“Whosoever goes out in search of knowledge is in the path of Allah until he returns” (Hadith of Rasulullah).
“Those who believe and mix not up their faith with iniquity—for them is security and they go aright” (The Qur’an, 6:83, Tr. by Maulana Muhammad Ali).
Both the Bible and honoured Qur’an speak of only one day of the week as holy: the Sabbath, the seventh day. God always commanded his people to rest on that day. When he led his people out of Egyptian slavery, he worked a mighty miracle to feed them in the desert — he sent “bread from heaven,” the manna, six days a week. On each sixth day he sent a double portion, but none on the Sabbath day. This is how he reminded them continually for forty years about the Sabbath commandment:
On the sixth day, … Moses … said to them: “This is what the Lord commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord.’” …
Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you [the people] refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days.” … So the people rested on the seventh day. (Exodus 16:22-30)
From this we learn that anyone who goes out to work on the seventh day “to gather,” or to earn his living, is counted by Allah as one who refuses to keep his commands and instructions!
The honoured Qur’an speaks of how God gave his people the Sabbath commandment at Mount Sinai:
We caused the mount to tower above them at their covenant. We bade them enter the gate, prostrating, and We bade them transgress not the Sabbath. And we took from them a solemn covenant. (The Qur’an, 4:154)
Those who remembered this covenant, and followed it were counted by God as his faithful people who had surrendered to him. But not everyone remembered:
Then because of their breaking of the covenant, and their disbelieving in the signs of Allah, and their slaying of the prophets wrongfully, and their saying, “Our hearts are hardened.” Nay, but God has set a seal upon them for their disbelief, so that they believe not, save a few. (The Qur’an, 4:155)
What is that “seal” that Allah set upon them? A “seal” or “sign” gives the title, the authority, and the territory of a ruler who makes a law. God’s “seal” or “sign” is contained in his holy Law of ten commandments. The fourth, his Sabbath command, proclaims his holy name (Allah), his title (that of Creator), and his territory (the heavens and the earth). No other command provides this “seal.” And there is no place in all the universe for any other god!
Speaking further of the Sabbath, the same text in the Qur’an adds: “We made it an example to their own and to succeeding generations, and an admonition to the God-fearing.” We can see from this that the seventh-day Sabbath is not only for the Jews, but for all “God-fearing” people around the world.
The reason for this is that the Sabbath is the memorial of God’s original work of creation:
Your Lord is Allah who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then sat Himself upon the throne. He covers the night with the day, which is in haste to follow it … His, verily, is all creation and the commandment. Blessed be Allah, the Lord of the worlds. (The Qur’an, 7:54)
The honoured Qur’an further requires us to commemorate the Lord’s seventh-day Sabbath, the memorial of creation:
Allah is He Who created the heavens and earth and that which is between them in six days, then seated Himself upon the throne. … Will you not then remember? (The Qur’an, 32:4)
This is what Allah says in the fourth of the ten commandments: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8) The Sabbath is God’s gift of love and compassion to every human soul.
Jesus upheld the seventh-day Sabbath. Some mistakenly assume that he broke it down, but he broke down only the man-made customs and restrictions which the Jews had erected around the Sabbath commandments. For example, they said it was wrong to carry a handkerchief in your pocket on the Sabbath, as that would be carrying a “burden.” But you could pin it on the outside of your garment! Jesus abolished all these senseless restrictions, but he retained the God-given gift of the Sabbath: “The Son of Man,” he said “is Lord of the Sabbath.” When instructing his followers what they should do forty years later when Jerusalem should be destroyed, he said, “Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. “ He himself completed his work of redemption on the sixth day, and rested on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:8; 24:20) Thus the sacrificial sufferings of Jesus on the cross constitute a second hallowing of the Sabbath day. Allah had underscored the importance of the observance of his holy day!
His followers continued to observe the Sabbath after his crucifixion. The account in the Injil is very clear, so that we can easily understand which day is the true seventh day which God says is holy:
There was a man named Joseph from Arimathea … He went into the presence of Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took the body down, wrapped it in a linen sheet, and placed it in a tomb which had been dug out of solid rock and which had never been used. It was Friday, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
The women who had followed Jesus from Galilee went with Joseph and saw the tomb and how Jesus’ body was placed in it. Then they went back home and prepared the spices and perfumes for the body.
On the Sabbath they rested, as the Law commanded.
Very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared. … But they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. … Two men in bright shining clothes … said to them, “ … he is not here; he has been raised.” (Luke 23:50-56; 24:1-6)
Even a child can easily see from this that the true Sabbath is the day that comes between Friday and Sun-day. Many Christians who do not keep Allah’s Sabbath confess that this is true, for they observe “Good Friday” in honour of the crucifixion of Christ, and Easter Sunday in honour of his resurrection. The Holy Bible, however, nowhere commands the observance of any day in honour of either of these two events. The true memorial which Jesus appointed is baptism by immersion, which signifies his death, burial, and resurrection.
The apostles of Jesus continued to observe the Sabbath. For example, Paul the apostle is mentioned as keeping the Sabbath regularly for a year and a half at the Gentile city of Corinth:
Paul … earned his living by making tents. … He held discussions in the synagogue every Sabbath, trying to convince both Jews and Greeks. … So Paul stayed there for a year and a half, teaching the people the word of God. (Acts 18:3, 4, 11)
In fact, the apostle’s first convert in Europe (Macedonia, Greece) was baptized on a Sabbath day. (Acts 16:13-15) We read of meetings the apostles held for the Gentiles: “The next Sabbath nearly everyone in the town came to hear the word of the Lord.” In the message he preached that day, Paul declared: “This is the commandment that the Lord has given us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, so that all the world may be saved.’” (Acts 13:44, 47) The apostles understood that Allah’s Sabbath is for all men.
The special Letter to the Hebrews, written decades after the time of Jesus, declares: “There still remains for God’s people a rest like God’s resting on the seventh day.” (Hebrews 4:9) The apostle John tells us that the Lord honoured him with a heavenly vision “on the Lord’s day.” (Revelation 1:10) The only day that Allah ever claimed for himself is the Sabbath, the seventh day. Jews who understood the truth always knew that the Sabbath was not their exclusive possession, but was for the Gentile world as well. The prophet Isaiah said:
Foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant — these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. (Isaiah 56:6, 7)
Since there is not a word in the entire Bible which supports or even mentions the observance of Sunday in place of the Sabbath, the question naturally arises: Why do so many people observe Sunday?
The story is an interesting one.
Sunday-keeping as a Christian observance began after the time of Christ. As late as A.D. 450, Socrates Scholasticus, a church historian, said:
For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.
The change began at Rome and Alexandria! But it was not with God’s command.
It is a fundamental truth of genuine religion that it is supernaturally revealed by God himself. Not a trace of false worship is included in it; and man’s own wisdom has no right to take away God’s plain requirements, and to substitute those of men. God is infinitely wise; he does not change his commandments. But somebody else has tried to do so!
The great prophet Daniel was given several visions that revealed the rise of a power that would try to corrupt, distort, and if possible destroy, the truth about God, while making a pretense of worshiping him. If you have ever tried to put a jig-saw puzzle together, you know how frustrating it is to be short of a vital piece that completes the picture. The world is like a jigsaw puzzle, in that it appears to be topsy-turvy, especially as regards religion, the very element that mankind needs the most. Daniel’s visions supply the missing part of the puzzle: they explain why there is so much confusion and contradiction, even idolatry, in what professes to be true faith, but is not.
In chapter 2 of his prophecy, Daniel explains the prophetic dream of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon — an image with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, thighs of brass or bronze, and legs of iron. Like a master artist painting a picture on a canvas with a few skillful strokes, Daniel tells how the head of gold represents Babylon; the silver, the Medo-Persian empire; the brass, the Grecian; the iron, Rome. The feet were of iron and clay mixed, symbolizing how the nations that emerged from the ruins of the Roman Empire were never again able to join themselves together as one empire. (Daniel 2:36-45)
In chapter 7 of his prophecy, Daniel tells how he saw four beasts come up out of the sea, symbolizing these same four world empires. But this time he saw a further detail: ten horns on the head of the fourth beast symbolized the rise of ten nations that would emerge from the fallen Roman Empire. Then he watched with amazement as a new world power came on the scene — a “little horn” that spoke “great words against the most High,” and persecuted his saints and thought “to change times and laws.” Further, this new religious power was to continue in political dominance for a total period of 1,260 years. (Daniel 2; 7:22-25; Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6)
Like a wise detective uncovering the details of a mysterious crime, Allah’s inspired prophecy in Daniel goes on to disclose the most amazing counterfeit ring of all history. It centres in the professed followers of Jesus! Still more important details were disclosed in the vision that Daniel describes in chapter 8: the pagan Roman Empire and this new religious power are fused together in one symbol — a “little horn” that “magnified himself even to the prince of the host,” and “cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.” “And his power shall be mighty. … He shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.” (Daniel 8:11-25)
Daniel was stunned. Here was the most clever and powerful organization opposed to God’s truth that the world had ever seen! It was more deceptive and devastating than even ancient pagan idolatry had been.
In ancient times before some people knew how to read or write, they would break a stone in two and use its two halves as a token of genuineness. A messenger could identify himself as a true representative of his master by bringing the other half of the broken stone — the two sides would fit perfectly, whereas it was impossible for any other broken stone to fit. The prophecies given by Allah in Daniel are one half of a broken stone; the developments of history are the other half.
This great power foretold by Daniel professed tofollow the teachings of Jesus, but in fact perverted them. For many centuries, this great power has so misrepresented Jesus that many sincere, honest people have been turned against the true revelation. It has become Satan’s masterpiece of deception, and not a few, but hundreds of millions have been misled very seriously. He has succeeded in making them misunderstand true faith.
Jesus said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20) But priests, prelates, cardinals, and popes have revelled in magnificent wealth.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Put your sword back in its place. … All who take the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) But false followers of Jesus have taken part in many wars that were contrary to the spirit of Jesus. The terrible Crusades of the Dark Ages are an example.
When his disciples complained, “Master, we saw a man driving out demons in your name, and we told him to stop, because he doesn’t belong to our group,” Jesus replied, “Do not try to stop him, . . . because whoever is not against you is for you.” (Luke 9:49, 50) But misguided people have persecuted and even put to death millions on the charge of “heresy,” because they didn’t belong to their own “group.”
Jesus said to all, “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.” (Matthew 11:29) But Daniel’s “little horn” power is proud and arrogant, while it professes the name of Christ. There are many other strange contradictions that have caused unnecessary misunderstanding and opposition to Jesus.
This power arose out of the wreckage of the pagan Roman Empire. A well-known historian says:
Another consequence of the fall of the Roman power in the west was the development of the Papacy. In the absence of an emperor in the West, the Popes rapidly gained influence and power, and soon built up an ecclesiastical empire that in some respects took the place of the old empire and carried on its civilizing work.
The Roman emperor had moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople (now Istanbul). The Bishop of Rome gradually acquired civil authority in the West. This is how the Papacy began as a political-religious power. But this was not the work of Jesus’ true followers!
Daniel’s prophecy in chapter 7 specified that the “little horn” would uproot three nations in its rise to power. History records that the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths were indeed uprooted in the wars that preceded the assumption of universal authority by the Papacy in A.D. 538. (Daniel 7:8, 24, 25)
Daniel said this “little horn” would “speak great words against the most High.” It is perplexing to read words like these published in a standard Roman Catholic authority:
The pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not mere man, but as it were God, and the vicar of God. … The power of the Roman pontiff by no means pertains only to heavenly things, to earthly things and to things under the earth, but even over angels, than whom his is greater. … The pope is as it were God on earth.
As late as 1894, Pope Leo XIII said, “We hold on this earth the place of God Almighty.” Yet Allah never gave any human person such authority!
Daniel prophesied that this power would attempt to “change times and laws” — the eternal, divine law. There are two ways in which the Papacy has strikingly fulfilled this prophecy:
(1) In Catechisms printed for the instruction of their converts, Roman Catholics have omitted the second commandment which says:
Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. Do not bow down to any idol or worship it. (Exodus 20:4, 5)
It is a well-known fact that Roman Catholics bow down to images; the images can be seen in any of their churches. This departure from the clear teachings of God’s holy Law is apostasy. And it was against such false worship that the Prophet Muhammad long ago protested.
(2) Sunday-keeping was adopted by the Papacy in an effort to do away with God’s holy Sabbath. Let us read a modern Roman Catholic priest’s boast:
Nothing is said in the Bible about the change of the Lord’s day from Saturday to Sunday. We know of the change only from the tradition of the [Roman] Church — a fact handed down to us from earliest times by the living voice of the [Roman] Church. That is why we find so illogical the attitude of many non-Catholics, who say that they will believe nothing unless they can find it in the Bible and yet will continue to keep Sunday as the Lord’s day on the say-so of the Catholic Church.
An officially approved catechism declares:
Question: Have you any other way of proving that the [Roman] Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her, — she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.
Indeed, this change is completely without God’s approval!
In the 16th century after Christ large segments of the Catholic Church broke away in a movement which is called the Protestant Reformation. It was an attempt to abandon man-made rules and doctrines and to return to the pure teachings of the Word of God. The Reformers, however, had been so long immersed in the midnight blackness of the Dark Ages that they were unable in their day to perceive all the light that shines from the Word of God. As a result, they carried with them many of the false teachings of the Papacy. One of them was Sunday-keeping. This is why nearly all Protestants also observe the first day of the week instead of the true Sabbath that Allah “made for man” in the beginning.
As we have seen, the holy Sabbath is the “sign” or “seal” that he places on his peop1e. (Ezekiel 20:12, 20) Where the truth of his holy Law, including his Sabbath, is denied or contradicted, other important truths are likewise denied or abandoned. As the entire world moves to its climax of history, Sunday-keeping will become increasingly the “sign” or “seal” or “mark” of allegiance to a religious power that is opposed to the truths of the divine Word. (Revelation 13:16)
Because this “little horn” assumes the name of Christian, it has deceived many millions, and turned many other millions away from the pure truths of God’s Injil. But no one need be deceived.
Most nations are plagued with skillful counterfeiters who know how to “make” money which closely resembles the genuine notes put out by the government treasury. We all need to be on constant guard against counterfeit money. But would it not be foolish for us to say, “Because there is counterfeit money in existence, I refuse to have anything to do with any genuine money for ever”? If we took such an extreme position, we would starve, and be unable to buy or sell anything at all.
Through the ages there always has been a “remnant” who still kept the true Sabbath and worshiped in a true, pure way. We find historical evidences of them in Italy, France, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, Armenia, and Ethiopia. The “little horn” did indeed “speak great words against the most High,” and sought to persecute “the saints of the most High,” but he never succeeded in completely extinguishing the light of truth. That torch still burns today!
Millions of true, believing people in most nations of the earth still observe the seventh-day Sabbath every week, meeting to worship God as he has commanded. Some are known as Seventh-day Adventists. Often they have to meet the same opposition that God’s people have had to endure for thousands of years; but God gives them grace to be loyal to his truth. As the book of Hebrews assures us, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.” (Hebrews 4:9)
The honoured Qur’an commands us to follow the guidance of the holy prophets. They all kept the seventh-day Sabbath; surely all true believers should “remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8)
A careful reading of the honoured Qur’an reveals that there is no command to keep holy any other day than the seventh-day Sabbath. Tradition is not of sufficient weight to displace a definite command of Allah. The Qur’an says:
Yet among mankind, there is such a one who disputes concerning Allah without knowledge or guidance or a Scripture giving light. And when it is said to them, “Follow what God has revealed,” they say, “No, but we will follow such things as we found our fathers doing.” What! Even though Satan were calling them to the doom of the flame? (The Qur’an, 31:20, 21)
Our “father” Abraham was tested in the same way that we are being tested today. Would he follow the traditions of his fathers and neighbours, and worship idols? Or would he follow the clear teachings of God? We praise Allah that he found in Hazrat Abraham one of whom he could say, “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord.” (Genesis 18:19)
Will you also be one of those who will walk in his steps of loyalty to Allah, and “keep the way of the Lord”?