Nitraria retusa

Nitraria schoberi

Lycium shawii

Lycium schweinfurthii

Some candidates for the gharqad tree.

In Islam, the gharqad (Arabic: غرقد) tree has a specific role in some Hadiths that pertains to Islamic eschatology, long before the modern era as well as following the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. In the former case, an apocalyptic battle known as al-Malhamat al-Kubra is prophesied to occur shortly prior to Judgement Day. This conflict will take place after al-Masih ad-Dajjal falsely presents himself as the Mahdi; this false Mahdi will be followed primarily by the Jewish people. The actual Mahdi will lead a Muslim army against Dajjal and his followers, the Jews, until the Second Coming of Jesus, after which the Dajjal will be killed.^[1] According to a hadith attributed to Abu Huraira, one of Muhammad's companions, all stones and trees except for the gharqad tree will speak to reveal the location of any Jews taking cover during the war with the Muslims.^[2]

The latter, more modern context, is likely derivative of Hadiths. It is well-known due to a particular passage in the 1988 founding charter of Hamas, Article 17. The so called gharqad tree is the only tree that will protect Jews from Muslims; every other tree will whisper to Muslims that there is a Jew hiding behind it, and for Muslims to kill the Jew.

The actual tree is identified with either the genus Nitraria^[3] or the genus Lycium,^[4][5] though neither of these have any significance in Judaism.

In Sunni Islam

Hadith

In Sunni tradition, Abu Huraira reported that the Islamic prophet Muhammad said:^[2]

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: "Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah!, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!" – But the tree Gharqad will not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

Narrations that mention the Gharqad tree are:

• Sahih Muslim, 41:2922 (quoted above)
• Sahih Muslim 41:6984
• Sahih Muslim 41:6985
• Sunan ibn Majah, 36:152

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

• Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:56:791
• Sahih Al-Bukhari 4:52:177
• Sahih Muslim 41:6981
• Sahih Muslim 41:6982
• Sahih Muslim 41:6983
• Another narration.^[specify][6]

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 believing 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 Muslims to expose him unless it is a Gharqad tree, because it is "their tree".^[7][8]

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

According to one Sunni interpretation, Dajjal's army will not consist 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 Muslims believe is Allah's 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]

Other Islamic sects

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] 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 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 anti-semitic 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]

Conspiracy

In the modern era, particularly in the context of the Arab–Israeli conflict, a number of Muslim scholars have subscribed to a hoax asserting that millions of these gharqad trees are being planted throughout Israel in preparation for the prophesied arrival of the Dajjal and the apocalyptic Jewish–Muslim war.^[21][22]

Belief that Israelis are planting gharqad trees

Some Sunni Islamists who strongly advocate for the destruction of Israel have sprung a myth asserting that Israeli Jews are planting millions of gharqad trees all over Israel 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 such trees planted.^{[23][24][25][26][27][28]} Olive trees are planted to a lesser extent, but none of the Lycium or Nitraria are cultivated.

See also

• Antisemitism in Islam
  • Uzair
• Islam and violence

External links

• Syrian Islamic Scholar Abdul Nafee Al-Rifai: Jerusalem Municipality Made It Mandatory To Plant Gharqad Trees In People's Gardens In Order To Protect The Jews From The Muslims On Judgement Day

Notes

References