Surah 1-2 - YasSarNal QuR'aN

Al-Baqarah (The Cow) | JEWISH EFFORTS TO UNDERMINE ISLAMquestioning the validity and veracity of their religion. Had those rules and ideasoriginated from God, the Jews argued, they would not have had to be changed orreplaced.This insidious campaign gathered strength when the direction faced by Muslimsin prayer, the qiblah, was changed from Jerusalem to the Ka`bah in Makkah, sixteenmonths after the Prophet’s arrival in Madinah in 622 CE.On his arrival in Madinah, the Prophet instructed his followers to turn towardsJerusalem, the sacred city of Judaism, in prayer, which gave the Jews reason to arguethat their faith was superior, the one and only true religion. This made the Prophetwish, although he never expressed his feelings in words, that prayers could be madefacing the Ka`bah in Makkah. As time went by, this feeling grew even stronger untilhis unspoken wish was granted, as we shall see later in the sūrah.Since the change of qiblah deprived the Israelites of the basis for their argumentconcerning the merits and status of their faith, they launched a malevolent andsurreptitious campaign aimed at discrediting the divine origins of Islam andquestioning its veracity. They went for the very foundations of Islam, arguing withthe Muslims that if facing Jerusalem during Prayer had not been valid, their worshiphitherto would have been in vain; but that if it had been valid, there would be nojustification for a change of qiblah. They were hitting at the very roots of the Muslims’faith in God’s reward and, more seriously, at the wisdom and insight of the Prophet’sleadership.More worrying were the indications that the anti-Islamic campaign instigated bythe Jews of Madinah was having some success. Weak- minded Muslims began toquestion the Prophet demanding ‘proof’ and ‘evidence’ for what he taught andpreached. Needless to say, such questioning is the opposite of complete trust in theProphet’s leadership and in the source of the Islamic faith. Therefore, the Qur’ānclarifies the principle and the wisdom behind the abrogation, replacement oramendment of some rulings, and warns the Muslims against the real aims of Jewishcriticism of the Qur’ān and the Prophet. It tells them clearly that the ultimate aim ofthe Jews was to turn the clock back, so that the Arabs who believed in Islam wouldrevert to their old pagan days. It was jealousy and malice that drove the Jews to thoselengths. They deeply resented, and would not accept, the fact that God had favouredanother people with the honour of His final mandate to man and chosen them as theadvocates of His last message. The Qur’ān undertook to expose the perfidious andmalevolent Jewish accusations and claims, citing examples of earlier conflictsbetween Jews and Christians in which accusations were exchanged and insultstraded.114