Mishnah: Means repetition in Hebrew. It is the first book in which the oral commandments have been formed into canons. According to Judaism, when Allâhu ta’âlâ gave Mûsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ the Taurah (Written Commandments) on the mount of Tûr (Sinai), He also dictated His (Oral Commandments) to him. And Mûsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ intimated these pieces of knowledge to Hârûn (Aaron), Yûshâ (Joshua) and Eliâzâr ‘alaihimus-salâm’. And they, in their turn, communicated them to Prophets succeeding them. Eliâzâr is the son of Shu’ayb (Jethro) ‘alaihis-salâm’ [Mir’ât-i-kâinât]. It is written in (Munjid) that Jews call Uzeyr ‘alaihis-salâm’ Azrâ (Ezra, or Esdras according to Apocrypha).
These pieces of information were conveyed from one generation of rabbis to another. Various books of Mishnah were written in 538 B.C. and A.D. 70. Jewish customs, canonical institutions, debates between rabbis and their personal views were inserted into these books. Thus the Mishnahs became books telling about the personal opinions of rabbis and the discussions among them.
Akiba, a Jewish rabbi, collected and classified them. His disciple, Rabbi Meir, made additions to them and simplified them. The rabbis succeeding them adopted various methods and rules for the compilation of these narratives. Thus very many narratives and books appeared. Eventually, these confusions reached the Holy Yahûda (Judah ha-Nasi). In order to put an end to these turmoils, Judah wrote the most commonly sanctioned one of these books in the second century of the Christian era. Utilizing the existing versions, especially the version written by Meir, Judah compiled a book in forty years. This book was the final and the most famous (Mishnah), which was a compilation of the others.
Early Talmudic sages who lived in the first and second centuries of the Christian era and whose views are written in Mishnah are called Tanna (pl. Tannaim), which means (Teacher). Judah was one of the last teachers. They are called Judges, too. Rabbis who took part in the compilation of (Gemara) are called (Amoraim), which means (Commentators). They are not entitled to dispute against the views of the Teachers (Tannaim); they are only interpreters. Those who made amendments or additions to Talmud were called (Saboraim), which means (sages or debaters). Of the commentators and interpreters of Talmud, those rabbis who presided over the Judaic Councils are called (Geonim), which means Sanctioners. Those who were not presidents of the Councils were called (Posekim), which means Decision Makers or Preferers.
Rabbis succeeding Judah made additions and commentaries to Mishnah. The language of Mishnah is Neo Hebrew, which evinces Greek and Latin characteristics.
The purpose in the writing of Mishnah was to promulgate the Oral Commandments, which were complementary to the Taurah, which was accepted as the source of Written Commandments. Afterwards, pieces of information that Judah did not include in the Mishnah he wrote, but which were contained in the Mishnahs written by the other rabbis, were compiled in the name Additions (Tosefta).
Language used in the books called Mishnah is simpler than that of the Taurah, and differ much both in vocabulary and in their syntactical fashions. Commandments are presented in forms of general rules. Engrossing examples are given. From time to time you come upon factual events in them. In the introduction of commandments, Pentateuchal verses are given as sources. Mishnah is composed of six parts: 1- Zerâim (Seeds); 2- Moed (Sacred days, e.g. days of feast and fast); 3- Nashim (Women); 4- Nezikin (Harms); 5- Kedoshim (Sacred things); 6- Tehera (Tahârat, cleanliness). These parts have been distributed into sixty-three booklets, which, in their turn, were divided into statements.
Gemara: Jews had two important religious schools: one in Palestine, and the other in Babylon. In these schools, rabbis called Amoraim (Commentators) tried to explain Mishnah, to rectify contradictions, to search for sources for the rules which were laid, being based on customs and traditions, and to make decisions on factual and theoretical matters. The commentary made by the Babylonian rabbis was called the (Babylonian Gemara). This book was written together with Mishnah, and the book thus formed was called the (Babylonian Talmud). The commentary made by the rabbis in Jerusalem was called the (Gemara of Jerusalem). This Gemara, too, was written together with Mishnah, and the outcome was the book called the (Talmud of Jerusalem), or the (Palestinian Talmud).
According to a narrative, the Palestinian Gemara (or the Gemara of Jerusalem) was completed in the third century of the Christian era.
The Babylonian Gemara was begun in the forth century A.D., and completed in the sixth century.
Later on, Mishnah and a copy of Gemara together were called (Talmud), regardless of whether it is of Jerusalem or Babylonian. The Babylonian Talmud was three times as long as the Talmud of Jerusalem. Jews hold the Babylonian Talmud in a higher esteem than the Talmud of Jerusalem. One or two Mishnaic statements sometimes take ten Talmudic pages to explain. Talmud is more difficult to understand than Mishnah. Every Jew has to allot one-third of his religious education to the Taurah, one-third to Mishnah, and one-third to Talmud.
Rabbis have declared that a person who intends to do something evil will become sinful even if he does not commit it. According to them, a person who intends to do something forbidden by rabbis will become foul. Talmud, which is the source of this belief of theirs, has been called (Ebul-Enjâs=Father of fouls) by Muslims [Hebrew Literature, p. 17]. A person who disbelieves or rejects Talmud is not a Jew according to Jews. Therefore, Jews belonging to the Karaite[98] sect, who accept and adapt themselves only to the Taurah are not considered to be Jews by Jews.
Jewish priests avoid admitting the fact that there are vast differences, contradictions between the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds.
The Babylonian Talmud was first printed in 1520-1522 A.D., and the Palestinian Talmud in 1523, in Venice. The Babylonian Talmud was translated into German and English, and the Talmud of Jerusalem (Palestinian Talmud) was translated into French.
Stories and legends occupy thirty per cent of the Babylonian Talmud and fifteen per cent of the Talmud of Jerusalem. They call these legends (Haggadah). These legends are the essence of Jewish literature. They teach them in their schools. The teaching and learning of the Taurah and Talmud is compulsory in Jewish schools, even in universities.
Christians are inimically opposed to Talmud and censure it bitterly.
Since we have already told about the cruelties and persecutions Christians exercised on Jews at various places of our book, we shall not mention them here. However, we shall briefly touch upon the cruelties displayed by Christians towards Jews on account of Talmud:
In Christian countries like France, Poland and England, copies of Talmud were seized and burned. Jews were prohibited from keeping copies of Talmud even in their homes. The most eminent interpreters of Talmudic rules were the Jewish converts Nicholas Donin and Pablo Christiani. Pablo Christiani lived in France and in Spain, in the fourteenth century of the Christian era. In a debate held in 1263 in the Barcelona city of Spain, the rabbis (could not answer) the questions they were asked on the rigid principles and writings in Talmud; they could not defend Talmud.
As it is stated in the book (Al-Kenz-ul-Mersud fî Qawâid-it-Talmud), it is written in Talmud that Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ is in the depths of Hell, between pitch and fire, that Hadrat Maryam (Mary) committed fornication with a soldier named Pandira, that churches are full of filth, that priests are like dogs, that Christians must be killed, etc.
In 927 [A.D. 1520], with the Pope’s permission, the Babylonian Talmud was printed, which was followed by the printing of the Talmud of Jerusalem three years later. And thirty years after this a series of disasters befell Jewry. On September 9, 1553, all the copies of Talmud found were burned in Rome. This example was followed in the other Italian cities. In 1554, Talmud and the other Hebraic books were subjected to censorship. In 1565 the Pope forbid even the utterance of the word ‘Talmud.’
Sometime between 1578 and 1581 Talmud was printed once again, in Basel city. In this last edition, some treatises were deducted, statements censuring Christianity were left out, and quite a number of words were substituted. Afterwards, popes resumed their operations of seizing copies of Talmud.
Hakem II, the ninth of the Andalusian Umayyad Sultans, ordered rabbi Joseph Ben Masesa to translate Talmud into Arabic. After being translated and read, this Arabic version was named (Filth placed in a case). Hakem II passed away in 366 [A.D. 976].
The Karaite Jews have rejected Talmud and accepted it as a heresy.
According to Talmud, a woman cannot be admitted to religious schools. For she is flighty mentally and therefore is not liable to religious education. The statement, “He who teaches his daughter the Taurah will have taught her a vice,” belongs to rabbi Eliazer [Mishnah; part Nashim (Women); section Sotak: 216]. The Jewish rabbi Mûsâ bin Meymun (Moses Maimonides) stated that what the book really meant in that statement was Talmud, not the Taurah.
Talmud professes that astrology is a branch of knowledge most influential in human life. According to Talmud, “The solar eclipse is an ill omen [Evil-Sign] for peoples.” It asserts, on the other hand, that the lunar eclipse is an evil sign for Jews. Talmud teems with sorceries and auguries. It associates everything with demons. Rabbi Rav Hunr says, “Each of us has ten thousand demon companions on his right, and ten thousand demons on his left.” Rabbi Rabba says, “The congestion of crowds, during preaches in synagogues, is because of demons. Our clothes wear out because demons rub themselves against them. Breaking of feet is, again, because of demons.” It is written in Talmud that demons dance on the horns of oxen, that the devil cannot harm a person reading the Taurah, that the fire of Hell will not burn the sinful ones of Israelites.
Again, it is written in Talmud that the sinful ones of the Israelites will burn for twelve months in Hell, that those who deny life after death and the sinful ones of other races will remain eternally in bitter Hell torment, and that the worms of their bodies will not die and their fire will not go out.
Other rabbis state in Talmud, again, that the soul will not be interrogated after parting from the body, that the body is responsible for the sins, that it is out of the question for the soul to be responsible for the body. Another rabbi objects to this in Talmud, again.
It is written in Talmud that “Some rabbis are capable of creating men and watermelons.” It is one of the Talmudic narratives that “A rabbi changed a woman into a female ass. Then he mounted her and rode to the market place. Then another rabbi changed her back to her former state.” Talmud contains very many rabbinic legends and myths involving serpents, frogs, birds and fish. According to Talmud, for one, “There lived a fierce animal in the forest. The Byzantine Kaiser wished to see this animal. The animal made for Rome and, when it reached a distance of four hundred miles from the city, it roared, whereon the walls of Rome fell.” Another Talmudic legend narrates that “There lived a one-year-old ox in the forest. It was as big as Mount Sinai. Being too big to get on board (Noah’s Ark), Noah (Nûh ‘alaihis-salâm’) tied it to the ship by its horns. There was another giant too big for the Ark: this time a man by the name of (Avc), who was the owner of a territory called Bashan (Bolan). He mounted the ox. Avc was a king and a descent of Amalekites, born from a terrestrial woman married to an angel. His feet were forty miles long.” And many other quite illogical, implausible fabrications. ...
Another Talmudic episode alleges that “Titus entered the Temple, drew his sword, and tore to pieces the curtain of the Temple. Blood came out of the curtain. To punish him, a mosquito was sent down and entered his brain. Then the mosquito in his brain grew as big as a pigeon. When Titus was dead his skull was opened and it was seen that the mosquito had a mouth of copper and feet of iron.”
Other examples of Talmudic fabrications are, “People who object to rabbinic teachings will be punished;” “If a Jew testifies for a non-Jew against a Jew, he will be cursed;” “An oath administered by a Jew to a non-Jew is not binding at all.”
The Talmudic chapters called ‘Hoshem hamishpat’, ‘Yoreh deah’, ‘Sultan Arah’ contain the following statements, “Shedding non-Jews’ blood means offering a sacrifice to God.;” “All sorts of sins committed for the cause of Judaism are permissible on condition that they shall be secret;” “Only Jews are considered to be human. Non-Jews are all beasts;” “God has allotted all worldly riches only for Jews;” “The injunction, ‘Do not steal,’ is valid only when Jews are involved. Lives and property of other races are free (for Jews);” “Chastity and honour of non-Jews are halâl (permissible) (for Jews). The injunction against fornication is intended only for Jews.”; “If a Jew has stolen a non-Jew’s property or swindled him of his job, he has done a good job;” “Informing a non-Jew about our commandments is equal to betraying the whole Jewry to the executioner. When non-Jews are informed about our teachings against them, they will send us to exile;” “No work is baser than agriculture.”
The Talmudic conception concerning the Messiah expected by Jewry is as follows: “The Messiah shall crush non-Jews under the wheels of his chariots. There shall be a great war and two-thirds of the world’s population shall die. Jewry shall achieve the victory, and they shall use the losers’ weapons for fuel for seven years.
“Other nations shall obey Jews. The Messiah shall refuse Christians and he shall destroy them all. Jews shall take possession of the treasuries of all nations and they shall be very rich. When Christians are annihilated, other nations shall take warning and become Judaized. Thus Jewry shall become dominant all over the world and there shall be no one left unjudaized in any part of the world.”
WARNING — As this book, (could not answer), shows, Christians and Jews always assailed Muslims and endeavoured to annihilate Islam by means of publication and state forces. As a preliminary arrangement for the success of their tactical assaults, they first extinguished Islamic knowledge and annihilated Islamic scholars, thus making sure of an ignorant younger generation utterly unaware of Islam. In the course of time some of these Muslim children fell into the traps set by Christian missionaries and insidious communists, believed their falsifications and lies and, after an education provided in total deprivation of opportunities to learn about Islam’s virtues and superiorities or at least the renowned and honourable accomplishments of their ancestors, they eventually came into a position which offered them an easy competence to talk and write freely on matters of importance. They began to make, (and are still making), ignorant and foolish statements here and there. For instance, they say, “Our grandfathers adopted laws of deserts, confined themselves into intertia within Islam’s dingy fetters which impede mind and reason, led a life of the Early Ages. Being estranged from the world under such inculcations as, ‘There is life after death. There is blessing and merry-making in Paradise and burning fire in Hell,’ they put their trust in an unknown being whom they called God and lived in a lingering apathy and reluctance like animals. We are not regressive like them. We are university graduates. We are following the European and American civilizations and their scientific and technological improvements. We are leading a life of pleasure and merry-making. We are not killing our time with such things as namâz and fasting. What is a modern and enlightened person’s business in mosques, in Mecca? What is the point in turning away from such pleasures as music, dancing, drinking and gambling in mixed groups and wasting one’s lifetime in tedious occupations such as namâz, fasting, mawlid, etc.? Who has seen Paradise or Hell? Who has gone there? Is a fancy or illusion worth being preferred to this sweet life which is for us to enjoy?” We hope that these poor people, after reading our book and seeing that those European and American statesmen, politicians, scientists, and millions of western people whom they consider to be enlightened, progressive and modern and earnestly try to imitate are actually people who believe in rising after death, in Paradise and Hell, in Allâhu ta’âlâ and His Prophets and rush in large crowds to churches to pray on Sundays; will come to reason and realize that they have been deceived.