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Indonesian-American Imam Mohamad Joban of Masjid Ar-Rahmah in Redmond, WA delivered a lecture focusing on a Quranic story of a town of Jews who were transformed into apes by Allah for having rebelled against Him by setting fishing nets on Friday, before the Sabbath, and collecting the fish on Sunday. He said that this story was never exposed because the Jews cover up bad stories about themselves and always pretend to be pious. Laughing, he told how the Jews who had been transformed into apes cried because they couldn’t recognize one another as apes. Then Imam Joban said that in another verse, the violators were transformed into pigs. He discussed the question whether the transformed Jews had offspring and said that there are two views about this. However, he mentioned two cases, from Egypt and Malaysia, where newborns looked like descendants of apes and pigs. Imam Joban and his congregation chanted from the Quran responsively: “When [the Jews] rebelled against the commands to refrain, [Allah] said to them, ‘Be despicable apes’…” Imam Joban is a full-time Imam at Masjid Ar-Rahmah, which belongs to the Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS). The lecture was uploaded to the MAPS Redmond YouTube channel on December 17, 2019.
Every year during Ramadhan, MAPS Redmond hosts an Annual Interfaith Iftar event. These events have been attended by high-profile local, state, and federal government officials. These officials have included, but are not limited to, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Brad Deardorff, U.S. Rep. Roger Goodman (D-WA), officials from the offices of congressmen Rep. Dave Reichert (R) and Rep. Adam Smith (D), members of the Washington State Senate such as Bob Hasegawa, representatives from the office of Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, the Mayor of the City of Bellevue, WA, officials from King County, WA, and members from the Seattle Jewish and Christian communities. In 2003, Imam Joban led a prayer at the Washington State House of Representatives. Imam Joban has previously served as the Imam of the Islamic Center of Olympia, in Olympia, WA.
Mohamad Joban: [Saturday] is the day that, according to the Jews, is the holy day.
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The Orthodox Jews now, in Tel Aviv… On Saturday, and Friday night, [they do not] drive or anything.
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Allah said: “Ask them.” Ask who? The Jews in Medina.
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Ask them about the city or town that [was] close to the ocean – the sea.
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Why did Allah ask Muhammad to ask the Jews about that city? Because the Jews are shy to talk about their ancestors. The Jews… Any bad story there, they cover up. They always tell people: “We are good people, we are heroes.” For example, if [a Jew] has a grandfather who is not a good grandfather, like when you ask someone whose grandfather’s name in Binyamin. He [will] say: “No, my grandfather is named Yusef.” So he changes for that. Because everyone knows that the story of that man is not good.
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Allah, when he talked to the Israelites, he said: “Oh sons of Israel,” He didn’t say: “Oh, Jews.” No, [He said]: “Oh, sons of Israel…” “You are the sons of Jacob, man, how could you do that?”
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The Jews never exposed this story. They always told the people of Medina: “We are great people, we are pious people – even our ancestors [were].”
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Voice of Congregant: “When they observed the Sabbath, their fish would come to them abundantly. But when they violated the Sabbath, their fish would not come to them. Thus we tried them because they disobeyed.”
Mohamad Joban: Very interesting. Don’t fish on Saturday… Allah tested them. On Saturday, the fish [were] jumping. Can you imagine that?
Image of jumping fish
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[This happened for] one week, two weeks… On the third week, they said: “How will we do [this]? They came on Friday and put out their nets, and some of them dug a hole. Like this is from the ocean, you can dig here, so that the fish will come here… And then when people said: “Hey man, we cannot do that.” [They responded:] “We did not fish on Saturday. It’s Friday, man.” And they [left the fishing nets] and came to pick them up on Sunday.
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The verse appears on the screen with an image of macaque monkeys
Mohamad Joban chants and the congregation repeats after him: “Then, when they rebelled against the commands to refrain, We said to them, “Be despicable apes.”
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Mohamad Joban: Suddenly, one morning, they wake up there was quiet – no voices. They said: “What’s going on?” some of them climbed above [the wall], they looked down and saw all monkeys. And they were crying. Why were they crying? Because when they became monkeys, they couldn’t recognize one another. Which one [is] my wife? Which ones [are] my children? How do you look like? You are monkeys. Monkeys, original monkeys, they recognize one another. But when you become monkey… Because you look like the same…
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The question now is [whether] they continued to have generations after their death, or after [their] death, [they] were finished? The scholars have two opinions. He said that after a while, all of them died. Because Allah made them monkeys as a punishment, they died already. But some say: “No, they have generations. When I was in Egypt, in a city called Ras El Bar a baby was born. He had long hands, his face was like a monkey’s. He was walking with his hands like this…
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You know, if you have a son or a daughter, [people say:] “You know who he looks like?” “This one looks like his father.” [They] say: “No, he does not look like his father, he looks like his grandfather.” Sometimes, [a baby does] not look like the parents, only… what? Like his grandfather. Always like that… So that means, this baby… Maybe this one – his grand grand father, used to be what?
Joban laughs
And then in Malaysia there was a baby born, in the state of Johor, and he had a tail. Everybody was surprised.
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Then they tried to match the tail. [it was] not like that of a horse, not like that of any animal… It was like that of a pig. Because Allah said in another verse: “Apes.” [sic] Allah turned… Some of them became, what? A pig. This one of them continued. Allah just wanted to tell us what Allah told you a long time ago that people turned into monkeys and that this is true. It is religion, look at them, some of them stayed [apes and pigs]…
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