The pronouncements of the Koran on the Holy Land have
never been exhaustively examined from legal and theo-political points of view.
In our time the subjects have a decisive bearing on the mutually exclusive
claims of the Arabs in the Middle East and the Jews of Israel to ownership of
that disputed territory. The absence of a searching examination by the three faiths
concerned – Jewish, Christian, Muslim – despite their theological, historical
and emotional roots in the Holy Land, is the more surprising since the Koranic
pronouncements on the subject are explicit and consistent with all the basic
dogmas of Islam, their theological and legal significance clear and striking.
Muhammad (570 to 632 A.D.) felt himself to be Allah’s
chosen messenger and recited what he explained as successive divine revelations
to him, from about 610 to the end of his life, first to his fellow citizens in
Mekka, later to those of Medina and then to the Arabian tribes throughout the
peninsula. We are referring to them in this report as “Arabians” to distinguish
them from the “Arabs”, a medley of many nationalities, ethnic and religious
groups throughout the Middle East and North Africa, who converted to Islam
after Muhammad’s death, in the wake of the conquests by the original Arabian
Muslims. These new Muslims were originally mostly Christians of various
denominations. After their countries were overrun by the Arabian armies they
soon adopted not only the new religion, but also the language, script and
personal names of the Arabian conquerors. A few generations later they came to
think of themselves, and to be thought of by others to this day, as Arabs.
Muhammad called the new faith of monotheism which he
proclaimed in his inspired messages “Islam”. The equivalent English word for it
is “surrender”, unconditional submission to Allah’s will. He preached it to his
fellow citizens for about twenty years until his death. The Arabians, seasoned
traders and observant travellers were, like himself, familiar with the
geography of the Middle East, its nations and their ethnic-religious history.
One of these were the tribes of Israel (“banu Isra’il”), their exodus from
slavery in Egypt led by Moses (“Mousa” in Arabic), his delivery to them of a
holy book from Allah laying down the laws of a new faith and conduct, and of
Allah’s promise to them that they should inherit the Holy Land as a reward for
their steadfast faith in him at the time of oppression by the Egyptians.
Muhammad’s recitals of these messages were memorized
and passed on by word of mouth or written down by by his earliest followers.
After his death the 114 chapters
of his revelations (called
“Sura” in Arabic) were edited and an agreed version published as “Koran” (or
“Qur’an”, literally a reading, or recital). Their chronological order is not
certain. The posthumous version
arranged them in descending length, the longest at the beginning. Today
about 1000 million Muslims around the globe believe the Koran to be Allah’s
word to humanity and principal guidance to moral, social and spiritual conduct
of the individual and society, and as holy to them as the Bible is to believing
Jews and Christians. The country with the largest Muslim population today is
Indonesia. Nearly 90 per cent of that country’s various ethnic groups,
estimated at 210 million today, are Muslim.
A few verses chosen at random from the Koran to give
non-Muslim readers an idea, however superficial, of the tenor of this
remarkable book that changed the fate of many nations in Asia, Africa and
Europe and is to this day gaining Islam more new converts than any other faith.
“Those who recite the Book of Allah and attend to
their prayers and give alms in private and in public may hope for imperishable
gain. Allah will give them their
rewards and enrich them from His own abundance. He is forgiving and bounteous
in His rewards.” (Sura 35,
The Creator).
“Woe to the lying sinner! He hears the revelations of
Allah recited to him and then, as though he never heard them, persists in
scorn. Forewarn him of a woeful doom.
Those that deride Our revelations when they have scarcely heard them,
shall be put to a shameful punishment. Praise, then, be to Allah, the Lord of
the heavens and the earth, the Lord of the Creation. Glory be His in heaven and earth. He is the Mighty One, the
All-knowing.” (Sura 45, Kneeling).
“As for those that are slain in the cause of Allah, He
will not allow their works to perish.
He will grant them guidance and ennoble their state; He will admit them
to the Paradise He has made known to them. Believers, if you help Allah, Allah will help you and make
you strong. But the unbelievers
shall be consigned to perdition.
He will bring their deeds to nothing. Because they have opposed His
revelations, He will frsutrate their works.” (Sura 47, Muhammad).
“It is not right that all the faithful should go to
war at once. A band from each community should stay behind to instruct
themselves in religion and admonish their men when they return, so that they
may take heed. Believers, make war
on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. Know that Allah is with the righteous.”
(Sura 9, Repentance).
“We gave Moses the Scriptures and made them a guide
for the Israelites, saying: ‘Take no other guardian than Myself. You are the
descendants of those Whom we carried in the Ark with Noah. He was a truly thankful servant.” (Sura 17, The Night Journey).
“The fate of each man We have bound about his
neck. On the day of resurrection
We shall confront him with a book spread wide open, saying: ’Here is your
book: read it. Your own soul shall
this day call you to account.” (Sura 17, The Night Journey).
“You shall not commit adultery, for it is foul and
indecent. You shall not kill any man whom Allah has forbidden you to kill,
except for a just cause. If a man is slain unjustly, his heir is
entitled to satisfaction. But let him not carry his vengeance too far, for his
victim will in turn be assisted and avenged. Do not interfere with the property of orphans except with
the best of motives, until they reach maturity. Keep your promises; you are accountable for all that you
promise. Give full measure when you measure, and weigh with even scales. That
is fair and better in the end.”
(Sura 17, The Night Journey)
“To Moses We gave nine clear signs. Ask the Israelites
how he first appeared among them. Pharao said to him: ‘Moses, I can see that
you are bewitched.’ He replied:
“You know full well, that none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth
has revealed these visible signs. Pharao, you are doomed.’ Pharao sought to scare them out of the
land: but We drowned him, together with all who were with him. Then We said to
the Israelites: ‘Dwell in this
land. When the promise of the here
after comes to be fulfilled, We
shall assemble you altogether.’ We
have revealed the Koran with truth and with truth it has come down. We have
sent you forth only to proclaim good news and to give warning.” (Sura 17, The Night Journey)
Throughout the Koran Muhammad cited and repeated
Biblical stories as examples illustrative of his own belief in an eternal,
all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the world, compassionate to those who have
faith in him and obey his commandments. On these occasions he did not mean to
teach Bible lore, geography, ethnography, religions, pagan or monotheistic, of
the Middle East, subjects of which most of his listeners had some knowledge.
His purpose was to drive home to them lessons of his own new faith by citing
instructive historic examples of the two known older monotheistic religions,
Judaism and Christianity, of Allah as the only God, of his rewards for those
who obeyed him, and of severe punishment awaiting the unbelievers. He argued with his critics, mainly in
Mecca, who accused of “making it all up himself”, whenever he asserted that he
was charged by Allah with the task of transmitting to them the divine messages
revealed to him.
Many pages of the Koran recapitulate Biblical tales,
from Adam and Noah to Jesus. In an age when books were written by hand and
rare, when literacy was the exception, these tales circulated mainly by word of
mouth. Thus, when in various
passages Muhammad spoke summarily of “the land”, or of “Ibrahim” (Abraham of the Old Testament
whom both Jews and Arabs regard as their forefather), or of the “banu Isra’il”,
the people of Mecca and Medina knew that he meant the “Holy Land” and the Jewish people who on Allah’s orders
had gone there after their exodus from Egypt. Muhammad quoted from the Bible
passages that he thought best suited to drive home his own message. When, for instance, an arrogant and
defiant Pharao threatened the banu Isra’il with killing their male infants and
drove them close to despair, Muhammad quotes Moses as saying to them (Sura 7,
verse 128): “Call for help from
Allah and hold out in patience. For the earth is Allah’s to give
as a heritage to those of his servants as he pleases. In the end he favours the
righteous.”
One of the basic dogmas of
Islam is predestination, the belief
that Allah has ordained from eternity whatever comes to pass anywhere in the
universe. This fundamental part of
the faith is shared by all factions and sections of those whom the Koran calls
“true believers” - the Sunni
majority, the Shi’ite minority, and all splinter groups of the faith. So deeply
and strongly do Muslims hold the dogma of Allah’s immutable will that in their
belief it affects not only man’s fate and works, but even his faith itself. The
Koran states: “Whom Allah leads astray, you will not find a way for him.” (Sura 4, v.143). A similarly drastic
statement of the dogma says: “If Allah touches you with hurt, you will find
none but Him to remove it. And if He wills you any good, none can keep back His
favour.” (Sura 10, v.107). A recorded tradition (known in Arabic
as “hadeeth”) has Muhammad saying: “When Allah has decreed
concerning a servant that he shall die in a certain country, he also gives him an errand there.” What makes it plausible that this
particular hadeeth is historic is Muhammad’s own experience as a young employee
of Meccan traders. In his orphaned youth he traveled with large cargo caravans
to Middle East countries on commercial missions during which he learnt much
about the region’s geography,
history and religions, among them those of “the people of the Book”, a term he applied to Jews and
Christians for whom the Bible was the source of their monotheistic faiths.
Throughout his missionary life Muhammad insisted that he was merely delivering
what Allah had dictated to him. In Sura 10, verses 37 and 38, he stated: “This
Koran could not have been composed by any but Allah. Indeed, it is a
confirmation of previous revelations and beyond doubt an amplification of the
Scriptures from the Lord of the Worlds. If they say: “Did
he make it up”? answer: “Produce a Sura like it! Call on anyone you will besides Allah for help, if you speak
with honesty.” A 20th
century Indian Muslim commentator and translator, Abdullah Yousuf Ali, explains
this thought to mean that “throughout the ages God’s revelation remains
unchanged. The Koran confirms,
fulfils, completes and further explains the one true revelation which has been
sent by the One True God in all ages.”
Thus, Sura 10, verse 38 confirms the unity, eternal validity and compatibility of
Allah’s previous revelations in the Biblical scriptures with those to his
Messenger Muhammad. This Koranic dogma forms the basis of our reading and
interpretation of some verses thought obscure today regarding the link between
the “Land we have blessed” (meaning the Holy Land) and the banu Isra’il as its
heirs. From a
theological-legal-political point of view the dogma unmistakeably assigns the
claim of ownership of the “Land We have blessed” to the banu Isra’il.
The Koran refers to the Holy Land and the banu
Isra’il in ten passages, scattered
in the 114 Suras, always in
incidental links to divine revelations by earlier prophets, among them Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus;
to historic events, or as part of
theological arguments. The reader should always bear in mind that these passages
were not meant to instruct his audience on the Holy Land, the people of Israel
or the Christians, all of them subjects that were fairly common knowledge among
the Arabians. Whenever Muhammad referred to them, he cited them as object
lessons to enlighten his listeners on Allah’s new message and their duties as
true believers. He spoke with mere hints of the Holy Land, or Egypt, of Middle
East geography, history, on the Jewish, Christian or pagan religions and other
well-known subjects. Most of his well-informed listeners in Mecca, Medinah and
elsewhere understood at once what Muhammad had in mind, without lengthy background explanations. He saw
it as his mission to preach and explain a new faith, new moral views and
values, not to impart knowledge which they did not need.
He repeatedly and at length cited, for example, the
exchanges between Pharao, Moses and the banu Isra’il regarding Allah and the
dramatic events before and during the Exodus. Reflected in these stories
Muhammad found the essence of what he had in mind that stirred him to lofty and poetic eloquence. He cited them time and again to
illustrate the lessons and attitudes he tried to implant in the minds of his pagan and proud Arabians as
the central elements of his belief:
firm, unquestioning submission,
at all times, even in adversity, to Allah, , the
eternal, all-powerful, all-seeing and merciful Creator of the universe, and its
rewards, as against unbelief and ultimate punishment.
When, for instance, an arrogant and defiant Pharao threatened the banu Isra’il with
killing their male infants and drove them close to despair, Muhammad quotes Moses as saying to them
(Sura 7, verse 128): “Call for help from Allah and hold out in patience. For
the earth is Allah’s to give as a heritage to those of his servants as he
pleases. In the end he favours the righteous.” In these words the Koran establishes a principle: “The earth is Allah’s. He gives it to
the nations as they deserve it.”
Muhammad goes on to apply this principle to the Holy Land and the banu Isra’il
in specific terms: “And we made
the People, believed to be down and out, the heirs of
the land, the East and West
of it, which we have
blessed. And thus was
fulfilled the gracious word of the Lord
upon the banu Isra’il
because they had held out.” (Sura
7, verse 137). Here again, when Muhammad
mentions “the land we have blessed”, the
Arabians understood that he was referring to the Holy Land,
and that “the East and the
West of it” meant its two parts, east and west of the Jordan River. Muhammad was stirred by such
illustrative models of a close link between Israel’s “steadfast faith in God” under extreme stress and the reward
it earned them. It moved him to
speak of “the gracious word of the
Lord”, fulfilled for the Children
of Israel.
In the reference to the banu Isra’il as “the heirs” of
the land, the Koran uses the Semitic root word “waratha”, the Arabic equivalent
of the Hebrew word “yarosh” (to inherit) in the Biblical text. Muhammad seems
to have picked up enough linguistic knowledge to translate into Arabic Biblical
passages which he had heard quoted in the original. (Arabic and Hebrew are linguistic “cousins” and have much grammar and vocabulary in common).
Sura 5, verses 22–26, again confirm Israel’s exclusive
legal title to the Holy Land. “Then Moses said to his people: Oh people, remember Allah’s favour toward you, when he appointed
prophets and kings among you and gave you what was given to no one else in the
world. My people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has granted you”. For
“granted” the Koran uses the Arabic term “kataba”, to write). This word is used
here as a legal term, to mean a “written” commitment, a contractual, legally
binding deed. The meaning of the
words “what was given to no one else in the world” is made clear by the context of this and other passages: Muhammad referred to
“the Land”, meaning the Holy Land, “the east and west of it” which “was given to no one else in the world”.
This explicit confirmation by the Koran of Israel’s
title to the Holy Land is not a discovery of our examination. Rather it
is a re-discovery of one of the early authoritative commentators of the Koran,
Al Baidhawi (d. 1307). He explains that this passage refers to “Syria”. During
the life of Muhammad Syria was an
administrative district of the Byzantine-Christian Empire. It became an Arabian
province only after Muhammad’s death and an Ottoman-Turkish one in
1517. (The Arab Middle East states of today were created in the 20th
century, their borders drawn by
Britain and France towards the end
of World War I. These two
victorious European powers divided
the expiring Ottoman Empire in the
Middle East into five
separate states: Lebanon,
Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan, but denied them real independence for several decades longer).
Thus, during most of Muhammad’s lifetime (570 – 632) “Syria” was foreign, non-Arab, mainly Christian territory, long
under the dominion of the
Byzantine Empire.But for a short time it was held by the Persians, still pagan
in those days. The two superpowers of that period, Persia and Byzantium, were engaged
in a long war for supremacy in the Middle East. One of the decisive battles between them was fought in 614
in the Yarmuk Valley, then Syria. The Byzantines were decisively beaten and as
a result lost the Syrian province. Persia’s next-door Arabian neighbors, the
pagan Meccans, rejoiced. They rejected Christianity no less than the new
monotheistic faith of Muhammad which they regarded as merely a variant of it.
This rejoicing at the discomfiture of the Byzantines
(who were a “People of the Book” by virtue of their Christian faith) and the
triumph of the Persians (who were pagans like the Mecans) stirred Muhammad into
a prophetic rebuke. In Sura 30, verses 2 - 4, he warned his fellow
Meccans: “The Romans (i.e.
Byzantines) were defeated in a land close by (meaning Syria). But a few
years after their defeat they will be victorious.The decision was with Allah in
the past and will be in the future. On that day the true believers will
rejoice.” From this theological comment and accurate forecast on Middle East
affairs of his time Muhammad goes on
(in sura 30, verses 5 - 6) to state another dogma of his faith: “With
Allah’s help! He helps those whom he will, exalted as he is by mercy and might.
A promise of Allah – He will never go back on it. But most men heed it not.”
The textual surface of this passage looks unrelated to
our subject – the legal title to the Promised Land which the Koran grants the
banu Isra’il. We cite this Sura
here because of its obvious bearing on it: “A promise of Allah, He will never go back on it.” The Koran makes nowhere a proprietary
claim to the ownership of the Holy Land, or to part of it, not even to
Jerusalem, on behalf of any other nation, including that of his own Arabians. Allah
has promised it to Abraham and to banu Isra’il as his irrevocable will, an
eternal reward for their steadfast faith.
The Koran reiterates here the dogma: all divine decrees Allah revealed to earlier prophets are
eternally valid.
If this Koranic assignment of the Holy Land to the
people of Israel is as explicit and definite as our quotations go to show, how
is it that no one has so far brought this subject up in the current debate on
the conflicting claims of Arabs and Jews to ownership of the Holy Land? Our Middle East Desk team has
considered the question and concluded that this has become today a political
issue so overlaid by political and possessive passion that no one has troubled
to check the verifiable, historic and legal facts laid down by the Koranic
text. The issue will be the subject
of a separate paper.