Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Lost tribes of Israel - Afghanistan and Kashmir

The article is written by Tariq Khan and taken from here

This is an accepted fact that the people of Afghanistan and Kashmir are the children of Israel and so information on that has not been posted here, only material from the Bible has been posted.

‘Kashmir’ is a Hebrew Word:

Furthermore, Kashmiri or Kashahmiri is a Hebrew word and an attributive name of the Israelites. The root is Kas(h)ah, similar to the Arabic kashiya. In Hebrew it means fleshy and plump, and the Bible itself has conferred this name on the Israelites, and in the idiomatic tradition of the Bible, ‘becoming fat’ means to ‘become an idolater’ – see Deuteronomy, 31:20, Nehemiah 9:25-26, 1 Samuel 2:29-30 for reference. In the same place in the Bible, the Israelites have also been called Yeshurun or Jeshurun, and both these names indicate two contradictory qualities of the Israelites. Yeshurun has been derived from the yashar or yashar, which means the follower of truth or worshipper of the One True God. The following texts of the Bible may read in this connection:

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked; you waxed fat, you grew thick, you became sleek; then he forsook God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.” (Deuteronomy 32:15)

Yeshurun or Jeshurun, in this text, is the name of the Israelites and signifies here a person who worships the One True God (Gesenius and Brown, A Hebrew and English Lexicon.) But this Jeshur or Yashar had been called Ka(s)ha or Kashyapa when he began to worship, instead of Lord God Jehovah, other gods and idols of the Hindus, and coming into foreign countries thought no more of and forgot Jehovah.

Just to support this point, one of the most popular mountain passes in Afghanistan is called Khyber Pass. Khyber is a Hebrew word meaning a Fort.....



A Few Prophecies From the Bible Concerning the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel:

1. Jacob on His Death Bed Confers Blessings on Joseph

Of these 10 lost tribes, the most honored and renowned was the tribe of Joseph from among the Children of Ephraim; only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, had been left in Palestine. Joseph’s was the tribe of which it was written: “Rachel is weeping for her children.” (Jeremiah 31:15. Cf. Matthew 2:18).
Her lamentation was warranted because all the hopes of the Jews were linked with this tribe. Jacob, when he laid on his death-bed, conferred most of his blessings on Joseph's tribe and uttered a prophecy about their prosperity and success (Genesis 49:22-24), and Moses too, in the last moments of his life invoked for this tribe blessings, both spiritual and temporal:

About Joseph he said: “May the Lord bless his land with the precious dew from heaven above and with deep waters that lie below; with the best the sun brings forth and the finest the moon can yield; with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills; with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. In majesty he is like a first born bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the thousands of Manasseh.” (Deuteronomy 33:13-17)

How could it be that such a precious gem, as Joseph was, should have been abandoned and left in darkness, and the word of God should have failed in this case? It is a matter of fact that these ten tribes, including the Children of Joseph, the Sons of Ephraim, came to and settled in Afghanistan and Kashmir. When Jacob, on his death-bed also conferred blessings on Joseph’s two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, he gave Ephraim the younger son more blessings.


Joseph did not like it and held up his father’s hand saying” “Not so, my father; for this one is the first born; put your right hand upon his head.” (Genesis 48:18). But the father refused, and set Ephraim before Manasseh. As a result, Ephraim’s dynasty became so much dignified and renowned that is name became synonymous with the rulership of Israel. The fundamental question that this article raises, is how is it possible that theis promised son and his tribe could become non-existent and extinct? If these tribes had been Christians, it could be said that their shepherd was Jesus; but since they came into the fold of Islam their shepherd and King, the Promised David, was the Holy Prophet Muhammad, not Jesus.


The Lost Tribes, Jesus, and the Gospels

Furthermore, God sent His prophet, Jesus, to seek and find them, and bring them back to the religion of their fathers. In what a forceful language Jesus is reported to have said:

"What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray." (Matthew 18:12-13)

"For the Son of man came to seek and save the lost." (Matthew 15:24 see also John, 11:49-52; Matthew 10:5-6)

"And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd." (John 10:16)

According to Greek idiom, emphasis lies on the them in this verse. It is thus necessary that Jesus should go all the way to Kashmir to seek and save the lost tribes of Israel.Jesus' main mission was to give glad tidings of a Messenger who was to come after him. Jesus' success lies in the fact that he persuaded and prepared these tribes of Israel who had been dead to the religion of their fathers, to return to the faith of Abraham and Jacob.




Ezekiel's Prophecy:

The Promised David, the resurrector of dry bones:

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Sprit of the Lord, and set me down in the mids of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord God, thou knowest.’ Again he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host. Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.’” (Ezekiel 37:1-11)

Prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel were contemporaries who lived 600 years before Christ.This prophecy consists of two parts. The first was fulfilled exactly after a hundred years, but the other part found its perfect fulfillment after a thousand years. Vidyarthi claims that this book is highly corrupt and obscure, but goes on to detail the prophesy for what information we can get out of it. It is argued that the desolate and deserted valley through which Ezekiel had to pass, is Jerusalem. The Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, ravaged and destroyed it, and drove the Children of Israel from their homes into exile. Ezekiel, who was the High Priest at Jerusalem, was also taken prisoner and put under restraint in the suburbs of Babel. Jeremiah an dEzekiel both have lamented and deplored this destruction of Jerusalem. But whatever was done to the Children of Israel was, in fact, the chastisement of heaven inflicted on them for their sinful deeds and transgressions. The significance of the valley’s tumbling into ruins is that they had been made the recipient of this punishment on account of the vice and misconduct of their priests and religious divines, and that the punishment had been ordained and decreed by the Most High God. As in the first part of the above prophecy, when Jeremiah and Ezekiel wept and cried before the Most High God, He assured them, saying that the sacred city and its Temple would be reubuilt after a hundred years, provided the Children of Israel and their divines would fulfill the covenant of God and bear obedience to His commandments. Hence, this prophecy was accomplished 536 years before Christ, and 65 years after the destruction of Jerusalem when Cyrus, the King of Persia, defeated the Babylonian King, and set the Children of Israel at liberty. However, there were still 35 years for the Word of God to be fulfilled, and neither Cyrus’s command nor his gold could revive the Sacred Temple; and the people who obstructed this work, were the Jewish tribes themselves. They counteracted and opposed each other, and wrote to the King to baffle and defeat their plans, until Cyrus died. So it was later, in the time of Prophet Ezra, when the Children of Israel took up a fresh and firm resolve to pay obedience ot the Divine commandments and walk in the way of His pleasure (Ezra Ch. 5-6), that the promise of the reconstruction and revival of the Sacred Temple came to be fulfilled exactly after a hundred years, in the reign of Darius Hystaspes. But it relates only to the 2 tribes of Israel, Judah and Benjamin. The 10 lost tribes are in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The Jews therefore believed it was an event to be completed in the future. In the Book of Zechariah:
Ho! Ho! Flee from the land of the north, says the Lord; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, says the Lord.” (Zechariah 2:6).

and again:

And Those who are far off shall come and help build the temple of the Lord; and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.” (Zechariah 6:15).

The dry bones were the Children of Ephraim, the promised son of Joseph, and other tribes of Israel who, having merged into the Hindus, had become divested of faith and the spirit of Divine unity. Islam breathed into them the breath of life “from four winds”. Vidyarthi holds that its meaning is that Islam conferred on them the Holy Quran, which is the quintessence of all Revealed Books of the world.

The Most High God, then, said to Ezekiel, “These bones are the whole house of Israel”, i.e., the Sons of Ephraim and their companions, the other tribes of Israel. The statement “I will bring you home into the land of Israel” is a figure of speech, which means their rehabilitation into the religion of their forefathers; otherwise it would be understood that even Jesus could not bring them back into their own land. The acceptance of Islam by all these tribes is, in fact, their return to the land of their fathers.

Vidyarthi argues that the spirit is the Holy Quran, which exists in every house in Kashmir and Afghanistan, and quickens life into them. After this, verse 16 deserves reconsideration:

Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the children of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write upon it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him’; and join them together into one stick… say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him; and I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand.” (Ezekiel 37:16-19)

These were the two sticks of which Jacob said:

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (Genesis 49:10).

Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring” (Genesis 49:22)

Vidyarthi identifies these two sticks as the kingship and the prophethood, or the blessings of the earth and the blessings of the heaven, that were joined in one in the Holy Prophet Muhammad. And the gathering of the people of all the lsot ten tribes of Israel unto him was in this way, that they entirely embraced Islam in Kashmir and Afghamistan. Furthermore, Ezekiel says:

and one king shall be king over them all; and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.” (Ezekiel 37:23)

These words point to the fact that this Kingdom shall be a spiritual Kingdom since no king shall live and rule up to the last Day of Resurrection.That this spiritual Kingdom shall last for all time to come, is a conclusive argument on the termination of the institution of prophethood. It is further stated:

They shall not defile themselves any more with idols… and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 37:23)

Hence, this leads us to conclude that the Prophet Muhammad was their one King forever.

No comments: