The Jews Should Commit Mass Suicide
In the next three verses, Allah instructs Muhammad to present a challenge to the Jews of Medina: If you alone are destined to be with God in the hereafter, then you should all desire death, so why are you still alive? Why aren’t you united with your god?
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2:94-96 “Say: If the future abode with Allah is especially for you to the exclusion of the people, then invoke death if you are truthful. But they will never invoke it on account of what their hands have sent before, and Allah knows the evil doers. And you will most certainly find them the greediest of men for life than even those who are polytheists. Every one of them loves that he should be granted a life of a thousand years, and his being granted a long life will in no way remove him further off from the chastisement, and Allah sees what they do.”
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The Jews fear death not because they want to live, but because they know that Allah’s chastisement awaits them when they die.
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I think this is the kind of text that Salomon Reinach had in mind when he wrote that spending time reading the Quran is humiliating to human intellect.
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The challenge of “Kill yourselves to prove that you are right” presented to the Jews in verse 94 left me baffled and bemused: How can anyone subscribe to or claim authorship of this piece of scripture? Not to mention that the Jews never made this claim, so there is really nothing to prove.
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Yet, the allegation that the Jews believe that they alone merit he abode in the Hereafter is very effective in arousing anti-Semite sentiments among Muslims.
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That is in addition to the resentment that is generated by the allegation that their evil deeds committed in this world await them in the next, and will condemn them to Hell fire.
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Another False Accusation
Why would the Jews make such a claim? Where did the Authors of the Quran find this material?
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In the Hebrew Bible, the Hereafter is not mentioned. The emphasis of biblical instruction was on the living. In the post biblical era, the concept of “The World To Come” was developed in the Rabbinical tradition. This topic receives considerable mention in the Mishnah and the Midrash.
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2:94-96 could have been inspired by one or more of the many Jewish traditions dealing with the subject. One possible source could be Mishnah from Tractate Sanhedrin (10:1): “All Israel has a share in the world to come …”
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This Mishnah goes on to list those of Israel who do not have a share in the world to come on account of some fundamental acts of denial of the faith.
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This passage could be one of the “Isra’iliyat”, Jewish traditions provided to Muslims by Jews or Jewish converts to Islam, who in this instance at least, got it wrong.
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Or it could be that this passage or the subject of who gets to go to Heaven was overheard, mentioned by Jews. At any rate, the Mishnah does not say “Only Israel”. It says “All Israel”.
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But this is not what makes this allegation so preposterous. The truth in this matter is the exact opposite. Jewish religious dogma does not make the alleged claim. Islam, on the other hand, does.
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In Islam, it is stated unequivocally that only the Believers, that is, Muslims will go to Heaven. All others (plus some bad Muslims, as we saw before) will end up in Hell. This claim is made in the Quran repeatedly, ad nauseam.
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Heaven Belongs to all of Humanity
So, let me answer this false accusation: According to Jewish law, embracing the Jewish faith is not a pre-requisite to earning “future abode” with God. All that is required is following some basic rules that will enable the maintaining of a decent, civilised society. These rules are articulated in the “Seven Laws of Noah”, or the “Noahide Laws”.
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The reason these laws refer to Noah is that according to the biblical narrative, Noah and his family were the sole survivors of Deluge. This means that all human beings are the descendants of Noah.
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The premise of the Noahide Laws is that whoever keeps them is considered “righteous among the nations”, or a “Righteous Gentile”.
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In comparison, under Islamic doctrine, the “Rightly Guided”, a phrase that occurs frequently in the Quran, is the one who submits to Muhammad’s deity and accepts Muhammad’s version of Monotheism.
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The first two Noahide laws deal with the unity of the spiritual God, and prohibit blasphemy. The third is “do not kill”, the fourth “do not steal”, the fifth prohibits all forms of incest, the sixth prohibits cruelty to animals, and the seventh requires the establishment of a justice system. People who subscribe to this code merit the abode in the Hereafter.
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Quranic Application
Is there a Quranic equivalent of the Noahide code?
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There are 9 principles listed in surah 5 (verses 151-152): No associating other gods with Allah, kindness to parents, no infanticide, no adultery, no killing a person which Allah forbade to kill except by right, no embezzling orphan’s property, keeping true weights and measures, speaking justly, and keeping Allah’s covenant. This code is repeated and further explained in 17:22-37.
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I notice that “Do not kill” is conditional, and “Do not steal” is absent from this code.
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There are 6 in surah 60 (verse 12). These were revealed to Muhammad when some Meccan pagan women submitted to Islam after Muhammad’s conquest of the city. These prohibit associating other gods with Allah, stealing, adultery, infanticide, bearing children by men other than their husbands, and disobeying Muhammad.
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The question whether Islamic law is compatible with the Noahide code or not is outside the scope of the present book. At any rate, incompatibility would not mean that being a Muslim precludes one from becoming a Righteous Gentile, as the Noahide Code may be applied to individuals, not only to religions or belief systems.
