162 • ChAPTEr 4
the integration of contemporary european biblical scholarship’s claims
into traditional Islamic anti- Jewish polemics is a phenomenon we also
encountered in al- Khalidi’s “as- Sayūnīzm.” like al- Khalidi’s (gener-
ally more subtle) critique of Judaism and the torah, rida’s assault
progresses from what he considers to be the dubious provenance of
the torah to the book’s contents and lacunae. “In the books that the
Jews possess,” alleges rida, “there is neither promise nor threat of the
afterlife [al-ākhira].” rather, the implications of actions in the Jews’
scripture are confined to “wealth, fertility, and rule over the land”;
punishment, in turn, is limited to the loss of these blessings and “the
rule of the nations over them.” al- Khalidi, we recall, notes precisely
this same alleged absence in the torah of a discussion of the afterlife.
For al- Khalidi, in his work on Zionism, the implication of this absence
was clear: the Zionist movement was all the more to be feared, and ac-
tively opposed, given the fact that the this- worldly possession of pales-
tine was the ultimate religious aim of Jews. rida, who was engaged in
a different sort of project in his Qurʾanic commentary, does not imme-
diately link this claim with Zionism (though, as we shall see, Zionism
was indeed on his mind). at this point, however, rida’s interest is in
a more basic Jewish- Islamic polemic. Islam, he explains, teaches that
“every prophet commanded belief in the Last Day.”^95 Given this Islamic
maxim, rida supposes that the original torah also actually included
such a belief, but that it was “neglected and forgotten” and thus did not
find its way into the contemporary, flawed Torah of the Jews.
Pondering the Prospects of ZionismThough rida generally focuses his exegesis on elucidating Qurʾanic
passages, contemporary events and problems of his day are often per-
ceptible just beneath the surface. Zionism was one such phenomenon
that caught rida’s attention and occupied his interest even as he com-
mented on the Qurʾan. In January 1908, after claiming that Jews no
longer experience shame (adh- dhilla) in the lands of Islam, rida asks
about the other term of castigation that the Qurʾan (Q. 3:112) attaches
to the Jews: al-maskana, “destitution.” “Might the maskana ever dis-
appear from them [the Jews]?” he asks. “Might they, one day, have
power and sovereignty?” rida contends that this question of the poten-
tial for Jews to return to power is a complex one.
In setting out to answer the question, rida begins “from a religious
perspective” and explains how Jews, Christians, and Muslims think
(^95) al-Manār 10:2 (april 1907), 84.