Islam and Judaism
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- This article is about the historical interaction between Islam and Judaism. For the history of the Jewish communities in Muslim lands, see History of the Jews in Muslim lands.
The historical interaction of Islam and Judaism began in the 7th century with the spread of Islam in the Arabian peninsula. Because both of these religions share a common origin in the Middle East, and because of the shared aspects between Judaism and Islam, as well as the influence of Muslim culture and philosophy on practitioners of Judaism within the Islamic world, there has been considerable and continued physical, theological, and political overlap between the two faiths in the subsequent 1,400 years.
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[edit] Early relationship
Ancient Hebrew and Arab people are generally classified as Semitic peoples, a concept derived from Biblical accounts of the origins of the cultures known to the ancient Hebrews. Those closest to them in culture and language were generally deemed to be descended from their forefather Shem. Enemies were often said to be descendants of his cursed brother Ham.
According to Islamic holy texts, Muhammad preached that the pagan Arabs should abandon polytheism, and accept Abrahamic monotheism. The Qur'an states that Muhammad's teachings were the completion of revelations given to prophets throughout the ages. Islam has taken many traits from Judaism (as well as Christianity), such as common prophets who are revered in both faiths such as Moses and Abraham. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are known as "Abrahamic religions". The firstborn son of Abraham, Ishmael, Muslims consider Father of the Arabs. Abraham's other son Isaac is called Father of the Hebrews. In the Jewish tradition Abraham is called Avraham Avinu or "Abraham, our Father". For Muslims, he is a prophet of Islam and the ancestor of Muhammad through Ishmael.
Muslims commonly refer to Jews (and Christians) as fellow "People of the Book": people who follow the same general teachings in relation to the worship of the one God worshipped by Abraham. Additionally, due to the similarities between Hebrew and Arabic (the language used by Muslims for religious purposes) as Semitic languages, many Muslim and Jewish terms are similar including the words for peace: salam and shalom.
Islam affirms that Moses was given a revelation, the Torah, which Muslims call Tawrat in Arabic, and believed to be the word of God (Arabic:Allah). However, they also believe that this original revelation was modified over time by certain scribes and preachers. According to Islamic belief, the present Jewish scriptures are not the original divine revelations given to Moses. Muslims believe the Qur'an is the final revelation from God and a completion of the previous revelations.
The Qur'an distinguishes between "People of the Book" (Jews and Christians), who should be tolerated even if they hold to their faiths, and idolators (polytheists) who are not given that same degree of tolerance. Some restrictions for Muslims are relaxed, such as Muslim males being allowed to marry a chaste woman from the "People of the Book" (Qur'an, 5:5), or Muslims being allowed to eat Kosher meat[1].
[edit] Historical interaction
Jews have often lived in predominantly Islamic nations. Since many national borders have changed over the fourteen centuries of Islamic history, a single community, such as the Jewish community in Cairo, may have been contained in a number of different nations over different periods.
As the Islamic state expanded out of the Arabian peninsula, large numbers of Jews came under Muslim rule. There was general improvement in the conditions of Jews as Islamic law commands that Jews should be judged by Jewish laws, and that synagogues are to be protected. With such rights in Islamic nations, they were able to make great advances in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, chemistry and philology.[2]
The Ottoman Empire had served as a refuge for Jews who had been expelled from Western Europe, especially after the fall of Muslim Spain in 1492. This was also the case for the Maghreb in North Africa, where a Jewish quarter (Mellah), was installed in most large Arabian cities. At the time Jews were driven out of Western Europe fleeing the Christian Inquisition, most notably the Alhambra decree.
However, throughout history, there have been instances of violent conflict between Jews and Muslims. Examples include the razing of the entire Jewish quarter in the Andalucian city of Granada in 1066. In North Africa, there were cases of violence against Jews throughout the Middle Ages[3], and in other Arab lands including Egypt[4], Syria[5] and Yemen[6]. There were also cases of forced conversion. In 1148 in Al-Andalus (Muslim-held Spain) most Jews were forced to accept the Islamic faith. Their property was confiscated and many were sold into slavery. Some Jewish educational institutions were closed, and synagogues destroyed.
In present times, a sizeable minority of Muslims is living inside the borders of the state of Israel. For the majority Muslim citizens of Israel are descendants of the 150,000 Palestinian Arabs who remained within what became Israel after the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Many Arab citizens of Israel have continued to identify themselves as Palestinian and hold ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as to residents of occupied East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1980 [7].
- See also: History of Islam
[edit] Common features
As Islam developed it gradually became the major religion closest to Judaism. The most obvious common feature is the statement of the absolute unity of God which Muslims repeat five times each day (Salah), and Jews at least twice (Shema Yisrael).
Judaism and Islam are also unique in having systems of religious law based on oral tradition which can over-ride the written laws and which does not distinguish between holy and secular spheres[8]. In Islam the laws are called Sharia, In Judaism they are known as Halakha. Both Judaism and Islam consider the study the study of religious law to be a form of worship and an end in itself, and both picture God as studying in heaven.
Both Judaism and Islam have a generally negative stance on homosexuality and on human sexuality outside of marriage and in non-procreative contexts. Both prescribe circumcision for males as a symbol of dedication to the religion.
Judaism and Islam both have strict dietary laws, with lawful food being called Kosher in Judaism and Halal in Islam. Both religions prohibit the consumption of pork. Halal restrictions can be seen as a subset of the Kashrut dietary laws, so many kosher foods are considered halal; especially in the case of meat, which Islam prescribes must be slaughtered in the name of God (Arabic:Allah).
[edit] Interplay between Jewish and Islamic thought
There was a great deal of intellectual cultural diffusion between Muslim and Jewish rationalist philosophers of the medieval era, especially in Muslim Spain.
- See also: Jewish philosophy and Early Muslim philosophy
[edit] Major thinkers in Jewish and Islamic philosophy
One of the most important early Jewish philosophers influenced by Islamic philosophy is Rav Saadia Gaon (892-942). His most important work is Emunoth ve-Deoth (Book of Beliefs and Opinions). In this work Saadia treats of the questions that interested the Motekallamin so deeply—such as the creation of matter, the unity of God, the divine attributes, the soul, etc. — and he criticizes the philosophers severely.
The 12th century saw the apotheosis of pure philosophy. This supreme exaltation of philosophy was due, in great measure, to Ghazali (1058-1111) among the Arabs, and to Judah ha-Levi (1140) among the Jews. Like Ghazali, Judah ha-Levi took upon himself to free religion from the shackles of speculative philosophy, and to this end wrote the Kuzari, in which he sought to discredit all schools of philosophy alike.
Maimonides endeavored to harmonize the philosophy of Aristotle with Judaism; and to this end he composed his immortal work, Dalalat al-Ḥairin (Guide for the Perplexed)—known better under its Hebrew title Moreh Nevuchim—which served for many centuries as the subject of discussion and comment by Jewish thinkers. In this work, Maimonides considers Creation, the unity of God, the attributes of God, the soul, etc., and treats them in accordance with the theories of Aristotle to the extent in which these latter do not conflict with religion. For example, while accepting the teachings of Aristotle upon matter and form, he pronounces against the eternity of matter. Nor does he accept Aristotle's theory that God can have a knowledge of universals only, and not of particulars. If He had no knowledge of particulars, He would be subject to constant change. Maimonides argues: "God perceives future events before they happen, and this perception never fails Him. Therefore there are no new ideas to present themselves to Him. He knows that such and such an individual does not yet exist, but that he will be born at such a time, exist for such a period, and then return into non-existence. When then this individual comes into being, God does not learn any new fact; nothing has happened that He knew not of, for He knew this individual, such as he is now, before his birth" (Moreh, i.20). While seeking thus to avoid the troublesome consequences certain Aristotelian theories would entail upon religion, Maimonides could not altogether escape those involved in Aristotle's idea of the unity of souls; and herein he laid himself open to the attacks of the orthodox.
Ibn Roshd (Averroes), the contemporary of Maimonides, closes the philosophical era of the Arabs. The boldness of this great commentator of Aristotle aroused the full fury of the orthodox, who, in their zeal, attacked all philosophers indiscriminately, and had all philosophical writings committed to the flames.
Driven from the Arabian schools, Arabic philosophy found a refuge with the Jews, to whom belongs the honor of having transmitted it to the Christian world. A series of eminent men—such as the Tibbons, Narboni, and Gersonides—joined in translating the Arabic philosophical works into Hebrew and commenting upon them. The works of Ibn Roshd especially became the subject of their study, due in great measure to Maimonides, who, in a letter addressed to his pupil Joseph ibn Aknin, spoke in the highest terms of Ibn Roshd's commentary.
[edit] Influence on exegesis
Saadia Gaon's commentary on the Bible bears the stamp of the Motazilites; and its author, while not admitting any positive attributes of God, except these of essence, endeavors to interpret Biblical passages in such a way as to rid them of anthropomorphism. The Jewish commentator, Abraham ibn Ezra, explains the Biblical account of Creation and other Scriptural passages in a philosophical sense. Nahmanides (Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman), too, and other commentators, show the influence of the philosophical ideas current in their respective epochs. This salutary inspiration, which lasted for five consecutive centuries, yielded to that other influence alone that came from the neglected depths of Jewish and of Neoplatonic mysticism, and which took the name of Kabbalah.
[edit] See also
- History of Judaism
- The Hebrews
- Semitic peoples
- Moses
- Abraham
- Isaac
- Ishmael
- Muhammad
- History of Islam
- People of the Book
- Muslim history
- Jewish history
- History of the Jews in Muslim lands
- Joint Jewish and Islamic philosophies
- Al-Andalus
- Arab-Israeli Conflict
- Jihad
- Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs
- Judaism and Christianity
- Christianity and Islam
[edit] Notes
- ^ Machine-slaughtered Meat, by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari, eat-halal.com, retrieved March 23, 2006
- ^ Cowling (2005), p. 265
- ^ The Jews of Morocco.
- ^ The Jews of Egypt.
- ^ The Jews of Syria.
- ^ The Jews of Yemen.
- ^ Question of Palestine: Jerusalem. United Nations.
- ^ [1], www.houseofdavid.ca
[edit] References
- Cowling, Geoffrey (2005). Introduction to World Religions. Singapore: First Fortress Press. ISBN 0-8006-3714-3.
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
