the lengths people go to to preserve their history and all the saudis can do is demolish ours http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/world/middleeast/27scrolls.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
hmmm. well he could put saddam to shame with his murder and torture. he fought a rightful khalifah sayyiduna `abdullah ibn zubayr and killed him in makkah - raDiyallahu `anhu. first iraq, then madinah and then iraq again suffered under his tyranny. bloody mary in england and bloody Hajjaj in iraq. [they call him saffak meaning butcher, bloodthirsty or bloody] hafiz dhahabi, ibn khallikan and others have reported that the people killed by Hajjaj [himself and by his orders] were about a hundred and twenty thousand; not counting those he killed in the wars he waged. [reported by tirmidhi in his al-jamiy] about fifty thousand men and thirty thousand women died in his prisons. hafiz ibn asakir has reported that sulayman ibn `abdu'l Malik set free the oppressed people in the prisons of Hajjaj; it is said that eighty thousand were set free on a single day! [note that sulayman ibn `abd al-Malik did a great service to islam by appointing sayyiduna `umar ibn `abd al-Aziz as the khalifah. he himself was a good man and was entirely unlike his tyrant father and brothers. raHimahullah.] ibn khallikan says that his gaols were open air prisons (similar to guantanamo cages); cages without roofs to protect the prisoners from the elements - from the sun in the summer or rain in winter. rather they were open yards of stone. in tarikh al-khulafa imam suyuTi says after the mention of the death of `abdu'l Malik ibn marwan: i say: even if all the crimes of `abdul Malik be glossed over, only one crime is [great] enough that he made Hajjaj a ruler of muslims and that too the blessed Companions raDiyallahu `anhum? Hajjaj would humiliate them, kill them, beat them, imprison and abuse them - and he killed prominent Companions and their Successors [Sahabah and Tabiyin]; not to mention other muslims. and he put a seal in the neck of sayyiduna Anas among other companions to humiliate them. may Allah never have mercy on him and not forgive him [fa la raHimahullah wa laa `afa `anhu] ---- among other heinous crimes committed by Hajjaj is that he tied his animals in masjid an-nabawi and destroyed the ka'abah with catapults when he led the rebellion against sayyiduna abdullah ibn zubayr. ---- some scholars have ruled him kafir for certain actions he did and words he said. among which is [as reported in `iqd al-farid]: 'that he saw men throng to the rawDah of RasulAllah sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam and his pulpit [minbar]. Hajjaj said: 'why do they throng to wood and bones' [a`awad wa rammah] which is quite the habit of wahabis in our time and the ignominous ismayil said something to this effect in his book 'tafwiyatu'l iman.' may Allah destroy the fitnah of Hajjaj emulators. and those pusillanimous traitors who defend them and find shameless excuses for such unpardonable slanders. ---- the last man he killed was sayid ibn al-jubayr raDiyallahu `anhu, a prominent tabiyi who made du`a to Allah just before execution in 95 AH: 'O Allah, do not let him kill anyone after me.' Hajjaj died thereafter. wa laa Hawla wa laa quwwata illa billah. ---- it is reported by muslim that sayyidah asma bint abu bakr raDiyallahu `anha [also the mother of sayyiduna `abdullah ibn zubayr, the rightful caliph mentioned above raDiyallahu `anhu] said to Hajjaj: ' i have heard RasulAllah sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam say that out of [the tribe of] thaqif shall come a great liar and a great slaughterer. we have seen the liar and i have no doubt that he (Hajjaj) is the slaughterer. imam nawawi says in his explanation that the liar she meant was mukhtar ibn abi `ubayd ath-thaqafi [*] who was a great liar and among his ugliest lies was that he claimed that sayyiduna jibril `alayhis salaam would come to him. all the scholars are unanimous in the explanation that the 'liar' mentioned in this Hadith is mukhtar ibn abu `ubayd ath-thaqafi and the 'slaughterer' [mubiyr] is Hajjaj ibn yusuf ath-thaqafi. *he avenged the death of imam Husayn by hunting out his killers; later on he claimed prophethood (hence the great liar) Allah ta'ala knows best.
precisely the point. as they say the DSS are about two thousand years old. some are even dated to be 22BC. one of the scrolls has a disjoint statement about 'the throne of the Lord.' now that we have a first hand experience of the injustice meted by our own folk in literal misinterpretation of text, one could draw parallels with hebrew. for example: one of the scrolls says: 'i shall be *like* a father unto him.' i don't know and i am not making any statements; it would not be difficult for someone to twist it a little and make it as: 'i am his father' in the scrolls displayed on the site above, the hebrew manuscript reader remarks: 'defectively written.' this remark is regularly found throught the scrolls. hebrew is similar to arabic in many ways and many letters are differentiated by the position of dots. now arabic in early islamic times was un-dotted; thus 'qaf and faa' were written in the same shape without the dot differentiator. [the credit goes to the tyrant Hajjaj, who did a great deed inspite of his incredible cruelty] someone not acquainted with this will make the same remark. also, this changes the way the text is interpreted. noam chomsky said in one of the interviews that he was fascinated by the old-hebrew texts. [his father avram chomsky was a foremost authority on the hebrew language.] chomsky says that he particularly likes the way ancient/traditional hebrew is written: there is plenty of additional text on the margins running in line with the main text as an explanation. er, does that sound familiar? we must not assume that the DSS are infallible; for us, only the noble Qur'an holds that distinction. but it is an interesting study nevertheless and an insight into how people go wrong with literal interpretations. Allah ta'ala knows best.
:s1: What is *really* interesting is that the Dead Sea Scrolls have been hermetically sealed by the Israeli government and are not available in their totality to anyone-- scholars, researchers on anybody else for, I think, the next 50 or 100 years! i.e. They have not yet been completely released to the public! I think that is because they will confirm many of the things about 'Isa alayhisalam which the original Christians believed, and the Qur'an states, but which the latter day Christians from Paul's time changed... W'Allahu Wa Rasuluhu a'alam.
very interesting indeed............. # Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto the LORD thy God. # Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. # If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a # man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.
i was looking at the dead sea scrolls here: http://www.openscrolls.org/cgi-bin/translate.cgi?dir=Allegro&page=08 here is an interesting quote: http://www.openscrolls.org/cgi-bin/translate.cgi?dir=Allegro&page=14 and another interesting quote which is also present in the old testament book of deuteronomy [see 22:5] http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/Bible/Deuteronomy.html "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God." ---- there was another scroll which was fragmented but yet talked about someone's eyes being black as coals and his hair and beard being curly. that one is too fragmented and anyone can fill up what they like but most of the description fits masih ad-dajjal, the false prophet. infact, the scroll has been translated as 'both eyes' which is why RasulAllah sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam told us of a sign which no prophet before him did: that dajjal is blind in one eye. and check deuteronomy 23:19 " Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:" of course, everyone knows that usury is interest or 'riba.' Allah ta'ala knows best.