Zia Sheikh – Tafseer Of Surah Bani Israel Session 2
AI: Summary ©
The segment discusses the loss of religion culture and the history of the Bible's teachings, including the destruction of the Great source of religion and the loss of the culture of the United States. The history of the Bible's teachings relate to the present times and is summarized in the transcript. The destruction of the temple caused by the Roman Empire and the British Empire caused the loss of religion groups and the loss of land and housing for Jewish people in exile. The segment ends with a recap of the United States and its impact on the loss of certain groups.
AI: Summary ©
In the first moment of my life, I
met him.
If I knew the words, I would have
said, O Allah, friend of the first hour,
I lived with him, so I lived with
the love of what Allah revealed to me.
And I beat my brother in his recitation.
And I beat my brother in his recitation.
And I have a sheikh, when I recite
his recitation, he forgives me for the answer,
O Allah.
I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed
Satan.
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the
Compassionate.
And We gave Moses the Book, and We
made it a guidance for the Children of
Israel, that you should not take a guardian
besides Me.
The descendants of those whom We carried with
Noah.
Indeed, he was a grateful servant.
And We decreed for the Children of Israel
in the Book, You will certainly cause corruption
in the land twice, and you will certainly
ascend to a great height.
So when the first promise came, We sent
upon you servants of Ours, who were of
great might, and they passed through the homes,
and it was a promise fulfilled.
Then We returned to you again upon them,
and We supported you with wealth and children,
and We made you more numerous.
If you do good, you do good for
yourselves, and if you do evil, you do
evil for yourselves.
So when the promise of the Hereafter comes,
let your faces be evil, and let him
enter the mosque as they entered it the
first time, and let them destroy what they
have destroyed.
It may be that your Lord will have
mercy on you, and if you revert, He
will return to us, and We made *
a prison for the disbelievers.
We are going through Surah Bani Israel or
Surah Al-Isra.
And InshaAllah today we are going to start
from Ayah number 2.
Last week we discussed the first Ayah of
Surah Bani Israel in which the Mi'raj
was discussed, and the story of the Prophet
ﷺ going from Mecca to Jerusalem, and then
from there to meet Allah SWT, that was
discussed in detail.
Today we are going to be talking about
something very interesting.
And firstly Allah SWT starts off by turning
the conversation towards Musa AS.
Why Musa AS?
Because in the first Ayah Allah SWT talked
about our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ going up
to the heavens and talking to Allah SWT.
Similar in nature was Musa AS who was
also Kalimullah, who talked to Allah SWT directly.
He was known as Kalimullah.
So to talk about the next Kalimullah after
the Prophet ﷺ seemed appropriate.
And then after discussing Musa AS, Allah SWT
discusses the destruction of Bani Israel and the
temples of Bani Israel, the great temples, which
is a very hot issue in this day
and age.
So we need to be familiar with some
of the history related to the temples and
how Allah SWT foretold the Bani Israel, what
was going to happen to the temples twice.
And this was told in the Quran and
it actually happened.
So we will discuss these things inshallah as
we go along, the historic aspect of it.
So firstly Allah SWT says, وَآتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابُ
وَاجْعَلْنَاهُ هُدَلِّ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَلَّا تَتَّخِذُ مِن دُونِ
وَكِيلَ We gave Musa AS the book, meaning
the guidance, the Torah.
And we made that book a guidance for
Bani Israel, for the children of Israel.
And the guidance inside it was, أَلَّا تَتَّخِذُ
مِن دُونِ وَكِيلَ That don't take other than
me, someone as a wakil.
Wakil means someone that you trust, someone that
you turn to, someone that you rely upon.
This is what wakil means.
So Allah told Bani Israel that only worship
me and me alone.
No idolatry, nothing of that nature.
This is what is mentioned in the Torah.
ذُرِّيَّةَ مَنْ حَمَلْنَا مَعَ نُوحٍ The Bani Israel
were the progeny of those people that we
had carried with Nuh AS.
So what happened was, Nuh AS is known
as Adam Thani, the second Adam.
Because basically with the great flood, the humanity
had been destroyed.
And he became, with the people that were
saved, they became the means of the restarting
of humanity and the restarting of the human
race.
So he is known as Adam Thani.
That's why Allah is saying here that the
Bani Israel were the progeny of those people
that we carried with Nuh AS.
إِنَّهُ كَانَ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا Indeed he, meaning Nuh
AS, was a very grateful servant, servant of
Allah SWT.
It's mentioned in Hadith, Sa'd Ibn Masud RA
says that Nuh AS is referred to as
عَبْدًا شَكُورًا in this ayah.
لِأَنَّهُ كَانَ إِذَا أَكَلَ أَوْ شَرِبَ حَمِضَ اللَّهُ
Whenever he used to eat or drink, he
used to praise Allah SWT.
Whenever he used to take one morsel, he
used to praise Allah SWT.
Whenever he used to take a sip of
water, he used to praise Allah SWT.
It's mentioned also in a Hadith, إِنَّ اللَّهَ
لَيَرْضَ عَنِ الْأَبْدِ أَن يَأْكُلَ الْأَكْلَةَ أَوْ يَشْرَبُ
الشُّرْبَةَ فَيَحْمَدُ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهَا Allah SWT loves about
the slave that whenever he takes one morsel,
one mouthful of food, he should praise Allah.
And whenever he takes any sip of a
drink of water, he should also praise Allah
SWT.
The next Ayah, Allah SWT then talks about
something that Allah had told in the Torah
that is going to happen.
Now the strange thing is that if we
look at the Islamic sources, there's not much
of an explanation of these verses.
But if we turn to the Jewish sources
or historic sources, we get a great detail
about this whole incident that is mentioned here.
So, I'm going to translate it a little
bit first and then I'm going to talk
about the historic aspect and then come back
to the verses inshallah.
Allah SWT says, وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ فِي
الْكِتَابِ لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنَ وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُومًا
كَبِيرًا We had judged upon the Bani Israel
that you're going to make corruption in the
earth twice.
You're going to cause corruption in the earth
twice and you're going to become very arrogant.
You're going to make aloo, meaning you're going
to be arrogant and disobey Allah SWT in
a very great way.
وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُومًا كَبِيرًا The first time you do
that, فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولَٰهُمَا When the first
time that happens, بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَاءُ لِبَأْسٍ
شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلَىٰ اللَّذِّيَارِ The first time that
you're disobedient to Allah SWT and you cause
this corruption on the earth, we're going to
send to you one of our slaves and
he's going to be very severe and he's
going to enter into the midst of the
houses, meaning to cause bloodshed and kill everybody.
وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَّفْعُولًا And this is a promise
that is going to be done.
So this is basically the first corruption and
the first punishment from Allah SWT against the
Bani Israel.
That the corruption takes place and then somebody
comes and he's going to destroy Bani Israel.
So that's the first one.
ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَا لَكُمُ الْكَرَّةَ عَلَيْهِمْ Then we're going
to return back the...
Al-Karra means turn.
Now Bani Israel, they're going to basically go
through that very difficult time and then they're
going to be returned back to their former
glory and they're going to then have a
high status, good financial situation, good rulers, piety,
turning towards Allah SWT again.
وَأَمْدَدْنَاكُمْ بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينٍ And we're going to help
you with wealth and children.
وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ أَكْثَرًا نَفِيرًا And we're going to make
you big in population.
Your population is going to increase.
So destruction because of disobedience and then Tawbah
and turning back to Allah SWT and then
Allah returns them back to their glory.
And then after that Allah SWT says إِنْ
أَحْسَنْتُمْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ لِأَنفُسِكُمْ وَإِنْ أَسَأْتُمْ فَلَهَا If you
do good, you're doing good for yourselves and
if you do bad, then again you're harming
yourselves.
Now the next time, the next disobedience takes
place.
فَإِذَا جَآءَ وَعْدُ الْآخِرَةِ لِيَسُوءُ وُجُوهَكُمْ فَإِذَا جَآءَ
وَعْدُ الْآخِرَةِ When
the second promise takes place meaning the second
destruction takes place لِيَسُوءُ وُجُوهَكُمْ so that your
faces will be disgraced وَلِيَدْخُلُ الْمَسْجِدَ and he's
going to enter the masjid and they're going
to enter the masjid, meaning the temple كَمَا
دَخَلُوهُ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ just like they entered it
the first time وَلِيُتَبِّرُوا مَا عَلَوْا تَتْبِيرَ and
they're going to destroy everything that is on
top of it a very severe form of
destruction.
So again, one destruction takes place and then
the glory of Bani Israel returns and then
the second destruction takes place after that.
Why?
Because they turned away from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ أَن يَرْحَمَكُمْ It is
possible that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would
have mercy upon you meaning if you turn
back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you
repent Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going
to be merciful وَإِنْ عُدْتُمْ عُدْنَا and if
you return back to being disobedient Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is going to respond in
like that you're going to be punished again
وَجَعَلْنَا جَهَنَّمَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ حَصِيرًا and we made Jahannam
for the disbelievers as a Hasir Hasir means
something that surrounds somebody حَصَر in Urdu we
use this word too that it's something that
surrounds, you call it حَصَر حَصِر something that
surrounds somebody and according to the Mufassirin some
scholars say it means cradle it means a
fort, a prison and so on and so
forth but we made Jahannam for the disbelievers
as a Hasir as something that surrounds them
so now historically what does all this mean?
after the death of Suleiman a.s. Suleiman
a.s. left the Bani Israel in a
situation where they are in the peak of
their glory and he built this huge temple
which was very majestic and very beautiful and
we know that according to even Islamic history
Suleiman a.s. used to have the help
of the Jinns to help him construct things
and to even construct the temple the Jinns
used to help him and with this help
and with this assistance Allah SWT enabled him
to build a huge majestic temple so when
Suleiman a.s. passed away the situation was
that the Bani Israel, the Israelites were at
the peak of their glory and the peak
of their history but after he passed away
they started disobeying Allah SWT and they started
getting into idolatry worshipping idols and the same
temples in which they were supposed to be
worshipping Allah SWT they started committing na'udhu
billah fornication inside them and using them for
illicit activities and for bad activities so Allah
sent to them prophets again and again amongst
them was a prophet called Zakariya a.s.
not the Zakariya who was the father of
Yahya but a different Zakariya so they killed
him also different prophets came they kept on
killing but particularly about Zakariya it's mentioned in
Jewish sources that his blood basically it fell
onto the floor of the temple and it
continued to boil for centuries and you know
while this blood is boiling you can see
the blood boiling on the earth this actually
the boiling blood it is mentioned in a
riwayah which I'll mention in a minute so
this blood is boiling and Allah SWT sends
to destroy these people who are causing these
disturbances and disobeying Allah SWT in such a
bad way he sends to them somebody called
Bukht Nasr who is the king of Babylon
Babylon which is today Iraq Bukht Nasr it's
a very long name I can't even remember
but in Arabic it's known as Bukht Nasr
he came and he basically destroyed the temple
he sent his son his son actually saw
this boiling blood on the ground he said
what is this boiling blood they said well
we killed this prophet and for the last
couple of hundred years this blood has been
boiling so he said that what I'm going
to do is for the vengeance of this
blood I'm going to destroy everybody here so
according to Jewish sources more than a million
people were killed by this person and the
temple was burnt down at which after which
the blood it stopped boiling so this was
the first punishment that was sent to Bani
Israel the temple that was built by Suleiman
it was destroyed in a huge fire and
after that these people went into exile after
a while they made Tawbah and turned to
Allah SWT again and Allah SWT allowed them
to flourish they became rich and again they
started gaining some of that same honor and
glory that they had before and then in
the time of Cyrus who was a Roman
king he called them back and he told
them he allowed them to start rebuilding that
temple which they started to do after a
few years into building the temple he passed
away and the son of Cyrus whose name
was Cambyses he became the ruler and he
continued to allow them to build the temple
also after that after Cambyses came Darius Darius
also allowed them to build the temple and
the temple was completed in 516 B.C.
so it was destroyed initially 586 B.C.
and it was then rebuilt 516 B.C.
because when you come B.C. you go
backwards, the numbers, right?
so the closer you come to Isa A
.S. the numbers become less because B.C.
means before Christ before Isa A.S. so
516 was when the temple was rebuilt 586
was when it was destroyed B.C. 516
so basically about 70 years or so later
was when it was rebuilt so this was
the second building of the temple but what
happened they continued flourished so Bukht Nasser comes
and he destroys the people killing a million
or so because of their tyranny because of
their disobedience because of their idolatry which was
something that they were forbidden to do وَكَانَ
وَعْدًا مَفْرُولًا Allah says this was a promise
that was going to take place ثُمَّ رَضَدَنَا
لَكُمُ الْكَرَّةَ عَلَيْهِمْ then we returned the turn
back to them meaning they went back to
their former glory and started making tawbah starting
obeying only Allah S.W.T Allah S
.W.T gave them the same honour again
وَأَمْدَدْنَاكُمْ بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينٍ and we helped you with
wealth and children وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ أَكْثَرًا أَفِيرًا and we
made you huge in population إِنْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ
لِأَنفُسِكُمْ if you do good then you are
doing good for yourself وَإِنْ أَسَأْتُمْ فَلَهَا and
if you do bad then again you are
only harming yourself فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ الْآخِرَةِ so
that the faces could be so that they
could disgrace the faces and they could enter
the Masjid as they entered the first time
and they destroy everything on it in a
very harsh way so this is the second
destruction of the temple which was done by
the Roman Empire and which was done by
Titus in 70 BC so this was the
second destruction first destruction, second destruction which Allah
SWT describes basically to the dot as it
occurred historically, if you refer to Jewish sources,
if you refer to historic sources, this is
exactly what you will get, after that Allah
SWT says عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ أَن يَرْحَمَكُمْ it is
very close that Allah SWT is going to
have mercy upon you وَإِنْ عُدْتُمْ عُدْنَا if
you basically repent to him, then Allah will
accept you and give you mercy but if
you return back to your old ways عُدْنَا,
Allah SWT says I will return back too,
I will treat you the same way and
you will be punished the same way وَجَعَلْنَا
جَهَنَّمَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ حَسِيرًا and we made the hellfire
for the disbelievers as a حسير as a
surrounding so really this is the history of
what happened to Bani Israel, the Israelites prior
to Islam coming after that, the Romans basically
took over now this is a very critical
thing to understand now this whole issue of
Israel and the creation of Israel and what
the people claim that it's supposed to be
promised to them in the Bible and so
on, this is actually historically it's completely false
after the destruction of the second temple, there
has been no Jewish rule whatsoever until 1948
so for 2000 years basically there has been
no Jewish control of the Holy Land of
Palestine until 1948 so the question is that
if it was promised to them in the
Bible why did it take 2000 years in
the meantime you had the Romans or the
Christians ruling and then after that you had
the Muslims ruling and then the Crusaders came
and they ruled for a while and then
the Muslims again and then after that you
had the British rule, colonialism and the destruction
of the Ottoman Empire and then after that
the formation of Israel, so all this time,
over 2000 years why did the why were
the Jews in exile and why were they
under the rule of either Christians or Muslims,
that's the question so that's why also if
you look at the real orthodox Jews that
say that we live by the Torah, they
will actually tell you that there is no
religious precedent for the formation of the country
called Israel they do not agree with it
because they believe that according to the teachings
of the Torah that the Jews are supposed
to live in exile they are not supposed
to have a homeland they are not supposed
to have a country that is regarded as
a Jewish state because of the things that
are mentioned here, the destruction of the temples
and everything, after that there was to be
no Jewish ruling there is not supposed to
be again, according to them, according to the
orthodox Jewish teachings there is not supposed to
be a Jewish homeland they are supposed to
live in exile and even some of the
orthodox Jews that do live in Israel, they
still believe that they are not supposed, they
still believe that they are in exile, even
though they are living under the rule of
the Israeli state, but they still believe they
are in exile, but because of the benefits
that they get, the welfare that they get
the housing that they get, etc, because of
that is provided to them by the government,
they don't say anything they accept it but,
you know, if you look at it religiously
and also if you look at it historically
you know, the formation of Israel there is
no religious foundation for it, and there is
no ethical or, you know logical foundation for
the formation of Israel ok, so this is
something that we should be aware of having
said that, obviously the Israel is there so
we would pray that Allah SWT makes it
easy for the Palestinian people that they get
their own homeland and a two state solution
which is basically what most people want, it
is formulated in such a way that both
Palestinians and the Israelis can live side by
side in peace, that is something that we
should hope for, but again, historically speaking religiously
speaking, look at these verses and they tell
you that after this time there was not
supposed to be any kind of return of
the Jewish people to rule the actual land
they were exiled and the destruction of the
temples took place twice and then after that
there was never a time that they actually
came back and they ruled, so however there
is a very small minority of people that
they say that the temple is supposed to
be built a third time, ok, this is
from the Jewish sources, very small minority of
people that say that and the third time
according to their understanding where Baytul Muqaddas is
right now and the Dome of the Rock
stands right now that's where the temple was
and that's where they believe the temple is
supposed to be resurrected again so again, it's
a very very critical issue, it's a very
touchy issue, it's a very sensitive issue for
the Muslims as well as for the Jewish
people now the wailing wall that the Jews
actually stand next to and they basically do
their worship, this is the remnants of the
temple that was destroyed by the Romans this
is the only thing remaining of that temple
that's why they go to that wall and
they worship at that particular wall in remembrance
of the destruction of the temple, the only
part of the temple that still remains so
again, a history lesson for us a little
bit and also a little bit of the
you know, things which are which are happening
over there as related to us in the
Quran, the history of that it's very important
for us to understand and internalize and relay
that to other people inshallah, I pray that
Allah gives us the ability to understand what
is being said Al Fatiha