Returning to the Opening of Verse 4

What Does وَقَضَيْنَآ إِلَىٰ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ فِى ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ Mean?

Now that all the earlier sections have been laid out, we need to return to the opening of verse 4, which has been the foundation of this discussion from the beginning, namely the word of Allah:

وَقَضَيْنَآ إِلَىٰ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ فِى ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ

“And We conveyed to Bani Israel in the Book...”

From the outset, our aim was never merely to compare The 10 Commandments with Quranic verses in a general way. That was never the main objective.

Our purpose has been to prove that there truly exists a framework of Allah’s commands to Bani Israel that had already been given earlier in al-Kitab. Its traces can still be detected in the older form that has been handed down to this day. But those traces are no longer sufficient to stand with full authority on their own. They can only be properly confirmed, filtered, corrected, and reconstructed when brought back to the Quran as the decisive standard.

That is why everything written up to this point has in fact been moving toward this very point: to show that the phrase فِى ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ genuinely refers to the existence of those commands. However long the steps may have been, we have now managed to establish that this is not speculation. It refers to something real, namely the commands that were once given to Bani Israel in the Old Testament, and then reopened by Allah in a preserved form within the Quran.

What Have We Proven So Far?

So far, we have passed through several important stages.

First, we explained why, even though we have the Quran, we still need to refer to the Old Testament. Not because we derive our religion from it. Not because we place it on the same level as the Quran. But because Allah Himself linked those commands to فِى ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ.

So if Allah Himself indicates that these commands had already been conveyed to Bani Israel in al-Kitab, then we are indeed compelled to examine whatever traces still remain in the sources in their possession, and then bring those traces back to the Quran for judgment. We are required to believe Allah. If Allah says in the Quran that those traces are there, then those traces must certainly be there.

After that, we presented the ten commands in their older and widely known form, the version now used across the world in the Jewish and Christian traditions. We then brought the reader to examine the principal similarities between that form and the Quranic List of Commands to Bani Israel. From that point, it became clear that traces of the original revelation do in fact still remain.

But we did not stop there. We then moved into the differences. There we saw that there are matters in The 10 Commandments that are not reopened in Surah al-Isra’. This teaches us that not everything famous in the older form can simply be elevated as the original covenant itself. At that point, we know that some of it is a human construction.

Then we examined the other direction. We found that there are several major commands that Allah Himself restated in the Quran which do not appear at all in the well-known form of The 10 Commandments today. It is here that we begin to see that the inherited form no longer presents the full structure of the original covenant clearly. At that point, we know that some things have been concealed.

Finally, we gathered the entire framework back together into one complete arrangement based on Surah al-Isra’, verses 22 to 39. Alhamdulillah, it is there that we were all able to see clearly that the Quran does not merely mention a few general prohibitions. The Quran reopens the entire structure of the commands, closes it with the judgment that all those evils are hated by Allah, and affirms it as the wisdom of revelation.

Only Now Can Verse 4 Be Read More Properly

After all of this proof, verse 4 can now be read more properly. We can now see that in verse 4, Allah does not suddenly begin speaking about corruption and punishment out of nowhere. Allah first establishes the fact that a framework of commands had already been conveyed to Bani Israel فِى ٱلْكِتَابِ. That means the fasad in the phrase لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِى mentioned afterwards is not some ordinary matter. The ‘uluww that follows, namely عُلُوًّۭا كَبِيرًۭا, is not a statement made without cause. All of it comes after a covenant stretching back thousands of years, after commands had been given, and after a trust had already been placed upon them.

This is where the entire series we have built becomes so important. We were never merely trying to discover what is found in The 10 Commandments and what is found in the Quran. We sought to prove that verse 4 stands upon a real premise, namely the existence of Allah’s commands to Bani Israel in al-Kitab, and that those commands were reopened in the Quran in a preserved form. Once that foundation is clear, the punishment in verse 4 begins to appear just, precise, and causally grounded. It is not random. It is not sentiment. It is not an ordinary conflict. It is not a theory of war. It is the consequence of violating a covenant with Allah.

From this point onward, when reading verse 4, the phrase فِى ٱلْكِتَابِ can no longer be treated as an ordinary phrase. It becomes the key that unlocks the entire logic of verse 4. It tells us that before corruption came, commands had already been given. Before the attack came, a trust had already been placed. Before the punishment came, there had already been a violation of what Allah had decreed, and that second attack has not yet come.

Conclusion

Only now are we in the right place to ask the question more boldly. If the commands are already clear, then which part was violated such that the punishment I have spoken about, namely that Malaysia will be attacked, will actually occur?

The next phase in this series will enter a much heavier stage. We are no longer trying to determine whether those commands existed or not. All of that is already clear.

From this point forward, our focus is the violation itself. Which part has been corrupted by the people of this land. Which part has been neglected. Which part has been betrayed.

God willing, it is from there that we will begin to see why that punishment comes, and why Allah permits that attack to take place upon the promised land.