Scriptural Links Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Understanding Islam Series Session 3)

Scriptural Links: Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Understanding Islam Series: Session 3

Opening

"Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings."

"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."

"All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. May the peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, and all his companions."

Opening Khutbah

As-salāmu 'alā Rasūlillāh wa ῾ālihī wa ṣ-ṣaḥbihī wa man wa lā. And after Abdul-Hakeem's Arabic lecture yesterday, I'm sure you know exactly what that means. Slight revision of what I was saying yesterday, I misled you by suggesting that I was going to continue the track that I'd mapped out on this hadith of Gabriel, Islam, Iman and Ihsan.

In fact, consulting, as I very occasionally do, the menu for today's activities, I see that I'm actually slated to talk about scriptural links between Islam, Judaism and Christianity. So in order not to upset the smooth unfolding of the curriculum here, I shall indeed speak on that. So I'll be talking about Islam as part of a wider family of faiths.

Islam as Part of the Abrahamic Family

Not about Islam as it exists within itself, which is what I was holding forth on yesterday, but Islam as it has interacted with others. And perhaps the best point to start with is the not sufficiently appreciated fact that while pundits of popular culture, and often quite educated people as well, tend to have this image of Islam as the quintessential other, that civilisation, that package of religious beliefs and values which is the most alien to Western people and the least comprehensible. Whereas in fact, Islam is the closest of all religions to Christianity.

It's closer even than is Judaism. You could say that the world's religions divide very crudely and broadly into three categories. These three, that you'll sometimes see comparative religionists trot out.

The Three Categories of World Religions:

1. Animism - represents the beliefs of primordial tribal communities, the idea that the divine exists or inheres in rocks, trees and so forth in the form of spirits. And so animism or shamanism would be this first category of the world's religions.
2. Monistic Religions - those which don't believe in a personal God, but in an impersonal force, a being which is constantly engendering the world and calling it and the individual souls therein back towards itself. So that second category includes faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and perhaps one or two others.
3. Theisms - those that believe in a personal God. They believe that the world was created in time and that it will come to an end. The creator is in some sense a personal deity, approachable through prayer and through worship. And the creator reveals the divine nature through sending scriptures mediated by prophetic figures.

Now Islam is part and parcel of this third family, this theistic family of religions. They are sometimes referred to as the Abrahamic religions, since they all recognise the Prophet Abraham as their common patriarch and identify very strongly with his rejection of idolatry and his quest for the one true God.

Islam and Judaism: Similarities and Differences

So we have here a shallow cultural archetype which is wrong in quite an interesting way. Islam is not the other. In fact, it's a Western religion. Obviously it originated in the Middle East, but then so did Judaism and Christianity.

Today, however, I intend to look more closely at what Islam shares and perhaps what it doesn't share with its two great predecessors. Now the simplest way of doing this is by comparing the Islamic account of salvation history with that of Christianity and Judaism. And the most striking initial point is that Islam's view of history is actually a lot closer to that of Judaism than to that of traditionally held by most Christians.

Judaism sees history as an evolving saga of human distraction rectified by periodic divine prophetic interventions, sometimes angry, sometimes rather wistful. Islam more or less shares this perspective. It only disagrees with Judaism in a few respects, which I'll now attempt to list.

Major Differences Between Islam and Judaism:

1. Simplification of Religious Law

Firstly, Islam very emphatically prefers the style of Jewish religion proclaimed by the great annunciatory prophets of the Old Testament, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, with their thundering yet ultimately compassionate awareness of the subtlety of sin in the human soul. And it prefers this style of Jewishness to the complexities of rabbinical Judaism, as this was worked out in the Second Temple period and essentially brought to its modern orthodox form with the codification of the Babylonian Talmud in the late first and early second centuries of the Common Era.

Muslims regard the rabbinical form of Judaism simply as too difficult, an unnecessary complication of the simple yet nonetheless law-inspired prophetic ideas of the Old Testament prophet. And so we find that Islamic law, the Sharia, is in fact, while in some ways clearly a continuation and an affirmation of Jewish law, nonetheless simplifies it very much, ameliorates it.

The most obvious case of this is, for instance, the laws on purity, a lot easier in Islam than in Judaism. If you look at Jacob Neusner's translation of the books on purity from the Talmud, you'll see there are several volumes just on how to keep yourself clean. In the books of Islamic law, it's at most a few pages, depending on the scale of the commentary.

Similarly, there's an amelioration and a simplification of the dietary laws. Jewish dietary law is very difficult. There's the obligation, for instance, to keep milk foods apart from meat, etc. That prohibition has not been continued in Islam. There is the kosher regulation in that animals have to be slaughtered in the kosher fashion, drained as much as is feasible of the blood. Nonetheless, generally speaking, Islamic dietary law is a good deal easier than Jewish law.

2. Sabbath Laws

Similarly, in Islam, the Sabbath laws are more or less done away with. Islam doesn't actually recognise a day of rest in the traditional Jewish or Christian sense. There is the Friday prayer, and Friday in most Muslim countries is a public holiday. Nonetheless, people can work there, and there's no complex web of prohibitions on what you can and can't do on that day.

3. Fasting Patterns

Second major point is that Islam has drastically modified Jewish patterns of fasting. The traditional Orthodox Jewish fast is 24 hours, the Yom Kippur fast being the most conspicuous example. The Muslim fast, as I explained yesterday, and as perhaps you'll be trying tomorrow, extends from first light until sundown.

4. The Covenant Extended

Thirdly, the question of the covenant. Islam holds that God's covenant has been extended beyond the people of Israel to cover a truly multinational, universal religious family in which genetics, inheritance is irrelevant. So what the Quran refers to as the ummah, an important term, you can omit the final H if you choose, this means the family of all Muslims, the community of Muslims, and it has no ethnic connotations whatsoever.

Islam's self-perception is that previous episodes of prophecy, whether in the Semitic tradition or in others which are not mentioned by the Quran, were specific to human groups. So we find a hadith saying, the Prophet saying:

"Every prophet before me was sent only to his own people, but I was sent to all mankind."

And another illustration of this is a famous hadith in which we learn that on the Day of Judgment every prophet will intercede for his own community. Moses will intercede for the Jews, Jesus will intercede for believing Christians and so forth, but Muhammad will intercede not only for the sinners in his own community, but for sinners in other religious groups as well.

Now this idea clearly sets Islam at a considerable distance from traditional Jewish ideas of a chosen people. In fact Islam has theologically been unable to accept such an idea, at least in its orthodox Jewish formulation, because it seems to impugn the ethical nature of God. If one people is chosen, that seems to imply that other peoples are rejected or are seen as less deserving of the divine intervention, and that is not in keeping with the Quranic ideal.

5. Post Old Testament Prophecy

The fourth great difference between Islam and Judaism is of course, and this is the most difficult one when it comes to dialogue, the acknowledgement of post Old Testament prophecy. Orthodox Judaism does not accept that Jesus and Muhammad were authentic messengers of God. In fact there are rights in Orthodox Judaism for the ritual cursing of both of these prophets.

Historical Jewish-Muslim Relations

This relatively positive attitude or comparatively positive towards Islam as compared to Christianity probably also reflects the social conditions of the Jewish experience of life in the medieval period under followers of Islam and Christianity. Christianity, until living memory, included in its official doctrinal formulations the principle that the Jews were collectively responsible for the death of Christ.

The Vatican only formally abandoned this position just 20 years ago. And the Gospel text, particularly the Gospel of John and also the letters of Paul, accuse the Jews collectively of murdering God himself, of deicide.

For example, from Paul's first epistle to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16:

"For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Jesus Christ which are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased God and opposed all men. But God's wrath has come upon them at last."

Islam however proceeded on a very different kind of founding narrative. The Quran records conflicts, sometimes quite sharp ones, between the early Muslims and individual Jews and Jewish tribes and there is a Quranic polemic against Judaism. However the distinction is that the Jews are not singled out as some kind of uniquely malevolent force in history.

Similarly the Quran does not accuse them of the crucifixion of Jesus or of deicide. For Muslim theology the Jews have not killed God since God is not and never has been incarnate.

So for most of Muslim history we find that the Muslim world was in fact relatively benign and tolerant towards Jews. The Christian Byzantine Empire had actually prohibited Jews from living in Jerusalem. As soon as the Muslim armies captured Jerusalem a proclamation was issued and Jews could return and live there in peace.

So it's been estimated that as many as nine-tenths of medieval Jewry actually lived in the world of Islam. Blood libels and pogroms of a type normal in Europe were actually effectively unknown in the Muslim world. Jews could rise to senior administrative positions, Maimonides himself for instance became the personal physician of the great Saladin and as Samuel Goitein has said, compared to Christian Europe the lands of Islam were a paradise for the Jewish people.

Scriptural Overlap Between Islam and Judaism

What I want to do now is to look at the basis for this successful although albeit sadly forgotten coexistence namely the scriptural overlap between the Hebrew Bible and the Quran.

This obviously records and includes an important overlap between Islam and Christianity as well. Of the 26 or so prophets mentioned in the Quran all but five appear in the Hebrew Bible as well so that's a major overlap. The remainder are Arabian prophets for example the prophet Hud one of the Quranic prophets who was sent to the people of Ad in what is now South Yemen.

Quran 41:15 mentions the destruction of the people of Ad:

"And as for Aad, they were destroyed by a screaming, violent wind."

All that is unfamiliar simply is the idea that a prophet doesn't have to be a Jew and this is of course cited in the Quran as a prop to Muhammad's claim to prophecy.

Prophetic Narratives in Islam

The Muslim image of a prophet is not significantly different to the Christian or the Jewish one. But does this mean that the stories of the prophets that we find in the Quran are identical to the equivalent narratives in the Bible? Well in some cases we can say yes to that question.

For instance in due course we'll have a lecture here on Surah 12 of the Quran which is entirely dedicated to the prophet Joseph and there are a few minor details which appear differently but effectively it's a reiteration of the picture so beautifully portrayed in Genesis.

There is one difference however which is a significant one. In Genesis it seems that Joseph is actually tempted by Potiphar's wife whereas the Quran seems to insist that he was not. This is because the Quranic idea of prophecy insists that a prophet to be deserving of the mission with which God entrusts him has to be ma'asum, that is divinely secured from major sin.

Ma'asum means inerrant, impeccable. So this is really the significant difference that one can locate between the Old Testament view of prophecy and the Quranic one, the only significant one. The Old Testament prophets can sin and repent, that's part of their greatness, the Quranic prophets are infallible.

Prophet Moses (Musa) in Islam

Much more significant however for the Quran's purposes is its narrative of the great Prophet Moses known to Muslims as Musa. The Quran frames its narrative with a polemical point in view namely to show the very close parallels between the ministry of Moses and that of Muhammad. It states explicitly for instance the two shared the same doctrine.

Like Muhammad, Musa is accused of being a magician by the idolaters. Like him also he has been given a book, in Moses case this is the Torah, in which as the Quran says there is illumination and guidance. That's the Quran's description of the Pentateuch.

Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) in Islam

Another of these great prophets celebrated by Muslims in particular as the archetype of the Prophet Muhammad even more than Moses and mentioned in the Quran even as a Muslim with a small M if you like, i.e. one who had fully submitted to God whilst the patriarch Abraham or Ibrahim as the Quran calls him. No fewer than 25 chapters of the Quran have descriptions of him.

Here is a passage from the Quran about Abraham:

Quran 21:57-63:

"He said, have you brought us the truth, or are you jesting? He said, Nay, your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. He created them from nothing, and I testify to that truth. By God, I shall outwit your

idols after you have gone away and turned your backs. Then he smashed the idols into pieces, all except the large one, so that they might turn to it. And they said, when they had returned, Who has done this to our gods? Surely it must be some mischief-maker. They said, We have heard a youth talk of them. His name is Abraham. They said, Then bring him before the eyes of the people, so that they might bear witness. When Abraham was there, they said, Is it you who has done this to our gods, O Abraham? He said, Nay, this idol, the greatest among them, has done it. So ask them if they can speak."

Abraham and the Kaaba

Really the Quran's main interest in Abraham revolves around his foundation of the primordial house of divine worship. The Kaaba in Mecca. Some Muslim historians affirm that Adam himself worshipped in that place after being forgiven by God for having eaten of the forbidden fruit in paradise. But Abraham was the first actually to build a temple on that spot.

Quran 2:125-128:

"And we made the house, the Kaaba, a place of gathering for all mankind and a sanctuary. Adopt the place where Abraham stood as a place of worship. And we commanded Abraham and Ishmael to purify our house for those who walk around it and those who meditate in it and those who bow down and prostrate. And when Abraham prayed, My Lord, make this city a city of peace and bestow fruits upon its people, such of them as believe in God and the last day. And when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the house, they prayed, Our Lord, accept from us this act. You are indeed the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. Our Lord, and make us submitters to you, Muslims, and raise from among our offspring a community who will be submitters to you."

This prayer then goes on to show Abraham asking God to send the Prophet Muhammad:

"Our Lord, and raise up from among them a messenger who shall recite your revelations to them and teach them the scripture and the wisdom and purify them. You are the All-Powerful, the Wise."

Islam and Christianity: The Question of Jesus

As I mentioned, Judaism has rejected his claims to Messiahhood. Islam has accepted them. However, Jesus is viewed very differently by Islam and by traditional Orthodox Christianity.

Quranic References to Christianity:

Sometimes its references are favorable. Sometimes they're quite reproachful. For instance, Quran 2:62:

"Those who believe, i.e. the Muslims and those who are Jews and the Christians and the Sabians, whoever believes in God and the last day and acts uprightly, they shall have their reward from their Lord."

Another verse reads, Quran 5:82:

"You'll find the closest in love to the believers to be those who say we are Christians. That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not proud."

The Quranic Jesus

The Annunciation in the Quran (19:16-34):

"Mentioned in the book Mary, when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place, she took in front of them a veil. Then we sent her to our spirit, who appeared to her as a man without fault. She said, I seek refuge in the merciful God from you if you fear God. He said, I am but the messenger of God to bestow upon you a pure son. She said, how may I have a son when no man has touched me and I was not unchaste? He said, thus shall it be. Your Lord has said, it is easy for me. That we may make him a sign unto the people and a mercy from us. It is the same decree."

The Nativity:

"And the pains of childhood drove her to the trunk of the palm tree. She cried, would that I had died before this and had been a thing forgetting, forgotten. Then he called her from beneath her. Grieve not, the Lord has set before you a stream. Shake towards you the trunk of the palm and it will drop moist, ripe dates upon you."

Jesus Speaks from the Cradle:

"Inni Abdullah, I am God's servant. He has given me the book and made me a prophet. He has made me blessed wherever I may be."

The Islamic Position on Jesus' Divinity:

"O people of the book, be not extreme in your religion and speak of God only the truth. The Messiah, son of Mary, is only the messenger of God and his word which he placed in Mary and a spirit from him. So believe in God and his messengers and do not say three. Cease, it is better for you. God is only one God. Far exalted is he above having a son."

The Denial of Crucifixion (Quran 4:157-158):

"They, the Jews, did not kill him. They did not crucify him, but it was made to seem so to them. Those who differ about him are in doubt concerning him. They have no knowledge about him, but follow mere opinion. Certainly they did not kill him, but God raised him to himself."

Historical Muslim-Christian Interaction

The Muslims armed with this new scripture immediately and apparently miraculously conquered most of the Christian world within a few decades. And they found themselves suddenly ruling not just one but very many Christian denominations.

The great church of Byzantium, the official denomination of the Byzantine Empire which had ruled most of these countries before the Muslims appeared on the scene, upheld the formula that had been agreed on in the early 5th century at the Council of Chalcedon, which was the formula of God having one substance but three hypotheses.

However, but in much of the Near East this great church was actually a minority creed. Most Christians didn't accept it. Most Egyptians and a lot of Syrians, these are the Copts and the Jacobites respectively, followed Monophysite doctrine which held that Christ's divine and human nature were completely fused.

This adversarial situation amongst Near Eastern Christians really opened the door to large scale conversions to Islam. For years abstract hair-splitting divisions over the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father or the similarity of Christ's substance to that of the Father had exhausted Christian resources.

And no doubt there were plenty of people who privately had grown disillusioned with the whole debate. And I think this is one reason why the Companions of the Prophet, when they arrived on the scene, found Near Easterners, whether Arab or non-Arab, very sympathetic listeners to this new and simple conception of God.

So there followed the extraordinary story of the mass apostasy of Near Eastern Christians to Islam, the only great Christian apostasy in history in fact. More interestingly still, one that took place without duress.

Conclusion

So to sum up then, the Quran affirms Jesus but as prophet and as Messiah rather than as God. Key aspects of his gospel ministry like his preaching of the imminence of the kingdom of God, are absent entirely. But Islam's Jesus is always Jesus the man. The wandering ascetic prophet of Galilee who affirms the law and is sent only to Israel.

The Muslims armed with this new scripture immediately and apparently miraculously conquered most of the Christian world within a few decades, finding themselves suddenly ruling not just one but very many Christian denominations. Throughout the medieval period, the most consistent and detailed dialogue between two religious cultures has been that which took place between Christianity and Islam.

In the pre-modern period, by far the most consistent and detailed dialogue or literary interaction between two religious cultures has been that which took place between Christianity and Islam, with Islam presenting a comprehensive understanding of both Judaism and Christianity within its own theological framework.

Closing Dua

"Our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the next world, and save us from the punishment of the Fire." (Quran 2:201)

"And the last of our prayer is that all praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds."

"May Allah reward you with good."