The Quran

145

Preface

وَلَئِن أَتَيتَ الَّذينَ أوتُوا الكِتابَ بِكُلِّ آيَةٍ ما تَبِعوا قِبلَتَكَ ۚ وَما أَنتَ بِتابِعٍ قِبلَتَهُم ۚ وَما بَعضُهُم بِتابِعٍ قِبلَةَ بَعضٍ ۚ وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعتَ أَهواءَهُم مِن بَعدِ ما جاءَكَ مِنَ العِلمِ ۙ إِنَّكَ إِذًا لَمِنَ الظّالِمينَ

Yusuf Ali

Even if thou wert to bring to the people of the Book all the Signs (together), they would not follow Thy Qiblah; nor art thou going to follow their Qiblah; nor indeed will they follow¹ each other?s Qiblah. If thou after the knowledge hath reached thee, Wert to follow their (vain) desires,-then wert thou Indeed (clearly) in the wrong.

See n. 147 to 2:144 above. The Jews and Christians had a glimmering of the Qiblah idea, but in their attitude of self-sufficiency they were not likely to welcome the Qiblah idea as perfected in Islam. Nor is Islam, after the fuller knowledge which it has received, likely to revert to the uncertain, imperfect, and varying ideas of orientation held previously. A very clear glimpse of the old Jewish practice in the matter of the Qiblah and the importance attached to it is found in the book of Daniel. 6:10. Daniel was a righteous man of princely lineage and lived about 506-538 B.C. He was carried off to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, the Assyrian, but was still living when Assyria was overthrown by the Medes and Persians. In spite of the “captivity” of the Jews, Daniel enjoyed the highest offices of state at Babylon, but he was ever true to Jerusalem. His enemies (under the Persian monarch) got a penal law passed against any one who “asked a petition of any god or man for 30 days” except the Persian King. But Daniel continued true to Jerusalem. “His windows being open in his chamber to wards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.”