They also contain hymns of praise and thanksgiv-
ing. Hallowed written texts are complimented by
a body of sacred oral texts in each religion—the
Talmud (oral Torah) in Judaism and the
hadith
(accounts of the actions and declarations of
Muhammad and his Companions) in Islam. These
oral traditions were collected in books and served
as the basis of religious law (halakha and
fiqh
,
respectively). They expanded upon the meanings
of the written scriptures. The virtuosos of scrip-
tural interpretation, law, and tradition in both
religions were scholar-teachers known as rabbis in
Judaism and as the
Ulama
in Islam. Judaism and
Islam also had similar eschatologies, anticipating
that the dead would be resurrected and judged
for their good and evil deeds, in accordance with
the standards of belief and morality set forth in
scripture. After J
Udgment
d
ay
the righteous in
each religion are promised a place in paradise.
Another important similarity is that each religion
cherishes a holy land, comprised of sacred places
where events described in scripture are believed to
have occurred. In Judaism, the holy land is i
srael
,
and in Islam it is the Hijaz of western Arabia. The
most sacred places in both religions are located in
cities: J
erUsalem
in Judaism and m
ecca
in Islam.
Each of these cities is considered a cosmic cen-
ter and focal point for worship and pilgrimage.
Muslims also consider Jerusalem a holy city, after
Mecca and m
edina
. Other points of resemblance
can be added to this list, but it is important to
note that there are significant differences among
these family resemblances and these differences
must be taken into account if the nature of Judeo-
Islamic interrelationships is to be more fully com-
prehended.
QurANIC JuDAISM
The Quran portrays Judaism in two ways: as the
ancient faith of Moses as revealed in the Torah and
as that of the Jews living during the quranic era,
which most scholars see as contemporaneous with
the life of Muhammad (d. 632) in seventh-century
Arabia. It construes the biblical figure a
braham
,
who preceded Moses, as an exemplary prophet
and monotheist (hanif), but not as the Jewish
patriarch who had secured an exclusive covenant
on their behalf. The Arabic terms used with ref-
erence to Jews in the Quran are yahud and its
derivatives (18 times) and Banu Israil (Children of
Israel [the descendants of Jacob], 43 times). Like
the Hebrew Bible, the Quran recognizes the Jews
as a special people chosen by God who were deliv-
ered from the afflictions of Pharaoh in e
gypt
and
given the Torah to keep (Q 45:16–17; 14:6). They
subsequently lost God’s blessing because of their
disobedience and idolatry (Q 7:138–151). The
Jews were also blamed for violating the Sabbath
(Q 2:65) and persecuting prophets God had sent
to them (Q 2:61, 87, 91), which echoes accusa-
tions against the Jews made in the New Testament.
Stringent dietary rules were imposed on them
because of their wrongdoing (Q 4:160). Moreover,
the Quran accused them of distorting, conceal-
ing, and forgetting God’s message (Q 4:46; 6:91).
Similar accusations were levied against Chris-
tians, who were also called Children of Israel.
Likewise, both Jews and Christians, because they
were recipients of previous scriptures, were called
p
eople
oF
the
b
ook
. Some Quran verses indicate
that at some point Muslim believers had engaged
in warfare with People of the Book, defeating
them and taking their property (Q 33:26–27). The
people of the book are also to pay a tribute (
jizya
)
when they are defeated (Q 9:29).
The function of the Quran’s accounts about
the Jews and their religion was, on the one hand,
to illuminate the ancient genealogy of the reli-
gious ideas being promulgated in Muhammad’s
time and, on the other, to demonstrate how the
Jews had strayed from their ancestral religion.
This opened the door for Muslims (the “believ-
ers”) to claim that they were now the people cho-
sen to receive God’s blessing, thanks to the call of
Muhammad, the heir to the prophetic tradition of
the past. Despite the criticisms the Quran levied
against the Jews, it nevertheless recognized that
there was also a righteous element among them
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