Muhammed was already then obsessed with this allegation because he wanted to show the Meccans that Islam is an original, independent religion with no connection to Judaism and Christianity, so he created this idea that Islam is the religion of truth while Judaism and Christianity are religions of falsehood.
Not too long ago I mentioned on Facebook that I didn’t agree with the present worldview that there are three Abrahamic religions with the implicit understanding that they are similar in their views. The blowback was swift and not terribly respectful. Who did I think I was to say such things? I look at the three religions as they are practiced, today, and see more differences than commonalities. And those differences begin at the very beginning when Islam did its best to separate itself from Judaism and Christianity.
I am not alone in this view. Sociologist Peter L. Berger wrote that 70 years ago scholars said it was artificial to substitute “a fuzzy commonality for the sharp differences” between Judaism and Christianity. Likewise with the “Abrahamic” concept:
“The way in which the Quran interprets Judaism and Christianity is hardly compatible with the self-understanding of these religions.”
Jon Levenson, the prominent professor of Jewish studies at Harvard Divinity School, in his “Inheriting Abraham” (Princeton, 2012) shared important differences:
“For Judaism, Abraham is the first Jew, both biologically and spiritually. For Christianity, he is the father of all believers who prefigures faith in Jesus Christ. For Islam, he is neither Jew nor Christian but a Muslim and forefather of its one true faith.”
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Görmez announced that Islam was brought to the world by Allah to correct the “distortions” of Judaism and Christianity. At the center of Judaism, he said, was “material, money and wealth.” Christianity, he asserted, took the opposite, albeit equally “wrong,” interpretation of the divine, as it “came up with an understanding that denigrated the world and deemed property and wealth almost forbidden [haram].”
In the beginning… Islam did its best to separate itself from Judaism and Christianity.
The Hebrew Bible is a book about how to become a compassionate person in a compassionate society through the revelation of commandments; obligations one to another. The Jewish family begins with Abraham who was born in Ur Kasdim in Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq) then moved with his father to Haran (today’s northern Syria/southern Turkey). It was there that God instructed him to go to Canaan, the Promised Land, which will become the Land of Israel.
Christianity incorporated the Hebrew Bible as part of the canonical Christian Scriptures but abrogated Jewish law in favour of a “Universal gospel” for all humanity encapsulated in the teaching “Love thy neighbor as thyself” and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” In Matthew 5:17, Jesus assured His audience on the mount that He had not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; rather, He had come to fulfill them. Then, in verse 18, Jesus emphasizes the eternal nature of God’s Word:
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (KJV).
The Quran is the Islamic sacred book believed to be the word of God as dictated to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel and written down in Arabic. The Koran consists of 114 units of varying lengths, known as suras ; the first sura is said as part of the ritual prayer. These touch upon all aspects of human existence, including matters of doctrine, social organization, and legislation.
The stories in the Quran differ from those told in the Hebrew Bible particularly with regards to Abraham and his family. Islam declares that “prophet Ibrahim” (Abraham) built the Kaaba in Mecca with his son Ishmael and that Muhammad is Ishmael’s descendant. Yet there is no mention in the Hebrew Bible of Abraham ever going to Saudi Arabia. There is no reliable way to prove Muhammad descended from Ishmael. And that makes the connection to Abraham rather tenuous. Islam also claims that Abraham built a house of worship in Jerusalem “known as The House Of Allah (God), or Beteyel.” And Islam declares that Isaac worshiped in Beteyel “but also made journeys to Kaba [Kaaba} in Makkah [Mecca] for Haji (Pilgrimage) as did Ibrahim.” Again there is nothing in the Hebrew Bible.
We do know that Isaac never left the land of Israel. Genesis (26: 2) And the Lord appeared to him [Isaac], and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land that I will tell you.”
And then there is the story of the sacrifice of Isaac which the Muslims declare was really Ishmael, Abraham’s son by Hagar, his concubine. They believe that the Bible supports this by its declaration that Abraham offered his only son. Well, Ishmael was Abraham’s only son; but only for 13 years(Genesis 16:16, 21:5). And the Hebrew Bible names that only son as Isaac.
“After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here am I.’ He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you’.” (Genesis 22:1-2, R.S.V.).
Eleven times the Quran mentions that Muhammad was depicted as a plagiarist who stole the material from Jews and Christians.
Mordechai Kedar, Israeli scholar of Arabic culture and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University with a Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University recently noted, “Islam and Muslims are obsessed with Judaism. Muhammad was accused that all of the Quran was a copy and paste from Jewish sources. The people of Mecca actually accused him that the whole Quran that he brought to them was nothing more than “asatir al awalin”, a copy of the stories from the first ones. This expression recurs in the Quran no less than eleven times. Eleven times the Quran mentions that Muhammad was depicted as a plagiarist who stole the material from Jews and Christians.
Muhammed was already then obsessed with this allegation because he wanted to show the Meccans that Islam is an original, independent religion with no connection to Judaism and Christianity, so he created this idea that Islam is the religion of truth while Judaism and Christianity are religions of falsehood.
So tell me again how is Islam related to Judaism and Christianity?
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
