Methodology of explaining the Qur’an through application and analysis of external data
Our methodology also recognizes the Divine wisdom ordaining that some verses of the Qur’an convey a meaning which can only be discerned through an examination of data located outside the Qur’an. The classic example of such is the verse in Surah Ale ‘Imran of the Qur’an in which Allah Most High declared that “the first House (of worship of the One True God) to be built for mankind was that at blessed Bakkah . . .” (Qur’an, Ale ‘Imran, 3:96). All authorities are in agreement that Bakkah was the old name for Makkah. The verse referred to the old name of Bakkah even though elsewhere in the Qur’an the word Makkah is used (see Qur’an, al-Fath, 48:24). Why did Allah Most High return in the above verse to the old name Bakkah rather than the name Makkah used elsewhere in the Qur’an?
The answer to that question cannot be located without a study of the Bible. When we do so we find that all references to the following are strangely absent from the Bible:
• Abraham’s several visits to Arabia,
• Hajar and Ishmael were both left in a barren valley in Arabia,
• Zam Zam is a spring in that barren valley in Arabia,
• the first Masjid was established in that barren valley in Arabia and
• Abraham and Ishmael constructed a building at that spot in Arabia,
• Abraham established the pilgrimage to that House of Allah (Hajj) in Arabia,
• Ishmael was the child of the sacrifice and
• the trial of the sacrifice took place in Arabia
However the Bible still has the word Baca preserved in its text (see below). The word Baca seems to have escaped the attention of those who sinfully rewrote of the holy text to remove or distort all of the above. Perhaps it was Allah Most High Who Himself caused them to leave behind this word. It is quite clear that the Divine intent in returning in the Qur’an to the old name of Bakkah was to direct attention to evidence of truth still preserved in the otherwise corrupted Bible, and to thus expose the corrupted text:
Psalm 84 (New International Version)
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—a place near your altar,
O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you. Selah
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools .
There is manifest evidence above in the words ‘Valley of Baca’ ‘spring’ ‘pool’ ‘pilgrimage’ ‘your house’ and ‘your dwelling place’, of reference to the Ka’aba or Baitullah (i.e. Allah’s house) in Makkah and to Zam Zam, the spring of water in Makkah which flowed when Hajar sought water for Ishmael (‘alaihima al-Salam).
The above explanation of verse 96 of Surah Ale ‘Imran of the Qur’an establishes methodology (i.e. Usul al-Tafsir) for understanding the totality of meaning conveyed by the verse. It is only through a study of data located outside of the Qur’an that such meaning can be penetrated. It should not matter whether such data existed at the time of revelation of the Qur’an or whether it emerged in the historical process long after the revelation of the Qur’an. After all the Qur’an itself declared that ‘Divine Signs’ would eventually emerge that would confirm truth in that holy book:
“In time We shall make them fully understand Our Signs (conveying messages through what they perceive) in the utmost horizons (of the universe) and within themselves (which includes the unfolding historical process), so that it will become clear unto them that this [revelation] is indeed the truth. (Still,) is it not enough (for them to know) that thy Lord God is witness unto everything?” (Qur’an, Fussilat, 41:53)
We argue that ‘Signs of the Last Day’ is precisely such a subject in which certain verses of the Qur’an could not be fully understood until certain events had unfolded in the historical process. Perhaps the most important of all such events was the return of the Jews to the Holy Land to reclaim it as their own and the restoration in that Holy Land of a State of Israel. It is through acute observation of such unfolding events that certain verses of the Qur’an pertaining to this subject can be understood.
Finally, our method is to scrupulously avoid any reference whatsoever to Gog and Magog in previous scriptures, while restricting ourselves to the study of the subject as located in the Qur’an and the Ahadith of Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). We do so in order to so simplify the subject that our readers might face no unnecessary complications while evaluating this book.
