Islam and Judaism

The historical interaction of Judaism and Islam started in the 7th century AD with the origin and spread of Islam in the Arabian peninsula. Because Islam has its foundation in JudaismPrager, D; Telushkin, J. Why the Jews?: The Reason for Antisemitism. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983. page 110-126. and share a common origin in the Middle East through Abraham, both are considered Abrahamic religions. There are many shared aspects between Judaism and Islam: Islam is similar to Judaism in its fundamental religious outlook, structure, jurisprudence and practice.Jewish-Muslim Relations, Past & Present, Rabbi David Rosen Because of this, as well as through 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.
==Religious figures==
thumb|150px|left|The Cave of the Patriarchs, burial place of Abraham.
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, one of the sons of Noah. Enemies were often said to be descendants of his cursed brother Ham. Modern historians confirm the affinity of ancient Hebrews and Arabs based on characteristics that are usually transmitted from parent to child, such as genes and habits, however the most well studied criterion is that of language. Similarities between Semitic languages (including Hebrew and Arabic) and their differences with those spoken by other adjacent people confirm the common origin of Hebrews and Arabs among other Semitic nations.The religion of Semites, ch 1
Around the 16th century BC, Judaism developed as the first major monotheistic religion. According to Jewish tradition, the history of Judaism begins with the Covenant between God and Abraham, who is considered a Hebrew. (The first Hebrew being Eber, a forefather of Abraham.) The Hebrew Bible occasionally refers to Arvi peoples (or variants thereof), translated as "Arab" or "Arabian". The Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula are considered descendants of Ismael, the first son of Abraham. While the commonly-held view among most Westerners and some lay Muslims is that Islam originated in Arabia with Muhammad's first recitations of the Qur'an in the 7th century CE, the Qur'an itself asserts that it was Abraham who is the first Muslim (in the sense of believing in God and surrendering to God and God's commands). Islam also shares many traits with Judaism (as well as with Christianity), like the belief in and reverence for common prophets, such as Moses and Abraham,Genesis 20 who are recognized in both faiths.
===Abraham===
Judaism and Islam are known as "Abrahamic religions".Sources for the following are:
*J.Z.Smith 98, p.276
*Anidjar 2001, p.3 The first Abrahamic religion was Judaism as practiced in the wilderness of the Sinai peninsula subsequent to the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt and continuing as the Hebrews entered the land of Canaan to conquer and settle it. The kingdom eventually split into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah prior to the Babylonian Exile, at the beginning of the 1st millennium CE. The firstborn son of Abraham, Ishmael, is considered by Muslims to be the Father of the Arabs. Abraham's second son Isaac is called Father of the Hebrews. In Islamic tradition Isaac is viewed as the grandfather of all Israelites and the promised son of Abraham from his barren wife Sarah. In Hadith, Muhammad says that some forty thousands prophets and messengers came from Abraham's seed, most of these was from Isaaq, and that the last one in this line was Jesus. In the Jewish tradition Abraham is called Avraham Avinu or "Our Father Abraham". For Muslims, he is considered an important prophet of Islam (see Ibrahim) and the ancestor of Muhammad through Ishmael. Abraham is called the Father of all Prophets by Muslims and is regarded as one of the main five prophets of Islam alongside Noah, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed
===Muhammad===
In the course of Muhammad's proselytizing in Makkah/Mecca, he initially viewed Christians and Jews (both of whom he referred to as "People of the Book") as natural allies, sharing the core principles of his teachings, and anticipated their acceptance and support. Muhammad was very excited to move to Medina, where the Jewish community there had long worshiped the one God.Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition, Lindsay Jones, Muhammad article, ISBN 0-02-865742-X
Muhammad related well to the Jews of Arabia and their religious practices and ideas deeply influenced him. Muhammad saw himself as another Moses, and Moses is mentioned in the Qur'an over 100 times. He eventually became so affected by the uncompromising nature or Judaism's monotheism that he came to reject the Christian trinity as polytheism: "Unbelievers are those that say 'Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary'...Unbelievers are those that say, 'Allah is one of three.'"Qur'an 5:71-73 Jewish law also deeply influenced Muhammad, and in the early days of Islam, Muslim prayed in the direction of Jerusalem, the Jews' holy city, and observed Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. It was only later, when Muhammed reluctantly concluded that the Jews would not embrace him as their prophet and convert to Islam that he substituted Mecca for Jerusalem and the fast of Ramadan for Yom Kippur.
Many Medinans converted to the faith of the Meccan immigrants, particularly pagan and polytheist tribes, but the Jews did not convert. Much to Muhammad's disappointment, the Jews rejected his claim to prophethood.Esposito, John. 1998. Islam: the Straight Path, extended edition. Oxford university press, p.17 One major factor in this rejection was Muhammed's ignorance of the Torah. He had never read it -- he had only heard Bible stories -- and his references were often erroneous. For example, Sura 28:38 he has Pharaoh (from Exodus) ask Haman (from the Book of Esther) to erect the Tower of Babel (from the beginning of Genesis). Muhammed, like the founders of Christianity, suspended many Torah laws, invalidating him in the Jews' eyes.
Gerhard Endress states that Jewish opposition "may well have been for political as well as religious reasons".Gerhard Endress, Islam, Columbia University Press, p.29 According to Watt, "Jews would normally be unwilling to admit that a non-Jew could be a prophet" of Judaism.The Cambridge History of Islam, pp. 43-44 Muhammed exempted himself from his own laws by allowing himself more than four wives, and in Sura 4:34, instructs men to beat disobedient wives. As Walter Kaufman put it, "it must have struck the Jews as being a far cry from Amos and Jeremiah, and the Christians as rendering absurd the prophet's claim that he was superseding Jesus."Kaufman, W.. Religions in Four Dimensions. McGraw-Hill 1977. page 186.
Mark Cohen adds that Muhammad appeared "centuries after the cessation of biblical prophecy" and "couched his message in a verbiage foreign to Judaism both in its format and rhetoric." Mark R. Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, p. 23, Princeton University Press Maimonides, a Jew, referred to Muhammad as a false prophet. Moreover, Maimonides asserted that Muhammad's claim to prophethood was in itself what disqualified him, because it contradicted the prophecy of Moses, the Torah and the Oral Tradition. His argument further asserted that Muhammad being illiterate also disqualified him from being a prophet.ALLUSION TO MUHAMMAD IN MAIMONIDES' THEORY OF PROPHECY IN HIS GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED By Yehuda Shamir, University of Cincinnati
===Other Prophets===
Both regard many people as being prophets with exceptions.
Both unlike Christianity teach Eber, Job, and Joseph were prophets.Bereishit - Chapter 10 - Genesissays Joseph is extolled by the Rabbis for being well versed in the Torah, for being a prophet, and for supporting his brothersBava Batra 15b.]Prophet HudProphet YusufIslamTutor.com -> The Prophets Of Islam - A Referenced List However, according to one sage in Judaism the whole story attributed to Job was an allegory and Job never actually existed.http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=330&letter=J&search=Job#1 - "One of the amoraim expressed his opinion in the presence of Samuel b. Naḥmani that Job never existed and that the whole story was a fable (B. B. 15a)."http://www.donmeh-west.com/Job.shtml - "Job never was and never existed, but is only a parable." (Tr. Baba Bathra 15a)http://www.yutorah.org/_materials/SWeiss_102307.pdf "Job never existed and was never created, but was only a mashal [ie.a fictional tale]" (b.
Baba Bathra 15a). Those, on the other hand, who believe that he "existed and was
created" and that the story happened, do not know at what time and in what place he
lived." Rashi, a Jewish commentator on the Hebrew Scriptures quotes a text dating to 160CE, which is also quoted in the Talmud on his commentary on Genesis 10 to show that Eber was a prophet.
== Muhammad in the Old Testament==
Muslimshttp://www.islam101.com/religions/christianity/mBible.htm also believe that Muhammad is mentioned in the Old Testament according to this verse in the Quran:
""Those who follow the apostle, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures),- in the Law (Torah) ..." (Qur'anhttp://www.quranexplorer.com/quran/ 7:157).
They give evidence of this through this verse in Songs of Solomon (שיר השירים) In Hebrew "Song of Songs":
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song%20of%20Solomon%205:16&version=WLC
"חִכֹּו֙ מַֽמְתַקִּ֔ים וְכֻלֹּ֖ו מַחֲמַדִּ֑ים זֶ֤ה דֹודִי֙ וְזֶ֣ה רֵעִ֔י בְּנֹ֖ות יְרוּשָׁלִָֽם "
 
"Hikko mamithaqqim we-khullo mahamaddim zeh dhodihi wa-zeh re'i benoth Yerushalaim." (Songs of Solomon 5:16)
Although its translation in the English Bible is:
"His palate is most sweet; he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem."http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song%20of%20Solomon%205:16&version=KJV
Dr. Zakir Naik believes in that since the Hebrew language "im" is added for respect it is added to Prophet Muhammad's name becoming "muhammadin" and states "In English translation they have even translated the name of Prophet Muhammad as "altogether lovely", but in the Old Testament in Hebrew, the name of Prophet Muhammad is yet present.". In contrast to this lone opinion, though, this suggested mention of Muhammed is not only a contrived play on words but completely out of context, as the pronouns refer to the Beloved from the beginning of the paragraph (God), and Muhammed was not at Sinai.
== 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.
===Middle Ages===
In the Iberian Peninsula, under Muslim rule, Jews were able to make great advances in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, chemistry and philology.Cowling (2005), p. 265 This era is sometimes referred to as the Golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula.Poliakov (1974), pg.91-6 
Traditionally Jews living in Muslim lands, known (along with Christians) as dhimmis, were allowed to practice their religion and to administor their internal affairs but subject to certain conditions.Lewis (1984), pp.10,20 They had to pay the jizya (a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males) to Muslims. Dhimmis had an inferior status under Islamic rule. They had several social and legal disabilities such as prohibitions against bearing arms or giving testimony in courts in cases involving Muslims.Lewis (1987), p. 9, 27 Many of the disabilities were highly symbolic. The most degrading one was the requirement of distinctive clothing, not found in the Qur'an or hadith but invented in early medieval Baghdad under the less popular Shiite-Muslim rule; its enforcement was highly erratic.Lewis (1999), p.131 Jews rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion, and they were mostly free in their choice of residence and profession.Lewis (1999), p.131; (1984), pp.8,62 The notable examples of massacre of Jews include the killing or forcible conversion of them by the rulers of the Almohad dynasty in Al-Andalus in the 12th century.Lewis (1984), p. 52; Stillman (1979), p.77 Notable examples of the cases where the choice of residence was taken away from them includes confining Jews to walled quarters (mellahs) in Morocco beginning from the 15th century and especially since the early 19th century.Lewis (1984), p. 28 Most conversions were voluntary and happened for various reasons. However, there were some forced conversions in the 12th century under the Almohad dynasty of North Africa and al-Andalus as well as in Persia.Lewis (1984), pp.17,18,94,95; Stillman (1979), p.27
The medieval Volga state of Khazaria converted to Judaism, whereas its subject Volga Bulgaria converted to Islam
===Conversion of Jews to Islam===
A number of groups who converted from Judaism to Islam have remained Muslim, while maintaining a connection to and interest in their Jewish heritage. These groups include the anusim or Daggataun of Timbuktu who converted in 1492, when Askia Muhammed came to power in Timbuktu and decreed that Jews must convert to Islam or leave,Primack, Karen. "The Renewal of Jewish Identity in Timbuktu", kulanu.org. Retrieved November 12, 2006. and the Chala, a portion of the Bukharan Jewish community who were pressured and many times forced to convert to Islam.Abbas, Najam. "The Outsiders" (review of Chala (The Outcast) by Mansur Surosh Dushanb), kulanu.org, Retrieved April 16, 2007.
In Persia, during the Safavid dynasty of the 16th and 17th centuries, Jews were forced to proclaim publicly that they had converted to Islam, and were given the name Jadid-al-Islam (New Muslims). In 1661, an Islamic edict was issued overturning these forced conversions, and the Jews returned to practicing Judaism openly. Similarly, to end a pogrom in 1839, the Jews of Mashhad were forced to convert en masse to Islam. They practiced Judaism secretly for over a century before openly returning to their faith. At the turn of the 21st century, around 10,000 lived in Israel, another 4,000 in New York City, and 1,000 elsewhere.Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith, Schocken Books, New York, 1984, pp. 67-82. ISBN 0-8052-0759-7 (See Allahdad incident).
In Turkey, the claimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi was forced to convert to Islam in 1668.http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArtStEngPE.jhtml?itemNo=1083958&contrassID=2&subContrassID=11&title=%27Waiting%20for%20%20the%20Messiah%20%27&dyn_server=172.20.5.5 Most of his followers abandoned him, but several thousand converted to Islam as well, while continuing to see themselves as Jews. They became known as the Donmeh (a Turkish word for a religious convert). Some Donmeh remain today, primarily in Turkey.
 
Famous Jews like Jemima Khan and Michael Wolfe have also become Muslim.
More than 200 Israeli Jews converted to Islam between 2000 and 2008.http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3622958,00.html
===Conversion of Muslims to Judaism===
 
One famous Muslim who converted to Judaism was Ovadyah, famous from his contact with Maimonides.
Reza Jabari, an Iranian flight attendant who hijacked the air carrier Kish Air flight 707 between Tehran and the resort island of Kish in September 1995, and landed in Israel converted to Judaism after serving four-and-a-half years in an Israeli prison. He settled among Iranian Jews in the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat.Iranian Muslim converts to Judaism Another such case includes Avraham Sinai, a former Hezbollah fighter who, after the Israel-Lebanon War ended, fled to Israel and converted from Islam to become a religious and practicing Jew.http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/19530
Conversions from Islam to Judaism are quite rare in Israel.
===Contemporary era===
Iran contains the largest number of Jews among Muslim countries and Uzbekistan and Turkey have the next largest communities. Iran's Jewish community is officially recognized as a religious minority group by the government, and, like the Zoroastrians, they were allocated a seat in the Iranian parliament. In 2000 it was estimated that at that time there were still 30–35,000 Jews in Iran, other sources put the figure as low as 20–25,000.Report, Reuters, February 16, 2000, cited from Bahá'í Library Online. The Encyclopaedia Judaica estimated the number of Jews in Iran at 25,000 in 1996.
In present times, the Arab-Israeli conflict is a defining event in the relationship between Muslims and Jews. The State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, one day before the expiry of the British Mandate of Palestine. Not long after, five Arab countries – Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq – attacked Israel, launching the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. After almost a year of fighting, a ceasefire was declared and temporary borders, known as the Green Line, were instituted. Jordan annexed what became known as the West Bank and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations on May 11, 1949. During the course of the hostilities, 711,000 Arabs, according to UN estimates, fled or were expelled. (U.N. General Assembly Official Records, Fifth Session, Supplement No. 18, Document A/1367/Rev. 1) 1948 also saw a similar Jewish exodus from Arab lands "because of Arab persecution resulting from the very attempt to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.""Instead, the new arrivals were Oriental-Sephardic Jews from the Middle Eastern and North African countries—culturally, religiously, and racially very different from the Ashkenazi (European) founders of the state. And most Orientals came not for strong ideological reasons but because of Arab persecution resulting from the very attempt to establish a Jewish state." Dekmejian, R. Hrair. Patterns of Political Leadership: Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, SUNY Press, 1975, pp. 246-247. ISBN 087395291X
====Interfaith activities====
The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek has argued that the term Judeo-Muslim to describe the middle-east culture against the western Christian culture would be more appropriate in these days,Slavoj Zizek—A Glance into the Archives of Islam claiming as well a reduced influence from the Jewish culture on the western world due to the historical persecution and exclusion of the Jewish minority. (Though there is also a different perspective on Jewish contributions and influence.) 
A Judaeo-Christian-Muslim concept thus refers to the three main monotheistic religions, commonly known as the Abrahamic Religions. Formal exchanges between the three religions, modeled on the decades-old Jewish-Christian interfaith dialogue groups, became common in American cities following the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo accords. 
Following 9/11, there was a break-down in interfaith dialogue that included mosques, due to the increased attention to Islamic sermons in American mosques, that revealed “anti-Jewish and anti-Israel outbursts by previously respected Muslim clerics and community leaders.” 
One of the country's most prominent mosques is the New York Islamic Cultural Center, built with funding from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia. Its imam, Mohammad Al-Gamei'a, disappeared two days after 9/11. 
Back in Egypt, he was interviewed on an Arabic-language Web site, charging that the "Zionist media" had covered up Jewish responsibility for the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. He agreed with Osama bin Laden's accusations in bin Laden's Letter to America, claiming that Jews were guilty of "disseminating corruption, heresy, homosexuality, alcoholism, and drugs." And he said that Muslims in America were afraid to go to the hospital for fear that some Jewish doctors had "poisoned" Muslim children.
"These people murdered the prophets; do you think they will stop spilling our blood? No," he said.
 The interview was published October 4 on a Web site affiliated with Cairo's Al-Azhar University, Islam's most respected theological academy. Immediately after 9/11, Imam Al-Gamei'a had presided over an interfaith service at his mosque. At the service the imam was quoted as saying, "We emphasize the condemnation of all persons, whoever they be, who have carried out this inhuman act." The Reverend James Parks Morton, president of the Interfaith Center of New York, who attended the service, called Imam Al-Gamei'a's subsequent comments "astonishing." "It makes interfaith dialogue all the more important," Reverend Morton said.Doandio, Rachel and Julia Goldman
 
Post 9/11 remarks made by Muslim leaders in Cleveland and Los Angeles also led to the suspension of longstanding Muslim-Jewish dialogues. Some Jewish community leaders cite the statements as the latest evidence that Muslim-Jewish dialogue is futile in today's charged atmosphere. John Rosove, senior rabbi of Temple Israel of Hollywood, and other Jewish participants withdrew from the three-year-old Muslim-Jewish dialogue group after one of the Muslim participants, Salim al-Marayati, suggested in a radio interview that Israel should be put on the list of suspects behind the September 11 attacks.
In Cleveland, Jewish community leaders put Muslim-Jewish relations on hold after the spiritual leader of a prominent mosque appeared in (a 1991) videotape …aired after 9/11 by a local TV station. Imam Fawaz Damra calls for "directing all the rifles at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews." The revelation was all the more shocking since Imam Damra had been an active participant in local interfaith activities. 
Good Jewish-Muslim relations continue in Detroit, which has the nation's largest Arab-American community. Jewish organizations there have established good relations with a religious group called the Islamic Supreme Council of North America.
== Common aspects ==
There are many common aspects between Islam and Judaism. As Islam developed it gradually became the major religion closest to Judaism, both of them being strictly Monotheist religious traditions originating in a Semitic Middle Eastern culture. As opposed to Christianity, which originated from interaction between ancient Greek and Hebrew cultures, Islam is similar to Judaism in its fundamental religious outlook, structure, jurisprudence and practice. There are many traditions within Islam originating from traditions within the Hebrew Bible or from postbiblical Jewish traditions. These practices are known collectively as the Isra'iliyat.Islam and Judaism, Rabbi Justin Jaron Lewis 
===Holy scripture===
Islam and Judaism share the idea of a revealed Scripture. Even though they differ over the precise text and its interpretations, the Hebrew Torah and the Muslim Qur'an share a lot of narrative as well as injunctions. From this, they share many other fundamental religious concepts such as the belief in a day of Divine Judgment. Reflecting the vintage of the religions, the Torah is traditionally in the form of a scroll and the Qur'an in the form of a codex.
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. The Qur'an distinguishes between "People of the Book" (Jews and Christians), who should be tolerated even if they hold to their faiths, and idolaters (polytheists) who are not given that same degree of tolerance (See Al-Baqara, 256). Some restrictions for Muslims are relaxed, such as Muslim males being allowed to marry a woman from the "People of the Book" (Qur'an, 5:5), or Muslims being allowed to eat Kosher meat.Machine-slaughtered Meat, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari, eat-halal.com, retrieved March 23, 2006
===Religious law===
Judaism and Islam are unique in having systems of religious law based on oral tradition that can override the written laws and that does not distinguish between holy and secular spheres.Islam and Judaism - Influences Contrasts and Parallels, www.houseofdavid.ca In Islam the laws are called Sharia, In Judaism they are known as Halakha. Both Judaism and Islam consider the study of religious law to be a form of worship and an end in itself.
===Rules of conduct===
The most obvious common practice is the statement of the absolute unity of God, which Muslims observe in their five times daily prayers (Salah), and Jews state at least twice (Shema Yisrael), along with praying 3 times daily. The two faiths also share the central practices of fasting and almsgiving, as well as dietary laws and other aspects of ritual purity.
Under the strict dietary laws, lawful food is called Kosher in Judaism and Halal in Islam. Both religions prohibit the consumption of pork. Halal restrictions are similar to a subset of the Kashrut dietary laws, so many kosher foods are considered halal. 
Both Islam and traditional Judaism ban homosexuality and forbid human sexual relations outside of marriage (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, "The Meaning of the Quran, Volume 3", note 7-1, p. 241, 2000, Islamic Publications and necessitate abstinence during the wife's menstruation. Both practice circumcision for males.
===Other similarities===
Islam and Judaism both consider the Christian doctrine of the trinity and the belief of Jesus being God as explicitly against the tenets of monotheism. Idolatry, worshiping graven images, is likewise forbidden in both religions. Both believe in angels and demons (Sahtahn in Hebrew/Judaism and Al-Shai'tan in Arabic/Islam) (However, many Jews do not consider angels nor demons to be literal beings as stated by Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon) and many angels possess similar names and roles in both religions. Neither religion subscribes to the concept of original sin. Both view homosexuality as sinful. Narrative similarities between Jewish texts and the Hadith have also been noted. Both state Potiphar's wife was named Zuleika (In Islam's case, this is a result of Isra'iliyat influence).A Coat of Many Cultures 
There is a small bone in the body at the base of the spinal column called the Luz bone (known by differing traditions as either the coccyx or the seventh cervical vertebra) from which the body will be rebuilt at the time of resurrection, according to Muslims and Jews who share the belief that this bone does not decay. Muslims books refer to this bone as "^Ajbu al-Thanab" (عَجْبُ الذَّنَب). Rabbi Joshua Ben Hananiah replied to Hadrian, as to how man revived in the world to come, "From Luz, in the back-bone."
== 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.
===Saadia Gaon===
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 Mutakallimun 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===
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 and tutor 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 ben Judah, spoke in the highest terms of Ibn Roshd's commentary.
In a response, Maimonides discusses the relationship between Judaism and Islam:
The Ishmaelites are not at all idolaters; [idolatry] has long been severed from their mouths and hearts; and they attribute to God a proper unity, a unity concerning which there is no doubt. And because they lie about us, and falsely attribute to us the statement that God has a son, is no reason for us to lie about them and say that they are idolaters . . . And should anyone say that the house that they honor [the Kaaba] is a house of idolatry and an idol is hidden within it, which their ancestors used to worship, then what of it? The hearts of those who bow down toward it today are [directed] only toward Heaven . . . [Regarding] the Ishmaelites today - idolatry has been severed from the mouths of all of them [including] women and children. Their error and foolishness is in other things which cannot be put into writing because of the renegades and wicked among Israel [i.e., apostates]. But as regards the unity of God they have no error at all.
=== Influence on exegesis ===
Saadia Gaon's commentary on the Bible bears the stamp of the Mutazilites; 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.
Islamic commentary on the Qur'an, or tafsir, also draws heavily on Jewish sources. This is called Isra'iliyat.
== See also ==
===History===
*Al-Andalus
**Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain
*History of Islam
*History of Judaism
*History of the Jews under Muslim rule
===Culture===
*Arab Jews
*Sephardi Jews
*Mizrahi Jews
*The Hebrews
*Semitic peoples
*People of the Book
*Joint Jewish and Islamic philosophies
===Issues===
*Arab-Israeli Conflict
*Islam and antisemitism
*Persecution of Jews
*Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs
*Muslim Zionism
*Uzair, in surah 9:30 it says the Jews say Uzair (Ezra) is the son of God, this is the only time Uzair is mentioned in the Quran, this is a very controversial verse because non-Muslim scholars believe it is mere slander against the Jewish religion, and that no Jewish community has ever believed Ezra is the son of God for several reasons.
===Comparative religion===
*Comparative religion
*Christianity and Judaism
*Christianity and Islam
==Notes==
==References==
*Abbas, Zia (2007). "Israel: The History and how Jews, Christians and Muslims Can Achieve Peace". ISBN 0595426190
*Lewis, Bernard (1999). Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice. W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-31839-7
*Lewis, Bernard (1984). The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00807-8
*Lewis, Bernard , Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery, US: Oxford University Press (1995)
*
*
*Poliakov, Leon (1974). The History of Anti-semitism. New York: The Vanguard Press.
*Stillman, Norman (1979). The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. ISBN 0-8276-0198-0
*Stillman, Norman (2006). "Yahud". Encyclopaedia of Islam. Eds.: P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill. Brill Online
*Zuckermann Ghil'ad (2006). "'Etymythological Othering' and the Power of 'Lexical Engineering' in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. A Socio-Philo(sopho)logical Perspective", Explorations in the Sociology of Language and Religion, edited by Tope Omoniyi and Joshua A. Fishman, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 237–258. ISBN 90 272 2710 1
==External links==
*Islam and Judaism — Influences Contrasts and Parallels.
*Iranian Muslims Key to Pro-Israel Rally
*Iranian American Jews
*Study Regarding the Tawrat
*Ask Musa - explaining Judaism to Muslims.
*The Jewish Discovery of Islam by Martin Kramer
*References to Jews in the Koran
*Blaming the Jews - A documentary by David Aaronovitch on Anti-Semitism in the Muslim world.
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