From Ancient Conquest to Modern Irony: When Scripture Is Used Against the Worshippers of Abraham’s God

📜 In the Hebrew Bible, the ancient Israelites are described as a people chosen to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their identity was built around covenant, law, and loyalty to one God. In the biblical story, they were commanded to enter the land of Canaan and remove its inhabitants because those nations were seen as idolaters who practiced corrupt religion and immoral customs.

⚔️ This command appears most strongly in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua. The Canaanites are presented as nations whose religious practices threatened Israel’s faith. The Israelites were told not merely to live among them, but to destroy their altars, reject their gods, and in some passages, wipe them out completely. This was known as a holy war or a war of total devotion.

🕊️ Whether one reads these passages as literal history, theological memory, or ancient war language, the message is clear: the biblical conquest was framed as a struggle between monotheism and idolatry. The Israelites were not commanded to remove people simply because they were foreign. They were commanded to resist a religious order that the Bible presents as idolatrous and morally corrupt.

🔍 This creates a deep historical irony in the modern Holy Land.

☪️ Today, many Palestinians in the land are Muslims and Christians. They are not idolaters. They worship the God of Abraham. Muslims honor Abraham as a prophet and see themselves as followers of his pure monotheism. Palestinian Christians also worship the God of Abraham through their own religious tradition. In other words, many of the people now facing displacement, occupation, and violence are themselves believers in the Abrahamic God.

🏛️ Yet some modern Israeli political and settler movements use the Bible to justify domination over the same land. They speak of ancient promises, biblical borders, and divine inheritance. Some use this language to defend settlements, expulsions, or the denial of Palestinian national rights.

⚖️ The irony is sharp: in the ancient biblical story, the Israelites were commanded to remove idolaters from the land. In the modern political story, biblical language is sometimes used against Palestinians who are not idolaters at all, but worshippers of the God of Abraham.

📌 There is another irony. Modern Zionism began largely as a secular nationalist project, rather than a religious movement. Many of its early leaders were atheists and secular nationalists. Even today, a large number of Israeli Jews identify as secular or non-observant, while some also identify as atheist or do not believe in God in a traditional religious sense. Yet biblical claims are still used in political arguments over land, sovereignty, and settlement.

🕍 This does not mean all Jews support such policies. Many Jews, including religious Jews, reject occupation, racism, and violence against Palestinians. Many see the prophetic message of the Bible as a call to justice, humility, and protection of the stranger.

⚠️ The problem is not Judaism itself, but political Zionism when it uses scripture selectively to sanctify power, land control, and the denial of Palestinian rights.

🔥 When ancient scripture is used without moral reflection, it can become dangerous. A text that once condemned idolatry can be turned into a weapon against fellow worshippers of God. A story about covenant can be reduced to a claim of ethnic supremacy. A sacred land can become a battlefield of domination rather than a place of justice.

🌿 The deeper question is not only who has ancient roots in the land. The deeper question is whether people who claim Abraham’s inheritance are living by Abraham’s faith: justice, mercy, hospitality, and submission to the One God.

🏞️ If the Holy Land is truly holy, then holiness cannot be measured only by borders, flags, or ancient conquest stories. It must also be measured by how the weak, the displaced, and the oppressed are treated.

💔 The tragedy of the modern Holy Land is that the language of God is sometimes used to deny the rights of people who worship God. That is not the spirit of Abraham. It is the corruption of his legacy.

📖 Surah 17:104, Surah 21:105, and the Question of Israel’s Establishment

🔹 Some pro-Israel and Zionist-leaning interpreters claim that Surah 17:104 is a prophecy about the modern establishment of the State of Israel.

📜 The verse says that after Pharaoh, God told the Children of Israel to live in the land. It also says that when the final promise comes, God will bring them together in one gathering.

🕍 Because of this, Zionists argue that the return of Jews to Palestine and the creation of Israel in 1948 fulfilled this Qur’anic verse.

⚖️ However, this reading is not complete.

🌿 The Qur’an does not give land inheritance as an unconditional ethnic right. It repeatedly connects inheritance, authority, and divine favour with righteousness, justice, and obedience to God.

📖 This is where Surah 21:105 becomes very important. It says:

🌍 “My righteous servants shall inherit the land.”

🧭 This verse gives a moral condition. The land is not simply inherited by race, tribe, nation, or political power. It is inherited by the righteous.

🚫 Therefore, if a state is established through military conquest, mass displacement, and the destruction of another people’s society, it becomes difficult to present that event as a fulfilment of a righteous divine promise.

🏚️ The State of Israel was not established peacefully on empty land. Its creation was connected to the 1948 war, the mass displacement of Palestinians, the destruction or depopulation of many villages, and what Palestinians remember as the Nakba.

🕊️ For Palestinians, the Nakba was not merely a political event. It was the loss of homes, land, villages, family memory, and national life.

❗ This creates a serious theological problem for the Zionist reading of Surah 17:104. If the return mentioned in that verse is interpreted as a divine gathering, then it must still be judged by the wider Qur’anic principle of justice.

📌 Surah 21:105 does not say that the land belongs automatically to one ethnic group. It says the land is inherited by God’s righteous servants.

🌱 In Qur’anic terms, righteousness is not proven by military victory. It is proven by justice, mercy, faithfulness to God, and respect for the rights of others.

⚠️ A state built through displacement and dispossession cannot easily be described as the fulfilment of a promise reserved for the righteous.

🕯️ This does not mean the Qur’an denies the historical connection of the Children of Israel to the Holy Land. The Qur’an clearly recognizes their history, prophets, trials, and covenantal past.

⚖️ But recognition of history is not the same as approval of injustice. Additionally, Ashkenazi Jews are thought to be the offspring of Khazars who underwent conversion and were not indigenous to the sacred territory.

📚 The Qur’an honours the Children of Israel when they obey God, but it also criticizes them when they fall into arrogance, corruption, or oppression. This is consistent with the Qur’an’s wider moral message: no community is above divine accountability.

🧩 From this perspective, Surah 17:104 cannot be used alone as a simple proof-text for modern political Zionism. It must be read together with Surah 21:105 and the Qur’an’s broader demand for justice.

🌾 The deeper Qur’anic principle is clear: land inheritance belongs to righteousness, not conquest.

🚧 If the land is gained through oppression, then the claim of divine fulfilment becomes morally weak. If the land is inherited through justice, humility, and obedience to God, then it aligns with the Qur’anic vision.

🔎 In the end, Surah 21:105 challenges any political movement that claims sacred land while ignoring the rights of the people already living there.

✨ The Qur’an does not sanctify ethnic supremacy. It sanctifies righteousness.

🤲 And righteousness cannot be separated from justice.

🧭 Gog and Magog Reconsidered: Could Zionism Fulfill the Prophecies—and Not in the Way We Think?

For centuries, the mysterious figures of Gog and Magog have captured the imagination of people across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These names are often associated with chaos, destruction, and a final showdown before divine judgment. In the Bible’s Book of Ezekiel and in Islamic hadith, Gog and Magog appear as massive forces of invasion, only to be wiped out by God.

But what if these prophecies have been misunderstood? What if the modern conflict in the Middle East—particularly the one between Zionist Israel and the Palestinian people—has eerie parallels to these ancient apocalyptic warnings? And what if those we assume to be the “chosen” are actually on the wrong side of prophecy?

Let’s explore a bold possibility: that the Zionist movement may actually align with the destructive archetype of Gog and Magog, and that the Palestinian people could be the true inheritors of the ancient Israelite lineage.

📜 The Forgotten Claim of Ben Gurion

David Ben Gurion, the founding Prime Minister of Israel, once made a startling admission: that the Palestinians might be the descendants of ancient Jews who stayed in the land, converted to other religions over time—first Christianity, then Islam—and became the people we now call Palestinians.

Historians have pointed out that after the Roman exile, not all Jews left the region. Many remained as peasants, gradually assimilating with the changing religious landscape. This opens the door to a surprising thought: that today’s Palestinians might actually be closer in blood and heritage to the ancient Israelites than the European Jews who came to establish the modern Israeli state.

🔥 Revisiting Ezekiel’s Prophecy

In Ezekiel 38–39, a terrifying invasion is described. Gog, from the land of Magog, leads a massive coalition to attack the “land of unwalled villages”—interpreted by many as Israel. But they are destroyed not by human armies, but by God Himself—through fire, hail, earthquakes, and divine confusion.

After the destruction, a curious detail stands out:

“Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons… for seven years they will make fires of them.” (Ezekiel 39:9)

A seven-year period of cleansing and renewal follows. This isn’t just about burning weapons—it’s about the end of an era, and the beginning of justice.

🌙 The Islamic Hadith Connection

Strikingly, a hadith reported from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and found in Sunan Ibn Majah mirrors this exactly:

“The Muslims will burn the weapons of Gog and Magog for seven years.”

Two different scriptures. Two different traditions. But the same strange detail—seven years of burning the weapons of the defeated invaders.

This parallel suggests a shared prophecy: both faiths anticipating a time of divine justice after a violent, unjust invasion.

⚖️ A Radical Reinterpretation

Traditionally, Gog and Magog are seen as external enemies of Israel. But if Ben Gurion’s statement holds truth, a new possibility opens up: that Palestinians are the actual descendants of ancient Israel, and that modern Zionism—with its colonial, military-driven approach—may fit the mold of the invading forces described in the end-times texts.

Think about it:

• Gog and Magog are destructive invaders, claiming power and dominance.

• Zionism, especially in its more extreme forms, has displaced and subjugated the native Palestinian population.

• Meanwhile, the Palestinians, who have endured war, exile, and marginalization, may spiritually and historically represent the true continuation of ancient Israel.

🕊️ The Seven Years: A Symbol of Vindication

In both traditions, the seven years of burning weapons isn’t just about fuel—it’s about purification. It’s a symbol of judgment against aggressors and a new beginning for those who endured.

If Palestinians are indeed linked to the ancient Israelites, then Islamic prophecy could be pointing to their eventual vindication—surviving the chaos and cleansing the land of the tools of war.

🌿 Final Thoughts: Inheriting the Promise

What happens when we read prophecy through the lens of history and genealogy, instead of modern politics? We start to see that the identities we’ve been taught to accept may not align with divine justice.

This view flips the script: Zionist power may resemble Gog and Magog, not the chosen people. Palestinians, often seen as the enemies of Israel, may actually be the true heirs of the land—both spiritually and historically.

Whether one agrees or not, the possibility forces us to reflect: who really inherits the promise of God? And what if it comes at the cost of everything we thought we knew?

✦ From Theocentrism to Secular Science: God’s Role Then and Now ✦

✦ 1. God’s Role in the Medieval Era

During the Medieval period (roughly 5th–15th century CE), God was considered the foundation of all truth and the center of intellectual life:

➤ Theology as the “Queen of the Sciences”:

Medieval universities (Paris, Oxford, Bologna) placed theology at the top of the curriculum. Other subjects (philosophy, law, medicine, mathematics, astronomy) were viewed as handmaidens to theology. All knowledge was understood as pointing toward God.

➤ Integration of Faith and Reason:

Philosophers such as Augustine (4th–5th c.) and later Thomas Aquinas (13th c.) taught that reason and revelation work together. Aristotle’s philosophy was adapted into Christian theology to show that rational inquiry could deepen understanding of divine truths.

➤ Providence in Natural Philosophy:

What we would now call “science” (then natural philosophy) was pursued as a way to better understand God’s creation. The study of the cosmos, the human body, or mathematics was not separate from religion but an act of worship, uncovering the divine order built into creation.

➤ Sacralized Society:

Political authority was often legitimized by divine sanction. Kings ruled “by the grace of God,” and the Church was the dominant intellectual and cultural force. Even history itself was interpreted as the unfolding of God’s providential plan.

✦ In short: in the Medieval imagination, all reality was theocentric (God-centered).

⸻

✦ 2. Why God Was Excluded from Contemporary Science

The exclusion of God from modern science results from deep intellectual shifts beginning in the Renaissance and especially the Scientific Revolution (16th–17th c.):

➤ Methodological Naturalism:

Modern science adopted the principle of studying natural causes without appeal to divine action. This doesn’t deny God’s existence—it simply brackets Him out of the method, focusing on repeatable, observable phenomena.

➤ Reaction to Scholasticism:

Some early scientists (like Galileo, Descartes, Newton) were themselves deeply religious, but they sought a universal language of mathematics and experiment that could work independently of theological disputes.

➤ Rise of Secular Philosophy:

Enlightenment thinkers emphasized human reason, autonomy, and empiricism. God increasingly became seen as unnecessary for explaining natural processes (e.g., Laplace telling Napoleon, “I have no need of that hypothesis”).

➤ Specialization of Knowledge:

As disciplines professionalized, theology and science split into separate domains. Science explained how nature works; theology (for believers) explained why. By the 19th–20th centuries, many saw them as unrelated spheres.

➤ Cultural Shifts:

Secularization in Europe, the decline of ecclesiastical authority, and the rise of materialism and positivism meant that God was viewed by many as outside the scope of legitimate “scientific” explanation.

✦ Thus, while God was once seen as the ground of all knowledge, modern science emerged by deliberately excluding the divine from its explanatory framework, focusing instead on natural causation.

⸻

✅ Summary:

• Medieval era → God was the source and goal of all knowledge, theology reigned supreme.

• Modern science → Excludes God not necessarily as denial, but as a methodological choice to study nature on its own terms.

— Azahari Hassim

Founder, The World of Abrahamic Theology