Prophet Muhammad used dialogue and reasoning to explain faith. He discouraged prostration to himself, rejected titles that exaggerated his position, and warned his companions not to turn him into a saint saying clearly: "Do not praise me as the Christians praised the son of Mary. I am only a servant. So, call me the servant of Allah and His Messenger."
Judaism and Islam both teach that humans are vicegerents under God in managing our personal and social lives on this planet. Mankind is the vicegerent of Allah on earth. (Qur'an 2:30) The word vicegerent means to act in such a way so as to improve the world for and on behalf of Allah, to rule people justly, to apply the laws of Allah to people, animals and even non-living things. Judaism teaches the same thing.
The Qur'an tells us that just before Allah created Adam He told all the angels: "Surely I am about to place a khilafah- vicegerent on the Earth."
(2:30) The angels reply that unlike angels, who are always busy worshipping God and thus almost unable to commit sins, humans will do all kinds of terrible evil things on earth. Allah says, "I surely know what you do not know."
(2:30) This story is just like a Jewish Midrash (a rabbinic enhancement).
Khilafah means succession referring to the humans who will succeed the Jinn and will be responsible for improving life on earth because they will know the names that Allah will teach them. This knowledge will enable humans to tame their own wild inclinations; and submit to the words of Allah as brought to them by their prophets. Ali Unal, a Turkish elucidator of the Holy Qur'an, writes that: "Since the angels do not have to struggle against sins, they do not progress spiritually."
Human males and females were created by Allah to be partners and helpmates in the moral struggle that leads to spiritual progress. As the Qur'an states: "He is the one who created you from a single being; and from that being He created his mate, so that he might find comfort with her."
(Qur'an 4:1, 7:189, and
39:6) The same teaching comes from the Torah of Moses, which also relates the events concerning the creation of Adam and Eve (Havvah in Hebrew, Hawwa in Arabic).
In the Jewish religious tradition the great events of the Torah are often retold and re-imagined in order to gain clearer insights for later generations. A good example of this process (called in Jewish tradition; Midrash), as applied to the archetypal humans, is this account of how and why God's gift to Adam was Eve. Muslims will see how my Midrash fits in with Muslim teachings of our duty to respect our wives.
The phrase עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדֹּו ʿezer ke-negdo, which appears twice in Genesis 2, and nowhere else in the entire Bible, has challenged scholars for centuries. The first word is from the root ע.ז.ר, which appears about 12 times elsewhere in the Bible (e.g., Deuteronomy 33:7), and generally means "help" or sometimes "save" (generally when the subject is God).
The second word נֶגֶד neged "opposite, against," is more difficult to translate. The earliest translations all agree on meaning of the first word, but differ with how to render the second: Septuagint: "a helper corresponding to him" or "a helper like him" Vulgate: "a helper like himself" Peshitta: "a helper for him" Targum Onqelos: "a helper before him"
Or as Rabbi Eleazar stated: "What is the meaning of "I will make him a help mate for him kenegedo"? If he is worthy, she is by his side; if he is not worthy, she is in his face."
As a Reform Rabbi I offer a few examples of how it is possible to see scriptural differences as complementary rather than contradictory. Over the long run, shared religious rituals have increased group stability; and even more important, religious pilgrimages have enabled growing groups of tribes to remain in contact long after they had moved far apart geographically.
There is a social bonding and solidarity reflected by the first archetypical set of directions given to Homo Sapiens: "God created Adam in His own image, created in the image of God; male and female created He them. God blessed them; and God said to them: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth...'" (Genesis 1:27-28).
As Adam's descendants multiplied and migrated, the specific traditions of pilgrimage to non-local sacred spots were founded in the early days of today's religions, especially in Islam and Judaism: In Islamic tradition the holy site of the Kâ'bah was consecrated in the prehistoric days of Adam. The site of Prophet Solomon's Temple was consecrated 40 years later, which was thousands of years before David would locate and acquire the site where his son Solomon would build the Jerusalem Temple.
Abu Dharr narrated: I said, "O Allah's Apostle! Which mosque was first built on the surface of the earth?" He said, "Al-Masjid-al-Haram (in Mecca)." I said, "Which was built next?" He replied "The mosque of Al-Aqsa (in Jerusalem)." I said, "What was the period between the two?" He said, "Forty years." (Sahih al-Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 55, Hadith 585) Such pilgrimage sites were established, or consecrated, as collective places of worship for groups larger than family, band, clan or tribe.
I use the English word 'consecrate' in regard to the site because the sense of 'built' isn't found in the original Arabic hadith. 'Built' is a mis-translation of the word وُضِعَ: which has several meanings, such as stationed, situated or positioned, referring to location not to construction.
Thus, وُضِعَ doesn't mean "built." In fact, the present-day Kâ'bah is not a building constructed by Adam. That is not the point of Abu Dharr's hadith! Rather, the Kâ'bah is located on the geographical site where Adam first consecrated a place of worship/prayer to the One God.
Similarly, the site of Solomon's Temple (in Jerusalem) was consecrated as a holy site long before Solomon was even born.
Hajj (Pilgrimage) is a religious ritual practiced among the people of a cohesive religious community like Jews and Muslims. Pilgrimage to a shared sacred spot is an important factor in social cohesion, and social cohesion is an important factor in coping with challenges to survival. Both Islam and Judaism have texts which date our ancestry back to Adam, and the origins of modern humankind.
The following traditional tale, transmitted orally in both Arabic and Hebrew for many centuries and finally written down in several different versions in the 19th century, illustrates how two holy places like the Ka'bah and the Jerusalem Temple can be closely connected even though they are geographically separated by 765 miles. Some say this happened in the age of Noah, and others say before Prophet Abraham was born:
Two brothers who inherited a 'valley to hilltop' farm from their father divided the land in half so that each one could farm his own section. Over time, the older brother married and had four children, while the younger brother was still not married. One year there was very little rain, and the crop was very meagre. This was at the beginning of a long-term drought that would turn the whole valley into an arid, treeless desert where even grain did not grow, and all the springs dried up.
The younger brother lay awake one night praying and thought: "My brother has a wife and four children to feed, and I have no children. He needs more grain than I do, especially now when grain is scarce." So that night, the younger brother went to his barn, gathered a large sack of wheat, and left his wheat in his brother's barn. Then he returned home.
Earlier that very same night, the older brother was also lying awake praying for rain when he thought: "In my old age, my wife and I will have our grown children to take care of us, as well as grandchildren to enjoy, while my brother may have no children. He should at least sell more grain from his fields now, so he can provide for himself in his old age.
So that night, the older brother also gathered a large sack of wheat, and left it in his brother's barn, and returned home.
The next morning, the younger brother, surprised to see that the amount of grain in his barn seemed unchanged, said "I did not take as much wheat as I thought. Tonight I'll take more."
That same morning, the older brother, standing in his barn, was thinking the same thoughts.
After night fell, each brother gathered a greater amount of wheat from his barn and in the dark, secretly delivered it to his brother's barn. The next morning, the brothers were again puzzled and perplexed. "How can I be mistaken?" each one thought. "There's the same amount of grain here as there was before. This is impossible! Tonight I'll make no mistake-I'll take two large sacks."
The third night, more determined than ever, each brother gathered two large sacks of wheat from his barn, loaded them onto a cart, and slowly pulled his cart toward his brother's barn. In the moonlight, each brother noticed a figure in the distance.
When the two brothers got closer, each recognized the form of the other and the load he was pulling, and they both realized what had happened! Without a word, they dropped the ropes of their carts, ran to each other and embraced.
Only God can make anything holy, so perhaps God thought the brothers' love and concern for each other was a wonderful example for future generations and made their descendants worthy to rebuild a primordial Holy House in this valley; and 40 years later to build a new Holy House on that hill. So God sent Messengers to their descendants to guide them to do this.
When all those, both near and far, who revere these sacred places as a standard, share it in love with everyone else who reveres it, then Abraham's request for Allah to "Make this a land of peace, and provide its people with the produce of the land"
[Qur'an 2:126] will be extended throughout the world; and all the children of Adam, Noah and Abraham will live in Holiness, Peace and Prosperity.
Christians and Jews believe the hill is Jerusalem. Muslims believe the valley is Mecca. I believe they are both right and God willing, someday everyone may see both cities and their sanctuaries as a pair of lungs; that are central to humanity's spiritual inspiration by, and connection to, the One God of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac. As the Qur'an states: "'Believers, be steadfast in the cause of God and bear witness with justice. Do not let your enmity for others turn you away from justice. Deal justly; that is nearer to being God-fearing."
(5:8)If we can all live up to the ideal of brotherhood that the above narration teaches, that religious pluralism is the will of God, we will help fulfill the 2700-year-old vision of Prophet Isaiah: "In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.
"On that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, "Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance." (Isaiah 19:23-5)
Hajj, Rituals, and How Humans Survived
