“We lifted the mountain of Sinai over them, when We exacted from them their covenant; and said unto them, Enter the gate of the city worshipping. We also said unto them, Transgress not the Sabbath-day. And We received from them a firm covenant, that they would observe these things” (The Qur’an, 4:154).
If someone were to offer you a lorryload of gold, it could not be as valuable as the subject of this chapter: Allah’s holy day, his Sabbath.
But it is something that the world as a whole has tried to forget, even though he said, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:11) History is strewn with many attempts to wipe out the Sabbath rest: the Egyptian bondage of the children of Israel; the Roman Empire’s persecution; the French Revolution’s attempts to abolish the seven-day week and substitute a ten-day week; modern attempts to change the calendar; and of course, constantly, secularism and materialism.
Still, Allah has written his Sabbath day deep into man’s mind the world around. Our universal week of seven days is one memento. Why are there exactly seven days in the week? What natural thing marks off seven days? The word month indicates the time marked by the moon’s phases; a year is the time in which the earth makes its circuit around the sun; a day marks the earth’s rotation on her axis. Search every encyclopaedia in the world; no scientist or historian can give any clue as to the origin of the week except that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested on the seventh day!
The honoured Qur’an reminds us:
Your Lord is Allah who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then sat Himself upon the throne . … Blessed be Allah, the Lord of the worlds. (The Qur’an, 7:54)
The seven-day week was observed in Hindustan, by the Brahmins of India, by the ancient Arabs, by the Chinese, by the Greeks and Romans, the Egyptians, even by the Saxons in northern Europe. Hesiod, a pagan Greek poet (circa 900 B.C.) declared that the seventh day is holy, as did Homer and Callimachus, ancient Greek writers.
The origin of the week is stated in the Ten Commandments of Allah:
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God . … For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11)
“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” (Psalm 14:1) Unbelieving scientists have tried to tell us that there was no creation in six days, that the earth and its teeming life just happened through random processes called “evolution” over many millions of years. And people who are unwilling or unable to examine the evidence for themselves have assumed that scientists cannot be wrong.
But there is no solid proof for random evolution which denies the Bible story. It remains only a theory. If evolution is true, we are all highly developed animals, and the law of the jungle must ultimately become supreme. Wars, crime immorality, are steadily pushing us closer to that jungle! But in recent years there has come a widespread movement of highly educated scientists who question the evolutionary theories, and believe there is no good scientific reason to doubt the Bible record of creation. Their answer to evolution is “Creationism.”
The Sabbath is Allah’s memorial of that creation, his universal gift to the world. It is no more Jewish than Abraham was Jewish. Thousands of years before there was a Jew, Allah “blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2:1-3) To “bless” and”sanctify” it means to fill it with physical, social, and spiritual enrichment for the life of man, and to set it apart as eternally sacred, the day dedicated to Allah, and filled with happiness for man.
The holy Sabbath has marked off every week that has come and gone since that first one of creation. Noah obviously kept the Sabbath. (Genesis 7:4; 8:10) Allah said of Hazrat Abraham, “I know him, that he … shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” (Genesis 18.19) That includes keeping the Sabbath, for the prophet Isaiah makes it clear that keeping the Sabbath is an essential part of “justice and judgment”:
Keep ye judgment, and do justice … Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. (Isaiah 56:1, 2)
This means that our father Abraham was also a keeper of Allah’s holy Sabbath. And the covenant that he made with him included the keeping of the Sabbath, for he says “Abraham … obeyed my commandments”:
Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I … make joyful in my house of prayer. (Verses 6, 7; Genesis 26:5)
Since Abraham is “the father of all them that believe,” the keeping of Allah’s holy Sabbath is a part of true faith in him. And he gives the blessing of the Sabbath to non-Jews on the same basis that he gives non-Jews the gifts of sunshine and rain! The Sabbath is a precious gift for the whole world to enjoy. Says the Injil, “The Sabbath was made for man.” (Mark 2:28) It was made for everyone who inhabits the earth that Allah created in six days! It is a gift, a blessing; no one is to be deprived.
There is a special benefit connected with the Sabbath, for “God blessed the seventh day.” (Genesis 2:2) People can be blessed by him on any day of the week, for “he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust;” (Matthew 5:45)but there is a special benefit on the Sabbath day, a blessing which comes only with the Sabbath, the blessing of spiritual rest. It has not been placed on any other day and cannot be found anywhere else. Many do not know about it.
What is there in the Sabbath that is so wonderful?
It provides a link with the Creator so that our roots are firmly established in his covenant family. This produces within us a divinely imparted sense of self-worth; we did not just “happen.” We have been created and redeemed by Allah. We are not here because of chance but because of his direct choice. As sons and daughters of Abraham, we are included in the great covenant Allah made with him. Tragedies and sorrows may surround us, but we know that we are involved in his great plan for the redemption of this world.
This is included in the rest provided in the Sabbath day. It gives meaning to life; without it, the confusion and injustice in this world become unbearable to our human soul and conscience. The Sabbath is our insignia of membership in the covenant family of God, the proof that we are a part, though ever so small, of his great plan of redemption: “Keep my sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” (Ezekiel 20:20)
The Sabbath provides true rest for the soul. The word itself means rest. Allah worked six days and rested the seventh. Spiritual rest is delicious; for this reason, it is the Sabbath that imparts meaning to the other six days. The presence of his Spirit is in the day that he has “blessed” and “sanctified.”
He promised Moses (Musa), “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” (Genesis 33:14) Rest comes from enjoying the “presence” of God. He is unseen; and no temple made with hands can contain his holy presence. Hazrat Abraham was right to turn from the worship of all “seen” idols, to worship the one true unseen Allah. His true temple is not a thing of stone or of wood or of plaster. This is why his blessing of rest is in his holy Sabbath.
The Sabbath delivers us from the rat-race of self-seeking in a world of materialism. It provides “rest” from the pressure of selfishly trying to get ahead. The constant driving force of aggression, whether in school, business, politics, or social life, wears out our life forces. These are dehumanizing, demoralizing pressures; even modern advertising keeps us in a constant state of wanting something we don’t have. This can kill true happiness.
Just as Allah rested on the Sabbath, so he says, “In it thou shalt not do any work.” (Exodus 20:10) Although this is not an enforced rest, his commandment does deliver us from the slavery of our own inner compulsion to work to make more money. Thus the Sabbath commandment is liberation, providing freedom from ourselves, and from our oppressive environment. In obedience to Allah’s loving commandment, we do not work on his holy day. He adds:
If you keep your feet from breaking the sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable,and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,then you will find your joy in the Lord. (Isaiah 58:13, 14)
True wealth is spiritual, not materialistic. Both pauper and prince appear in the presence of God on the Sabbath, side by side. A wise writer has said, “The Sabbath teaches us to commune rather than to compete with one another.” There would be no wars if nations kept the Sabbath!
Sabbath-keeping reinforces our participation in the faith of Abraham. Allah said of him, “I know him.” He called Abraham his “friend,” and Allah made a special covenant with him that through his “seed,” Christ in particular, “shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 18:19; 12:2, 3; The Qur’an, 4:125) All who exercise Abraham’s faith share in this special privilege, and they live in a unique relationship to God.
By faith every Sabbath-keeper becomes a new “Abraham” with whom Allah renews the same covenant he made with “our father,” through whom “all families of the earth” are to be “blessed.” The Sabbath, one might say, becomes like the wire that carries the electricity of love and fidelity from heaven, bringing spiritual light and power to the homes of “all families of the earth.”
What Allah’s promise was to Abraham, the Sabbath is to us. His covenant constantly reminded the prophet of his princely rank in the eyes of heaven, that he was “somebody,” not just a faceless figure in the crowd. And so with us. Modern society demeans us six days a week, and we tend to think of ourselves as nobody special, nameless, purposeless, useless. But then comes the welcome Sabbath day, and we “live” again as princes and princesses in the sight of Allah. It’s true all the time, of course; but on that holy day our own faith is renewed to feel it and believe it ever more strongly. We “tune in” to heaven, for Allah’s presence is in his holy Sabbath.
The Sabbath is the day when all believers, regardless of race or social status, are on a level. God calls all to meet before him in worship on the Sabbath. Here is Psalm 92, which is entitled, “A song for the Sabbath day”:
It is good to praise the Lord And make music to Your name, O most High, to proclaim Your love in the morning and Your faithfulness at night …
For You make me glad by Your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of Your hands …
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon, planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.
On the Sabbath day, each believing heart is centred on God, not on self. It doesn’t matter how one’s neighbour is dressed, whether he is rich or poor, educated or uneducated, nor does it matter what colour he is. All rejoice in their place in the family of Allah, and love dominates every heart. What a delightful place this sick, hate-filled world would become if all kept the true Sabbath! It is a link that binds us not only to God, but also to one another. The Sabbath commandment also teaches us concern for our servants. (Exodus 20:8-11)
The Sabbath in a celebration of that great “‘ransom” that redeems Abraham’s son and all his descendants. Evil has brought terrible unrest to the world and to our own human hearts. The Sabbath is a symbol of rest from this evil, and of victory for truth, and love, and righteousness. It reminds us not only of the original Creation in the beginning, but also of a spiritual re-creation, of our redemption from an eternal grave.
Allah finished his work of creation on the sixth day, when he “saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) Thousands of years later, on the sixth day of Passover week, Jesus Christ cried out on his cross, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) The sacrifice of Jesus was the fulfilment of the symbolic meaning attached to the sacrifice of the ram that Abraham offered instead of his son.
Thus the Sabbath becomes the sign that it was Allah who redeemed Abraham. “I gave them my sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I am the Lord that made them holy.” (Ezekiel 20:11) We are not holy by nature — we need to be “made … holy.”
Allah’s way of making his people holy is this: “God … sent [Jesus] to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” (Acts 3:26) God blesses people, not because they are good or have made themselves good (no one can do that), but in order that they may become so. To be captive to iniquity is to be under a curse of slavery. Man must be turned away “from his iniquities.” Says the prophet David (Daud), “Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up.” (Psalm 40:12) Iniquity is the source of all the sorrow and guilt this sad world knows. Through the Sabbath, the Holy Spirit of God reminds us weekly that Allah “is gracious and full of compassion” and able to deliver us from our iniquities.
The Sabbath is the foretaste of eternal life in happiness. The book of Revelation says that there is a special feature that identifies the faithful: They “keep the commandments of God.” They “have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” (Revelation 12:17; 14:12; 22:14) That “‘city” is called the New Jerusalem, the true, eternal city of peace. We read that Abraham “was waiting for the city which God has designed and built, the city with permanent foundations.” (Hebrews 11:10) But he did not find it on earth! We will share with him the joy of inheriting it.
All who enter Paradise will be Sabbath-keepers:
“As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 66:22, 23)
Should we not, therefore, begin to “remember” and keep that holy day now? As true believers, we will make this happy and holy choice.
Suppose you were an alien in a foreign land, an exile from home and from all whom you hold dear. Would you not cherish the hope of reunion? And would you not be thankful for a telephone wire that connects you to your home, a vital link with your family?
The seventh-day Sabbath was kept in Eden; it was kept by Noah, by Abraham, by all his faithful descendants through the ages. It is kept today by millions around the world, including over 3 million Christians. It will be kept in that lovely New Earth that Allah has promised to create as the eternal home of his loved ones. And while we, like Abraham and his family, are “aliens and strangers on earth,” (Hebrews 11:13) it is a link that binds us to Allah and his heaven. Will you keep and cherish it?