The King of the Jews- The Lord of King David

King David's WORDS from a Muslim Point of VIEW

Psalms cx: i

" YaHWaH said to My ADON,

 Sit at MY right until I place,

 Thine enemies a footstool under thy feet."

YaHWaH is the eternal, everliving God.

The ADON is the Lord of David, the King of the Jews foretold.

Every prophet has foretold his coming.

And he is the ADON that every Jew ever looks for in his coming, in the belief that with him all of their enemies would be vanquished.

When Jesus (as= peace be upon him) came, the Jewish priests asked of him…. "Are you the Lord (Adon) of David?" And Jesus (as) …. (Mathew xxii) … repudiated the Jews by his asking them a question in response to their question… he said: "How could David call him 'My Lord' if he were his son?"

The Christian interpretation of this encounter is a wonder to behold… and we will return to it later. First it is interesting to note some things about our World… that we inhabit.

EINSTEIN's WORLD (not necessary to be read unless you are Christian)

Einstein, isn't it funny how we forget his first given name, Albert? To everyone he is just Einstein, because of how he made science interesting. His theories were the birth of Sci-Fi, a whole genre of AV stimulation. And that's forgetting the very real impact he had on Science.

Anyway it was Einstein who said among other things: "Isn't it a wonder that the we are both able to comprehend the World about us, and that furthermore that the World is comprehensible!"

Of course, I paraphrase because my scholarship can only go so far.As Allah t'ala (the one God) in the Qur'an says…. "No change will you find in the Sunnat-Allah"… in the ways of God, in the laws of God. That the laws of creation that hold here in myspace, hold too in your living room from whence you might be reading this.

So since this is evident to most of us that the World is comprehensible, even in spite of the incomprehensible acts of me, and it is so because God has ordained that it be so, then wouldn't you think that the same principles would apply to the One Who Created?

If the Creator himself were incomprehensible. Wouldn't His creation be likewise a reflection of that: incomprehensible?

If the Creator were One, known to be One, then why would He endeavour to shroud his Unity in mystery… in incomprehensibility… and instead dain to apply the principles of comprehensibility to His Creation… the World?

The Qur'an also testifies that God is the ONE who sees all things and yet nothing can see HIM, and that HE is the ONE that comprehends everything and that nothing can truly comprehend HIM. And yet HE is the ONE Creator, like unto no other.

Ali Shariati and the Pillars of Unbelief…

Belief and Unbelief have contradictory characteristics. Unbelief is typically used to keep people oppressed and ignorant. 

True Belief engenders a love of knowledge, of clarity in words and thought. 

Unbelief is characterized by complexity, vagaries of ideas that defy to be understood and a lack of clarity. And it is because of these ideas that fail in being understood… that ignorance is cherished, that acceptance of un-understanding flourishes.

God is ONE, the Creator and Originator of the Heavens and the Earth. And HE has begotten no Son!

What the Christians SAY…about the ADON of David
When Jesus (as) was asked …. "Are you the Lord of David?"He replied: "How could David call him 'My Lord' if he were his son?"…

"Jesus says if he is the son of David, how can he be his Lord at the same time? This is a perfect example of the Christian ideal of the human/divine nature of Jesus - 100% man and 100% God. This is the only way that he could be "the son of david, and the lord of david" at the same time."

So the Christians say that in answering the question of the Jews, Jesus (as) evades the question? Doesn't answer it? Or answers it without really answering it? Your guess of what they mean by this is probably better than mine.

What Jesus (as) Said and Did Not Say…Jesus did not say what the Christians assert as their belief.

He was approached by the Jews who were monotheistic, and he denied that he was the LORD of David. He did not espouse the Christian belief, even though he knew that his fellow Jews believed in One God, and if he (as) held a differing view then would he not have corrected them in that erroneous view?. 

 And even if we accept the Chrisitan interpretation we are still left with the dilemma of who is sitting on the right side of God?

Of course the Christians would purport that God is on the right side of God, in complete incomprehensibility.
Confusing isn't it?

BUT...

What cannot be disputed is the fact that Jesus (as) denied being the Adon (Lord) of David, by his not assenting to it in the direct manner afforded to him by such a direct question. 

Did he (as) fear the Jewish Priests, but if he were a god how can that be?

And if we discount the Trinitarian concept then we are still left with the question of why he denied it in such a manner, why so cryptically?

Effectively, he denied both his Kingship and he denied the Kingship of any other Jew… of any other descendant of David.
No son of David could be the King of David!

Why answer a direct question with another more cryptical question?

The Christians might see evidence of a hidden agenda in such a reply, but the most obvious reason for doing so is that it is a rhetorical question.

Jesus (as) replies as such because he insinuates and repudiates the Jewish priests  for the question because they know the answer full well. 

They knew that no Jew could be the Lord of David. That no Jew could be the King of the Jews!

So Who is the King of the Jews?

Who is the last messenger sent by God to Mankind?

In the study of the life of our beloved Prophet, Muhammad (saw), we find the similar assertion that the Jews of Medina were in fact awaiting his imminent arrival and knew him better than their own sons. 

His characteristics were foretold in their books and yet they were bent on denying him.

And this is precisely why Jesus (as) rebukes the Jews with that conundrum, to frighten them into sense.

  

I believe that it is Muhammad (saw) the seal of the Prophets… who fulfilled the prophesy of Zachariah… and came with the true Kingdom of God on this Earth.

That the Jews denied and belied him… is no matter… they denied, belied and tried to kill Jesus (as) the son of Mary, but to no avail. 

If they study their books… then they should know the truth of Muhammad… and like so many other Jews will have to accept him as their King.

Shafees

I ask my Lord ..the ONE TRUE GOD to forgive me the utterances I have done here in the service of HIS truth.  Ameen.

1st posted

 Subject : The KING of the Jews

Posted Date: : 21 Aug 2007, 18:00 on MySpace

The Inquisitive Strangers

The creative mind finds inspiration in those things that others see as normal. 

As the management guru John Adair states, creativity is about “finding” the strange in the normal, and making the “strange” normal.

In S. Baqara God teaches Adam (as) the words and proceeds to ask him to name them. In the exchange we have there between the angels and the Most Gracious it’s clear that something special is being imparted to Adam. 

Something that will make him stand apart. 

From the first fire, to the first wheel, it’s clear that man has a burst of creative energy, and an innate curiosity, that caused Adam (as) to be sent down. 

In Christian theology this is The Fall, but in the Muslim text it reads as “anzala” - sent down- which is also used for the descent of revelation from on high, and for life giving pure water from the rain clouds above. 

As Adam (as) argued when Musa (as) [Moses of the Old Testament] confronted him, all had been written from before. (Please search for the Hadith). 

Aisha (as), the mother of the believers, when asked about the Messenger (saw) said that he was the living Quran.  

Indeed the Quran as a book of instruction takes on another life when we consider it in the light of the Seerah of the Messenger (saw) [his biography, life, actions, methods and sayings]. 

Whilst the scholars argued in the past about whether the Sunnah (the way of the Messenger) could abrogate the Mushaf (scriptures) that question becomes a moot point when you consider the revelation of the latter part of v3 of S Maida (chapter 5). 

Imam Shafee (rm) was of the considered opinion that it could. 

But another way of looking at the link between the Messenger (saw) and the Mushaf is in the words that they each used. 

A big part of Tafseer of the Quran (seeking to understand it) is with the Quranic text itself- not just the linguistic aspects of each part of text, but what another part of text can tell us in the light of the first part. It is as if the Most Gracious has spread knowledge throughout it as a means of making us search through it. And the very act of flicking through the pages and searching our memory is generative of understanding. 

If we consider as we should that the Mushaff framed the words of the Messenger (saw) then our search should extend beyond the Mushaff and into his Seerah (biography), the Sunnah (his way and method) and his Hadith (sayings and words). 

The Messenger (saw) famously said 

“Islam came as a Stranger, and will return as a Stranger, so give good tidings to the Strangers” (narrated by Abu Hurayrah). 

Traditionally this has been taken to mean that when Islam first appeared there were few who followed it, and it will return back to that state of a few following it.  

But when we read S Qaf (50) we see a different use of the word Ajeeb- strange. And the Quran affirms that it is a strange thing that the Most Gracious should send a Messenger, and that we should believe that when our bones and flesh have become dust that they should be reformed and made anew. 

But no less strange and wonderful are the skies and heavens, the earth and our place within it. And the Quran and it’s manifest unusualness. 

Indeed our religion is one that needs to be constantly rediscovered by each of us. Contemplated on, and found to be both wonderful and strange. 

Then give good tidings to those strangers, who contemplate the Qur’an, the life of the Messenger (saw) and what he brought and their own lives, as they unfold, in the light of that knowledge. 

For it is for them that Islam constantly returns with answers. 

What I have said here is my considered opinion, and it may be wrong; may we all be guided. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not through lectures, nor speeches nor this above. 

the first struggle and the forgotten ijtihad

Last time I wrote about the tension within Islam that keeps it a balanced religion. 

This found expression very early on, even before the first public command to invite to the good, with the clause;

“Surely with difficulty comes ease. 

Surely with difficulty comes ease.”

(Surah Inshirah- the expansion);

that preempted the mission of the Messenger (saw), but also tells us all of a general rule. And probably it is for that reason that it was repeated twice, to emphasise it’s generality. 

That it is not wrong to seek ease, but that the true path to it lies through difficulty. That to be true and hold to a principle may present you with difficulties, but steady yourself and remember the reason that you do so- it’s not because of the ease that follows- but because it is the right thing to do. 

Islam means Peace, but it’s a special type of peace that is attained through struggle. 

And whilst it is common currency amongst Muslims to believe that the greater struggle, that is talked of here, concerns the struggle against the lower self (nafs) of desire, this does not find resonance within our scriptures. 

Islam at outset has always been a physical struggle, that finds expression in our greatest worship- the Hajj- which is in essence a walk, and rites performed in their correct order and at the right times. 

And just so, the first revelation in regards to Jihad, or struggle, we find in Surah Furqan- the Criterion (between right and wrong);

“So obey them not, rather struggle against them with it; (that is) a great struggle”  verse 52; 

which was sent down before the establishment of the Muslim polity, and before fighting against injustice was enjoined upon us. 

Here we can clearly see a command and an inference that to be silent against people, who do wrong by denying the message or the Messenger (saw), is to obey them. 

The Quranic injunction here stops short of civil disobedience. 

The conundrums of this verse are several. 

First- it appears in S. Furqan in which God declares that He sent down the criterion (between good and bad, right and wrong) and so you might reasonably expect a rule or a command to be delineated here. In the whole of Furqan this is the only verse that could be interpreted as a command. 

Second- the pronoun “it” in this verse is usually translated as the Quran itself. 

This seems entirely reasonable but breaks a logical rule that many commentators often pay heed to- that “it” normally should refer to the thing that precedes the “it”. 

Therefore, we should at least see if following this rule, here, generates a different meaning?

Third- what is the “a great struggle” referring to? 

In the above translation I had inserted “(that is)” before “a great struggle”, to make the verse more readable. 

What is clear, here, is that the struggle mentioned here is not a struggle against self. The obvious answer is the struggle against the arguments of the disbelievers. However due to the ambiguity that is lent by the missing (that is) we owe it to ourselves to consider if it could also refer to something else?

Might it also be a self referential sentence? For one unusual characteristic of the Quran is the amount of verses in it that refer to itself. 

Fourth- the verse when we look at it in it’s bare bones is cryptic and disjointed, when it could have been clarified. 

Was it therefore left cryptic for a reason?

We know from the Seerah of the Messenger (saw) that the companions at that time hoarded the Qur’an like it was gold dust... and during the persecution that was meted out to them in Mecca it was a light in a dark place. 

And there they were known to commit 5-10 verses of it, into their personalities, before moving to the next 5-10 verses. 

In their own words they said that they implemented those few before moving to the next few. And they were known as the Quranic generation, that were moulded by it’s direct revelation that concerned them all deeply. 

The conundrum that that presents us with, now, is that we know that practically all of the implementation, of all that is Islam “now”, occurred in Medina after this fact. 

So what and how were they implementing, when there was so little to implement, there in Mecca?

There was a time when the believers knew the mother of all sciences to be the Qur’an and our struggle with trying to understand it, that is called tafseer. 

And that Allah t’ala revealed both it and the wisdom. The Seerah is key to understanding the Quran, where they should both be read and struggled with together. 

I write here to stimulate thought and to cause you to see that the Quran is not the purview of the Scholars, for if that were the case then woe unto us who have become like the First Nation that are rebuked in the Quran. For they left the knowledge to the Pharisee and their scribes. 

I have my considered opinions on the above verse and I have chosen to leave them unexpressed here, so that you might have cause to deliberate yourself. 

The Quran has always been an open book and Muttuwatta- known to everyone- accessible and available to everyone. And it’s study should not be left to a class of people, but should belong to all of the people. 

This is the forgotten ijitihad, which no less needs checks, and balances, in its approach so that those that try do not fall into error. 

The like of which I have done in writing here. 

InshaAllah both myself and Ahmed Rawi are committed to bringing together a group of brothers who will benefit from the study of the Quran in the light of the Seerah of the Messenger (saw). And we will act as checks and balances one for another. 

What I have said here is my considered opinion, and it may be wrong; may we all be guided. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not through lectures, nor speeches nor this above. 

Fatalism

Fatalism has not always been alien to Muslims. A sect called the Jibirites believed that everything was “compulsion” and that freewill was an illusion. 

Their belief was roundly rejected and relegated to the textbooks of our history. 

For we have always believed, from the first, in the ability to effect change. 

And it is this that is so dramatically demonstrated in our common history, and the history of the World and our place within it. 

Indeed it is our unique belief that spurs us to seek, and effect change for the better. 

When we juxtaposition free will with qadr’Allah (predestination, that the pen has written and ink has dried), we find no contradiction there when we seek to understand them on the basis of the effect that they should have on each of us. 

There is no free will without responsibility (no soul shall be given to bear a burden greater than its capabilities- al Quran), and qadr’Allah simply frees us from the burdens of our past. That our pasts cannot determine our future and present selfs, it is our choices that do that. 

A true saying of the Messenger (saw) informs us that if all the World’s men and Jinn gathered together in a single place to harm you, then none could save except as the Most Gracious wills. 

That is qadr’Allah. 

And that is the fearlessness incumbent on one who truly believes, which is tempered by our understanding in the true nobility and universality of the religion. 

That your success and your failure, your living and your dying, is ultimately because the Most Gracious willed it so. 

And to fail by His hand is no lesser an achievement than to succeed by His leave, and sometimes even more so. 

That we are not afraid of fear itself, that the risk of failure cannot curb our drive to succeed and try again, and keep on trying. 

Indeed God’s words are true and cannot be doubted, just as His promise is true and only a fool would doubt them. 

And yet on another level it is as if both Hell and Heaven were created as a boon, and a blessing, for us- that He wishes for us the best and truest of conducts- so that we might fear the impeding judgment and be both true and just, even when it is against ourselves or even our people. 

And maybe that is why they are mentioned in ar-Rahman. 

They are our spur to be true, and just amongst others. And for that we should be very grateful. 

And a man never spoke truer who asked, “O God, save me from the Hellfire which is true, and enter me into the Garden of Paradise, which is true. “

And it is this that causes Islam to stand out as being no ideology; no simple idea that drags men to the extremes of behaviour; because we are always balanced between two. 

(The fear of )Hell and (the desire for) Heaven. 

Freedom and Responsibility. 

Ability and the acceptance of our ultimate inability. 

For from the very start we are forced to be balanced between two poles. 

The declaration of faith is fIrst denial and then affirmation, an affirmation which of and by itself is not belief. 

Declaring that Allah exists, is of and by itself not faith, for this was the affirmation of the pagan Arabs, descendants of Ismail, before the coming of the Messenger. 

And “there is no other god”, or “there are no gods” is at first a declaration of our ability, that there are no deities whose reciprocity we have to appeal to- that we are both able, capable and free. 

And then once you have freed yourself from the myriad false deities that cloud the psyche of man, then to recognise, in earnest,  the complexity and intricacy of the Universe and our place within it- to begin to truly appreciate the majesty of the Most Gracious. 

A marvelling that can only lead to an abandonment that marks the beginning of peace within Islam. 

So even at first there is this tension within our very declaration of faith, that points to both our ability and capability and then to our abandonment in the realisation of the actuality that we are ultimately unable - unless the Most Gracious helps us. 

Finding culmination in our six beliefs, of which qadr’Allah is the pinnacle. 

Which does not make us fatalists. 

Contrarily it makes us champions. 

Being cogent, responsible and able - and then they seek only His smile, that He might boast in that high company about them. Because they know full well the risks and are willing to abandon themselves to them in His care whilst taking every conceivable precaution. 

They are the ones that hate the status quo. 

They are the ones who will leave no stone unturned in the search for a better World. 

They are the ones who show that it can be done. 

And these could even be our doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, counter assistants and concerned neighbours that would daily brave our hospitals and our streets.

The Trial of Socrates; The Society that we aspire to.

When Socrates was brought before the Athenian assembly and charged with the crime of corrupting the youth, the charge that he was really convicted of was that of not doing “politics”. 

Contrarily he had given his life in service to the community; in his own words he had advised them, each and all, and on more than one occasion to pay heed to their moral and ethical wellbeing over their gaining an unfair advantage- one over another. 

He had taken this course contrary to his own apparent wellbeing, because he perceived a greater good in it and stayed that course beyond the judgment of death that was enforced on him. 

Solon said that a fortunate man is one who dies happy. Socrates died happy. 

Society often persecutes the one who seeks the good of the community whilst avoiding a political mindset; one who does not massage egos, and doesn’t work through cliques of people; being open instead to all, and one, and gives himself in the service of all, and not just the few. 

This is what we witnessed when Corbyn failed in the election. It was not a failure of vision, rather it was too much vision for too many people. 

It was a failure in “politics”, that he was not politic enough or rather more telling, that politics had not grown past the days of Socrates.

But it had, and it can again. 

Because that is not the society that we, as Muslims, aspire to. The society that we aspire to, was one that the Messenger (saw) moulded. 

Imagine if you will a society that safeguarded even the Munafiq- those that professed belief only to gain an advantage (the hypocrites who we know will be assigned the the lowest part of hell). Where their names were recorded and yet kept safe from common knowledge, to the extent that when they died the believers gathered to pray over them. 

Read the expedition of Tabuk. 

Where Kab bin Malik (ra) remained behind, and was of those who back slide. 

How the Messenger (saw) and the believers imposed a boycott on him. Not so much as a punishment, but more so that revelation might come down concerning him. *1

And the delight that they had, and the wish that he might be exonerated by Divine writ, when it happened and that heartfelt openness of a community as one. 

For whilst the hypocrites came and made their usual excuses, and were not hindered from doing so.. it was for the believers both a trial and an exposition of what should and could be. 

That even Wahshi who slew Hamza (ra), the beloved uncle of the Messenger (saw) was accepted into the fold and granted forgiveness.  *2

That is the openness that Islam ushered in to the human experience. *3

And that example will stand the test of time. 

  

What I have said here is my considered opinion. If it is wrong then that wrong belongs to me. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not via lectures, nor speeches, nor this above. 

*1 the Messenger (saw) said of him that if he had asked me, then I would have prayed for forgiveness for him. 

However the community of believers, there, ever sought connection to God’s Grace, and Kab wished to be exonerated by God Himself. 

And it’s also clear that the Messenger also so wished it, and fervently prayed that revelation might descend exonerating him. 

Read the verses revealed concerning him. 

*2 Wahshi took the Shahadah with the

Messenger (saw), and was asked that he not present himself before him again as the pain of recollection was too great for him (the Messenger (saw)) to bear. 

*3 A benchmark of Sunni Muslim Civilisation is and was the extent to which we would go to to preserve that openness. 

The Seljuk Turk princes would ride out to open plains and remain there until the sun set, free from their cumbersome courtiers, in order to allow complainants full access to them - and none would be hindered from approach.