For the eye that looks at the tree and sees a tree with wood and possibly foliage and roots and fruits. For this eye, the sacred place of prostration, the house of God are in Mecca and the farthest mosque is in Jerusalem.
For the eye that looks at the tree and is willing to see a prostrating creature, a being declaring and making known that whoever has made him has unlimited power, knowledge, wisdom, compassion, intelligence, mercy, life and awareness – for this eye, the sacred place of prostration and the house of God are not in some city or country, the farthest place of prostration is not in Jerusalem.
So I should understand and decide with what eye do and should I see what the eyes see. with what ears do i and should i hear what the ears hear. What meanings do i say yes to and what do i say no to. Because when i say yes to one way of seeing, i say no to the other way of seeing. and it is my reason, that which tells me what is good for me and what bring me harm, that i should use to decide what I want to see and why.
There is nothing in the Quran that decides for the reader what and where the farthest place of prostration (masjid al-aqsa) is, or what and where masjid al-haram is, or what and where qibla is or what the ‘kaba’ and ‘house of God’ (baytullah) of the text refer to in the world out there that i see and hear with my eyes and ears. Everyone interprets the words on the page and decides what it refers to in the world. And this decision relates to what i see as the purpose of the words spoken in the text, what i see as my purpose in approaching and reading the text, who i see as the addressee and who i think is speaking. When i listen to history and other people about what, for example, the farthest mosque mentioned in the Quran is, I ask creatures. And if you ask me, it is infinitely more reasonable to ask my creator, whose words i am allegedly reading, what he means by the words he uses. Don’t decide the referents of the words of revelation by listening to creatures. What do they know? Decide, instead, by asking the speaker the meanings of the words he speaks by referring to what he does in the world and that you can witness with your own eyes and ears. Look at the world, look into yourself. Don’t look at the words of other people to decide the meanings of the speech of your creator, to which you have turned to make sense of your life. listen to his words to make sense of your life, not to make sense of his words for their own sake.
The ‘jews’ mentioned in text do not mean what people say they mean (those jews over there or over here or these people here who call themselves jews etc). the jews of the text mean what the speaker of the Quran means by them and he tells me if I ask him. Most people never ask Him! They run to history (the words of other creatures) to fill the terms and proper nouns with meanings. This is a grave mistake and injustice. The creator of the universe cannot be interpreted to be refering to a people with an identity based on their birth. it is irrational to say that the child of a person who says he is jewish is also a jew so that one could assume that a community of such by-birth jews and their children and grand children and so on, make up a community that the creator is referring to. the notion of community is invoked by the speaker. I should ask the speaker in the Quran to tell me what he means by community?
Like the tree that is wood and leaves or a creature prostrating to the creator of the universe, the community is also either a group of people defined by their place, or color of birth or something else. In the meaning that is truthful (and I would need to understand the truth), I could say that i want and choose to be like the children of israel or one among the nasaara and so on. and in the meaning of these same terms that I understand to be false in the view of the speaker, I can reject being a jew or among the nasara and so on.
I have a choice to make – ask my maker to tell me the meanings of the words he uses to address me in order to help me out of my darkness (and i see the type of light that corresponds to the type of darkness i bring to the Quran and i should therefore think carefully what darkness i do or should bring to my maker). Or, I can read his words and turn to the words of other creatures to give meanings to the words used by my maker. I have decided not to abandon my creator as the source from which I shall demand and learn and verify the truthful meanings of the words he uses.
The Quran as Revelation 