
590 AD to 610 AD, Psalm 77: Muhammad.
This generation is that of the 590s and 600s.
Maurice [1] was a good emperor for Byzantium but, because of the mismanagement of his predecessor imposed a fiscal discipline that alienated the military and allowed the rise of Phocas, a centurion. He succeeded in seizing power in 602, executing Maurice and his sons.
- In point [2] where the crisis was, Phocas should have encouraged impulses of solidarity. But he decided to carry out a campaign of forced conversion of the Jews. Most of the victims he had in view lived in the eastern provinces – on the front line, facing the Persian attack; to alienate them at such a moment was an act of madness that was hardly credible. The Jews of Antioch rebelled and began to massacre the local Christians, inflicting a particularly cruel death on the patriarch Anastasius. Thousands of terrified people, Christians and Jews mingled, fled the slaughter and sought refuge in the Persian territory. As the empire sank into anarchy, plots succeeded each other at a rapid pace. Among the innumerable executions, there was that of the ex-Empress Constantina and her three daughters. In the capital, the Greens (with the Blues: the two ancestral rival factions of Constantinople), revolted and set fire to several public buildings; in the eastern provinces it was chaos. Christians and Jews threw themselves now everywhere in each other’s throats, the latter allying themselves openly to the Persians who received them with open arms.
(extract of the psalm 77 associated to this generation, verses 1 to 10 )
- For the conductor on jeduthun, a song of Asaph.
- My voice is to God, and I shall cry out; my voice is to God, and hearken to me.
- On the day of my distress, I sought the Lord; my wound oozes at night and does not abate; my soul refuses to be comforted.
- I remember God and I stir; I speak and my spirit becomes faint, forever.
- You held fast the awakenings of my eyes; I throb and I do not speak.
- I think of days of yore, ancient years.
- I recall my music at night; I speak with my heart and my spirit searches.
- « Will the Lord forsake [me] forever and nevermore be appeased?
- Has His kindness ended forever? Has He issued a decree for all generations?
- Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He, in anger, shut off His mercy forever? »
Religious life [3] in the East did not stop. In Babylonia, to the seven generations of the Amoraim (225-500: who deepen the Oral Law, the Mishnah) have succeeded the Saboraim (500-591: those who reason, give opinions). Now appear the Gaonim. For four centuries (589-1038), the directors of Talmudic schools are called Gaon. Undisputed leaders of religious life, the Jews of East and West respect their authority.
(extract of the psalm 77 associated to this generation, verses 11 to 13 )
- And I said, « This is to terrify me, the change of the right hand of the Most High. »
- I recall the deeds of Yah when I remember Your wonder from time immemorial.
- And I meditate over all Your works, and I speak of Your deeds.
- That [4] is how your Lord will choose you, and teach you the interpretation of dreams,1 and complete His blessing upon you and upon the house of Jacob, just as He completed it earlier for your fathers, Abraham and Isaac. Your Lord is indeed all-knowing, all-wise.’
- In Joseph and his brothers there are certainly signs for the seekers.
- When they (Brothers of Joseph) said, ‘Surely Joseph and his brother (Benjamin) are dearer to our father than [the rest of] us, though we are a hardy group. Our father is indeed in manifest error.’
- ‘Kill Joseph or cast him away into some [distant] land, so that your father’s love may be exclusively yours, and that you may become a righteous lot after that.’
- One of them said, ‘Do not kill Joseph, but throw him into the recess of some well so that some caravan may pick him up, if you are to do [anything].’
The project realized, the story recalls the episode of the caravan:
- And [5] there came a caravan, and they sent their water-drawer, who let down his bucket. ‘Good news!’ he said. ‘This is a young boy!’ So they hid him as [a piece of] merchandise, and Allah knew best what they were doing.
- And they sold him for a cheap price, a few dirhams, for they set small store by him.
- I (Joseph) [6] follow the creed of my fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is not for us to ascribe any partner to Allah. That is by virtue of Allah’s grace upon us and upon all mankind, but most people do not give thanks.
- Alif [7], Lām, Rā. (three letters of the Arabic alphabet) These are the signs of the Manifest Book.
- Indeed We have sent it down as an Arabic Qurʾān so that you may apply reason.
- We will recount to you the best of narratives in what We have revealed to you of this Qurʾān, and indeed prior to it you were among those who are unaware [of it].
(extract of the psalm 77 associated to this generation, verses 14 to 16 )
- O God, Your way is in sanctity. Who is a power as great as God?
- This recognition is at the heart of Islam
- You are the God Who works wonders; You made known Your might among the peoples.
- After extending to the Western world via Christianity, monotheism seduces the nations of the East via Islam.
- You redeemed Your people with Your arm, the sons of Jacob and Joseph forever.
- The recall of the biblical characters Jacob and Joseph is, as we have just seen, very timely in relation to the outbreak of Islam.
- Certainly [8],We gave Moses nine manifest signs. So ask the Children of Israel. When he came to them, Pharaoh said to him, ‘O Moses, indeed I think you are bewitched.’
- He said, ‘You certainly know that no one has sent these [signs] except the Lord of the heavens and the earth as eye-openers, and I, O Pharaoh, indeed think you are doomed.’
- He desired to exterminate them from the land, so We drowned him and all those who were with him.
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After him We said to the Children of Israel, ‘Take up residence in the land, and when the occasion of the other [promise] comes,a We shall gather you in mixed company.’b
- a: Or ‘when the promise of the Hereafter comes.’
- b: Or ‘We shall bring you all together.’ Or ‘We shall bring you from all places.’
- Your [9] Lord knows best whoever is in the heavens and the earth. Certainly We gave some prophets an advantage over others, and We gave David the Psalms.
- [It is] a blessed Book [10] that We have sent down to you (David), so that they may contemplate its signs, and that those who possess intellect may take admonition.
(extract of the psalm 77 associated to this generation, verses 17 to 21 )
- The waters perceived You, O God, the waters perceived You, they trembled, even the deeps quaked.
- They poured forth thick waters; the skies let out a voice, even your arrows went abroad.
- The sound of Your thunder is like a wheel; the lightning illuminated the world; the earth shook and quaked.
- In the sea was Your way, and Your path in the mighty waters, and Your steps were not known.
- You led Your people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
- There were [11], among Jewish rabbis and infidels who were fatigued with embarrassing questions to confuse the true with the false, men specially targeted in the Koran. Among them is Abu Yasir b. ‘Akhtab, who passed a day by the Messenger of Allah (Muhammad) while reciting the first verse of the Surah of the Cow (al-Baqarah): « A.L.M. this Scripture, no doubt about it ». He went to his brother Huyayy b.’Akhtab, who was with Jews, and said to them, « Know that I have just heard Muhammad recite from what has come down on him – (the sentence): A.L.M. this Scripture … «
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- It took [12] to wait for the specialist of Judaism Kurt Hruby, Professor at the Catholic Institute of Paris, to discover that the abbreviation ‘ALM is used in rabbinic literature (there is also a whole system) it is the abbreviation for ‘El Le-Môṧâ’ot,’ meanings God of Victories ‘(or salutations – rac .: ṧw’).
[1] According to John Julius Norwich: « History of Byzantium », Chapter: « The First Centuries » (French: « Histoire de Byzance », Chapitre : « Les premiers siècles » (p. 108 à 110) )
[2] John Julius Norwich: « History of Byzantium », Chapter: « The First Centuries » (French: « Histoire de Byzance », Chapitre : « Les premiers siècles » (p. 111) )
[3] According to Marianne Picard: « Jews and Judaism / from 70 to 1492 – Volume 2 » (French: « Juifs et Judaïsme/ de 70 à 1492 – Tome 2 » (p.68 à 74) ).
[4] The Koran, Surah 12 (Joseph, « Yūsuf » ( يوسف ) ), verses 6 to 10
[5] The Koran, Surah 12 (Joseph, « Yūsuf » ( يوسف ) ), verses 19 and 20
[6] The Koran, Surah 12 (Joseph, « Yūsuf » ( يوسف ) ), verse 38
[7] The Koran, Surah 12 (Joseph, « Yūsuf » ( يوسف ) ), verses 1 to 3
[8] The Koran, Surah 17 (The Night Journey, »al-Isrā » ( الإسراء ),The surah is also known as: Glory, The Children of Israel ), verses 101 to 104.
[9] The Koran, Surah 17 (The Night Journey, »al-Isrā » ( الإسراء ),The surah is also known as: Glory, The Children of Israel ), verse 55.
[10] The Koran, Surah 38 : (Ṣād, « Ṣād » ( ص ), the name of the letter that initializes surah), verse 29
[11] Ibn ‘Ishâq: « Muhammad » (French translation of’ Abdurrahmân Badawî) – Volume 1 – Chapter: « Jews are joined by ‘Ansar hypocrites / Hypocrites are humiliated and driven out of the mosque’ (French: Ibn ‘Ishâq : « Muhammad » (traduction de ‘Abdurrahmân Badawî) – Tome 1 – Chapitre : « Les juifs sont rejoints par des ‘Ansârs hypocrites/Les hypocrites sont humiliés et chassé de la Mosquée » (p. 450) )
[12] Edouard-Marie Gallez: « The Messiah and his Prophet, to the origins of Islam – Volume II: From the Muhammad of the Caliphs to the Muhammad of history ». (French: « Le Messie et son prophète, aux origines de l’Islam – Tome II : Du Muhammad des Califes au Muhammad de l’histoire ». (p. 49) ).