Comparison Of Judaism And Islam Essay Research

Comparison Of Judaism And Islam Essay, Research Paper

Comparison of Judaism and Islam

Because of the history of political and religious warfare that has separated them, the underlying unity of Judaism, and Islam is seldom recognized except by scholars. Yet these two great world religions have the same origins, the same central belief in monotheism, and to a large extent the same genealogical and scriptural authorities. It is in a greater sense a tale of two sons or two brothes. It is not surprising that these religions should share a common belief of creation and patriarchy, since the roots of these two are to be found in the basin of Mesopotamia, in the “Fertile Crescent” of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. There, in the ancient civilization of Sumeria, the descent of the Patriarchs of the Bible can be traced to an historical basis:

“Abraham was probably born in the Sumerian City of Ur four thousand years ago a scholar invented a label for the descendents of Shem; he called them Semites.” (Chaim Potok, p.23)

The story of Abraham and Sarah is the basis of the real distinction between the religions of the Semitic peoples; from their two sons are descended the patriarchy of the Hebrew and Arab peoples. The question of descent and the patriarchy is basic to any understanding of the origins of Judaism and Islam. God promised Abraham that he would have a son. In their old age Abraham and Sarah had yet to conceive this promise. According to ancient Mesopotamian law, a man could have many wives, and if a legitimate wife could not bear him children, he could take a servant as a wife. Sarah was barren, so according to custom and law she gave her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abraham to bear his children; and a son was born. However, this went against the promise of God to Abraham. As promised Sarah miraculously gives birth to a son as well, and a rift develops between these two brothers for what would be their birthright. Sarah orders Hagar and her son Ishmael cast out:

“But God appears to Hagar as she sits a distance from the child, in despair, unable to endure watching him die. God promises to make Ishmael father of a great nation. The boy is saved. Arab nations claim descent from Ishmael.” (Chaim Potok, p.32)

Similarly, God intervenes to save Sarah’s son Isaac from the sacrificial knife of Abraham in the famous test of his faith. The Hebrew people claim descent from Isaac. In this paper, I will examine the beliefs and practices of Judaism, and Islam, with the view that these two “brothers” common origins and ideas are more significant than their obvious differences.

Starting with Judaism we see Abraham is regarded by his people as the first Jew, however a better case can be made for regarding Moses as the founder of Judaism. Born in roughly the 14th century B.C.E., Moses was raised in anonymity in the court of the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I, having been saved from a decree ordering the death of all new-born Hebrew males. Moses thus had an Egyptian upbringing, and the basic belief in a universal God that some say may have been related to the experimental monotheism of an earlier pharaoh, Akhenaton:

“About a century before Moses, the pharaoh of an Egypt swollen with the spoils of empire envisioned a single god, one natural force at work upon the suffocating multiplicity of gods and men… His name was cursed; his god was obliterated. There can be no connection between that pharaoh and the man tending the flock in the wilderness – other than that both are of the same species, both reached for a unity beyond the wearying kaleidoscope we wake to each morning.”

(Encyclopedia Britannica, p.165)

Perhaps there is no connection, but it should be remembered that currents of monotheism were running in the ancient world outside Mesopotamia and Judea. Moses’ claim as the founder of Judaism is based on his role as a prophet of God, as receiver of the tablets of law, which form the basis of the Jewish covenant or pact with God. The Mosaic Law is the ethical basis of Judaism, and its belief in a single, universal God is based on the revelations of the supernatural God with the human prophet Moses. A definition of Judaism in the Encyclopedia Britannica observes the following:

“By emphasizing the difference between the human and divine natures…. Judaism differs from other creeds which also stress the Unity of God, e.g., Unitarianism and Islam, for these faiths assign to Jesus and Mohammed respectively a higher grade than that which Judaism concedes to Moses. On the other hand, Judaism differs from theoretical systems of ethics by reason of its historical, ceremonial and racial elements.” (Encyclopedia Britannica, p.166)

Specifically, Moses is regarded not simply as a prophet of God to whom the Law was revealed, but also as a liberator of the Hebrew peoples; as such, he is an historical figure and not a superhuman one.

The covenant with God that Moses reveals to the Hebrew peoples, after having spoken face to face with God declares them to be the “chosen people of God.” This belief remains the center of the Jewish religion today. The Mosaic covenant has had to be periodically renewed, as it was during the more than one thousand years between the time of Moses and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. This means not only the continuing adherence to the Law, (which was based on the earlier Noachia