Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah BaniIsrael Session 2
AI: Summary ©
The transcript describes a history of events occurring during the time of Islam, including predictions of actions, events, and events of the time. It also mentions the loss of the temple in Jerusalem and the formation of the United States. The collapse of the temple caused the loss of the United States, and the collapse of the United States led to the collapse of the United States.
AI: Summary ©
We're going through Surah Bani Israel or Surah
Al-Isra.
And inshallah today we're going to start from
ayah number two.
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're 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 SWT 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 AS 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'll discuss these things inshallah as we
go along, the historic aspect of it.
So firstly Allah SWT says, 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 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.
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.
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
Abdan Shakura in this ayah.
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, 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 is 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, 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 Uloo, meaning you're going
to be arrogant and disobey Allah SWT in
a very great way.
The first time you do that, When the
first time that happens, 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.
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.
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.
And we're going to help you with wealth
and children.
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
former glory.
And then after that, Allah SWT says, 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.
Look at the mic, turn the volume down.
It's just echoing too much.
When the second promise takes place, meaning the
second destruction takes place.
So that your faces will be disgraced.
And he's going to enter the masjid and
they're going to enter the masjid, meaning the
temple.
Just like they entered it the first time.
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 SWT.
It is possible that Allah SWT would have
mercy upon you.
Meaning if you turn back to Allah SWT,
you repent.
Allah SWT is going to be merciful.
And if you return back to being disobedient,
Allah SWT 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
hasir.
Okay, so hasir, something that surrounds somebody.
And according to the Mufasireen, 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 AS, Suleiman AS
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 AS 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 AS 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 AS,
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 while this blood is boiling, you can
see the blood boiling on the earth, this
actually the boiling blood 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 was 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 and 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 burned down.
After which the blood 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 BC.
So it was destroyed initially 586 BC and
it was then rebuilt 516 BC.
Because when you come BC you go backwards,
the numbers, right?
So the closer you come to Isa AS,
the numbers become less.
Because BC means before Christ, before Isa AS.
So 516 was when the temple was rebuilt.
586 was when it was destroyed, BC.
516, basically about 70 years or so later,
was when it was rebuilt.
So this was the second building of the
temple.
But what happened again?
They continued, flourished, everything became good.
Titus was a Roman emperor and was destroyed.
Roman emperor.
History of it.
So Bukhtun Nasr 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.
Allah says, this was a promise that was
going to take place.
Then we returned the turn back to them.
Meaning, they went back to their former glory
and started making tawbah, starting obeying only Allah
SWT.
Allah SWT gave them the same honor again.
And we helped you with wealth and children.
And we made you huge in population.
If you do good, then you're doing good
for yourself.
If you do bad, then again, you're only
harming yourself.
When the second promise came, the second promise
of destruction, لِيَسُوءُوا وُجُوهَكُم 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.
You know, 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
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 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., that is provided to them
by the government, they don't say anything.
They accept it.
But, if you look at it religiously, and
also if you look at it historically, the
formation of Israel, there is no religious foundation
for it, and there is no ethical or
logical foundation for the formation of Israel.
So, this is something that we should be
aware of.
Having said that, obviously 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.
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 things 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 SWT gives us the
ability to understand what has been said and
heard.
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the
Compassionate.