Where Islam and Judaism Join Together

A Perspective on Reconciliation

Shai Har-El

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781137388124
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Religion

Introducing a framework to generate new conversations about inter-religious dialogue and create a community of religions, Shai Har-El argues that Islam and Judaism, sister religions, are closely related to one another with roots intertwined in the land, in the language, and in the memories of shared history.

Part I

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Two Religions, One Faith

Chapter 1

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The Gate of Unity

We Are Bound Together—an Appeal to Muslims

As the president of the Middle East Peace Network (MEPN), I was invited on December 12, 1993, to address the congregants of The Islamic Center of Michigan City, Indiana (see a new report in Appendix 2). The following edited version of this sermon is dedicated to the inviter, the late Hajj Anwar Zainal, a good friend, a wise man, and a spiritual devotee, who served in the leadership team of MEPN in its early days and contributed immensely to the understanding between Islam and Judaism.

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Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm, al-Ḥamdulillāh Rabbi-l-‘Ālamīn (In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, Praise be to God, Sovereign of the Universe).

Brothers and sisters, distinguished friends:

As a Jew, I am deeply honored by the gracious invitation extended to me to address such a gathering of devout Muslims. As a longtime student of Islamic studies and an ardent devotee of peace in the Middle East, I deem your place of worship to be the most appropriate forum to talk about the Islamic central doctrine of tawḥīd—the Oneness of God—and its relationship to the ideal of peace. I use the words of Moses cited in the Qur’ān as a prayer: “O my Lord! Expand me my heart, ease my task for me, and loose a knot from my tongue, so they [you] may understand whatever I say.”¹

In its broad definition, the doctrine of tawḥīd, in my opinion, is composed of three concentric circles: first, the inner most core of our being, the source of all things, is the Unity of God; second comes the Unity of Faith (Arabic: waḥdat al-’īmān); third is the outer circle, the Unity of Mankind (Arabic: waḥdat an-nās). These three circles are not separate, but are part of the whole with God as the Ultimate Source. In the case of Jews and Muslims, we may add another circle, the Unity of Kinship (Arabic: waḥdat an-nasab) that can explain the ancestral relationship between them.

Indeed mankind is divided into different religions; some are monotheistic and some are not. What concerns us here are the three monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—whose doctrine is based on divine revelation (Arabic: waḥy), the starting point for each of the three religions. One word about the Islamic term “People of the Book” (Arabic: ahl al-kitāb), commonly used of the Jews and Christians, who, like the Muslims, each received their own book of revelation, the Torah and the Gospels respectively. This term is not originally Islamic. Because of the giving of the Torah to the People of Israel, they have always been called worldwide the “People of the Book” (Hebrew: ‘am ha-sēfer), a nation I am proud to belong to.

In spite of the theological differences between all three monotheistic religions, the Qur’ān repeatedly reminds Muslims of five common elements that bond them with members of their sister religions:

1. The creedal element—the common belief in One God.

2. The human element—the common bond with Adam, the primordial man.

3. The ethical element—the common principle that piety, righteousness, and morality are the only criteria for a fair judgment of people.

4. The historical element—the common link to one ancestor, Abraham, and to a chain of the same holy prophets.

5. The cooperative element—the common ground for a dialogue.

I am not here to elaborate on the creedal element. As we all know, the first and foremost tenet and guiding principle of Islam—and of all the three Great Religions—is the Oneness of God. Our declarations of faith: both my Shemā‘ (“Adonāi ’Elohēinu Adonāi’Eḥād—the Lord is our God, the Lord is One”) and your Shahādah (“lā ilāha illā Allāh—there is no God but Allah”) proclaim the infinite Unity of God. As a practicing Jew, I pray three times a day, “He is our God, there is none else; truly He is our King, there is nothing besides Him.”² So my God is your God. The Qur’ān says: “God is our Lord and your Lord” (“Allāhu rabbunā wa-rabbukum”).³ The Arabic word for “Lord,” rabb, used in the Bismillāh blessing, is etymologically related to the Hebrew word ribbōn, meaning “Sovereign.” In Shmonēh ‘Esrēh (“Eighteen Benedictions”), the silent standing prayer I say throughout the week, I thankfully acknowledge that “You [God] are the Lord our God and God of our fathers, the God of all flesh.”⁴ The word “flesh,” meaning humankind, is etymologically related in both sister languages—it is basār in Hebrew and bashar in Arabic. Here is another similarity: The common Arabic phrase Allāhu Akbar, usually translated as “God is Great” or “God is [the] Greatest” and recited by Muslims as a call for prayer, reminds us of the Psalms-based opening prayer recited by Jews at the Welcoming of Sabbath (Qabbalāt Shabbāt): “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout for joy to Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.”⁵

What I want to concentrate on today, however, is the unity of mankind—the human aspect of the Unity of God, the ethical dimension of monotheism—a cardinal yet sometimes forgotten principle, introduced by Prophet Muhammad to all human beings.

The Human Element

Although Jews and Muslims trace their genealogy to the Patriarch Abraham, the Bible begins with the story of the creation of Man. This shows that a long genealogical chain connects us all to the deepest roots of humanity, even before the history of civilization had begun.

In his farewell sermon on Mount Arafat, near Mecca, just before he died, Prophet Muhammad spoke on the equality of mankind: “O Mankind! Your Lord is One and you have but One Father. You all descended from Adam, and Adam was made of clay. Surely, the noblest among you in the eyes of God is the one with the most righteous conduct. None is superior to another [ . . . ] except with God-fearing (taqwā).”⁶

Sometimes, we hear the offensive remark “the enemies of God,” when referring to another religious community. I ask you: if God, as we know Him, is the All-Father, can He have enemies? “Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?” asked Prophet Malachi.⁷ And if God is indeed Almighty and All-Powerful, why should He be afraid of enemies among the humans?

As you all know, the Qur’ān calls upon mankind as a whole, saying: “O Mankind! Your Lord Who created you from one soul (min nafsi waḥidati).”⁸ The Arabic word for “mankind,” nās, is etymologically related to the Hebrew word ’enōsh. The Qur’ān also says: “He who has made everything which He has created so fine: He began man from clay; then He made His progeny by creating from an extract of discarded water; next He fashioned him and breathed some of His own spirit into him.”⁹

With these words, the Qur’ān reinforces two interrelated ideas: one, that we all come from one single source, Adam, whom God fashioned to His liking and breathed into him His own spirit; and two, that God recognizes the sanctity of each individual human being and each individual life, because we all carry His spirit.

This reminds me of an Islamic legend about Adam’s creation told by Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyā’ (“Stories of the Prophets”), an Islamic text compiled by the thirteenth-century Turkish judge Al-Rabghūzī. The legend has it that God commanded Angel Izrael (‘Izra’īl), after Angels Gabriel and Michael failed in their missions, to go down to Earth and bring back a handful of soil. He also ordered him to gather soil from all parts of the Earth, from its east and west, from its valleys and mountains, in order to create a new creature to rule, as His deputy, over His creation. As for the soil, the legend continues, some of it was pure and some of it salty, some sweet, some bitter, some of it black and white, some was yellow and green, red and blue, hard and soft, clean and unclean. So are the children of Adam, who inherited all these properties. This is why, the legend explains, they do not resemble one another.¹⁰ Similarly, an ancient Jewish legend tells that God gathered soil (in Hebrew, “soil,” adamāh, has the same root as “man” adām) from the four corners of the world and mixed it with water of all the seas to create one human being, so that no one could claim superiority over another.¹¹ We, the family of mankind, are all descended from one Adam. Unsurprisingly, the word “Adam” in both Hebrew and Arabic does not come in plural; human beings are called “sons of Adam” (bnai Adām in Hebrew; banū Ādam in Arabic). Like God, Adam is one—the true foundation of the unity of mankind.

In His wisdom, God spread mankind into different countries and climates and developed different languages, as told b...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction: Jerusalem’s Gate of Mercy as a Context
• Prologue: Our Father Avrahām/’Ibrāhīm
• Part I   Two Religions, One Faith
• Part II   Two Communities, One Ancestor
• Part III   Two Issues, One Resolution
• Appendix 1: Parallels between Jewish and Islamic Systems of Law
• Appendix 2: Seeking Unity in Diversity Article
• Appendix 3: The Chapter on Peace: A Jewish Sacred Text
• Appendix 4: First Alexandria Declaration of the Religious Leaders of the Holy Land, January 21, 2002
• Appendix 5: A Muslim’s Commentary on Qur’ānic Support of Intolerance and Violence
• Notes
• Glossary
• Selected Readings
• Index