Imagine that one day someone passed a law that said, “As of last week, there can be no more laws passed!” This act itself would have to be considered an act of law if it was followed, and in so doing, it would contradict its own ruling, since it came after the cut off time for the passage of law. This is the sort of deficiency of commonsense that has gone relatively unchallenged in the Ummah until the modern age…... Read more
Zion, Justice, and the Right to Return: A Historian’s Perspective on Israel As a historian of the Israel-Palestine conflict(s), it is clear enough that Jewish People did not initiate violence against Arabs in Mandate Palestine, nor in Ottoman Syria-Palestina, nor any time before. All of the politics aside, there is not a single war that the State of Israel, nor the Haganah initiated against our Arab neighbors. As well, with the Land of Israel being the place of Jewish (Judean)... Read more
Historically, humans have viewed space and time as separate and distinct entities. Space, often considered a three-dimensional realm of locations, shapes, and distances — defined by width, length and height – was seen as a static backdrop for the unfolding of events within a separate, fixed, linear reality of time. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity revolutionized this view, introducing the concept of Spacetime. In this view of the Universe, space and time are intertwined, inseparable and relative in terms of how... Read more
Since the Hamas Pogrom of October 7th, 2023, I have addressed matters related to the widespread and deliberate phenomenon of polemic mistranslations of the Qur’an, to both demonize the Jewish People and to bury the Jewish Origins of the Historical Muhammad‘s movement (c. 570 – 632 CE). Before that, my first master’s thesis, available in publication as People of the Book: What the Religions Named in the Qur’an Can Tell Us About the Earliest Understanding of “Islam”, as well as... Read more
Various sources are employed in Islāmic jurisprudence to elucidate the Sharī`ah, the name which has emerged for the body of “Islāmic law.” Derived from the root shara`a, the Encyclopaedia of Islām, Second Edition, explains that Sharī`ah is the “prophetic religion in its totality.” The primary sources of Sharī`ah “accepted universally by all Muslims,” however, are the Qur’ān and Sunnah, the lifestyle and related narrations attributed to Muḥammad.[1] Within Muslim discourse, sharī`a designates the rules and regulations governing the lives of... Read more
In its entry on “Muḥammad,” the Encyclopaedia of Islām cautiously explains, “the sources for the life of Muḥammad fall into overlapping categories.” These, it asserts, “call for a variety of methods of analysis.” Acknowledging the preference for the Qur’ān, the Encyclopaedia characterizes it as “the most difficult to utilise as a historical source.” In this paper, I will survey the works of largely contemporary authors, which examine the biographical sīrah literature; created not only to supplement the Qur’ān but also to give its... Read more
Of all the elements of the holiday Purim, there are two stand-out points that are the least examined popularly. The first is the overlooked plot twist at the end, when in our darkest hour, “many Persians” mityahadim (מתיהדים) – became Jews – and turned the tide against Haman’s genocidal forces (Esther 8:17). Most renderings of the Biblical account say things like “acted like Jews,” but that is not what the word means, it means that they did-Judaism, they quite literally... Read more
Unveiling Qur’anic Misinterpretations: Sabbath, Origins & Truth I have already documented the widespread and deliberate phenomenon of polemic mistranslations of the Qur’an, which were clearly created to both demonize the Jewish People and to bury the Jewish Origins of the Historical Muhammad’s movement. Many of my earlier academic articles are available online regarding such topics as the Ka`bah as a Jewish Sukkah and the original calendar and fasts of Muhammad’s community being lunisolar and shared with the Jewish People as... Read more
In July 1999, three years after the entry of the Taliban forces in Kabul, the group’s Minister of Culture stated that it was an absolute necessity to protect the cultural artifacts of the region. He even specified the two Buddha statues of Bamiyan, which the Taliban would only two years later infamously destroy. The minister spoke about the respect due to those antiquities and also mentioned the risk of retaliation against mosques in Buddhist countries. He made it clear that,... Read more
In the historical study of both Islamic and Christian Origins, many early and common sectarian doctrinal features were, within short order, deemed heterodox or even heretical. One of the most prominent examples, common to each of these faith communities, is the doctrine of reincarnation. While this concept was present within an array of early sectarian expressions, the refutation or suppression of this doctrine nevertheless took top priority amongst the cementing religious establishments. Until the sixth century of the common era,... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In