The
Editor “Arabia”
The Islamic World Review
Crown House, Crown Lane
East Burnham, nr. Slough,
Bucks, SL2 3SG
United Kingdom
Dear Br Editor,
Assalamu’ alaikum!
I am pleased and grateful that you have published my review of Dr. Rashad Khalifa’s epoch-making book, The Computer Speaks: God’s Message to the World in the April issue of your esteemed magazine. However, you have changed my favorable comment on the author’s discovery of the mystery of the day of resurrection into scepticism and rejection. I think this is not fair for me or to the author. To be fair to you, I must admit that I have not explained the difficult matter as clearly as I should have in the article.
This letter is to correct the error. Dr. Khalifa unveils the first step in the discovery of the secret by pointing to the Quranic verse, stating the possibility of such a discovery. Verse 15 of Chapter 20 literally reads: “The hour is sure to come; I keep it almost hidden, to repay each soul for whatever it did.” Many previous translations have obscured the meaning of this important verse. Dr. Khalifa’s translation above seems to me the clearest and the most accurate. To illustrate, compare it with:-
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“Verify the Hour is coming – My design is to keep it hidden – for every soul to receive its reward by the measure of its endeavor.” (Yusof Ali).
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“Lo! The Hour is surely coming. But I will to keep it hidden, that every soul may be rewarded for that which it striveth (to achieve).” (Marmaduke Pickthall).
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“Behold (although) I have willed to keep it hidden, the Last Hour is bound to come, so that every human being may be recompensed in accordance with what he strove for (in life).” (Muhammad Asad).
) refers to Muhammad’s interim is not only more logical than all previous
interpretations (“seven of the oft-repeated (verses)”, allegedly
the Fatihah), but brilliant. What is more logical than God saying
to Muhammad in that verse that He gave him a certain period of time and
the Quran?
The key is therefore the number “14” which Dr. Khalifa deduces to be the fourteen sets of Quranic initials (muqatta’at) which prefix certain Quranic chapters. This interpretation seems to me entirely reasonable, since these Quranic initials are intricately connected with the code 19. Adding the numerical equivalents of the fourteen sets of Quranic initials, the author gets 1709 lunar years as the period of Muhammad’s interim, thus giving 309 lunar years remaining to Muhammad from A.H. 1400, the year of the author’s discovery. Remembering the Quranic prediction that Islam will prevail over other religions before the world comes to an end (48:28), a three – hundred year period from now before that happens is a definite possibility.
Therefore, it is not true to say that Dr. Khalifa is indulging in speculation when he announces in the book that he has discovered the secret of the date of the end of the world. The announcement is made only as the conclusion of a long scientific, thorough and brilliant research into the Quran itself.
Thank you.
Your brother-in-Islam
(KASSIM AHMAD)
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