20th Century Jewish Religious Thought: Original Essays on Critical Concepts, Movements, and Beliefs

Islam

Islalll Nissim Rejwan I slam, a monotheistic religion founded by Muhammad in the seventh century, is the system of beliefs and rituals based on the Koran. The term Islam is derived from the Arabic verb aslama (submit), denoting the attitude of the Muslim to God. Although the creed in its barest outline consists of the declaration "There is no god but God (Allah) and Muhammad is his prophet," Islam is a religion of both faith and works, faith being but one of the five pillars (arhan, singular, ruhn) that a believer should observe. In addition to faith, or iman, which consists of a recital of the creed, are salat, divine worship five times a day; zakat, payment of the legal alms; sawm, the month-long fast of Ramadan, and hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca. Like Judaism, Islam stresses the unity of God, and the Koran specifically rejects the concept of the Christian Trinity. God has revealed himself to man through prophets, starting with Adam and including Noah, Abraham, and others; but he has given books only to three of them-the Law (tawrat) to Moses, the Gospel (injil) to Jesus, and the Koran to Muhammad. Muham- 488 ISLAM mad, however, is the last of the prophets, the chosen instrument by which God sent the eternal message in its last and definitive form. The Jewish and Christian presence in Arabia, where Muhammad was born and grew up, and his travels, first with the uncle who raised him after he was orphaned and then on behalf of his wife Khadija, are generally considered the most crucial influences on Muhammad's life and on his mission. At the age of about forty, in the year 610, Muhammad received a divine call through the archangel Gabriel commanding him to assume the role of prophet, bearing a new message embodied in an Arabic Scripture. But the notables of Mecca, where he resided, looked askance at the man and his message, while the following he had managed to command there was too small to fulfill his expectations. The turning point, however, came in 622, when Muhammad accepted an invitation to come to Yathrib (later to be known as Medina). He arrived there with a number of followers, and this migration (hijra) marks the beginning of the Islamic era and the first year in the Muslim calendar. Establishing himself in Yathrib as a political as well as a spiritual leader, Muhammad soon became master of the situation, extending his control to Mecca itself, which he purged of idols and "infidels ." Jewish and Christian tribes in and around Medina were brought under tribute and delegations from Arab tribes came to declare allegiance and pay zakat. Indeed, at the time of his death in 632, Muhammad was the undisputed ruler of all Arabia. At the time of Muhammad's appearance a great number of Jews lived in Arabia; large-scale commercial relations between Arabia and Palestine had existed already in the days of Solomon. The Hebrew Bible contains a number of references to the close relationship between Arabs and Jews, and the Books of Job and Proverbs contain many Arabic words. Moreover, some paragraphs in the Mishnah refer specifically to the Jews of the Arabian Peninsula . While considering himself the Messenger of God and "the Seal of all the Prophets," Muhammad did not intend to establish Islam as a new religion . Rather, he regarded himself as sent by Allah to confirm the Scriptures. His basic contention was that God could not have omitted the Arabs from the revelations with which he had favored the Jews and the Christians, and subsequently he accused the Jews of deliberately deleting from their Bible predictions of his advent. Relations between Islam and Judaism can be dealt with under two main headings: Islam's indebtedness to Judaism and Muslim attitudes to Jews living in the realm of Islam. Concerning Judaic influences in Islam, there is a wealth of evidence to show the extent to which these have been deep and lasting. The very name for Islam's Scripture, Koran, while it may be a gen- ISLAM 489 uine Arabic word meaning "reading" or "reciting," is thought to be borrowed from the Hebrew or Aramaic mikra, used by the rabbis to designate the Scripture or Torah. Muhammad's principal Jewish source, however, was not the Bible but the later Haggadah, which was communicated to him by word of mouth. This is especially apparent in...