The "lost tribes of Israel" are the Muslims of Afghanistan and Kashmir -- Proved from the Bible and History -- Afghan and Kashmiri cities mentioned and documented:
The following article was sent to me by brother Tariq Khan; may Allah Almighty always be pleased with him.
As'salamu Alaikum!
The purpose of this essay is to show how some of the prophecies with regards to the ‘lost tribes of Israel’ from the Old Testament as well as the New Testament were fulfilled through the Prophet Muhammad. That the ‘lost tribes of Israel’ are Muslim today has important implications, and serves well to support Islam’s case. The Old Testament prophesied that the Promised Prophet, or ‘that one’ in the New Testament, would unite the lesser and fragmented tribes of Israel. Our Christian friends, I’m sure, overlook this point and are quite content not knowing what happened to these tribes, because to discover that these men are today Muslims, would imply that Muhammad was that prophet, and not Jesus. Everything below can be read in various parts of the book ‘Muhammad in World Scriptures – Vol. 1: The Bible’ by Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi. As it happens, an online version of it can be found at:
Please see the sections under Isaiah - 10 Tribes of Israel or Afghanistan and Kashmir. Also please read the Chapter 6. Prophecy Fulfilled In Kashmir. Please note, that I’m merely disseminating information that one must put into context and have a personal reconciliation with before God, in choosing whether to follow the polytheist ways or to correct oneself, as did the 10 tribes of Israel. So, it should be very clear that below you will essentially find the work of A.H. Vidyarthi, and not I.
History of the ten lost tribes of Israel:
There had been only two kings who are called kings of Israel: David and Solomon. After Solomon, in the time of his son Rehoboam, the Israelites broke into two pieces. Only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained under the suzerainty of Rehoboam, whereas the remaining ten tribes rose up in revolt and went over to Jeroboam, who was, during the lifetime of Solomon, his building-engineer. The ten tribes of Israel, were cut off and forever separated from the Israelites and were immersed into idolaters and they again began to worship the Golden Calf. They raised their own kingdom in Samaria. In contrast to Judah and Benjamin, they constituted a much bigger fraternity among the Children of Israel. Their rule lasted for 200 years; and then the King of Syria (ancient Assyria) defeated them in 722 BC, scattering and dispersing them. Where this huge horde went is a puzzle that has baffled and bewildered the writers of history. Some surmise, that by means of a tunnel in the earth they reached China; others presume they reached Mongolia and settle there; yet another hypothesis is that they went to some place in Europe. From the Encyclopedia Americana, under the heading 'Lost Ten Tribes':
"It was formerly one of the puzzles of history to know
what became of the ten tribes. There were several theories, because of the fact that
some Jewish monuments were found in China, some writers tracked
them to that land. Others found their descendants in India... The general
consensus of scientific opinion, however, is that the tribes became absorbed, as
subsequent vanished traces have, in neighboring nations, and thus were not lost in the
real significance of the term.. Dr. Giles Fletcher (1548-1611) identified the
Tartars with the lost 10 tribes; consult his 'The Tartars' printed in 'Israel Redux,'
edited by S. Lee (1667). Dr. Francois Bernier (1620-1688), French physician for 12
years to the Great Moghul of India, in 'Les voyages de Bernier contenant la description
des Etats du Grand Mogul de l'hindoustan' (1699), speculates on the Kashmiris as
descendants of the lost 10 tribes from certain customs and rites, and the prevailing type
of facial features, as also of the neighboring Afghans and the Tajiks of Badakhshan, being
distinctly Hebraic." (The Encyclopedia Americana,
1956 ed., art. ‘Lost Ten Tribes’. Vol. Xvii, p. 632.)
So, according to Dr. Bernier, the people of Kashmir and Afghanistan are the same ten
lost tribes of the house of Israel. Dr. Francois Bernier, who had been for a long time in
the court of the Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb of India, writes in his book Travels in the Moghul Empire:
“There are however many marks of Judaism to be found in
this country. On entering the Kingdom after crossing the Peer-Punchal Mountains, the
inhabitants in the frontier villages struck me as resembling Jews. Their countenances and
manners, and that indescribable peculiarity which enables a traveler to distinguish the
inhabitants of different nations, all seemed to belong to that ancient people. You are not
to ascribe what I say to mere fancy, the Jewish appearance of these villagers having been
remarked by our Father, the Jesuit, and some other Europeans long before I visited
Kashmir.” (F. Bernier, Travels in the Moigul
Empire, trans. Irving Brock, London, 1981, p. 432).
The Jesuit father mentioned here was Catrou. He wrote his General History of the Moghal Empire in 1708 C.E. and stated that “the Kashmiris are descendants of the Jews.” (F. Catrou, General History of the Moghul Empire, (trans. Alex. Moore), London, John Murray, 1836, p. 195)
George Forster, in his famous Letters on a Journey from Bengal to England, described his visit to Kashmir: “On first seeing the Kashmirians, in their own country, I imagined from their garb, the cast of their countenance which was long and of a grave aspect, and the forms of their beards, that I had come among a nation of Jews.” (George Forster, Letters on a Journey from Bengal to England, London, 1808, vol. 2, p. 20)
H.H. Wilson writes: “The physical and the ethnic character, which so sharply marks off the Kashmiris from all surrounding races, has always struck observant visitors to the valley and they have universally connected them with the Jews.” (H.H. Wilson, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces…, London, 1841, p. 129. Reprinted by Sagar Publications, New Delhi, 1971)
Lieutenant-Colonel H.D. Torrens: “On legends… a supposition that the Kashmiris are descendants of the Jews has been built – a supposition which is borne out by the personal appearance of the race, their garb, the cast of their countenance, and the form of their beards.” (H.D. Torrens, Travels in Ladak, Tartary and Kashmir, London, 1862, p. 268)
Sir Younghusband, who for many years was the Representative of the British Crown to the Court of the Maharaja of Kashmir, wrote: “Here may be seen fine old patriarchal types, just as we picture to ourselves the Israelitish heroes of old. Some, indeed, say… that these Kashmiris are the lost tribes of Israel and certainly, as I have already said, there are real Biblical types to be seen everywhere in Kashmir and especially among the upland villages. Here the Israelitish Shepherd tending his flocks and herds may any day be seen.” (Sir Francis Younghusband, Kashmir, London, 1909, p. 112)
There are many more accounts of which I haven’t even read yet. Vidyarthi’s book cited above, and which is the source of all this, recommends reading Jesus in Heaven on Earth by Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, Ch. 21: ‘Afghans and the Kashmiris’.
These lost tribes, while living as neighbors to Hindu idolaters, adopted their customs and habits. These Jews believed in the Unity of God, and this Unity in the terminology of scholars of religion is called Henothism, i.e. the belief that "our God is one, but other nations have their own Gods; our God is exclusively our own, having nothing to do with other peoples." In this basis they hold that as long as they live in the land of their Lord, Jehovah, they should render obedience to Him, but when they immigrate to another place and take up their residence among other people, they should worship and adore the God of that land. So we find that in the beginning, when they founded their own kingdom in Samaria, having been separated from Solomon's son, The population of Kashmir, thus, consists of two nations, the 'Kashmiri Kashyapi', who trace their ancestry to the Hindu Rishi, Kashyap, and the 'Ban Mash' who have migrated into Kashmir from outside; and although the Hindus did not absorb them, they had to adopt, according to their own belief, the worship of Hindu gods and their habits and customs.
Our final evidence is to show that the people of Kashmir are Israelites is that the names of cities of Afghanistan and Kashmir have the same names as places mentioned in the Bible; i.e. they are Hebrew names. They have 'Gilgit' for the Biblical 'Golgotha', and 'Poonch' for 'Phenice.' The meaning of 'Kabul (the capital of Afghanistan)' in the Hebrew language (Cabul) is a 'dirty city', or alternatively ‘displeasing city. There is also Chah-i-Babel (the well of Babylon) near Islamabad; and Takht-i-Sulaiman (the Throne of Solomon) in the vicinity of the math (temple) of Shankaracharya.
‘Kashmir’ is a Hebrew Word:
Furthermore, Kashmiri or Kashahmiri is a Hebrew word and an attributive name of the Israelites. The root is Kas(h)ah, similar to the Arabic kashiya. In Hebrew it means fleshy and plump, and the Bible itself has conferred this name on the Israelites, and in the idiomatic tradition of the Bible, ‘becoming fat’ means to ‘become an idolater’ – see Deuteronomy, 31:20, Nehemiah 9:25-26, 1 Samuel 2:29-30 for reference. In the same place in the Bible, the Israelites have also been called Yeshurun or Jeshurun, and both these names indicate two contradictory qualities of the Israelites. Yeshurun has been derived from the yashar or yashar, which means the follower of truth or worshipper of the One True God. The following texts of the Bible may read in this connection:
“But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked; you waxed fat, you grew thick, you became sleek; then he forsook God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.” (Deuteronomy 32:15)
Yeshurun or Jeshurun, in this text, is the name of the Israelites and signifies here a person who worships the One True God (Gesenius and Brown, A Hebrew and English Lexicon.) But this Jeshur or Yashar had been called Ka(s)ha or Kashyapa when he began to worship, instead of Lord God Jehovah, other gods and idols of the Hindus, and coming into foreign countries thought no more of and forgot Jehovah.
Additions to this point:
The following piece was sent to me from Rahmat, who is not quite a Muslim yet; may Allah Almighty Lead him to Islam.
Hello Osama,
I was reading your argument about the lost tribes of Israel that may have settled in
Afghanistan. I've read about it and I agree. Just to support this point, one
of the most popular mountain passes in Afghanistan is called Khyber Pass.
Khyber is a Hebrew word meaning a Fort.....
Continuing with the article...
A Few Prophecies From the Bible Concerning the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel:
1. Jacob on His Death Bed Confers Blessings on Joseph
Of these 10 lost tribes, the most honored and renowned was the tribe of Joseph from
among the Children of Ephraim; only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, had been left in
Palestine. Joseph’s was the tribe of which it was written: “Rachel
is weeping for her children.” (Jeremiah 31:15. Cf.
Matthew 2:18).
Her lamentation was warranted because all the hopes of the Jews were linked with
this tribe. Jacob, when he laid on his death-bed, conferred most of his blessings on
Joseph's tribe and uttered a prophecy about their prosperity and success (Genesis 49:22-24), and Moses too, in the last moments of his
life invoked for this tribe blessings, both spiritual and temporal:
About Joseph he said: “May the Lord bless his land with
the precious dew from heaven above and with deep waters that lie below; with the best the
sun brings forth and the finest the moon can yield; with the choicest gifts of the ancient
mountains and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills; with the best gifts of the earth
and its fullness and the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush. Let all these rest on
the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. In majesty he is like a
first born bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations,
even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the
thousands of Manasseh.” (Deuteronomy 33:13-17)
How could it be that such a precious gem, as Joseph was, should have been abandoned and left in darkness, and the word of God should have failed in this case? It is a matter of fact that these ten tribes, including the Children of Joseph, the Sons of Ephraim, came to and settled in Afghanistan and Kashmir. When Jacob, on his death-bed also conferred blessings on Joseph’s two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, he gave Ephraim the younger son more blessings. Joseph did not like it and held up his father’s hand saying” “Not so, my father; for this one is the first born; put your right hand upon his head.” (Genesis 48:18). But the father refused, and set Ephraim before Manasseh. As a result, Ephraim’s dynasty became so much dignified and renowned that is name became synonymous with the rulership of Israel. The fundamental question that this article raises, is how is it possible that theis promised son and his tribe could become non-existent and extinct? If these tribes had been Christians, it could be said that their shepherd was Jesus; but since they came into the fold of Islam their shepherd and King, the Promised David, was the Holy Prophet Muhammad, not Jesus.
The Lost Tribes, Jesus, and the Gospels
Furthermore, God sent His prophet, Jesus, to seek and find them, and bring them back to
the religion of their fathers. In what a forceful language Jesus is reported to have said:
"What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray." (Matthew 18:12-13)
"For the Son of man came to seek and save the lost." (Matthew 15:24 see also John, 11:49-52; Matthew 10:5-6)
"And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd." (John 10:16)
According to Greek idiom, emphasis lies on the them in this verse. It is thus necessary that Jesus should go all the way to Kashmir to seek and save the lost tribes of Israel.Jesus' main mission was to give glad tidings of a Messenger who was to come after him. Jesus' success lies in the fact that he persuaded and prepared these tribes of Israel who had been dead to the religion of their fathers, to return to the faith of Abraham and Jacob.
Ezekiel's Prophecy:
The Promised David, the resurrector of dry
bones:
“The hand of the Lord was upon
me, and he brought me out by the Sprit of the Lord, and set me down in the mids of the
valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them; and behold, there were very
many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can
these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord God, thou knowest.’ Again he
said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of
the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you,
and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you,
and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know
that I am the Lord.’ So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there
was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And as
I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered
them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath,
prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four
winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied
as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their
feet, an exceedingly great host. Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the
whole house of Israel.’” (Ezekiel 37:1-11)
Prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel were
contemporaries who lived 600 years before Christ.This prophecy consists of two parts. The
first was fulfilled exactly after a hundred years, but the other part found its perfect
fulfillment after a thousand years. Vidyarthi claims that this book is highly corrupt and
obscure, but goes on to detail the prophesy for what information we can get out of it. It
is argued that the desolate and deserted valley through which Ezekiel had to pass, is
Jerusalem. The Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, ravaged and destroyed it, and drove the
Children of Israel from their homes into exile. Ezekiel, who was the High Priest at
Jerusalem, was also taken prisoner and put under restraint in the suburbs of Babel.
Jeremiah an dEzekiel both have lamented and deplored this destruction of Jerusalem. But
whatever was done to the Children of Israel was, in fact, the chastisement of heaven
inflicted on them for their sinful deeds and transgressions. The significance of the
valley’s tumbling into ruins is that they had been made the recipient of this
punishment on account of the vice and misconduct of their priests and religious divines,
and that the punishment had been ordained and decreed by the Most High God. As in the
first part of the above prophecy, when Jeremiah and Ezekiel wept and cried before the Most
High God, He assured them, saying that the sacred city and its Temple would be reubuilt
after a hundred years, provided the Children of Israel and their divines would fulfill the
covenant of God and bear obedience to His commandments. Hence, this prophecy was
accomplished 536 years before Christ, and 65 years after the destruction of Jerusalem when
Cyrus, the King of Persia, defeated the Babylonian King, and set the Children of Israel at
liberty. However, there were still 35 years for the Word of God to be fulfilled, and
neither Cyrus’s command nor his gold could revive the Sacred Temple; and the people
who obstructed this work, were the Jewish tribes themselves. They counteracted and opposed
each other, and wrote to the King to baffle and defeat their plans, until Cyrus died. So
it was later, in the time of Prophet Ezra, when the Children of Israel took up a fresh and
firm resolve to pay obedience ot the Divine commandments and walk in the way of His
pleasure (Ezra Ch. 5-6), that the promise of the reconstruction and revival of the Sacred
Temple came to be fulfilled exactly after a hundred years, in the reign of Darius
Hystaspes. But it relates only to the 2 tribes of Israel, Judah and Benjamin. The 10 lost
tribes are in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The Jews therefore believed it was an event to be
completed in the future. In the Book of Zechariah:
“Ho! Ho! Flee from the land of the north, says the Lord;
for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, says the Lord.”
(Zechariah 2:6).
and again:
“And Those who
are far off shall come and help build the temple of the Lord; and you shall know that the
Lord of hosts has sent me to you.” (Zechariah 6:15).
The dry bones were the Children of Ephraim, the
promised son of Joseph, and other tribes of Israel who, having merged into the Hindus, had
become divested of faith and the spirit of Divine unity. Islam breathed into them the
breath of life “from four winds”. Vidyarthi holds that its meaning is that Islam
conferred on them the Holy Quran, which is the quintessence of all Revealed Books of the
world.
The Most High God, then, said to Ezekiel,
“These bones are the whole house of Israel”, i.e., the Sons of Ephraim and their
companions, the other tribes of Israel. The statement “I will bring you home into the
land of Israel” is a figure of speech, which means their rehabilitation into the
religion of their forefathers; otherwise it would be understood that even Jesus could not
bring them back into their own land. The acceptance of Islam by all these tribes is, in
fact, their return to the land of their fathers.
Vidyarthi argues that the spirit is the Holy Quran, which exists in every house in Kashmir and Afghanistan, and quickens life into them. After this, verse 16 deserves reconsideration:
“Son of man,
take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the children of Israel associated with
him’; then take another stick and write upon it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of
Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him’; and join them together
into one stick… say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take the
stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with
him; and I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be
one in my hand.” (Ezekiel 37:16-19)
These were the two sticks of which Jacob said:
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (Genesis 49:10).
“Joseph is a
fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring” (Genesis 49:22)
Vidyarthi identifies these two sticks as the kingship and the prophethood, or the blessings of the earth and the blessings of the heaven, that were joined in one in the Holy Prophet Muhammad. And the gathering of the people of all the lsot ten tribes of Israel unto him was in this way, that they entirely embraced Islam in Kashmir and Afghamistan. Furthermore, Ezekiel says:
“and one king shall be king over them all; and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.” (Ezekiel 37:23)
These words point to the fact that this Kingdom shall be a spiritual Kingdom since no king shall live and rule up to the last Day of Resurrection.That this spiritual Kingdom shall last for all time to come, is a conclusive argument on the termination of the institution of prophethood. It is further stated:
“They shall not defile themselves any more with idols… and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 37:23)
Hence, this leads us to conclude that the
Prophet Muhammad was their one King forever.
Peace be with you!
Tariq Khan
Back to Prophet Muhammad mentioned and foretold by the name in the Bible.
The Bible predicts the liberation of Mecca (Paran) by 10,000 Muslim believers.