… I am an
orthodox Jew, and my views are that of an orthodox Jew. I write from a
historical perspective, not a theological one. I do not debate, but share my
attempts to reconstruct how a 7th century Jew would have understood Islam, the
Prophet (pbuh), and the context of God's message in the Qur'an. ….
… while I generally stress the commonalities of
Islam and Judaism, and where the literature of one can help throw light,
context and understanding on the teachings of the other, what you say directly
derives from a difference between Islam and Judaism.
Historically
speaking, it is my opinion that starting around the time of Ibn Hazm and the
great debates between Islam and Christianity, Islam began to view itself as the
only righteous path and all others were corrupted and abrogated. This indeed is
a Christian teaching about Judaism, and Ibn Hazm used this same argument
against Christianity. The concept of abrogation was for the first time applied
not only to Judaism and Christianity, even to the Qur'an itself. Ayat such as
Surat Al-Baqara 2,62 had to be abrogated in favor of other ayat like Surat
Al-Emran 3,85. Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Kathir, followed Ibn Hazm on these points.
However, Judaism
never underwent this change. It has from the beginning stressed that there is
only one proper religion for all mankind, Noahism. The differences in religion
are due to simultaneous, multiple covenants. In this sense, Muslims who follow
their religion properly have been ruled by our sages to following a perfect
faith, complete in every way, guaranteed a portion in the world to come. In
this sense proper Muslims and Jews are following the same religion with
different customs. We believe that God will, in the end, explain our
differences.
Of course
Judaism is strongly against mixing customs. One cannot, and is in fact
forbidden, to keep multiple covenants (shari'at) at the same time. This does
not mean that Judaism has taught there is no value in one covenant for another
faith community. Indeed Rabbi Benamozegh, (of whose school of thought I
follow), explained that Judaism views other proper religions like workers
building a great palace. An electrician, cannot and should not, interfere with
the bricklayers. And the bricklayers, cannot and should not interfere with the
architects. But all are needed to create the palace, and without the
contribution of each one it would be impossible to complete the work.
This is the
view of Talmudic Judaism. This is not the view of Islam at least since Ibn
Hazm. As a Rabbinical historian, I believe great value can be obtained by
cross-referencing authentic scriptural and historical traditions. …
