The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 586
CH. 17 R. 7. BANI ISRĀ'ĪL PT. 15 وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَكَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ And remember the time. 62 when We said to the angels, فَسَجَدُوا إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ قَالَ وَاسْجُدُ لِمَنْ Submit to Adam, and they all "2:35; 7:12; 15:30-31; 18:51; 20:117; 38:73-75. The signs of these impending the Jewish Faith, lends further disasters are already in evidence support to the assumption that by everywhere in the world. They will (cursed tree) is meant the be followed by conditions favourable to the general and widespread acceptance and expansion of Islam. Commentators of the Quran have greatly differed as to what the expression (the accursed tree) means. According to some of them it means (evil tree) mentioned in 14:27. The word (evil) meaning a thing devoid of all good is synonymous with (accursed) which means, far removed from good. But the word as shown under Important Words, also means, a family. According to this meaning of the word the expression appears to apply more الشجرة الملعونة appropriately to a people—the Jewish people who have been repeatedly mentioned in the Quran as having been cursed by God (5:14, 61, 65, 79). The curse of God has dogged the footsteps of these unfortunate people from the time of the Prophet David right down to the present time. This interpretation of the expression finds additional support from the fact that the present Surah particularly deals with the Israelites as its very name, Bani Isrā'il, suggests. The fact that the verse begins with a mention of the Vision in which the Holy Prophet saw himself leading the Israelite Prophets in Prayers in Jerusalem, the Centre of 1794 Jewish people. The verse speaks both of "the vision" and the Jewish people (the accursed tree) to whom that Vision specially refers as "a trial for men". The Jews have, throughout the ages, proved a source of much misery and distress for mankind, particularly for Muslims, under whose benign rule they have enjoyed more freedom and security than under any other people. The two World Wars have been the result directly or indirectly of the plots and machinations of the Jews. They led an organized opposition to the German people in the First Great War and the Second Great War was also the result of their widespread and highly organized propaganda against Hitler. In the Russian Revolution which, too, forms a part of the Divine punishment (v. 59) the Jews took a prominent part and some of its foremost leaders are Jews by blood. The Jewish machinations have now extended to Palestine and have turned this "land of the Prophets" into a veritable hot-bed of intrigue, murder and arson. But all their intrigues and efforts to go back to, and take possession of, Palestine, will meet with only temporary success because this country has been divinely decreed to remain in Muslim hands.