Comparison between Islam and Judaism

[mastermind1]

Asalam Aalaikum,

I have visited several Islamic discussion forums and I have only seen people talking about similarities between Islam and Christianity or making comparison betwen Islam and Christianity, now because of Dr.Zakir Naik, people are also discussing about similarities between Islam and Hinduism.

But what about Comparison between Islam and Jeudaism?
Why don't people especially Muslim Scholars discuss about similarities and differences between these two religions inspite of knowing the fact that Jeudaism is also a Semetic Religion like Islam and Christianity and a deviated picture of Abrahamic Tradition?

Allah(swt) mentions in Qur'an that we should invite the people of the book (Ahl-e-Kitab). Where does it says that we should only invite Christians and not jews?

Islam is a Universal Religion,a deen(way of life) for all the people,it is not only for Muslims and Christians but also for Jews since they also come under the title "Ahl-e-Kitab".

Please note that Jews are more closer to Muslims then Christians, that is because they do several things that Muslims do.

1)They believe in Tawhid(Oneness of Allah) unlike Christians who believe in Trinity.

2)They eat Halal meat(Kosher) unlike Christians who donot care about what meat they eat, they even eat pork which is not only strictly forbidden in Qur'an but also in Bible.

3)Orthodox Jews greet people by saying "Shalom Alaikum" which is a hebrew word that means "may peace be upon you". It is similar to what we say in Arabic "Asalam Aalaikum" ,although both Arabic and Hebrew are different languages but they are called sister languages because of several similarities between them.

Although Christians read the same old testament that jews read, but still they donot use this Hebrew phrase to greet people but instead use the word "Hello" ,"Good morning" or "Good afternoon".

What ever I have expressed are my personal understanding and opinion ,please donot take it to your heart, my intention is not to hurt any person. I hope that this thread will become a ground for academic dialog between Christians, Jews and Muslims.

I would appreciate if my brothers and non-muslim friends take part in this discussion.


Regards,

[Vajradhara]

well... b'shalom all


not much to say excepting that the so-called "Old Testament" as found in the Christian Bible is not the Torah of the Jewish faith tradition. some books are left out and others are reordered.

in any event.. hopefully, this will be a positive and productive thread.

metta,

~v

[Ratatosk]

Salam mastermind1,

Somehow I believe that we aren't graced by the presence of even one single adherent to judaism.

Regards,

[Ramsey]

I am sad to say, I have yet to study it myself.

But anyhow, I would imagine that there are less websites about the similarities between Judaism and Islam, simply because there are less Jews then Christians or Hindoes.

[mastermind1]

Asalam Aalaikum,

Their is one site where you can find information about jews who have embraced Islam.

www.jews-for-allah.org


Regards,

[The_Other_Admin]

mastermind1, www.jews-for-allah.org doesn't really provide a comparision between Judiasm and Islam. The site is intended to win converts.

Btw, Isaiah 29:12 is quoted out of context on page http://www.jews-for-allah.org/Muhammad-and-Judaism/

Read post on Isaiah 29:12: http://forums.understanding-islam.or...13&postcount=2

In short, God in Isaiah 29:12 is stating that people behave like blind and ignore whats written in the scripture; they follow the rules made by men (or/and themselves) rather than rules given to them by God.

[The_Other_Admin]

So far what I've studied in Judaism, Islam and Judaism is 99% the same except differences in the holy days and minor differences in the law e.g. dietary laws.

However, I'll try to call a Jew/Noahide here.

[The Shah]

I've been very interested in Judaism for as long as i was interested in researching on Islam. That's because Judaism seemed to me to be very similar to Islam.

Let's look at it in the viewpoint of the Jews. The thing is, just like Muslims, Jews have the mentality to stick to their religion; if they convert to another religion, to them that is murtad. They claim to be the Children of Israel, the Israelites who were led by Prophet Mosheh AS to freedom during the Exodus. They do fast, just like us. One of their main aims in Judaism is to create a Jewish Zion state. Some of their holy days include Sukkot, Hanukkah, the 10th of Tevet, Tub'Shvat, Purim and the Passover. God is Eloah to them, and Yahweh is how they recognize God. The messenger sent to them is Prophet Mosheh AS, the ketab sent down to them is the Torah, their Qiblah is towards Jerusalem, their house of God is the synagogue.

One thing i dont understand about Judaism is why it is called Judaism. Judaism is derived from Judah, one of the tribes of Israel. I mean, if they think their founder is Ibrahim, or Mosheh, don't u think it's better if it's are called 'Abrahamism' or 'Mosesism' or 'Israelism'? Better still, why name a religion after a founder? How about 'Yahwehism' or 'Elohism'? That's one distinct point between Muslims and Jews: Our religion is 'Islam', not 'Mohamedanism'.

Yo vaj. U say that 'the so-called "Old Testament" as found in the Christian Bible is not the Torah of the Jewish faith tradition. some books are left out and others are reordered'. Oh how true. The original Torah sent down by God to Mosheh can be safely associated with the first five books of the modern Old Testament: Bereshít [Genesis], Shemot [Exodus], VaYikra [Leviticus], 'BaMidBar' [Numbers] and Devarim [Deutronomy]. In fact, the books were not named when Mosheh taught them. The Hebrew names assigned to the books are in fact the first word/few words of the book itself.

The prophets in Judaism are also similar to Muslim prophets.
The prophets in the Quran that are mentioned in the Jewish Bible are:
Adam
Idris [Chanoch/Enoch]
Nuh [Noah]
Saleh [prob. Methushelah/Methuselah]
Ibrahim [Avraham/Abraham]
Luth [Lot]
Ismail [Yishma'el/Ishmael]
Ishaq [Yitshaq/Isaac]
Yaakub [Ja'aqob/Jacob/Israel]
Yusuf [Yoseph/Joseph]
Ayub [Ayyobh/Job]
Syu'aib [prob. Jethro]
Musa [Mosheh/Moses]
Harun [Aharon/Aaron]
Dzulkifli [prob. Yechezkel/Ezekiel]
Dawud [Dawidh/David]
Sulayman [Shelomo/Solomon]
Ilyas [Eliyahu/Elijah]
Ilyasa' [Elisha]
Yunus [Jonah]
Zakariyya [Zecharya/Zechariah]
Yahya [Yohanan/John]

Some prophets in the Jewish bible are:
Yehoshua/Joshua - the one who assisted Mosheh and Aaron
Samuel
Malachi
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Hosea
Amos
Obadiah
Nahum
Habakkuk
... and many more.

Jews also circumsize. It is said that Abraham AS circumsized to as a covenant with God. Oh yeah. Abraham, contradictory to what Jews and Christians believe, was a Muslim. He submitted to Allah, and his religion would be Islam. He could not be a Jew, because Judaism, as it name implies, came about after Prophet Israel's son Judah. He could not be a Christian, because Christianity is believing in Christ Jesus, and Jesus had not been born yet. If u say he is a Jew or Christian, then that means, mathematically, Islam = Judaism = Christianity.

The language of the Torah is Hebrew. The language of the Quran is Arabic. These languages are almost identical, in terms of sound. Eg. Alif=Aleph, Ba=Beth, Ta = Teth, Ha=Heh, Kha=Cheh, Dal=Daleth, Ra=Resh, Dzay=Zayin, Shin=Shin, Sodh=Sadhe, Thoh=Tav, Lam=Lamed, Mim=Mem, Nun=Nun, Waw=Vov, etc. Differences include arabic has 'j' sound but no hard 'g' sound as in 'ground', while hebrew has hard 'g' sound while no 'j' sound; and hebrew usually contains 'e' and 'o' vowels while arabic has 'a' and 'u' vowels.

Jews adhere to a strict dietary code called the 'Kosher', very similar to 'Halal' for Muslims. That is why we Muslims can eat the food served by Jews, because they slaughter the animal just like us, and ask God for permission before doing so.

All three religions believe in the Messiah. Muslims and Christians believe that the Messiah is Jesus, and Muslims believe that the Jews will believe in the Antichrist as the Messiah.

I hope you benefit from this, bros n sis. Jews and Muslims are similar to one another, but NOT the same. Jews believe that they are chosen, that Judaism is theirs alone, but Muslims believe that Islam is for all humanity.

Btw, i'm watching a National Geographic show right now called Inside 911: End Game. Did u know that during 9/11, a Jewish man helped a Muslim to safety. This proves that love transceeds all barriers, all around the world.

Amin/Amen.
Assalamu'alaikum/Shalom Alaykum.

PS: I may be looking for a Jewish rapper to collaborate with me on a hip-hop track on peace between Muslims, Jews and Christians.

[chokmah]

Shalom:

Chuck has invited me to come to this thread. Forgive me for any redundancies as I go through the posts on this thread to address topics or clarifications.

I should also mention that I am a Noachide. I am not fluent nor learned even slightly in Hebrew. Therefore, I will state what I don't know v. what I have learned. Hopefully, my posts will provide food for thought or at least some sort of consideration. If you find that my information is vastly different from that of Judaism; then by all means, bring it up and I will find out.

chokmah

[chokmah]

Please note that Jews are more closer to Muslims then Christians, that is because they do several things that Muslims do.

1)They believe in Tawhid(Oneness of Allah) unlike Christians who believe in Trinity.

2)They eat Halal meat(Kosher) unlike Christians who donot care about what meat they eat, they even eat pork which is not only strictly forbidden in Qur'an but also in Bible.

3)Orthodox Jews greet people by saying "Shalom Alaikum" which is a hebrew word that means "may peace be upon you". It is similar to what we say in Arabic "Asalam Aalaikum" ,although both Arabic and Hebrew are different languages but they are called sister languages because of several similarities between them.

All true above.

Although Christians read the same old testament that jews read, but still they donot use this Hebrew phrase to greet people but instead use the word "Hello" ,"Good morning" or "Good afternoon".

This is addressed by another subsequent post, but I'll go ahead and give my $0.02.

Differences between the Tanakh and the Christian "Old" Testament:

1) Tanakh is only from the Hebrew. Christian OT uses the Septuagint (Greek) and commentaries to determine the translations.
2) The Tanakh had 24 books, the Christian OT has 39. And the book order is even different.
3) There are variances between the two books, because of mistranslations, additions, subtractions and so forth.

[chokmah]

So far what I've studied in Judaism, Islam and Judaism is 99% the same except differences in the holy days and minor differences in the law e.g. dietary laws.

However, I'll try to call a Jew/Noahide here.

Some things to consider in this regard between Judaism and Islam (some obvious, some not so).

Islam (by Rambam/Maimonides) is a Noachide religion. Therefore, in that regard, Muslims are not commanded by G-d to be observant of Torah.

Btw, being Kashrut or Halal is perfectly fine for Noachides. I should make that point clear.

Different understanding of the progeny of Abraham.

Different understandings of the Tanakh.

Islam accepts Jesus as a prophet of G-d.

Islam accepts Muhammed as a prophet of G-d.

Judaism believes that prophesy ended (until the Messianic Age) with the deaths of the last prophets of the Tanakh.

There are probably more, but those are what come to mind right now.

Furthermore, I BELIEVE that Muslims can pray in a synagogue; but not a church. I'm not sure if the same is considered for Jews.

[chokmah]

their house of God is the synagogue.

Actually, it's the Temple. The synagogue is for study primarily.

One thing i dont understand about Judaism is why it is called Judaism. Judaism is derived from Judah, one of the tribes of Israel. I mean, if they think their founder is Ibrahim, or Mosheh, don't u think it's better if it's are called 'Abrahamism' or 'Mosesism' or 'Israelism'? Better still, why name a religion after a founder? How about 'Yahwehism' or 'Elohism'? That's one distinct point between Muslims and Jews: Our religion is 'Islam', not 'Mohamedanism'.

Jews is a name that has been given to Israel/Jacob. Just to make that clear.

The idea is this: Abraham was given the promise of being the "father of many nations". Isaac also had this promise given to him, and then it was concluded in Jacob. Jacob's name was changed to Israel, and thus the "Jews" are all based from this family line. Therefore, it's essentialy, the same as calling all Jews, "ben Israel". The religion of Israel is Judaism. I don't recall this ever being spoken in the Tanakh, and to be honest, I'm not aware of the history of this name. So, I can't comment right now on that.

The prophets in Judaism are also similar to Muslim prophets.
The prophets in the Quran that are mentioned in the Jewish Bible are:
Adam
Idris [Chanoch/Enoch]
Nuh [Noah]
Saleh [prob. Methushelah/Methuselah]
Ibrahim [Avraham/Abraham]
Luth [Lot]
Ismail [Yishma'el/Ishmael]
Ishaq [Yitshaq/Isaac]
Yaakub [Ja'aqob/Jacob/Israel]
Yusuf [Yoseph/Joseph]
Ayub [Ayyobh/Job]
Syu'aib [prob. Jethro]
Musa [Mosheh/Moses]
Harun [Aharon/Aaron]
Dzulkifli [prob. Yechezkel/Ezekiel]
Dawud [Dawidh/David]
Sulayman [Shelomo/Solomon]
Ilyas [Eliyahu/Elijah]
Ilyasa' [Elisha]
Yunus [Jonah]
Zakariyya [Zecharya/Zechariah]
Yahya [Yohanan/John]

Some prophets in the Jewish bible are:
Yehoshua/Joshua - the one who assisted Mosheh and Aaron
Samuel
Malachi
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Hosea
Amos
Obadiah
Nahum
Habakkuk
... and many more.

Very cool list.

I hope you benefit from this, bros n sis. Jews and Muslims are similar to one another, but NOT the same. Jews believe that they are chosen, that Judaism is theirs alone, but Muslims believe that Islam is for all humanity.

Actually, this is not the case.

Anyone can convert to Judaism, if they so desire. However, there are different callings for Jews v. Gentiles. The calling of Jews is to be a "light to the nations" and to teach Torah. The Gentiles have a different calling altogether.

[Ratatosk]

Shalom Chokmah,

I bid you a warm welcome to our humble forum, Chokmah. Hopefully you'll find your stay pleasant and illuminating.

I'm not aware of the history of this name

There are numerous accounts for this, or so I've understood. One common explanation is that yehudim stems from Yehudah, the name given by Judah's mother Leah. Most of the explanations seem to be shrouded in mist and mystery, though.

Regards,

[Vajradhara]

Namaste and b'Shalom chokmah,


nice to see you here

to continue with the comparisons...

the Jews are not the "chosen people" per se. G!D is for all, Jew and Gentile alike. the Jews, however, are called to be the Priests of G!D. whilst that may seem to be a fairly fine distinction, it is quite salient to the convesation and, in my view, is often misunderstood.

metta,

~v

[chokmah]

Namaste and b'Shalom chokmah,


nice to see you here

Namaste vaj,

It's good to see a familiar face outside of the bane we call CF.

to continue with the comparisons...

the Jews are not the "chosen people" per se. G!D is for all, Jew and Gentile alike. the Jews, however, are called to be the Priests of G!D. whilst that may seem to be a fairly fine distinction, it is quite salient to the convesation and, in my view, is often misunderstood.

metta,

~v

Very true.

metta,

ch