The Philosophy of History

Dajjal (Anti-Christ), the Qur’an and the Beginning of History

Introduction

 

Dr. Burhan Ahmad Faruqi – the philosopher of history

 

No one can possibly write a book concerning Dajjal, the Anti-Christ, and the beginning of history, without a knowledge of the philosophy of history. The seed of this book may have been planted in the 1930s, at the Aligarh Muslim University in India, when two students, who were dear friends, Muhammad Fazlur Rahman Ansari and Burhan Ahmad Faruqi, pursued studies for their PhDs in Philosophy under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Syed Zafar-ul-Hassan. 

 

Dr. Faruqi eventually wrote a masterpiece of ‘Ilm alKalam, or Islamic Philosophy, entitled ‘A Mujaddid’s Conception of Tauheed’, and Maulana Dr. Ansari wrote a masterpiece of ‘Ilm al-Akhlaq’ or Islamic Moral Philosophy, entitled The Quranic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society (in 2 vols.).

 

This writer was blessed, thirty years later in the 1960s, when both of the scholars had reached the zenith of their scholarly lives, to have them both as his teachers at the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in Pakistan.  Dr. Faruqi taught the philosophy of history, and Dr. Ansari taught the Qur’an and, vastly more importantly, the methodology for study of the Qur’an. That methodology was explained in his ‘Quranic Foundations’ book, but was simplified and expanded in this writer’s recent book entitled ‘Methodology for Study of the Qur’an’. 

 

More than fifty years have passed since that dazzling moment in scholarly time at the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in Pakistan, when two truly gifted scholars of Islam taught and inspired just a handful of students, and built the foundation on which this pioneering book on Dajjal, as well as the others which will now follow Insha’ Allah, now rests.

 

How do we explain an Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies with a curriculum of studies and a methodology for study of the Qur’an that differed so significantly from the traditional Dar al-‘Ulum, or the Jami’ah, i.e., Islamic seminary or university? The answer lies in the intellectual response of part of the Indian Muslim community to the challenge of modern western civilization. One part of the Indian Muslim community recognized that the traditional Islamic education imparted in the Dar al-‘Ulum was woefully inadequate for a student to even understand the modern world that had come into being in consequence of the dramatic emergence of modern western civilization on the stage of the world. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, for example, mourned over the fact that, according to him: “During the last five hundred years religious thought in Islam has been practically stationary” (Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam; Essay entitled ‘Knowledge and Religious Experience’). Iqbal was referring, of course, to the religious scholarship that was emerging from the Dar al-‘Ulum.

 

That part of the Indian Muslim community which recognized the inadequacy of the Dar al-‘Ulum education, proceeded to establish an academically independent institution of higher Islamic learning which would not only teach the religion of Islam, but would also introduce the student to the modern world of knowledge that had emerged from western civilization. And so the seed of this book was planted when the Aligarh Muslim University was established in the rural town of Aligarh in India. It was truly an academic institution, since it was free of government control. 

 

We will demonstrate Insha’ Allah, that it was Dajjal who brought the new modern western world into being, and it is he who is constantly changing it—and with it, the rest of the world —to bring stranger new worlds into being. Since Dajjal is Allah’s supreme test for mankind, surpassing everything that preceded him, Dajjal is also the supreme test for the Dar al ‘Ulum. Not only has the Dar al- ‘Ulum continuously failed that test for the last few hundred years, but these books on Dajjal will conclusively demonstrate that it continues to fail that test even to this day. Indeed, the book on Dajjal and Money Would suffice, Insha’ Allah, to remove any lingering doubts concerning that subject.  

 

Not only has the Dar al-‘Ulum failed the test, but even the graduates of western universities and government-sponsored Islamic universities as well as government-paid Muftis and other such scholars of Islam, have also failed, sometimes miserably so, in responding adequately and appropriately to the intellectual challenges posed by the modern west.

 

Aligarh-trained Dr. Faruqi was an intellectual rebel who defied conventional thought as he waved and thrust his scholarly sword with nary a concern for conventional sensibilities in the world of knowledge, and in the pursuit of truth. He built the foundation of his philosophy of history on ‘perennial truth’, with which history commenced, and insisted that history must end with the triumph of that same truth. But in-between the beginning of history with ‘truth’, and the end of history with the ‘re-realization of that truth’, he declared that history moves up and down in what he described as ‘the zig-zag movement of history’. 

 

The conclusion that emerged from that philosophy of history was that the arrogant Zionist Western world, and Dajjal’s Impostor State of Israel, could weave their full spectrum dominance on the world on whichever cloth they chose, it would make no difference to the end of history. Truth would still triumph over falsehood, lies, injustice, oppression and false-flag acts of terrorism in which the alleged Muslim terrorist is always killed, or commits suicide, hence conveniently avoiding, again and again, the possibility of a court case.   

 

Without Maulana Dr. Ansari’s amazing methodology for study of the Qur’an however, it would not have been possible for the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies to offer a higher Islamic education which allowed the student to integrate all knowledge into a coherent whole while critically assessing with the Qur’an, all knowledge that came from the west. Without that critical intellectual effort at integration of knowledge, the student would have emerged with a split personality as he straddled dual intellectual worlds without a bridge with which to cross between them. He would have studied Islam with one mind, and studied the modern world with a second mind that was disconnected from the first. Such a scholar would have been, and would still be, a misfit in both worlds.

 

It was not possible for Dr. Faruqi’s philosophy of history to be grounded in the Qur’an without the application of Dr. Ansari’s methodology for the study of the Qur’an. And so it was with the combined thought of these two amazing scholars that this book on ‘Dajjal the Qur’an and the Beginning of History’ could be written.

 

A serious book written at this time—the late afternoon of history—on the subject of Dajjal the false Messiah or Anti-Christ, and firmly grounded in the Qur’an, is sure to attract the attention of many Christians and Jews, in addition, of course, to the scholars of Islam and the literate world of Islam. This Initial book on Dajjal however, as well as the books on the subject which will now follow this book, might very well be judged to be a pioneering attempt to present the scholarly viewpoint of Islam on this subject. As such it may attract even more attention. For this reason, we invite serious comments, and even critical responses which can be published in a second edition Insha’ Allah.  Responses can be sent by email to inhosein@hotmail.com, or to our website www.imranhosein.org. Where this text will be placed for free download and for comments.

 

Islamic scholarship and Eschatology

 

Islamic scholarship should not be blamed for ignoring eschatology; rather, it would be more appropriate to recognize that Islamic eschatology could not properly be developed as a branch of knowledge until events had unfolded sufficiently in the historical process to allow the discerning scholar to penetrate and recognize the meaning and implication of several verses of the Qur’an as well several prophecies of Prophet Muhammad ṣallā -llāhu taʿālā ʿalayhī wa-sallam pertaining to Akhir al-Zaman or the End-time. 

 

The Qur’an has given notice that the world is yet to know the Ta’wil or ‘interpretation’ of certain of its verses perhaps because ‘interpretation’ would be possible only with the passage of time and the unfolding of events in history: 

Allah Most High, discloses above that there are verses of the Book whose interpretation have not as yet come unto them .   .   . (Qur’an, Yunus, 10:39)

 

It would be helpful to the gentle reader if we were to provide an example of such an event which had to occur before an important prophecy located in Islamic eschatology, i.e., pertaining to the End-time, could be interpreted and explained. 

 

Prophet Muhammad ṣallā -llāhu taʿālā ʿalayhī wa-sallam prophesied more than 1400 years ago, in a Hadith recorded in Sahih Bukhari: that the River Euphrates would uncover a mountain of gold, and that people would fight for that gold. He declared that 99 out of every 100 who fight for that gold would be killed, but that each would believe that he would be the one who would survive. He ended by warning the believers that they must not touch that gold.  

 

There are those who, in consequence of using a defective methodology of study, await a mountain of the metal that would one day emerge from underneath the River. They have already waited in vain for the fulfilment of this prophecy for more than 1400 years, and our view is that they will still wait in vain for another 1400 years. We, however, have recognized the Hadith to be Mutashabihah, i.e., allegorical, and that it must hence be interpreted in order for its meaning to be penetrated.  

 

Our interpretation of the Hadith is that when US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, succeeded in making a satanic deal with Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal in 1974, for oil to be sold for only USD, the US dollar became a petrodollar, and an ocean of oil underneath the ‘river’ began to function as a mountain of gold supporting the US dollar. This event was the fulfilment of the Prophet’s ominous prophecy; and Allah Knows best!

 

If our interpretation of the Hadith is correct, then the current rival BRICS monetary system represents an attack on the mountain of gold petrodollar monetary system that will lead, inevitably so, to that Great War in which 99% of combatants will be killed. Only a nuclear war, or a war in which weapons of mass destruction are used, can result in such a great percentage of fatalities.

 

Most of the Hadith pertaining to Dajjal are similar to the above Hadith since they have to be interpreted in order to be understood; and it was not possible for anyone to interpret that Hadith until certain events had unfolded in the world of money. First there was the birth of modern Western civilization with an agenda of perpetrating universal Fasad on earth (Fasad is that which corrupts to the extent that it can destroy). The Qur’an identified Gog and Magog as the perpetrators of that universal Fasad. It did so by first identifying Gog and Magog with Fasad on earth:

 

(Qur’an, al-Kahf, 18:94).

After they solved the language problem of communication, those people informed Dhul Qarnain that Gog and Magog were inflicting Fasad, i.e., that which corrupts to the extent that it can cause destruction, in their territory. They then asked whether they could pay him to build a barrier that would protect them from Gog and Magog.

 

The Qur’an then said that Gog and Magog would one day be released into the world, and that the world would then be subjected to their Fasad as a universal phenomenon:

(Qur’an, al-Anbiyah, 21:95–96).

Allah Most High, disclosed that there was a Divine ban on the people of a Town (which we identify as Jerusalem) which was destroyed and from which those people were expelled by Divine decree, that they could never return to reclaim that town as their own until Gog and Magog were released, and they then spread out in all directions and hence take control of the world in the world-order of Gog and Magog.

 

Since it is the West which made possible the return of the Jews to Jerusalem to reclaim it as their own, it is as clear as daylight that Gog and Magog are located within modern Western civilization. Russia, incidentally, is not a part of the decadent West. A man cannot marry another man in Russia and get a marriage certificate. Rather the decadent West is now preparing to wage nuclear war on an Orthodox Christian Russia which they have hated from the day that the modern West was mysteriously born.

 

No one could have understood the prophecy of the ‘mountain of gold’ until the decadent West had corrupted the world of money by printing paper and using it as money. They then waged wars of naked aggression in order to colonize the rest of the world and to impose, through the Bretton Woods Accord, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a monetary system in which one paper-money, i.e., the US dollar, became the ruling money in the world.  However France had a great ruler in General Charles De Gaulle, and he could see through the deception and injustice of that monetary system. The French challenge to the system eventually forced the US to abandon it in 1971, and to replace it in 1974 with the petrodollar monetary system that was made possible through the ‘mountain of gold’.

 

The Hadith concerning the ocean of oil functioning as a mountain of gold is also connected to Dajjal since this book argues that Dajjal will have to demonstrate his capacity to succeed the Prophet-Kings David and Solomon, i.e., Nabi Daud and Nabi Sulaiman ʿalayhi as-salām, for whom Allah caused the earth to bring forth its treasures:

(Qur’an, Saba’, 34:12)

Allah Most High caused a lake of molten copper to flow at David’s behest.

 

Prophet Muhammad ṣallā -llāhu taʿālā ʿalayhī wa-sallam prophesied (as only a true Prophet can prophesy) that the earth would one day bring forth its treasures for Dajjal:

 

He would then walk through the waste land and say to it: Bring forth your treasures, and the treasures would come out and collect (themselves) before him like the swarm of bees. (Sahih Muslim)

 

Hence, there is a direct connection between Dajjal and the bogus Bretton Woods monetary system which was eventually replaced by the petrodollar monetary system in which the earth sent forth its treasures to help Dajjal to continue, and even expand, his control over the world of money. 

 

For more information and analysis on this subject, readers may wish to view the following of my lectures:

§ Islam, the Petrodollar and Beyond:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTdYyt05qLU; 

§ Beyond the Petrodollar—An Islamic Response to the Bogus Monetary System:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgq6V4xWIIk;

§ Islam, the Petrodollar and Russia’s Tryst with Destiny:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-ZGAaTXEj0;

§ Islam, the Petrodollar and the Great War:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzYe3BS71oY.

 

Outline of book

We commence, in Chapter One, our explanation of the subject of Dajjal, or the Anti-Christ, appropriately so, with a description of his profile. This includes data concerning him which has to be literally understood, as well as other data which must be interpreted. It is in that latter exercise that we are led to the startling discovery in the Qur’an, that Dajjal is a Jasad, i.e., a human body without a spirit. This leads us to important conclusions which will intrigue the reader as well as the Zionist Judeo-Christian world.

 

We then go on to recognize, through a process of logical deduction, that the Jews must await a Messiah who would match the Prophet-Kings David and Solomon, i.e., Nabi Daud and Nabi Sulaiman ʿalayhi as-salām, in respect of power, as well as in respect of divinely-bestowed miraculous capacities. Solomon was blessed, for example, with a measure of control over the weather, and Dajjal will therefore have to demonstrate that he has a similar capacity.  

 

Chapter Two is devoted to our methodology for study of the subject in which we demonstrate that there is a link between the beginning and the end of history. 

 

In Chapter Three we take up our subject with the response of the Rabbis in Yathrib to the query of the Quraish asking how they could determine whether or not Muhammad ʿalayhi as-salām, the Arab from Makkah, was indeed a true Prophet of the Lord-God. In their response, the Rabbis had posed three questions which, according to them, only a Prophet could answer. One of the questions was about the Ruh or Spirit. This chapter is devoted to the subject of the Ruh and in doing so it exposes the Jewish claim to be the chosen people of the Lord-God, to be false.

 

Chapter Four is devoted to an analysis of the most important event that occurred at the beginning of history, i.e., the Divine Command to the Angels, as well as to a Jinn named Iblis, to bow down in prostration before Adam ʿalayhi as-salām. The analysis of this event further confirms our conclusion that the Jewish claim to be the chosen people of the Lord-God is false. 

 

The substance of this book is located in Chapter Five in which we describe and analyze other events occurring at the beginning of history which have a direct link with Dajjal’s mission at the end of history to seek to replicate Solomon’s Holy State of Israel.  

 

Our readers should note that neither the Qur'an nor the Hadith have referred by name to the Holy State which was created by David, i.e., Nabi’ Daud ʿalayhi as-salām, and over which his son also ruled. When we use the name, 'Holy State of Israel', we refer to that Holy State for which Solomon, i.e., Nabi' Sulaiman ʿalayhi as-salām, prayed to Allah Most High, that "it can belong to none after him". Hence this book reminds Dajjal and his Zionist followers, that it can never be restored.

 

The Arabic Text of the Qur’an

This book, on Dajjal and the Beginning of History, is based on the Qur’an, and hence the very substance of the book is located in the verses of the Qur’an which we have quoted extensively. We hasten to remind readers that the Qur’an was not revealed in English, French or Swahili. It was revealed in Arabic, and we have come to the conclusion, after a life-time of study, that the Qur’an cannot be translated to another language. Rather, the most that we can do is to try to explain the Qur’an with the caveat that no one explanation can possibly exhaust its meaning. Readers must also be made aware that whenever an effort is made to translate the Arabic text to another language, the scholarship of the translator as well as his limited understanding of the Arabic text, always influences his translation. 

 

For the above reasons it is necessary for us to always quote the Arabic text of every verse of the Qur’an quoted in this book. That text has been Divinely-preserved since the Book was revealed more than 1400 years ago, and it remains today beyond the reach of those who may still wish to pursue a futile effort to challenge its claim to absolute authenticity and integrity.

 

Whenever a verse of the Qur’an is quoted in this book, we make an effort to explain its meaning in the English language. It should not surprise the reader, nor those who will translate this book to other languages, that an explanation sometimes conveys a meaning of a verse that is different from a translation.

 

It would benefit the reader if we now provide an example of a translated verse in which our explanation differs in meaning from translations of the verse. It pains us that wrong understanding of the Qur’an derived from some translations, has caused, and continues to cause, great damage to those who are thereby misguided. We provide an example of such in verse 51 of Surah al-Maidah in which Allah Most Wise has ordered:

 

Almost all translations of this verse to the English language could lead the reader, Christian, Jewish, Muslim or otherwise, to believe that the Qur’an has prohibited Muslim friendship and alliance with Christians and Jews. But such an understanding of the Qur’an would be false. The Qur’an has most certainly not prohibited Muslims from being friends and allies of all Christians and all Jews; rather, it has prohibited friendship and alliance with specific Christians and specific Jews.

 

The gentle reader may wish to judge for himself the conclusion that can be arrived at from reading fifteen different translations of the above verse 51 of Surah al-Maidah:

 

Muhammad Asad: O you who have attained to faith! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for your allies: they are but allies of one another and whoever of you allies himself with them becomes, verily, one of them; behold, God does not guide such evildoers.

 

Sahih International: O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you—then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people.

 

Pickthall: O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.

 

Yusuf Ali: O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust.

 

Shakir: O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.

 

Muhammad Sarwar: Believers, do not consider the Jews and Christians as your intimate friends for they are only friends with each other. Whoever does so, will be considered as one of them. God does not guide the unjust people.

 

Hilali and Muhsin Khan: O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as Auliya' (friends, protectors, helpers, etc.), they are but Auliya' to one another. And if any amongst you takes them as Auliya', then surely he is one of them. Verily, Allah guides not those people who are the Zalimun (polytheists and wrongdoers and unjust).

 

Allama Nooruddin:  O you who believe! Do not take these Jews and the Christians for allies. They are allies of one to another (when against you), and whoso from amongst you takes them for allies, is indeed one of them. Verily, Allah does not guide the unjust people to attain their goal.

 

Arberry: O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Whoso of you makes them his friends is one of them. God guides not the people of the evildoers.

 

Muhammad Ali:  O you who believe, take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends of each other. And whoever amongst you takes them for friends he is indeed one of them. Surely Allah guides not the unjust people.

 

Talal Itani: O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies; some of them are allies of one another. Whoever of you allies himself with them is one of them. God does not guide the wrongdoing people.

 

Rashad Khalifah: O you who believe, do not take certain Jews and Christians as allies; these are allies of one another. Those among you who ally themselves with these belong with them. God does not guide the transgressors. 

 

Abdul Majid Daryabadi: You who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Nazarenes for friend; friends they are to each other, and if any of you befriends them, verily he is one of them. Surely Allah does not guide a transgressing people.

 

Abdal Haq and Aisha Bewley: You who have Iman! do not take the Jews and Christians as your friends; they are the friends of one another. Any of you who takes them as friends is one of them. Allah does not guide wrongdoing people.

 

Sher Ali: O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. And whoso among you takes them for friends is indeed one of them. Verily, Allah guides not the unjust people.

 

It should be readily apparent that, other than the translation of Rashad Khalifa, all these well-known translations of the Qur’an to the English language translate the verse the same way: i.e., prohibiting Muslims from taking Christians and Jews as their friends and allies. None of the translators, other than Rashad Khalifa, seem to have realized that such translation of the verse has placed it in conflict with another verse of the Qur’an which recognizes certain Christians as a people who will be closest in love and affection for Muslims (al Maidah, 5:82), and with another verse which permits marriage with Christian and Jewish women, and which also permits Muslims to eat food which has been made Halal or permissible for Christians and Jews (al-Maidah, 5:5). But the Qur’an itself declares that is free from all inconsistencies or contradictions:

(Qur’an, al-Nisa’, 4:82)

Allah Most High, invites an examination of the credentials of the Qur’an as Divine revelation. He boldly declares that if the Qur’an had come from any but Allah, they would surely have found in it many contradictions! 

 

Hence no verse of the Qur’an contradicts any other verse. There would be a manifest contradiction if the same Qur’an were to declare that certain Christians would be closest in love and affection for Muslims, and also declare that Muslims are prohibited to be friends and allies of all Christians and all Jews.

 

There is yet another problem with the several translations of this verse of the Qur’an since the translators make the Qur’an declare something which is factually false!  According to Asad, the Qur’an declares of Christians and Jews that they are but allies of one another; Sahih International: they are [in fact] allies of one another; Pickthall: they are friends one to another; Abdullah Yusuf Ali: they are but friends and protectors to each other; Shakir: they are friends of each other; Sarwar: for they are only friends with each other; Mohsin Khan: they are but Auliya' to one another; Nooruddin: they are allies of one to another (when against you); Arberry: they are friends of each other; Muhammad Ali: they are friends of each other; etc.

 

The Qur’an was revealed more than six hundred years after the Jews boasted that they had crucified Jesus, and so the Qur’an appeared in a world in which, for almost six hundred years, Christians and Jews had hated each other. That Christian hatred for Jews continued for more than a thousand years after the revelation of the Qur’an. It is therefore manifestly false for anyone to declare, at the time when the Qur’an was revealed and for more than a thousand years after, that Christians and Jews are friend and allies of each other. In fact, Christian-Jewish friendship and alliance emerged as a clearly visible phenomenon of contemporary history only after the birth of the Zionist Movement in 1897. 

 

The proper understanding of the verse of the Qur’an is that it anticipates such a Jewish-Christian reconciliation and friendship as would pave the way for a certain part of the Christian world, and a certain part of the Jewish world, to reconcile and to then establish friendship and an alliance. Whenever that alliance were to come into being or is established, Muslims are prohibited to be friends and allies with such Christians and such Jews. That alliance has now appeared in the world in the form of the Judeo-Christian Zionist alliance which has brought the State of Israel into existence, and which continues to work to ensure that Israel will one day rule the whole world with a Pax Judaica. (See my two books entitled Jerusalem in the Qur’an, and Explaining Israel’s Mysterious Imperial Agenda.)

 

Those who attempted to translate the verse (al-Maidah, 5:51) made the mistake of breaking it into parts or sentences, and to then translate each part or sentence separately. In this way they arrived at a first sentence which was translated to prohibit friendship and alliance with Jews and Christians. They then proceeded to a second part or sentence which was understood in isolation, or stand alone, from what preceded it. They thus declared the Qur’an to say, falsely so, that Jews and Christians are friends and allies of each other. If they had studied the verse as a whole, they would have understood that their second part or sentence in the verse, was not a second part or sentence at all.

 

Rather it was a phrase which qualified what preceded it. Hence what the Qur’an actually did, and which escaped the understanding of those who translated the verse, was to prohibit Muslim friendship and alliance with Jews and Christians who were friends and allies of each other, and hence with a Judeo-Christian alliance. 

 

Here is my explanation of the verse which removes all possible contradiction with other verses of the Qur’an and which does not attribute a manifest falsehood to the Qur’an:

(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:51)

Allah Most High addresses those who believe in this Qur’an as the Word of Allah and commands them not to take ‘such’ Jews and ‘such’ Christians as their friends and allies who are, themselves, friends and allies of each other. The verse then goes on to declare that whoever from among the Muslims were to take ‘such’ Christians and Jews as their friends and allies, would be recognized to belong to them, or would eventually belong to them, rather than to the community of Muslims. It ends by declaring that Allah surely or certainly does not guide wicked people.

 

I urge readers to study the scholarly analysis of this very important verse of the Qur’an by the young and brilliant Singaporean scholar, Hasbullah Shafi’iy, which we have included in this book as Appendix 1.

 

We have shared the above with our readers in order to alert them concerning the dangers posed by translations of the Qur’an to other languages, and hence the absolute need to quote and to study the actual Arabic text of the Qur’an whenever we turn to that Book for information or guidance.  

 

For the Christian and Jewish Reader

 

While we expect that this book will be read by many Muslims, it is also written for the benefit of those to whom the Torah of Moses, i.e., Musa ʿalayhi as-salām, and the Gospel of Jesus, i.e., ‘Isa ʿalayhi as-salām, was sent, and who, today, refer to themselves as Christians and Jews.  They will find in this book a view from the Qur’an of the beginning of history, which differs sometimes from the Christian and Jewish view of that subject.  How should a Christian or a Jew respond when faced with conflicting views emerging from revealed scriptures? The Qur’an itself answers that question when it declares that Truth that was sent down in the Qur’an was supported by rational proofs (Bayyinat min al Huda). Hence it is with the rational faculty—which receives its data both externally and internally—that judgment must be made.

 

The Qur’an presents excellent credentials with which its claim to be a divinely-revealed scripture can be judged. It presents a text that is absolutely authentic and uncorrupted. We have presented in our book entitled Methodology for Study of the Qur’an, the credentials of the Qur’an to be recognized as absolutely authentic. We urge our Christian and Jewish readers to examine those credentials. 

 

This book will surely test the patience of the English-speaking reader who is unfamiliar with the Arabic language, since we have insisted in using Arabic terms that are essential for a presentation of the view of the Qur’an. However, we always hasten to provide an English equivalent to each Arabic term. As the reader becomes familiar with the Arabic words, the book will hopefully become easier to be read and understood.

 

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