One ‘Friend Of God’ For Three Abrahamic Religions – OpEd

None of the Prophets sent by Allah to spread imageless monotheism were able to establish an ongoing monotheistic community prior to the descendants of Prophet Abraham. The Prophet that tried the hardest and the longest was Prophet Noah. God had warned Prophet Noah that almost all of his efforts would not be long-lasting.

"They said, "O Noah, you have argued with us, and argued a great deal. Now bring upon us what you threaten us with if you are truthful. He (Prophet Noah) said, "It is God who will bring it upon you, if He wills, and you will not be able to escape. My advice will not benefit you, much as I may want to advise you, if God desires to confound you. He is your Lord, and to Him you will be returned. Or do they say, "He made it up?" Say, "If I made it up, upon me falls my crime, and I am innocent of the crimes you commit. And it was revealed to Noah: "None of your people will believe, except those who have already believed, so do not grieve over what they do." (Qur'an 11:32-36)

Prophet Noah was fortunate that unlike many others of Allah's Prophets; he was not killed by the polytheist idol worshippers. The leaders of the tribes and nations said, "Do not give up your gods; do not give up Wadd, nor Souwa, nor Yaghoos, and Yaooq, and Nassr. They have misled many, so do not increase the wrongdoers except in confusion. Because of their wrongs, they were drowned, and were hurled into an oven fire pot. They did not find any helpers apart from God. Noah said, "My Lord, do not leave of the unbelievers a single dweller on earth. If You leave them, they will mislead your servants, and breed only (more) wicked unbelievers." (Qur'an 71:23-27)

The oven fire pot is best avoided by Jews, Christians and Muslims who "Hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you - when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided." (3:103)

The Prophet Isaiah said: "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn,and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he [Abraham] was only one when I called him,that I might bless him and multiply him. (Isaiah 51:1-2) and the Qur'an states: "You have an excellent example to follow in Abraham." (60:4) and "Follow the way of Abraham as people of pure faith." (3:95)

Most people in the world have learned of Prophet Abraham, not by reading a book of Jewish history or religion, but by listening to and reading from the Christian Bible or the Muslim Qur'an. This unique and amazing situation is a reflection of a promise made to Prophet Abraham more than 36 centuries ago, and recorded in both the Torah and the Qur'an.

"I swear (says God) because you did this - not withholding your son, your favorite one, I will bestow My blessing on you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes. All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed My command." (Genesis 22:16-18) and "Indeed, We chose him (Abraham) as one pure and most distinguished in the world, and he is surely among the righteous in the Hereafter". (Qur'an 2:130)

Prophet Isaiah also said: But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen,are the offspring of Abraham, my friend;" (Isaiah 41:8) So the biological offspring of Prophet Abraham (the Banu Israel) became the first ongoing monotheistic community when God rescued them from Egyptian oppression; and made an ongoing covenant with them at Mount Sinai. Prophet Abraham was not born a Jew, but his descendants from his grandson Jacob/Israel became the Banu Israel—Jewish People.

Prophet Abraham was the first person called a "Hebrew" in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 14:13). Hebrew probably comes from the verb to go over a boundary, like the Euphrates or Jordan river, or to be a migrant. Ten generations later the Philistines in Canaan used the term "Hebrews" to refer to the 12 tribes of Israel: "Philistine commanders asked, "What about these Hebrews?" (1 Samuel 29:3); and Prophet Jonah identified himself to non-Jewish sailors as "a Hebrew" (Jonah 1:9).

The Qur'an states in Surah 3:67: "He (Abraham) was not Yahuudiyyaun, "a Jew", nor Nasraaniyyaan, "a Christian", but rather a Haniifaam-Muslimaan, "a monotheistic Hebrew believer submitting (Islam) to the one imageless God who created all space and time; who made Prophet Abraham'sdescendants into a great multitude of monotheistscalled the People of Israel-Banu Israel.

None of the Messengers prior to Prophet Abraham were able to establish an ongoing monotheistic community that lasted. "And when there came to them a Messenger from Allah, confirming what was with them, a party of the people who were given the Book threw away the Book of Allah behind their backs, as if they did not know it!" (Qur'an 2:101)

And "Those who disbelieve are steeped in arrogance and defiance. How many generations have We destroyed before them? They cried out when it was too late to escape. And they marveled that a warner had come to them from among them. The disbelievers said, "This is a lying magician." "Did he turn all the gods into one God? This is something strange." The notables among them announced: "Go on, and hold fast to your gods. This is something planned. We never heard of this in the former faith. This is nothing but a fabrication. (Qur'an 38:2-7)

For the next 1200+ years Banu Israel was the only ongoing monotheistic community in the world. Unlike the other monotheistic communities that rose and fell during those centuries; most, but not all of Banu Israel remained loyal to the covenant God made with them.

The Hebrew Bible views a binary picture of humanity, with the Jewish people in covenant with the one God on one side, and the idolatrous polytheist nations of the world on the other. However the rabbis of the talmudic period-approximately 200 to 600 CE took one aspect of the biblical narrative that does not fit into this neat binary universe. While the Bible portrays strangers as isolated individuals in Jewish society, the Talmud expanded the aspect of the stranger and conceptualized it into a broad legal and moral category.

Based on the covenant God makes with Prophet Noah and his descendants (Genesis 9:8-17), the Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 64b) interpreted the stranger to be all gentiles who accept the seven Noahide commandments constituting the basic laws of morality:

1-The positive injunction to set up courts that justly enforce social laws
2- the prohibition of blasphemy, i.e. intolerance of worshipping the one God.
3- the prohibition of idolatry
4- the prohibitions of grave sexual immorality, such as incest and adultery
5- the prohibition of murder
6- the prohibition of theft
7- the prohibition of eating the limb of a live animal, a paradigm for cruelty.

All non-Jews who accept these laws of civilization have residency rights in a Jewish religious polity.

As a result, the talmudic tradition split the gentile world into two sub-categories: immoral persons who reject the Noahide commandments and to whom tolerance is generally not extended, and gentiles who accept the laws of the Noahide covenant who are regarded positively, whom Jews are obligated to protect and sustain.

Thus, classical Judaism subscribed to a double covenant theory: Jews have the Torah covenant of 613 commandments and all gentiles have a Prophet Noah covenant of seven Noahide mitzvot, each covenant being valid for its respective adherents.

The great sage Rabbi Moses Maimonides maintains that six of the prohibitions were given to Prophet Adam, and after the flood Prophet Noah was given the additional obligation not to eat the blood or a limb from a living animal.