Judaism Religious Festivals - Islamic Perspective

welcome SilverArrow.

Actually answer to both of your question is same.
There is a Term in Islam called Deen:
Deen of God is same from Adam to Mohammed PBUH. Deen means the true religion of God, Belief in monotheism, not to associate another god with God, Belief in all the chosen Prophets, Scripture, Life after death, Doomsday etc.
There is another term in Islam is called Shariah.
Shariah means how to follow Deen of God.
It includes, religious rituals, praying, fasting, religious festivals, dietery laws etc.

Now, what we believe is that Deen is one and only from beginning till doomsday. But we believe that God can change shariah whenever we he wishes.

We believe that Israelites were chosen people of God. But that favour and choice was not eternal. When they persistently broke that covenant, tried to kill Messiah, God chose last of His Prophets from among Ishamelites.
Shariah of Israel is now abrogated, though it has many similarities with Islam, as per shariah Islam is enough for us.

SilverArrow wrote: Abuzaid, One more question I have though: - According with my reading and understanding of the Bible, specifically of the Torah it is said by GOD himself the following regarding the Covenant between GOD and Israel: - My covenant I make with you is eternal The questions will be: 1. What are the Biblical and Islamic proofs that this Covenant is now canceled?

The above verse refers to the numerous Messengers the Israelites harrassed and killed. Including thier assassination attempts at both Jesus and Muhammad.

SilverArrow wrote: Hello, 1. According with God's commandments which were given to Jewish people during their history and at Sinai there are a series of religious festivals which should be respected, such as:    a. Passover    b. Rosh Hana    c. Lag Ba'Omer    d. Yom Kippur    just to name few of them.  why these religious festivals are not observed by Muslims?

• For e.g: one of the Passover rituals is "Remove all traces of prohibited food, called chametz (any leavened products, including grains, bread, cereal, vinegar, cornstarch and alcohol). " Well, In Islam food is either prohibited or its not. And prohibited food should not be consumed EVEN on non-religous occasions. Plus, apart from Alcohol. . .there is needless prohibition of other foods, something Allah does not ordain.
• "Conduct a final search for chametz(prohibited food) and store it in a remote, sealed-off part of the house. "Sell" the chametz to a non-Jewish friend to be redeemed after Passover. " - Again, why is the prohibited chametz being redeemed after sale to a non-jew?
• All the rest of Passover rituals are just that - rituals.  In the Islamic essence, one celebrates a happy-occasion by making supplication, making charity, praying and thanking God. Not undertaking needless ritual after ritual.

However, I would like you to know that Muslims and Islam itself holds ALL Prophets in very high esteem, including Moses. Which is why the exodus is dear to us Muslims as well. And I would like to share an interesting piece of information . . .that we Muslims DO follow ONE of the Jewish rituals of Passover. Actually, we consider it a Muslim ritual, but the reason is ALSO because it was a sunnah of Prophet Moses (and we consider that Moses essentially taught Islam ) And that is, that we too Fast around the time of Passover (atleast, I think it coincides with Passover because both our reasons are basically the same, Moses' emancipation from Pharoah and the exodus) Jewish Male Firstborns are supposed to fast at Passover, while both Muslim males & female fast.           

I realised this whilst reading about Passover. It suddenly popped into my mind, when I read about the Jewish fast, that our Muharram fast is essentially due to the same reason!  I didnt know however that the Jews of this time ALSO continued the tradition. I was pretty excited at finding this bit. And that is, Muslims have a non-obligatory Fast on 9th/10th Muharram (Muslim Month). There is no compulsory date, and Muslims may fast either on the 9th & 10th or the 10th & 11th of Muharram. (They may fast for one, two or all three days. However I believe the Sunnah states any 2 consecutive days). Sunnah means that the Prophet also fasted on these days (Sunnah=action/recomendation of Prophet). This can be seen from the Prophet's example:

 

"It is the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to fast on the 9th and 10th of Muharram. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him used to fast on the day of `Ashura'. When he came to Madinah, he found out that the Jews of Madinah were also fasting on this day remembering Prophet Musa (peace and blessings be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) admired this tradition and said to the Jews, "I am closer to Musa (Moses) than you are." He fasted and he also told his Companions to fast on this day. Later, before the end of his life, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) told Muslims to add the 9th day also. Thus, it is recommended to fast on both the 9th and 10th of Muharram."  -Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, former President of the Islamic Society of North America.

 

In another Hadith, Imam At-Tirmidhi reported that Ibn `Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) used to say: We should fast on two days: the 9th and 10th of Muharram to distinguish ourselves from the Jewish community. (At-Tirmidhi)

 

The reason was basically because the Muslims were following the example of Prophet Moses, (like Prophet Muhammad instructed) , however they wanted to distinguish themselves from the Jews of the time since they did not agree with other Jewish Beliefs.

 

I'm definitley going to look up the other's later as well. And I'll try and post any interesting/relevant bits I find. This has piqued my curiosity.