“There
is no god but God”
The Judaic Roots of Islam
Abraham and
Sarah
16:1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2
so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go,
sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”...4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5
Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am
suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is
pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.” 6 “Your servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you
think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. 7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8
And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from,
and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my
mistress Sarai,” she answered. 9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:
“You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”
17:19
Then God said, “...[Y]our wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you
will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an
everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20
And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will
make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the
father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
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The Islamic Tradition
In the Qur’an (the
holy book of Muslims),
Ishmael is known as the first-born son of Abraham
from Hagar.
Islamic
tradition also believes that he was the one nearly sacrificed,
not Isaac
(or Ishaq
in the Quran)....Islamic tradition holds that Ishmael and Hagar were sent to the deserts of Arabia on the orders of God (Arabic: Allah). The Bible claims that Sarah, after the birth of Isaac, sent Hagar and Ishmael away. He and his mother settled in Mecca
(or “Makkah”) and were without water. The desperate running of his
mother in pursuit of water for her infant son led to a miraculous
spring appearing from the ground (from God) known as the Zamzam Well. Ishmael then helped his father, Abraham, build the House of God, or the Kaaba, in Mecca.
The sacred book of Islam, the Holy Qur’an,
received as a series of revelations to Muhammad, relates that Abraham
and Ishmael together built the holiest sanctuary in Islam, the Ka’bah.
It was thought to be the site of Adam’s original place of worship; part of the cubic stone building is a venerated black meteorite. According to the Qur’an, God told Abraham that the Ka’bah should be a place of pilgrimage. It was regarded as a holy place by the Arabian tribes. [LR, 376-9]
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When his son [i.e. Ishmael] had grown enough to walk alongside him, Abraham dreamt
that God ordered him to sacrifice his son with his own hand.
Abraham knew that the dream was, in fact, a revelation from God and
not a satanic whisper; so, he prepared himself, with a heart
overflowing with faith, to carry out the command of God. He went to see
his son and told him, “I saw in a dream that I sacrificed you for the
sake of God. Think about it and tell me your opinion on the matter.”
His son replied without hesitation or anxiety, “O father, fulfill
what God has commanded. By His will, you will find me among the
patient.”
Abraham’s sacrifice is thought to have taken place in the desert of Mina,
and for this reason, pilgrims offer their sacrifices there today.
Abraham took a knife in his hand and, the son said, “Dear father, tie
my hands and feet tightly with a piece of rope so that I don’t move
them as I am dying, because I am afraid that I would lessen my reward.
Keep your clothes away from me so that my blood doesn’t splatter on
you; if my mother sees that, she may not be able to tolerate it.
Sharpen the knife well and sever my head at once so that I can tolerate
it better, because dying is difficult.”
Abraham said, “Dear son, you are a good assistant in fulfilling the
command of God.” He put the knife to his son’s throat and, with all his
strength, tried to cut; but by God’s will, the knife didn’t cut and
didn’t harm his son. Abraham received a revelation from God: “O
Abraham, truly you have done your duty, fulfilled the meaning of your
dream and shown your submissiveness and devotion.”
A sacrifice was then sent to God as the son’s ransom. God sent the
angel Gabriel with a sheep. Abraham sacrificed that sheep instead of
his son. Abraham and his son returned from the altar; his son went to
his mother and Abraham returned to his wife, Sarah. From that day,
sacrifice in the land of Mina became a tradition. Later, when Islam was
revealed, God prescribed, as a rite, that pilgrims offer a sacrifice of
animals in that desert each year in commemoration of the nearly
sacrifice.
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 The
first (form)
with which was started the
revelation to the Messenger of Allah was the true vision in
sleep. And he did not
see any vision but it came like the bright gleam of
dawn. Thenceforth solitude became dear to him and he used to
seclude himself
in the cave of
Hira’, where he would engage in tahannuth (and that is a worship for a
number
of nights) before returning to his family and getting provisions again
for
this purpose. He would then return to Khadija (his wife) and take
provisions
for a like period, till Truth came upon him while he was in the cave of
Hira’.
There came to him the angel (Gabriel) and said: Recite, to which
he
replied: I am not lettered. He took hold of me [the Apostle
said]
and pressed me, till I was hard pressed; thereafter he let me off and
said: Recite. I said: I am not lettered. He then again took
hold
of me and pressed me for the second time till I was hard pressed and
then
let me off and said: Recite, to which I replied: I am not
lettered. He took hold of me and pressed me for the third time, till I was hard
pressed
and then let me go and said: Recite in the name of your Lord Who
created, created man from a clot of blood. Recite. And your
most bountiful Lord is He Who taught the use of pen, taught man what he
knew not (Qur’an 96:1-4). [ALR, 270]
- What is a prophet?
- How does a prophet differ from a messiah?
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Previous
Prophets
Say: “We believe in Allah, and in what has
been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac,
Jacob, and
the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets,
from
their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another among
them,
and to Allah do we bow our will (in Islam).” [ALR, 274 (3:84)] |
Behold! The angels said: “O
Mary!
Allah hath chosen thee and purified thee—chosen thee above the women of
all nations….Behold! the angels said:  “O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad
tidings
of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of
Mary,
held in honour in the world and the Hereafter and of (the company of)
those
nearest to Allah; He shall speak to the people in childhood and in
maturity. And he shall be (of the company) of the
righteous.” She said: “O my Lord! How shall I have a son
when no man hath touched me?” He
said: “Even so: Allah createth what He willeth: When
He
hath decreed a plan, He but saith to it, ‘Be,’ and it is!” [ALR, 278
(3:42-7)]
Then will Allah say: “O
Jesus the son of
Mary! Recount My favour to thee and to thy
mother. Behold! I strengthened thee with the holy spirit, so
that thou
dist speak to the people in childhood and in maturity.
Behold! I taught thee the Book and Wisdom, the
Law and the Gospel and behold! Though makest out of clay, as it
were,
the figure of a bird, by My leave, and thou breathest into it and it
becometh
a bird by My leave, and thou healest those born blind, and the lepers,
by
My leave. And behold! thou bringest forth the dead by My
leave. And behold! I did restrain the Children of Israel from (violence to)
thee
when thou didst show them the clear Signs, and the unbelievers among
them
said: ‘This is nothing but evident magic.’” [ALR, 278 (5:110)]
- In light of these passages from the Qu’ran, what is the status of Jesus
in
the Islamic tradition?
- Is this an affirmation or a denial of his
divinity?
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The Day of Judgment
Then, on the Day
of Judgment, He will
cover
them with shame, and say: “Where are My ‘partners’ concerning
whom
ye used to dispute (with the godly)?” Those endued with knowledge
will
say: “This Day, indeed, are the Unbelievers covered with shame
and
misery (namely) those whose lives the angels take in a state of
wrong-doing
to their own souls.” Then would they offer submission (with the
pretence),
“We did no evil (knowingly).” (The angels will reply), “Nay, but
verily Allah knoweth all that ye did; So enter the gates of Hell, to
dwell therein. Thus evil indeed is the abode of the
arrogant.” To the righteous (when)
it is said, “What is it that your Lord has revealed?” they say, “All
that
is good.” To those who do good, there is good in this world, and
the
Home of the Hereafter is even better and excellent indeed is the Home
of
the righteous, Gardens of Eternity which they will enter: beneath
them
flow (pleasant) rivers: they will have therein all that they
wish: thus doth Allah reward the righteous, (namely) those whose lives the
angels
take in a state of purity, saying (to them), “Peace be on you; enter ye
the
Garden, because of (the good) which ye did (in the world).” [ALR, 279
(16:27-32)] |
- Does this passage suggest that Jews and
Christians
(the “People of the Book”)
will go to Heaven or Hell?
Those
who believe (in the Qur’an),
and
those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the
Sabians, any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work
righteousness, shall have
their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they
grieve.
[ALR, 275 (2:62)]
According to James Abdul Rahim Gaudet, Rabia Mills
and
Syed Mumtaz Ali, authors of the website “Islam and Christianity:
Similarities
and Differences”:
Hell
is a place of
purification,
and is permanent. Paradise as a reward, and Hell as a punishment
are
but
graphic terms to make us understand a state of things which is beyond
all
our notions of life in that world. Paradise will be
eternal. Once
meriting
it, there can be no question of being ejected from it. As to
whether
Hell
is also eternal for the unbelievers, there are two schools of thought:
(1)
A great majority of Muslims affirm that God may pardon every sin
and
every crime except disbelief in God. [Qur’an 4:48,116]
(2) Others
believe that even the punishment of
disbelief
may one day terminate by the grace of God. [Qur’an 11:107, etc.]
The
Qur’an 4:124 declares: “If any do deeds of
righteousness
- be they male or female - and have faith, they will enter Paradise and
not
the least injustice will be done to them.” In other words no
religion
has a monopoly on salvation!
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