (120) years old. Yűshâ
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‘alaihis-salâm’ captured Erîha City, and then Jerusalem, from the
Amalekites, who were heathens.
Some time later, Dâwűd (David) ‘alaihis-salâm’
became the king. He recaptured Jerusalem. Thus the most prosperous period in
the Jewish history commenced. Afterwards, Suleymân (Solomon) ‘alaihis-salâm’,
(who succeeded Dâwűd ‘alaihis-salâm’), had the renowned temple, that is, the Mesjîd-i Aqsâ (Al-Aqsâ) built on the site which had been reserved and prepared
by his father. Suleymân ‘alaihis-salâm’ had the (Tâbűt-i-sekîna), that is, the Ark
of the Covenant, which contained the Taurah and the other keepsakes such as the
Ten Commandments and the tablets whereon the Ten Commandments (Decalogue) were
written, placed in a room of the temple.
The Jewish nation, who were composed of twelve
tribes, parted into two disparate kingdoms after Suleymân’s ‘alaihis-salâm’
death. Ten tribes made up the Israelite Kingdom, (established by Jeroboam), and
the remaining two tribes, (namely Judah and Benjamen), formed the Judah
Kingdom. Later, indulging in their passions for excess, they swerved from the
right way, plunged into depravities, and eventually incurred the Divine Wrath.
The Israelite Kingdom was demolished by the Assyrians in 721 B.C., and later
the Judah Kingdom was abolished by the Babylonians, in 586 B.C. The Assyrians
invaded Babylonia. In 587, the Assyrian King Buht-un-nasar (Nebuchadnezzar)
burned and devastated Jerusalem. He killed most of the Jews and exiled the rest
to Babylon. During these tumults the heavenly Book, Taurah, was burned. This
original Taurah was a huge Book. In other words, it was composed of forty
parts. Each part was made up of a thousand sűras (chapters), and each sűra
contained a thousand âyats (verses). No one but Uzeyr (Ezra or Esdras)
‘alaihis-salâm’ had memorized this colossal Book. He taught the Taurah to the
Jews again. In the course of time, however, it was mostly forgotten, and
largely interpolated. Various people wrote whatever they remembered of its
verses, and thus a variety of books appeared in the name of Taurah. A rabbi
named Azrâ (Ezra) who lived some four hundred years before the birth of Îsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’, compiled them and wrote today’s Taurah, which is called the
Old Testament. When the Iranian king Shîreveyh routed the Assyrians, he
permitted the Jews to go back to Jerusalem. After 520 B.C. the
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Jews restored the Mesjîd-i-Aqsâ. For some time they lived under
Persian domination, then the Macedonians took them under their sway. In 63 B.C.
Jerusalem was captured by the Roman General Pompey.[1] He burned and destroyed the Mesjîd-i-Aqsâ. Thus the Jews went
under the Romans’ dominance. In 20 B.C. Herod, the Romans’ Jewish governor in
Palestine, had the temple rebuilt. Later the Jews revolted against the Roman
domination. Yet, in A.D. 70, the Roman general Titus[2] thoroughly burned and destroyed Jerusalem. He turned the city
into a pile of ruins. Beyt-i-muqaddes was burned, too, and only its Western
wall remained standing. This wall is now called (Wailing Wall). This wall has
maintained the national and religious esprit de corps in the Jewish
community alive for years. Belief in a promised Messiah is another contribution
to the prolonged survival of this feeling. The wall was specially protected and
the temple was restored by the Byzantines, and then by the Umayyads, and
finally by the Ottomans.
After Titus’ massacres and cruelties, the Jews
left Palestine in groups. They were expelled from Jerusalem and its
territories. The Jewish slaves were sent to Egypt, where they were ruled as
slaves by the Romans. It was an epoch when the Jews spread all over the world.
Jewry has adopted two disparate sources of
commandments for Judaism: 1- Written Commandments; 2- Oral Commandments.
According to Jews, Torah and Talmud are the two basic Holy Books. The
former contains the written commandments, and the latter includes the oral
commandments.
The book Torah is called the Old Testament by Christians. Jews have divided Torah into three sections: 1- Taurah, or Torah
(Law, Pentateuch); 2- Neviim, or the Prophets; 3- Ketűbîm, or the Scriptures (Hagiographa).
Torah is an acronym formed by the initial
letters of the Hebrew counterparts of the three words given above. Neviim (the Prophets) is composed of two subdivisions; the Major Prophets, which consists of six[3] books; the Minor Prophets, made up of
fifteen books. Ketűbîm, that is, the Scriptures (Writings), is
---------------------------------
[1] Gnaeus
Pompey (106-48 B.C.)
[2] Titus
(A.D. 39-81) was the Roman emperor from A.D. 79 to 81.
[3] This number is four in the Hebrew Bible and in all the modern Bibles,and six in Septuagint, the Greek version, and in Vulgate, the Latin version. These two versions of the Bible include the Apochrypha.
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composed of eleven books according to Jews, and fifteen books in
Christians’ belief.
Jews believe that the five books which they
call Taurah have been sent by Allâhu ta’âlâ down to Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’. These
five books are (Genesis), (Exodus), (Leviticus), (Numbers), (Deuteronomy). It is written about the old age and death of Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’,
how old he was and how he was buried when he was dead and how the Jews mourned
for him in Deuteronomy [Deut: 34]. How does it happen that these reports, which
are about the events that are supposed to have taken place after Műsâ’s
‘alaihis-salâm’ death, are written in a book which is alleged to have been
revealed to Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’? This factual hiatus is one of the clear
proofs testifying to the fact that the existing Taurah is not in its pristine
purity as it was revealed by Allâhu ta’âlâ and taught by Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’.
As it is stated in the book (History of the
Jews) by H.Hirch Graetzin, a Jewish clergyman, Jews established the (Assembly of the Seventies) in order to keep their community strictly obedient to the
Pentateuchal commandments, and called the head of this assembly (Chief Rabbi). Jewish theologians who teach young Jewish people their religion
in schools and preach the Taurah are called (Scribes). Some of their explanations and
amendments of the Taurah have been inserted into the copies of the Taurah
written afterwards. These are the scribes mentioned in the Gospels. Another
task of these people is to make Jews obedient to the Taurah.
There is yet another version of the Taurah,
and it is rejected by most Jews. It is called (Tora ha-Shomranim). Believers of this
Torah have always been opposed to the explanations and additions made by these
scribes to the Taurah, even if it were a change of one letter. It is reported
that there are some six thousand differences between the Taurah possessed by
Jews and the Taurah Shomranim.
Christians use the term Old Testament (Ahd-i-Atîk) for the book Torah. Jews reject this term.
There is no doubt that the book they call
Taurah today is not the genuine Taurah revealed to Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ by
Allâhu ta’âlâ. There is a duration of two thousand years between the time when
the earliest of these copies of the Taurah was written and the time when Műsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’ lived. Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ advised the scholars of his ummat
to preserve the Taurah in the Tâbűt-i-sekîna (Ark of the Covenant). When
Suleymân ‘alaihis-
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salâm’ built the (Mesjîd-i-Aqsâ), he had the ark put in the temple and
had it opened. When the ark was opened, it was seen that it contained only the
two tablets on which the Awâmir-i-Ashere (Ten Commandments) were written.
A book titled (Who Wrote The Torah), published
in 1987 by Elliot Friedman, a professor in the University of California in
U.S.A., stirred up the Jewish and Christian worlds. Professor Friedman explains
that the five books composing the Taurah were written by five different
theologians and that they were in no way comparable to the original copy of the
Taurah revealed to Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’. In the same book, Professor Friedman
states that the (Old) and (New) (Testaments) of the (Holy Bible) are in contradiction with each other, and gives examples.
Moreover, Professor Friedman points out that there are inconsistencies in the
books, and even in the chapters, making up the Taurah, and adds that a book of
that sort could by no means be called a (heavenly Book). There is also a vast
stylistic textual difference in the five books making up the Taurah.
According to Prof. Friedman, today’s Taurah
was written by five rabbis who lived several centuries after Műsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’ and later another rabbi named Ezra gathered them together and
published them in the name of the original version of the Old Testament.
Historian Prof. Friedman’s conclusive remarks can be briefly paraphrased as
follows:
“There are three versions of the Taurah today:
The Hebrew version accepted by Jews and Protestants; the Greek version accepted
by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches; the Samaritan Pentateuch accepted by the
Samaritans.[1] These versions are
known as the oldest and the most dependable versions of the Taurah, yet there
are innumerable contradictions, both within the versions and between the
versions. They contain suggestions of cruelty to people and extremely ugly and
unbecoming imputations to Prophets. The real
Taurah could by no means be said to have contained these inconsistencies.”
Richard Simon, a French clergyman, says in his
book (Historia Critique du Vieux Testament) that (today’s) Taurah is not the
original Taurah revealed to Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ and that it is a compilation
of various books written in different times. The clergyman’s book was seized
and he was excommunicated.
---------------------------------
[1] People
of Samaria, an ancient region west of Jordan.
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Dr. Jean Astruc says in his book (Conjectures
il parait que Mouse s’est Servi pour composer le livre de
It is written in the eleventh and later verses
of the first chapter of Genesis that plants were created before mankind. On the
other hand, it is written in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth verses
of the second chapter that man was created and at that time there were no
plants on the earth and that plants were created after the creation of man. On
account of his disclosure of contradictions such as this and many other grave
errors, Jean Astruc was proclaimed a heretic.
Gottfried Eichhorn published a book in
Herden, a German poet and philosopher, writes
in his work titled (Von Geiste den hebraischen Poesie) that the poems in the
book (Psalms) of the Old Testament were written by different Hebrew poets in
different times and that they were compiled afterwards. He states also that the
(Song of Solomon) is only a book of carnal and obscene love songs and that the
poems in it could not be attributed to such an exalted Prophet as Suleymân ‘alaihis-salâm’. Those who are
interested should only take a look at the (Song of Solomon).
Owing to the improvements in the studies
carried on in the Hebrew language in the nineteenth century, it was proved that
the five books included in the Taurah did not belong to Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’
and that these Pentateuchal books were compiled in different times. Very many
European historians, priests and bishops published works on this subject.
Dr. Graham Scroggie of the Mood Bible
Institute confesses in the book (Is the Bible the Word of God?) that neither
the (Old Testament) nor the (New Testament) is the Word of Allah.
Dr. Stroggie states, “Genesis is full of
genealogies. Who was born from whom, how he was born, etc. It always gives
information of this sort. Why should these things interest me? What do these
things have to do with worships, with loving Allâhu ta’âlâ? How can one be a
good person? What is the day of Judgement? Who will call us to account, and
how? What should
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one do to become a pious person? These things have very little
reference. For the most part, various fables are related. Before daytime is
defined, it begins to tell about the night.” How could a book of this kind ever
be the Word of Allah?
Today a person who reads the books called (Torah) by Jews and
the (Old Testament) by Christians will think he is reading a book of sexology
teaching ways of indecency, obscenity and immorality, instead of a heavenly
book revealed by Allâhu ta’âlâ. Many Western priests and scientists, realizing
that these books are not the Word of Allah, have published innumerable books
and tried to inform everyone of the fact. The capacity of our book would not
let us mention them (all) here.
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