271. The ‘Dead Sea’ scrolls.
While mentioning (verse 18:9) about people who relaxed in the cave, the Quran refers to them as ‘ people belonging to the cave and the scrolls.
We come to understand they were associated with some sort of a scroll.
The mention would not have been made if it was some insignificant scroll. The word ‘that scroll’ signifies an importance.
Allah would have made a mention only with the objective that someday the scrolls would be discovered and its content exposed to people. If it was not to be discovered at a later date, the mention of the word “that scroll“ would not have been made.
For many years the contents of the scroll were not made known to the world.
In 1998 a one hour programme titled “The Dead Sea Scrolls” aired in the by the BBC Television surprised everyone.
It is said the programme had already been aired in 1993.
The details:
In 1947 a shepherd boy while looking around for his lost kid along the shores of the Dead Sea in the Kumran mountain ranges of Jordan, happened to look into a cave where he found a bunch of leather scrolls stuffed in a earthen pot, he collected some ant took them home to his father a cobbler by profession.
The next day the father and the son visit the same cave to pick and take home the remains of the scrolls.
The father, with an intention to use the leather (scrolls) to cobble footwear, found Hebrew inscriptions on them. This made him take the scrolls to a bookseller dealing in old books in Jerusalem then under the rule of the king of Jordan.
This book seller, who knew Hebrew to a certain extent, understood the scrolls to be of some historical significance, bought them by paying a few Dinars.
The bookseller who happened to be Christian handed over the scrolls to the local church.
In the meanwhile the news about the discovery of the scrolls spread, the Jews and Muslims, expressed a great deal of interest in knowing the contents of the scrolls.
King Hussein who was the then ruler of Jordan, made a suggestion that the scrolls be handed over to a group consisting of Muslims, Jews, and Christians to be studied.
But the Christian priests of the time argued the scrolls are a private property ,and cannot be placed in the public for review and refused access even to Christian scholars of the time.
In the intervening five years the priests of Jerusalem formed groups and collected all of what was the remains of the scrolls from the areas of the Kumran mountain ranges.
By the year 1952, the entire collection of scrolls were at the hands of the Christian priests. It is given to understand that at present there are fifteen thousand such manuscripts in their custody.
For over fifty years the said group of Christian priests blacked out the contents of the scrolls.
Many Christian scholars and researchers were refused access to them.
If any one of the group of the priests happen to die, another one was elected by the rest, and allowed exclusive access to the scrolls.
All these years the contents of the scroll were preserved as a secret, with the Vatican in the forefront.
The secret group that was incharge of the scrolls attempted to microfilm the same because the manuscripts were on the verge of destruction due to the ageing.
One set of the microfilmed scrolls was sent to a library in Los Angeles for safe keeping.
In 1990 a scholar by the name of Heisman was appointed the head of that library. He was one of the many who was refused access to the scrolls previously.
He took larger copies of the microfilms of the scrolls from the library under him and read the same.
He confesses that he was very much surprised and said he came to understand the intention of the Vatican in not divulging the contents of scrolls.
With the help of a professor of Hebrew language from Chicago University he released the English translation of about 100 manuscripts he considered were important.
The documentary news reader of the BBC Television says the release of the translated work of the scrolls shook the entire Christian world and particularly the Christian churches all over were frozen with shock.
The news presenter of the documentary expressed fear that the two scholars instrumental in the release of the translation of the scrolls, may be subjected to legal action for having undermined the religious beliefs of westerners.
But the two scholars were unfazed by such fears and threats and said they were ready to face any eventuality for having unravelled an important secret to the world.
These scrolls denied any rituals carried out by today’s Christian churches.
These rituals by today’s christians were not in any way connected with the teachings of Prophet Esa, but were created by Paul.
On the whole it was found, all the ideologies put forward by today’s christians are false, and could not be found even in the next generation of true Christians after Prophet Esa.
In this broadcast scholar Heisman during the debate with a Jew regarding the scrolls firmly says they (the scrolls) prove Islam right. At this point the camera shifts to a different scene moving away from the debate.
Similarly the camera is found to move into a different scene while scholar Michael Vais talking in the programme says the scrolls prove Islam true.
Hence the viewers are not able to know how the scrolls are making Islam true.
We came to know a surprisingly true message from this broadcast.
We can find in many places the Quran saying God revealed to Prophet Esa the scripture Injeel, but was found to be nowhere with the Christian community.
Because the ‘ New Testament ‘ is not the one revealed by God to Prophet Esa, rather people’s notes about Prophet Esa.
Jesus spread the message of ‘The KIngdom’ (Matthew 4:23, Mark 1:14.)
This is, all the more reason to believe, the people of the cave, the true followers of Prophet Esa carried with them the scrolls, that are hidden away from people, even today.
The opinion of the Christian scholars on reading from the scrolls is ‘They are compatible with the Quran’
And in many places in the Quran we find it saying bringing to truth the scripture Injeel.
The planned blackout by the Christian priests who have gone through the scrolls confirm this.
And it also is a confirmation that God would not accorded the amount of importance to a man made message.
