Download Father of Monotheism

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Ronit Langer
Avraham or Ibrahim? Jewish and Islamic Views on the Father of Monotheism
Judaism and Islam look to Abraham as both an early founder of their religions and of
monotheism, in general. Regardless of the religious viewpoint, monotheism had a tremendous impact of
the pagan world of the Ancient Near East. This paper will explore the implications of monotheism on the
world, the differences and similarities between Avraham and Ibrahim, and how these varying
perspectives are reflected in the religions today. Abraham is discussed in thirteen chapters of the Torah
and in six surahs in the Qur'an. Jewish and Islamic sources have each also filled in events of his life in
order to understand the man behind monotheism. These texts give insight to the conception of Abraham
and the practices of the two religions.
Humans have always turned to a higher power to explain the natural world.1 In fact, this drive is
deeply ingrained into the human psyche, as Lal Goel writes, “The idea of God is literally hard-wired into
human anatomy. Homo sapiens are also Homo religious.”2 Polytheism is an answer to this drive to
understand the cause of the natural world and the natural experience.3
The Ancient Egyptians are a prime example of a nation with a complex polytheistic religion.
They believed that the sun god Ra was swallowed each night by the sky goddess Nut and reborn every
morning.4 Natural disasters were explained by the gods fighting each other. If the Nile did not overflow
one year, the people surmised that the gods must be angry at them.5 The gods took human form and
emotion, and fierce interactions resulted from clashes between the capricious gods. Their Egyptian/
Polytheistic gods existed in a universe separate from the mortal humans. The gods did not concern
1
According to a theory popularized by Father Wilhelm Schmidt, originally all people were monotheists, however
God remained aloof from them, and they therefore turned to the stars to worship because it was easier and more
accessible. (Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: The 4000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. New
York: A.A. Knopf, 1993. Print.)
2
Goel, Lal M. "God against the Gods: Monotheism versus Polytheism." The University of West Florida (2009): n.
pag. Web.
3
Watterson, Barbara. The Gods of Ancient Egypt. New York, NY: Facts on File, 1984. Print.
4
"Gods and Goddesses." Gods and Goddesses. The British Museum, 20 Sept. 1999. Web. 01 June 2014.
5
Long, Charles H. "Egyptian Mythology." Egyptian Mythology. Reshafim, 2000. Web. 09 June 2014.
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themselves with the individual human existence. While some gods were able to be impacted by sacrifice
to some extent, and some gods were beyond the realm of impact, all human experience was impacted by
the actions, characteristics and constant power struggles between the gods.6
The gods’ separate universe led to a sense of human worthlessness and uncertainty. According to
one ancient Mesopotamian creation story, people were created to serve the gods, because the gods grew
tired of serving themselves.7 Human life existed solely to fulfill the gods’ desires, however, even this
goal proved difficult to attain for the gods’ desires were fickle and therefore, within the creation myth
there exists no sense of absolute law or truth. Mankind’s reason for existence was constantly shifting as
the gods’ moods changed. Furthermore, individual human life was completely disposable, as one human
could easily take the place of another to an uncaring inconsistent god. This reality is seen in the
deification of the ancient pharaohs, who were considered the children of the sun god Ra. The pharaohs
used this exalted birth status to justify enslaving their people.8 Man took the powers of a deity, which
furthered the instability in the law. Like the deity, The pharaoh could change his mind at any moment
and have his decision be effective immediately, in contrast to a new god who had to be slowly added to
the canon of gods. This usurpation of godly powers furthered the instability of the law.
The multitudes of deities in the ancient world created an atmosphere of religious toleration. In a
world of thousands of gods and goddesses there was no reason to fight over which god reigned supreme.
It was expected that each family had their own gods and rituals. Ancient peoples were so committed to
their polytheistic worship that they were appalled by the idea of monotheism that insisted on a unified
worship. The first recorded attempt to adopt monotheism was a failure. The attempt took place in
Ancient Egypt under the rule of the pharaoh Akhenaton. Akhenaton used his power to force the worship
6
Watson, John. "Tour Egypt :: An Overview of Ancient Egyptian Religion."An Overview of Ancient Egyptian
Religion. Tour Egypt, 2013. Web. 02 June 2014
7
Friedland, Samuel. "The Biblical Grounding of Human Value, Moshe Greenberg." The Samuel Friedland Lectures,
1960-1966. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1966. N. pag. Print.
8
ibid 4
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of a single God, but the pagan society resisted furiously. The idea of monotheism in Egypt died with
Akhenaton. 9
Monotheism was a radical shift in the role of man and God. The failure of Akhenaton and the
resistance of ancient peoples to monotheism highlight its unnatural essence. The shift of the role and
goals of man is seen in the creation story from the Biblical and Qur'anic perspective. The monotheistic
God does not need humans to serve him because He is not subject to human needs and emotions, such as
the need for food and the forces of desire.10 Therefore man’s value exists without servitude, on the
contrary, God gives man dominion over other living creatures.11 God’s role was also changed through
two tenants. In the first tenant God became the source of all occurrences in the world, both good and
evil. Polytheists found this unification intolerable because to them good and evil could not come from
the same source. What was even more incomprehensible to the polytheists was the second tenant, the
monotheistic belief that god cared about people.12
There are two fundamentals of monotheism which can be described as the obedient and the
ethical. The first and most basic idea of monotheism is obedience: belief that there is one God, who is
all-knowing and all powerful and, therefore, people must obey his every word. The next level of belief is
that God is also benevolent and ethical. The monotheistic God cares about every human, and therefore
every human must be good as well in order to be worthy of God’s love.
9
Kirsch, Jonathan. God against the Gods: The History of the War between Monotheism and Polytheism. New York:
Viking Compass, 2004. Print.
10
ibid 6
11
Genesis 1:28 “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and master it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the
birds of heaven, and all the living things that creep upon the earth.” Qur'an 71:14-18- “What is the matter with you
that you hope not for greatness and wisdom from Allah? And He has created you in different forms and different
conditions. See you not how Allah has created seven heavens in perfect harmony, and has placed the moon, therein a
light and made the sun a lamp? And Allah has caused you to grow out of the earth as a good growth. (All
translations of the Torah are from the Judaica Press translated by Rabbi A.J. Rosenberg, translations of the Qur'an
are from The meaning of the Glorious Koran translated by by Marmaduke Pickthall.)
12
Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: The 4000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. New York: A.A.
Knopf, 1993. Print.
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At the forefront of obedient monotheism is the belief that there is only one God who has
knowledge over the entire universe:
Religions postulate an objective, true, and humanly unalterable cosmic order of existence, which
establishes the prerequisites of human experience and proper human attitudes and action.
Because religions understand the normative structure of the cosmos, they claim to show human
beings how to live in conformity to that order and thereby how either to prevent or repair a
breach. 13
Since there is only one God, there are no competing gods to detract from the power of the God. God has
a complete view of the universe, He knows everything that has happened and will happen. Because of
the completeness of his power, his command is the absolute truth and must be followed. Obedient
monotheism does not address that the God cares about the individual, rather that He knows him.
The other side of monotheism addresses the benevolent side of God. God is not completely
removed from the realm of human beings, rather He is involved in their lives. There are two divisions
within ethical monotheism regarding God’s morality, either God created morality or God command
morality. As Socrates eloquently said “Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious
because it is loved by the gods?”14 The argument that God created morality is summarized by the
following:
If God’s sovereignty is indeed unlimited and unqualified, as these traditions attest, then there is
nothing distinct from God on which he is dependent on him. It seems to follow that moral truths
aren’t independent on God. If God is truly sovereign, his will must somehow make them true or
constitute the moral facts which they express.15
According to this school of thought, called divine command theory, if one separates morality from God,
one is compromising God’s sovereignty by creating a set of values that God must adhere too. The other
side argues:
13
Langermann, Y. Tzvi. Monotheism & Ethics: Historical and Contemporary Intersections among Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. Leiden: Brill, 2012. Print.
14
Austin, Michael. "Divine Command Theory." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISSN 2161-0002, 1995. Web.
12 June 2014.
15
Ibid., 15
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A defender of Divine Command Theory might respond that an action is morally right because
God commands it. However, the implication of this response is that if God commanded that we
inflict suffering on others for fun, then doing so would be morally right. We would be obligated
to do so, because God commanded it. This is because, on Divine Command Theory, the reason
that inflicting such suffering is wrong is that God commands us not to do it. However, if God
commanded us to inflict such suffering, doing so would become the morally right thing to do.16
Theorists take different approaches to answering this dilemma. Some theorize that God commands the
moral because it was already moral, and some theorize that God infused certain ethical components so
fully into our nature that we have detached them from God.17
Both Judaism and Islam have unified obedient and ethical monotheism to guide their religious
lives, however at the core of these two religions are two different models of monotheism. The story of
Abraham, the “first monotheist”, as told by both the Qur'an and the Torah, and later by Jewish and
Islamic commentators is a window to the core of both faiths. In the Jewish narrative there is a division
between obedient and ethical monotheism, while in Islam the two are inseparable.
There are two different Abraham ’s in Judaism. One is the Abraham described in the Torah as a
wandering nomad.18 He follows a God that promises him that he will become a great nation. The second
is the Abraham described by Rabbis and biblical exegetes that continue to grow until today. Abraham is
depicted by the Rabbis as fighting the pagan culture around him before God’s call to him. 19 He is the first
Jew and keeps all 613 commandments. 20
The Torah is vague when speaking about Abraham ’s early life. Abraham is not introduced in the
Torah until the age of seventy five, and all that is said about his early life is that he is the son of Terach,
the brother of Nachor and Haran, the husband of Sarai who was barren, and he and his family went from
16
Ibid., 16
Arthur, John. 2005. “Morality, Religion, and Conscience.” In Morality and Moral Controversies: Readings in
Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy. Edited by John Arthur. Seventh edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson
Prentice Hall: 15-23. Clark, Kelly James and Anne Poortenga. 2003. The Story of Ethics: Fulfilling Our Human
Nature. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
18
Deuteronomy 26:5
19
Genesis Rabbah 38
20
Mishnah Kiddushin 4:14.
17
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Ur Kasdim to Charan.21 The text gives the reader no reason as to why, in the next verse, God appears to
Abraham with no introduction and says, “Go away from your land, from your birthplace, and from your
father's house, to the land that I will show you.”22 In this moment Abraham does not respond to God or
declare God to be the one God that he has known all his life. Abraham does not even ask a single
question, but rather “went as God had directed him”.23
The call of God to Abraham, and Abraham’s unwavering response is central to the three
“Abrahamic religions”, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as a testament of Abraham’s faith.24 This call
requires a tremendous amount of faith, because God asks Abraham to abandon his life in Haran for an
unknown destination and makes vast promises in return. God declares, “And I will make you into a great
nation, and I will bless you, and I will aggrandize your name, and [you shall] be a blessing. And I will
bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall
be blessed in you."25 Abraham fulfills his terms of the agreement and travels to Canaan, but God does not
immediately fulfill His promises. On the contrary, God appears to Abraham and promises more once he is
in Canaan, "To your seed I will give this land."26 God reveals himself to Abraham four more times before
Isaac is born, each time the promises get greater and Abraham expresses more concern.27 Every time God
renews His promise He adds an extra task for Abraham.
In God’s fourth promise, Abraham asks God “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am
going childless, and the steward of my household is Eliezer of Damascus?"28 God responds by
strengthening his covenant with Abraham, by having Abraham perform the “Covenant Between the
21
Genesis 11: 30-31
Genesis 12: 1
23
Genesis 12:4
24
Feiler, Bruce S. Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths. New York: W. Morrow, 2002. Print.
25
Genesis 12:2-3
26
Genesis 12:7
27
Genesis 13:14-17, Genesis 15, Genesis 2-21, Genesis 18
28
Genesis 15:2
22
28
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Parts.”29 As more time passes, Abraham and Sarah become more skeptical about their hopes for a child.
Due to their uncertainty, Sarah gives Abraham her maidservant Hagar to take as a concubine, so that
Hagar can bear Abraham a child. Hagar does conceive a child, about whom God promises "I will greatly
multiply your seed, and it will not be counted for abundance," however this child, Ishmael, will not be the
one to inherit the covenant.30
For thirteen years God does not speak to Abraham.31 When God does appear to Abraham,
Abraham believes that Ishmael will be the heir of the covenant.32 God declares "Indeed, your wife Sarah
will bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him as an
everlasting covenant for his seed after him.”33 However, Abraham is beginning to lose hope, “ he said to
himself, "Will [a child] be born to one who is a hundred years old, and will Sarah, who is ninety years
old, give birth?"”34 God restores Abraham’s faith in him by creating a stronger covenant then the
Covenant Between the Parts, the everlast covenant of circumcision. “And you shall circumcise the flesh
of your foreskin, and it shall be as the sign of a covenant between Me and between you.” 35 Abraham’s
faith has been restored, his son has been given an identity, Isaac, and Abraham has been given an eternal
covenant as a continuing sign of his pact with God.
Abraham completes his circumcision, and Abraham expects a son. Until this point God has
required actions of Abraham, such as travel to Canaan and circumcision, in order to receive the greatness
promised to him. Before Abraham can have a child to whom to pass on heritage, God defines what is
required in that legacy. God now reveals Abraham’s true life mission:
Genesis 15:9-15, “9. And He said to him, "Take for Me three heifers and three goats and three rams, and a turtle
dove and a young bird." 10. And he took for Him all these, and he divided them in the middle, and he placed each
part opposite its mate, but he did not divide the birds.”
30
Genesis 16:10
31
Genesis 16:16 “And Abram was eighty-six years old, when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.”, Genesis 17:1 “And
Abram was ninety-nine years old, and God appeared to Abram,”
32
Genesis 17:18, “And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael will live before You!"”
33
Genesis 17:19
34
Genesis 17:17
35
Genesis 17: 11
29
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And Abraham will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the world will be
blessed in him. For I have known him because he commands his sons and his household after
him, that they should keep the way of the Lord to perform righteousness and justice, in order that
the Lord bring upon Abraham that which He spoke concerning him. 36
From these verses we see that the true nature of the monotheism of Abraham in the Torah is ethical
monotheism. Abraham can only pass on his monotheism to his son once he understands his mission is an
ethical one.37
Abraham’s model of ethics was not uniquely Jewish, rather his name implies his universality,
“Avraham” is interpreted to mean “Av Ram”, the father of many.38 Abraham observed only one
commandment, the commandment of circumcision. It is only later that the Jewish religion begins when
Moshe receives the 613 commandments and combines the ethical and the obedient aspects of
monotheism. However, Jewish exegesis on the Torah desires to claim Abraham as being a Jew, “We find
that Abraham our father performed the entire Torah [even] before it was given, as it says "Because
Abraham listened to My voice, and he observed My statutes, commandments, laws, and teachings"
(Genesis 26:5).”39
Abraham’s life story and personality are expanded upon in the Midrash. The Midrash portrays
Abraham as a superhero who stood up for monotheism long before God’s call to him. Rashi relates the
Midrashic story:
The Midrash teaches us that he died on account of his father. For Terach complained to Nimrod
that Avram had crushed his idols, so Nimrod cast Avram into a fiery furnace. Haran sat and
thought, ‘If Avram is victorious, I am on his side, and if Nimrod is victorious, I am on his side.’
When Avram was saved, they said to Haran, ‘Whose side are you on?’ Haran said to them, ‘I am
on Avram’s side!’ They cast him into the fiery furnace and he was burned. 40
According to the Midrash, Abraham’s faith was tested long before God’s promises since God had not yet
revealed himself to Abraham at this time. Abraham is alone, surrounded by people who were against his
36
Genesis 18:18-19
Patai, Raphael. The Seed of Abraham: Jews and Arabs in Contact and Conflict. Salt Lake City, UT: U of Utah,
1986. Print.
38
ibid 13
39
Mishnah Kiddushin 4:14
40
Rashi Genesis 11:28, “during the lifetime of Terah his father”
37
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belief, and God saved him. This midrash connects Abraham to Jews of all generations in their plight to
defend their faith in times of adversity.41 Abraham becomes a Jewish figure in his commitment to the
commandments and defending his faith.
There is a clear distinction in Jewish texts between the ethical Abraham in the Torah and the
obedient Abraham in the Torah. However, in Islamic texts there is no distinction. The first passage in the
Qur'an about Abraham clearly establishes the difference:
And (remember) when his Lord tried Abraham with (His) commands and he fulfilled them, He
said: Lo! I have appointed thee a leader for mankind. Abraham said: And of my offspring (will
there be leaders)? He said: My covenant includeth not wrongdoers. And when We made the
House (at Mecca) a resort for mankind and a sanctuary (saying): Take as your place of worship
the place where Abraham stood (to pray). And We imposed a duty upon Abraham and Ishmael
(saying): Purify My house for those who go to around and those who meditate therein and those
who bow down and prostrate themselves (in worship). And when Abraham prayed: My Lord!
Make this a region of security and bestow upon its people fruits, such of them as believe in Allah
and the Last Day, He answered: As for him who disbelieveth, I shall leave him in contentment
for a while, then I shall compel him to the doom of Fire - a hapless journey's end! And when
Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House, (Abraham prayed): Our Lord!
Accept from us (this duty). Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Hearer, the Knower. Our Lord! And
make us submissive unto Thee and of our seed a nation submissive unto Thee, and show us our
ways of worship, and relent toward us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Relenting, the Merciful. Our
Lord! And raise up in their midst a messenger from among them who shall recite unto them Thy
revelations, and shall instruct them in the Scripture and in wisdom and shall make them grow.
Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Mighty, Wise.42
From this excerpt the Qur’an describes that Abraham’s task in life is to be obedient to the word of God
and to spread the word of God to Mecca. In this passage Abraham and Ishmael go to Mecca to build the
Kaba, the Islamic center of worship, and institutes prayer there. Abraham also prays for God to send a
messenger for the people, that messenger is Muhammad. The Qur’an is very clear that Abraham
establishes the basis for Islam.43
41
Klinghoffer, David. The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism. New York: Doubleday, 2003.
Print.
42
Surah II: 124-129
43
ibid 40
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The Qur’an describes Abraham’s mission in Mecca and establishes him as the found of Islam.44
Where the Torah is vague about Abraham’s youth, the Qur’an includes the story of Abraham smashing
his father’s idols.45 Abraham according to the Qur’an is an unwavering monotheist, that surrenders
completely to God, “Lo! I [Abraham] have turned my face toward Him Who created the heavens and the
earth, as one by nature upright, and I am not of the idolaters.”46
The ethical side of Abraham is rarely addressed in the Qur’an. An example of the distinction
between the two texts is the story of Sedom. In the Torah Abraham prays that the city be spared in the
merit of the righteous people:
And the Lord said, "Since the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has become great, and since their sin
has become very grave, I will descend now and see, whether according to her cry, which has
come to Me, they have done; [I will wreak] destruction [upon them]; and if not, I will know."
And Abraham approached and said, "Will You even destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Perhaps there are fifty righteous men in the midst of the city; will You even destroy and not
forgive the place for the sake of the fifty righteous men who are in its midst? Far be it from You
to do a thing such as this, to put to death the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous
should be like the wicked. Far be it from You! Will the Judge of the entire earth not perform
justice? "And the Lord said, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous men within the city, I will forgive
the entire place for their sake."And Abraham answered and said, "Behold now I have commenced
to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes. Perhaps the fifty righteous men will be
missing five. Will You destroy the entire city because of five?" And He said, "I will not destroy if
I find there forty-five." And he continued further to speak to Him, and he said, "Perhaps forty
will be found there." And He said, "I will not do it for the sake of the forty."And he said, "Please,
let the Lord's wrath not be kindled, and I will speak. Perhaps thirty will be found there." And He
said, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."And he said, "Behold now I have desired to speak to
the Lord, perhaps twenty will be found there." And He said, "I will not destroy for the sake of the
44
Chittister, Joan, Neil Douglas-Klotz, Arthur Ocean Waskow, and Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti. The Tent of
Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Boston: Beacon, 2006. Print.
45
Surah XI: 58-66: “Then he reduced them to fragments, all save the chief of them, that haply they might have
recourse to it. They said: Who hath done this to our gods ? Surely it must be some evil- doer. They said: We heard a
youth make mention of them, who is called Abraham. They said: Then bring him (hither) before the people's eyes
that they may testify. They said: Is it thou who hast done this to our gods, O Abraham ? He said: But this, their chief
hath done it. So question them, if they can speak. Then gathered they apart and said: Lo! ye yourselves are the
wrong-doers. And they were utterly confounded, and they said: Well thou knowest that these speak not. He said:
Worship ye then instead of Allah that which cannot profit you at all, nor harm you ?
46
Surah VI: 79
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twenty."And he said, "Please, let the Lord's wrath not be kindled, and I will speak yet this time,
perhaps ten will be found there." And He said, "I will not destroy for the sake of the ten."
47
Abraham cries for the people, and does not just accept the word of God, rather he pleads with God.
Abraham is not being obedient, rather he is being ethical. In the Qur’an’s account of the story:
And tell them of Abraham's guests, (How) when they came in unto him, and said: Peace. He
said: Lo! we are afraid of you. They said: Be not afraid! Lo! we bring thee good tidings of a boy
possessing wisdom. He said: Bring ye me good tidings (of a son) when old age hath overtaken
me ? Of what then can ye bring good tidings ? They said: We bring thee good tidings in truth.
So be not thou of the despairing. He said: And who despaireth of the mercy of his Lord save
those who are astray ? He said: And afterward what is your business, O ye messengers (of
Allah) ? They said: We have been sent unto a guilty folk, (All) save the family of Lot. Them we
shall deliver every one, Except his wife, of whom We had decreed that she should be of those
who stay behind.48
In this account Abraham does not respond to God after hearing the news of Sdom. Abraham is obedient
and accepts the word of God.
The differences between Avraham and Ibrahim are not accidental. John Levison explains:
Misunderstanding is not what divides the image of Abraham in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
the misnomered “Abrahamic religions”; on the contrary, the founders of the younger religions
well understood Abraham’s role in Judaism. St. Paul’s transformation of Abraham into the father
of all who believe, and the Quran’s recasting of Abraham as a Muslim prophet who prefigured
Muhammed, both rejected the Jewish version by design, by inventing their own Abrahams to
serve their own doctrinal purposes….. 49
Due to the fact that both Judaism and Islam claim Abraham as a forefather, they each portray his life in a
way that will aid their religious cause.
47
Genesis 18: 20-32
Surah XV: 51-60
49
Levenson, Jon Douglas. Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Princeton: Princeton UP, 2012. Print
48
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Judaism’s doctrinal purposes are achieved through an ethical Abraham. Judaism teaches that a
Jew must be moral before he follows the law of God. This message is clear during the time of later
prophets. Before the ten tribes are exiled, the prophet Amos is sent to rebuke the people for their sins:
So said the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, yea for four, I will not return them; For selling
an innocent man for money, and a poor man in order to lock [the fields]. Who aspire on the dust of
the earth concerning the head of the poor, and they pervert the way of the humble, and a man and
his father go to the maid, in order to profane My Holy Name. And they recline on pledged
garments beside every altar, and the wine of the fined ones they drink in the house of their gods.
And I destroyed the Amorites from before them, whose height is as the height of the cedar trees,
and they are as strong as oaks, and I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from below. And
I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and I led you in the desert for forty years, to inherit the
land of the Amorites. And I raised up some of your sons as prophets and some of your young men
as Nazirites; is this not so, O children of Israel? says the Lord. And you gave the Nazirites to drink
wine, and you commanded the prophets saying, "Do not prophesy." 50
The majority of the sins outlined in this passage are ethical crimes, such as taking money from the poor.
God tells the people that their sacrifices are worthless if they are lacking morals.51 The Talmud outlines
this idea, “Hillel said, 'What is hateful to yourself do not do to your fellow-man. This is the entire Torah,
the rest is commentary. Go and study'”52
Islam’s doctrinal purposes are achieved through an obedient Abraham. The name Islam is
“derived from the root s-l-m, which primarily means “peace”, but in a secondary sense, “surrender”, its
full connotation is “the peace that comes when one's life is surrendered to God.””53 The word “surrender”
appears sixty one times in the Qur’an in relation to Allah.54 An example is, “And whoso seeketh as
50
Amos 2:6-12
Angel, Hayyim J. Vision from the Prophet and Counsel from the Elders: A Survey of Neviʼim and Ketuvim. New
York, NY: OU, 2013. Print.
52
Shabbat 31a
53
Smith, Huston, The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.
Print.
54
"Search the Word Surrender in the Quran Koran Qur'an ‫القران الكريم‬." Search the Word Surrender in the Quran
Koran Qur'an ‫القران الكريم‬. N.p., 2014. Web. 18 June 2014.
<http://www.searchtruth.com/search.php?keyword=surrender&chapter=&translator=4&search=1&start=0&records_
display=10&search_word=all>.
51
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religion other than the surrender (to Allah) it will not be accepted from him, and he will be a loser in the
Hereafter.”55 One will not be included in religion if he does not submit to Allah’s will.
While they differ regarding the emphasis of obedience and ethics, both Islam and Judaism,
combine the obedient and the ethical as core foundations of their monotheistic religions. The basic tenet
of their faith is the same, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” in Judaism, and “There
is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God” in Islam. The two religions believe in the same
God, who is the one God. While Abraham [or Ibrahim] is considered the father of monotheism in both
religions, depictions of him in each religion's Scripture reflect the distinct values that characterize each
faith.
55
Surah 3:85