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From: ghouse@server.cs.jhu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: re: Questions regarding Israel
Message-ID: <1990Oct27.003113.10678@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Date: 27 Oct 90 00:31:13 GMT
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Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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>I have some fundamental questions regarding Islam's attitude 
>towards Israel.


> I would appreciate sincere and knowledgeable replies to these 
> questions and not just flames or mere rhetoric.

I will do my best, insha'Allah.

> 1. I know that some prophets mentioned in the Bible (old testament)
> are also honored by Islam. Now, many of these prophets prophesied
> the return of the Jews (or Israelites) to their land. What is the
> attitude of Islam towards these prophecies?

I'm not sure if one could attribute an attitude to *Islam*, but some 
*muslim* discussions that I'm aware of have taken the attitude that
the prophesies were made in exile, in Babylon, and referred to a state
that would be formed after the exile was over.  The Children of Israel 
were led out of exile and later formed their own state (under the 
Asmonaean dynasty? and the Maccabees?); it was this state that fulfilled 
the prophesies;

Also, in the Qur'an (surah 17, verses 5-7, I think) there is a speach to
the Children of Israel, discussing how they were *twice* given great favours, 
twice broke their covenant with God, and were twice punished.  This would 
seem to imply a reference to the state after the return from exile.
The two punishments would be the conquest by the Assyrians that ended the 
first state, and the acts of the Romans (around 70 CE I think) after a
rebellion in Palestine, that caused the destruction of the temple, and
of the last vestiges of a Jewish state (which was in any case under Roman
suzerainty by that time.)


> 2. This is a highly theoretical question. I know that Islam's
> attitude towards Israel is basically negative. However, since the 
> start of Zionism, the Muslims have been unable to prevent the 
> success of this movement. My question is related to the fact that
> (as I understand it) the meaning of Islam is fundamentally a 
> submission of one's will to God. Is it theoretically possible for
> Islam to consider Israel's existence as (a part of) the will of
> God? In other words, could the (relative) success of Zionism - in 
> the face of strong opposition - be considered by Islam to be the 
> result of God's will?

According to Islam, everything is the result of God's will.  In the 
Qur'an, after the speach I referred to above, is the following verse:
(surah 17, verse 8)

"It may be that your Lord may (yet) show mercy unto you; but if ye revert
(to your sins) We shall revert (to Our punishments) and We have made Hell
a prison for those who reject (all Faith)."

(the translation is from Yusuf Ali)

the context is of a speech to the Children of Israel, and seems to imply
a possible third state.  (Also, many muslims believe that the establishment
of Israel, and the previous success of the colonial powers, is a warning
or punishment.)


I hope this has been neither a flame nor mere rhetoric.  May I be saved from
misleading and from being misled, insha'Allah.

As salaamu alaikum (Peace be upon you)

-Mujtaba Ghouse