Lawhun Mahfooth/Tablet/ Table Preserved:-
This concept too, is copied and plagiarised from the traditions of the Jews both from the Torah and the Talmud (Pirkeh Aboth Vol:6). It refers to the Tablets that Moses cut so that the almighty would write with His own finger, the Ten Commandments.
In later rabbinic traditions, these tablets that were at first preserved in the Ark of Covenant, are thought to be preserved on a replica with the Almighty.
Muhammad - as usual - plagiarised into his Quran a similar tradition.; this expression appears only once in the Quran while the expression Tablets Preserved regarding those of the Torah appear three times (7:145/150/154) as explained in the following:
Surah 21. 105 "Verily we have written in the Psalms after the mention (of the Law) that my servants the righteous shall inherit the earth"
*** This is an evident reference to
Psalm 37. 11 "But the meek shall inherit the earth ***
Every Muhammadan believes that the Quran is preserved on a heavenly Table (Lawh) from before the creation of the world, as is mentioned in
85: 21 Nay this is a Glorious Qur'an
22 (Inscribed) in a Tablet Preserved [Lawhun Mahfooth]!
Before saying anything about this Tablet/Table, one may ask, was the Book of Psalms in existence before the Quran or not?
It is obvious that the Psalms preceded the Quran by at least 1500 years as the Quran itself attests to its antiquity.
The Quran then quotes from the Psalms: is it not clear, therefore, that the Psalms were before the Quran? How then could the Quran, produced so late in the world, have been placed on the heavenly Table?
Now let us read what 'Tradition' tells us about this Table-
One tells us that the Throne is made out of a pearl, as is also the Preserved Table, the height of which is 700 years' journey, and its breadth 300. All around it is adorned with rubies. The Lord commanded that there should be written upon it what he had wrought in Creation, and onwards till the Day of Judgment:
"In the name of the Lord, the Compassionate and Merciful. I am God and there is none else beside me. He that accepts my decree, is patient at my punishment, and thankful at my mercies, I will write and place him along with the righteous; he that doth not accept my decree, let him go forth from beneath my heaven," etc.' (Quissas al Anbia)
The Source of this tale is to be found in Hebrew Scriptures, but vastly exaggerated by the Muhammadans. We find in the Torah that when God desired to give forth the Ten Commandments, He thus addressed Moses, who has himself given the account in
Deut. 10:1-5 "At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount our of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me"
Elsewhere also we are told that the two Tables were preserved in the Ark of the Covenant, made by Moses at the Lord's command.' (Exodus 24:12, I Kings 8:9 Hebrews 9:3,4). But in the course of time, the Jewish tradition imagined that all the books of the Torah, as well as the Talmud, were deposited in the Ark on the Tables.
Muhammad hearing this of the Jewish Law and Scriptures, imagined the same for his own, and said (as we are told above) that the Quran also was placed on the Preserved Table; and his followers not understanding of what Heavenly Table he spoke, swelled out the whole matter into the 'Tradition' given above.
The following is from a Jewish writer, Rabbi Simeon-
What is that which is written that the Lord said to Moses:
Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them (Exodus 24:12).
The tables are the Ten Commandments; and the Torah the Law which is read; and the Commandments also mean the Mishnah; and "that which I have written" means the Prophets, and the Holy Writings; and "that thou mayest teach them" points to the Gemara. And from this we learn that all these were delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai.
No intelligent Jew or Muhammadan would for a moment credit this extraordinary story, knowing that the Mishna was not written till about the year 220 CE; the Gemara of Jerusalem in 430 CE.; and the Gemara of Babylon about 530CE.
But ignorant Muhammadan exegetes believing it all - like the later traditions of the Jews that holds that the Tables to be of a date beyond time; as declared "at the creation of the world at the sunset before the Sabbath day."(Pirke Aboth, v. 6) - the followers of Muhammad too, declared the same for the Quran.
*** There is not a single theological Concept, Precept, Thought or Idea in the Quran that has not been Plagiarized, Plundered, Pirated and or Perverted from the Traditions, Fetishes and Scriptures of others ***
