We are now entering the time in which the 40 years of wandering about, lost in the desert is coming to an end. During this time, as previously mentioned, Harun (AS) and Musa (AS) have passed away, but Allah (SWT) has granted prophethood to another very important figure amongst Bani Isra’il, and that is none other than the special disciple of Musa (AS), whose name was Yusha’ Bin Nun. He is the same young man who accompanied Musa (AS) on his journey to meet Al Khadir (AS). He was very close to Musa (AS) and extremely obedient and hardworking, so Allah (SWT) granted him prophethood. He is also one of the people who stood up to motivate Bani Isra’il when they were turning back, mentioned previously [“O ye who believe! Call in remembrance the favour of Allah unto you when certain men formed the design to stretch out their hands against you, but (Allah) held back their hands from you: so fear Allah. And on Allah let believers put (all) their trust.” Surah al Ma’idah: 11] “Remember the bounties and favors that Allah (SWT) has bestowed upon you. He has sent so many prophets from amongst you, O Bani Isra’il, from the children of Ya’qub, he has made you rulers, and has given you favors that he has not given to anyone else in the world. Move forward, enter into this land, and don’t turn back, or it is you who will lose out.” Then, their response, as was mentioned; two men stood up who were god-fearing. Who were those two men? One of them was Yusha ibn Nun as reported by Abdullah ibn Abbas (RA), and the other was Kalib. Yuusha is commonly referred to as Joshua and Kalib is often referred to as Caleb. These two men stood up and they tried to motivate and exhort Bani Isra’il, but of course they failed.
Now, some 40 years later, Yusha (AS) brings them all together and they have now reached, finally, the area that is close to the sacred land. Where exactly in the sacred land was this? Some narrations mention that it was in fact Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa; Al-Quds, Jerusalem itself. Other historical narratives, as well as those that are found in other scriptures, mention that this was not Jersusalem; rather, this was Jericho; Ariha, and Ariha was the place where the original dwellers and that part of Sham came to reside. So this is known as one of the most ancient settlements in human civilization, one of the most ancient cities. In any case, this was going to be their gateway into the sacred land, so Yusha (AS) gathered his people, and he told them that he needed people with no distractions. Anyone who had their mind on anything else could go and look after that first. For example, if someone had just gotten married, and their mind was on going and seeing their wife, then they should go and do that. Anyone who had done anything else and their mind was stuck in that, they should go; he did not need such soldiers and instead needed focused men. So, the narrations mention that Allah (SWT) commanded him to wage and win this battle. The battle started on Sunday, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday passed. When Friday came around, they needed to finish the battle before Maghrib. Why? Because the sabbath was going to start from the setting of the sun, and during the sabbath, they could neither do any worldly affairs, nor were they allowed to engage in battle.
So, the day was dragging on, the battle was fierce, Yusha (AS) had regrouped his people and made them to focus, and he needed to win this battle before sunset, but the day was drawing close to an end, and the sun was about to touch the horizon. Yusha (AS) looked up and said to the sun, “You have some instructions and I also have some instructions. You, to set, and I, to conquer this city before you set.” And so, he made du’a; “O Allah, withhold the sun and restrain it from setting so that I can fulfill your command.” Allah (SWT) made the sun pause and stop. This is also mentioned in Sahih hadith. The sun pauses, Yusha (AS) win the battle, and now a couple of things need to happen before they move forward. The first is that they needed to gather the spoils of the war and put them on top of a hill and a lightning bolt will come and incinerate it all. This was a sign that their war had been accepted by Allah (SWT); previous nations were not allowed to use the spoils of war. As these spoils of war were gathered and placed so that the fire can come and devour them, nothing happens. So Yusha (AS) tells them, “Someone has acted dishonestly here. I want the chief of every tribe to come and put their hand on my hand.” (Similar to the way Bay’ah is done.) The chiefs of the various tribes came, and the hand of one of the chiefs got stuck to the hand of Yusha (AS) and he couldn’t separate it, so Yusha (AS) said, “The trouble is coming from your tribe; bring all the fighters from your tribe, some of them have done something dishonest.” Now, as the men are coming, two of the men’s hands got stuck to Yusha (AS), doing the same thing that their chiefs did. This was Allah (SWT)’s way of showing Yusha (AS) who the guilty parties were. Their luggage was checked, and it was discovered that they had withheld so much gold from the spoils of war – essentially stolen it – that it was the amount equal to the head of a bull. The gold was taken and added to the hill, and the fire finally came and burned it.
Now, Yusha (AS) moves these people forward, but some specific instructions were given to them. Allah (SWT) said, “You can now enter this town and eat whatever food is available there, you have been in the desert for an entire generation, but there are two things that you must do;” (And as historical accounts mention, this was a walled city, so there were gates that you would have to enter through) “You need to enter the gates of this city prostrated with your heads lowered as a sign of humility; now you are not entering as rulers or conquerors, but as a guilty party who was delayed for 40 years because of your mistakes. And say, ‘O Allah, remove the burdens of sins from us, forgive us, and pardon us.’” [“And remember We said: ‘Enter this town, and eat of the plenty therein as ye wish; but enter the gate with humility, in posture and in words, and We shall forgive you your faults and increase (the portion of) those who do good.’” Surah Al-Baqarah: 53] These were the instructions; “Now when you enter, you will enter in this way; not in a proud and haughty manner, but rather in a humble and submissive manner, knowing that this should have happened a long time ago, but it was your own mistakes that delayed this.” Some people did follow the instructions, but there were others (some say that this was the majority) [“But the transgressors changed the word from that which had been given them; so We sent on the transgressors a plague from heaven, for that they infringed (Our command) repeatedly.” Surah Al-Baqrah: 59] Some of these people’s nature was to do wrong, and all of these years of torment had still not been able to change them. They still had not come around to being obedient slaves to Allah (SWT). They did two things wrong; one was that they did enter with their heads lowered, but instead of entering walking forwards, they entered walking backwards, with their backs towards the gates as a sign of mocking this instruction. They thought “We won this battle, who is this prophet to tell us that we need to enter in a humbler way? We are the victors, the conquerors.” So to mock that command of Allah (SWT) they walked in backwards with their heads lowered and instead of saying “Hittah”, which meant “O Allah, reduce our burdens, forgive our sins”, they said “Hintah”, meaning “Where is our grain? Where is the food? We’re here for food.” The Qur’an says that for those who did that, Allah (SWT) sent some scourge from the sky and wiped them out. After all of these ordeals, they still did not learn their lesson, so Allah (SWT) removed people who did that at that time and the others were allowed to remain there and they did so for as long as Allah (SWT) wanted.
This was, as mentioned, the gateway for Bani Isra’il to re-enter the sacred land 40 years later and from there they spread out across the rest of that area of Palestine, and they started inhabiting all of the key areas. Many of them went back to Shecham, they inhabited the areas around Hebron, and of course they inhabited the areas around Bayt Al-Maqdis. So now, everything is back to this central place, this Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, and from here the story continues.
