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Gharqad

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The term Gharqad (Arabic: غرقد) is used in some Islamic hadith segments to describe a tree which according to Sunni Islamic eschatology, will protect the Jews fighting against Muslims on the time of a great war at the end times, specifically after the second coming of Jesus according to Islam.

The actual tree is identified with either the genus Nitraria[1][2] or the genus Lycium.[3][4]

Sunni Islamic sources

In Sunni tradition it was narrated that Muhammad said:[5]

The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

Narrations that include mentioning of the Gharqad tree, are:

Narrations that do not mention the Gharqad tree, rather, only mention stones talking or also trees talking, are:

Sunni Islamic interpretation

Within Sunni Islam, these narrations are understood as part of Sunni eschatology's description of a great war at the end times against the forces of Dajjal which should occur after the second coming Jesus according to Islam. Then, according to this eschatology, Jesus will lead an army of Muslims, some of whom are righteous Christians and righteous Jews converting to Islam in the eve of the battle, to fight the army of Dajjal consisted of Jews beleving Dajjal is a god, and if a Jew of Dajjal's army hides behind a stone or a tree, this stone or tree will miraculously talk to a Muslims to expose him unless it's a Gharqad tree, because its "their tree".[7][8]

Sunni moderate writers debate the subject in pedantic eschatological terms, emphasizing that this should happen only in the end times after the second coming of Jesus in accordance to Sunni thought and should not damage current Islamic-Jewish relations.[9][10]

According to one Sunni interpretation, Dajjal's army will not be consisted only of evil Jews but also of evil Christians and evil Muslims believing Dajjal is a god, fighting as soldiers and not as civilians.[7] This specific interpretation was criticized for not referring to Jews alone, while the author noted that "No one disputes that this relates to future events and not to our time".[11]

The general message of the text is often alleged as a prophecy but it does not appear in the Quran, which is considered by Muslims to be the godly revelation to Muhammad.
According to Memri TV, Qadhi described this text as referring to an end times war which is "a fight between good and evil"[12] and that the text is "predictive and not prescriptive".[12]

Non-Sunni Islam

Not all Muslims accept all hadith as reliable and may conclude somewhat different eschatology; most Shia Muslims reject Sunni hadith as unreliable and have their own hadith such as The Four Books. While according to Karimov, Zaydi Shia may hold Sunni hadiths with high esteem[13][better source needed], Zaydis have their own main Hadith traditions.[14] While some Ibadi Muslims do not consider Sunni Hadith as reliable and rely on Tartib al-Musnad, Hoffman noted that contemporary Ibadis often approve of the standard Sunni collections.[15]

Dajani Daoudi concluded that by comprehensive review of the Quran, no such hadith would exist since it openly contradicts Islamic faith and that Muslims believe a hadith is the word of man while the Quran is the word of God.[16] Dajani Daoudi added that "this hadith" (that which he quoted) was collected 150 years after the death of Muhammad, that the authenticity of such a hadith is disputed and that this particular hadith has become controversial for promoting anti-Jewish sentiments among Muslims.[17]

Critical assessment

Insignificance of the tree in Judaism

Neither Nitraria nor Lycium have any sanctity in Judaism; they are not one of the four species of Sukkot, they are not one of the Seven Species of the Land of Israel and they are not one of the incense plants of the Torah; they are also not being used for Havdalah and there is no Jewish tradition of eating their fruits in Tu BiShvat.

Fundamentalism around the concept

According to Freyer Stowasser,[18] modernist, deconstructionist approach to the apocalyptic hadith remains largely unacceptable to the traditionalists among the Sunni clerical establishment.

The narratives on the Dajjal’s end time reign and ultimate defeat were unreliable because of: questionable origin and transmitters, weak chains of hadith authentication, internal contradictions on this topic within the hadith corpus as a whole (that invalidate all of its parts), and the fact that these narratives contradict the Qur’anic text

Possible use in incitement

The Gharqad narrations are often quoted alongside faulty generalizations to cause incitement against Jews[19] such as that all Jews anywhere, anytime are "Killers of prophets", "greedy", "arrogant" or "Enemies of god" and alike ("Enemies of humanity before they are enemies of Muslims"[19]), without considering that people of Jewish ancestry have free will to choose a religion or irreligion, may not practice Judaism (rather, another religion or no religion, without self definition as "enemies" of anything), or without an accuser's attempt to understand various different and conflicting Israelite or Jewish perspectives (Pharisees, Sadducees, Rabbanites, Karaites, Reforms and others) on religious issues, or without considering peaceful interpretations of scripture or tolerance, as common in cases of incitement[19] caused by extremist radicals, most often fueled by political conflicts.[19][20]

The claim that Israelis plant Gharqad trees

Some Sunni extremist radicals who strongly oppose the State of Israel have sprung a myth according to which Israeli Jews are planting millions of Gharqad trees all over Palestine in preparation for a dire war,[21][22] although this is evidently false as Forests planted by Israeli authorities are typically made of Pine and Cypress with around 240 million Pine and Cypress trees planted.[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Olive is planted to a lesser extent[31] and anything named "Gharqad" isn't planted at all.

See also

Notes

References

  1. ^ florainisrael.com, Nitraria retusa, Nitraria tridentata, Salt tree, Hebrew: ימלוח פגום, Arabic: دقرغ/قدرغ.
  2. ^ gerloff.co.il, ‘Gharqad’, the Tree of the Jews.
  3. ^ Oman Med J. 2016 Jul; 31(4): 245–252., doi: 10.5001/omj.2016.49, by Madhu. C. Divakar,*Amani Al-Siyabi, Shirley. S. Varghese, and Mohammed Al Rubaie, The Practice of Ethnomedicine in the Northern and Southern Provinces of Oman
  4. ^ Denis, Ojalvo, salom.com, The Jewish Tree ‘Gharqad’,09.15.15
  5. ^ According to sunnah.com, it is narrated by Abu Huraira in Sahih Muslim 2922 (Book 54, Hadith 103 ; Book 41, Hadith 6985).
  6. ^ There is a similar version allegedly narrated by Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman mentioned in Aqeedah of Ahlus-Sunnah Wal Jamaa'ah hadith number 21 according to which "In this way God will cause the Jews to be annihilated and Muslims shall be the victors. They (the Muslims) will break the Cross, slaughter the swine and abolish Jizya".
  7. ^ a b Yaqeen institute of Islamic research, The Myth of An Antisemitic Genocide In Muslim Scripture, by Omar Suleiman, Nazir Khan and Justin Parrot, 2017.
  8. ^ quran.com ; tafsir Ibn-Kathir or Surah An-Nisa..
  9. ^ In the battle between the Jews and the Muslims at the end of time, the aggressors will be the Jews
  10. ^ Hadith of Gharqad Tree: A good deed to kill Jews in Islam?, By Abu Amina Elias, February 27, 2013
  11. ^ Abu Talut Haytham Al Sayfaddin A Reply To The Myth Of An Antisemetic Genocide In Muslim Scripture, 2018-11-02, P. 14 and P. 49 | deleted after being archived.
  12. ^ a b Memri TV, American Islamic Scholar Sheikh Yasir Qadhi Defends Antisemitic Comments: MEMRI Jumps on Any Preacher Who Quotes Hadith about the Trees and the Rocks, But the Killing of Jews Is Prediction, Not Prescription; Muslims Cannot Be Antisemites, Aug 31, 2019
  13. ^ Karimov, N.R., 2019. SOME BRIEF INFORMATION ON AL-SIHAH AL-SITTA. Theoretical & Applied Science, (5), pp.611-620.
  14. ^ twelvershia.net, The Zaidi Dilemma: Shia Hadith Sources, March 7, 2019
  15. ^ Hoffman, Valerie Jon (2012). The Essentials of Ibadi Islam. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. p. 3-4. ISBN 9780815650843.
  16. ^ Fikra Forum, On the Significance of Dialogue, by Mohammed Dajani, May 13, 2016
  17. ^ Fikra Forum, Dealing with Hate Sermons, Mohammed Dajani, Sep 5, 2017
  18. ^ The End is Near: Minor and Major Signs of the Hour in Islamic Texts and Contexts, Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Georgetown University
  19. ^ a b c d University of Baltimore Law, Incitement in the Mosques: Testing the Limits of Free Speech and Religious Liberty, by Kenneth Lasson
  20. ^ Michael Edison Hayden, Newsweek90, Three U.S. Imams have Called for Death of Jews Since Trump's Jerusalem Announcement, 01.10.18
  21. ^ Oxford Academic, The Gharqad Tree, by Anne Marie Oliver, Paul F. Steinberg, April 2006, pages 20-24, https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305593.003.0007.
  22. ^ Christians for Israel International, Johannes Gerloff, ‘Gharqad’, the Tree of the Jews, 23 August 2021.
  23. ^ The Jerusalem Post, How planting a tree in Israel became controversial, By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ/JTA Published: JANUARY 14, 2022 03:34.
  24. ^ USDA, Biodiversity of wood-inhabiting fungi in Israeli pine forests, by D.L.L. Czederpiltz, K. Wikler, M.R. Radmacher, T.J. Volk, Y. Hadar, J. Micales, 2004
  25. ^ Journal for Nature Conservation, Volume 14, Issues 3–4, 20 September 2006, Pages 207-216, Restoring biodiversity to pine afforestations in Israel, by Paul Ginsberg.
  26. ^ Fred Pearce, In Israel, Questions Are Raised about a Forest that Rises from the Desert, Yale Environment 360, Published at the Yale School of the Environment, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019
  27. ^ https://natureisrael.org/, Don't Plant Any Tree in Israel
  28. ^ https://magazine.isees.org.il/?p=42453
  29. ^ אקו-ויקי, מדבריות האורן
  30. ^ The Ask Project, by Corey Gil-Shuster, Israelis: Are you planting the Gharqad tree?
  31. ^ Tomer Dekel, "Haaretz", Why Israel's Choice for National Tree Is So Destructive, Feb 19, 2021.
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