PLACES IN TIME: The Bible/Qur’an
Proof of TIME TRAVEL
One of the Qur’an’s most popular stories is the cave sleepers' story in chapter 18. A group of youths was being persecuted for
their monotheistic belief. They hid inside a small cave with their
dog sitting right at the mouth of the cave. When they woke up, one of them went to town surreptitiously to buy food, only to discover that everything had
changed. They had slept for 309 years.
Although it is not impossible for God to make them sleep that long and their
dog to sit equally in the same period, it is illogical for them not to have
aged. Obviously, they were transported in time 309 lunar years into the future.
Qur’an
18:18; “If
you have seen the youth’s transformation inside the cave, you would have been
terrified and run.” I believe that this
verse refers to that moment in time when they were sucked into a time tunnel (wormholes). Although they did not end up in another galaxy or another worldly
dimension…they ended up in another place in time, 309 lunar years into their future.
Another
is the parable of a traveler who passed by a ruined city and wondered if God could ever restore the town to its former glory.
Qur’an
2:259: “But
Allah caused him to die a hundred years and then raised him up again. He said:
“How long did thou tarry?” Thus, he said: “Perhaps a day or part of a day.” He
said:” Nay, thou hast tarried thus a hundred years. But look at thy food and thy
drink; they showed no signs of age, and look at thy donkey: and that we make of
thee a sign unto the people.”
God’s
sense of humor is evident in His countless creations, but for a donkey to stand one hundred years and a dog to sit for 309 years was no joke. I don’t believe
God was trying to be funny. He was trying to impart a message: ‘And that we make of thee a sign unto the people.’ There is no doubt that men and beasts were transported
in time.
John 8:56 – Your forefather Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing
my day; he saw it and was glad. ‘You are not fifty years old,’ the Jews said to
him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’ “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered,
“before he was born, I am!”
How
could Abraham see Jesus’ day if he had not time-traveled to Jesus’ place in time? Likewise, how could Jesus have been before Abraham was born if he had not traveled to a place before Abraham was born? This could be the answer
to the missing chapter in the life of Jesus. It is known that Jesus disappeared
at the age of 12, and when he reappeared at the age of 30, he healed the blind and the lepers, walked on water, still the storm, and brought back the dead, but
when the real test came, he prayed to be free of the mission. Some say he was
in Egypt. Others insist he was in India, where traces of him and his teachings are found, according to some researchers. Still, some say he joined the Essenes,
a Jewish religious organization most probably dedicated to the worship of God.
I like to think that he traveled extensively in time and space, or even to the heavens, to learn the wisdom of the prophets. He could have traveled to the mentioned place for some time. He was in Egypt and India. He
could have been to many other places.
Moses
climbed the mountain in Sinai on several occasions. The first was when God commanded him to return to Egypt and deliver the people of Israel. Another
was when he received the Ten Commandments and the Laws.
Exodus 19:3; ‘…then Moses
went up to God, and the Lord called up to him from the mountain and said; this
is what you are to tell the people of Israel. You yourself have seen what I did
to Egypt and how I carried you on Eagle’s
wings and brought you up to myself.’
These
Eagle’s wings
are another version of the Burak that carried the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) from Mecca to
Jerusalem, a different version of the chariot of
fire that brought Elijah to the heavens.
Exodus
20:22; “Tell
the Israelites this: you have seen for yourself that I have spoken to you from
heaven…” (Note: not on Mount Sinai)
The above Biblical verses are pretty straightforward.
Moses was taken up to heaven every time on an Eagle’s wings. Moses brought the tablets where the Ten Commandments were inscribed from Heaven. The tablets were so powerful that the earth cracked and swallowed up the people when Moses smashed them in their midst for reverting to idolatry.
It was no ordinary tablet of rock.
Verse 7:143
of the Qur’an states, ‘When Moses came to the place appointed by us, and His
Lord addressed him, He said: “O my Lord! Show thyself to me that I may look
upon thee.” Allah said: “By no means canst thou see me directly but look upon the
mount; if it abides in its place, then shall thou see me.” When the Lord manifested
Himself on the mount, He made it a pillar of dust, and Moses fell down in a swoon. When he
recovered his senses, he said: ‘Glory be to thee! To thee! I turn in
repentance, and I am the first to believe.’ God may have time-transported Moses when he lost his consciousness.
When
I realized that time travel is a common form of travel in Islam, I had no idea that Jesus, of all the prophets of God, would be the one to provide the burden of proof. He and John the Baptist, being contemporaries, pointed to each other as the
prophet Elijah.
Luke 7:20 – ‘When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the
Baptist sent us to ask, are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” To this, Jesus had no answer. He continued doing what he was
doing and instructed the messengers to inform John of what they had seen. It was as vague as it could ever be.
Jesus’ transfiguration in
the New Testament is probably one of the most concrete proofs of how the
prophets of God moved from one place in time to another.
Matthew 17:1; ‘…after 6
days (eight days in Luke 7:25), Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There, he was transformed before them; his face was shown like a sun, and his clothes became as
white as the light. Just then, there appeared before him Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.’
Anyone
not blinded by their faith will realize, upon closer examination, that there was no transfiguration. The disciples were sleeping at the time Jesus was
praying. They were awakened by a very bright light, with Jesus between the light and the disciples. The bright light made Jesus appear disfigured, and from it, Moses and Elijah appeared. None of the prophets was transfigured or spiritualized, or else the disciples would not have offered to build a shelter for each of them (prophets) to sleep or to rest for the
night.
Matthew 17:4; ‘…when they
climbed down from the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why then do the
teachers of the law say Elijah must come first?” Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah has already come and restored all things. But I tell you, Elijah has
already come, and they did not recognize him but have done to him everything
they wished. In the same way, the son of man is going to suffer in their
hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John
the Baptist.’
One: John the Baptist is not Elijah. He vehemently denied it. John 1:19 – “I am not
the Christ.” They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not. “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.”
Second, the disciples knew John the Baptist. They would have
recognized him if he were Elijah (during that encounter).
The
late and formerly Reverend David Benjamin Keldani, B.D., a Roman Catholic priest of the Uniate Chaldean sect, wrote
in the late and early twentieth century that the least (youngest) in the
Kingdom of Heaven foretold by Jesus and John the Baptist in Luke 9:27 was no other that Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh): “I tell you, among those born of women, there is no one
greater than John; yet the one who is least (youngest) in the Kingdom of God is
greater than he.” If the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the great prophet who was to come and whose shoelace John the Baptist claimed he was not worthy to untie, the prophecy is fulfilled except for the coming of Prophet Elijah.
The
puzzle I cannot comprehend in the above Biblical verses is Elijah. Who is he?
Is he another prophet the Jews were expecting to come, or was he the same prophet Elijah during King Ahab's reign hundreds of years before Christ? Did he promise to come back before the chariot of fire took him to heaven, or was it a
standard rule for any prophet taken up to heaven physically and alive to return
to earth and die a natural death?
2 Kings 2:11 of the Bible
says, “As they were walking and talking
together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated
the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this
and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horses of Israel!” and
Elisha saw him no more.
Regardless
of what the Christian world believes in, Jesus was alive, not dead, when he was brought up
to heaven.
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