Lecture delivered at West London Synagogue, for Leo Baeck College Inter-Faith Series, 26th October 1997
At a time when some prophets of doom and gloom are talking about the clash of civilisations, it is not only useful but essential for the people of goodwill to stress the unity and harmony of civilisations. At a time when tension is rising in the Middle East and when short-term political conflicts are turning the Arabs against the Jews and the Jews against the Persians, it is vital to remember the long history of coexistence and cooperation between these faiths and cultures, and to bear in mind that in the long-term there is no option but finding a way out of the conflict and learning to live together in peace and harmony. The future of all the people of the region must be based on peace, or none of them will have any future that is worth the spiritual truths upon which their civilisations are based. This is why the work of this college in organizing these series of inter-faith dialogues is so important and so welcome. According to a Chinese proverb: “Don’t curse the darkness – light a candle.”
Rather than becoming a means for causing division and hatred, religion should become a powerful force for spiritual unity, by stressing the oneness of God, which is the cornerstone of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam. It should stress the oneness of humankind, all of whom have been created by the same God. The Jewish greeting Shalom and the Islamic greeting Salam mean peace, and the Koran teaches “Say not to anyone who offers you the salutation of Salam ‘thou art not a believer.’” (Koran, 4: 94) In other words, there should be no inquisition and no doubting and questioning other people’s faith. The utterance of shalom or salam entitles one to enter the community of believers. Therefore, the very greeting of Muslims and Jews is a call for peace, for tolerance and for reconciliation.
Although I have lived in this country for more than 37 years, I was born in Persia. The Jews have had a long and inseparable connection and association with Persian history; and Persia and the Persians have a special place in the Bible. Iran has the oldest Jewish community of the world outside the Holy Land. The first group of Jews were transferred to Iran by the Assyrian king Shalamanser at the time of the Medes (8th century BC). With very few rare exceptions when religious fanaticism and bigotry have held sway, the Iranians have lived in peace and amity with their Jewish fellow citizens.
During nearly three millennia of contact and coexistence with the Iranians, the Iranian Jews have been influenced by the Persian culture and, in turn, have contributed greatly to that culture. There exists an extensive Judeo-Persian literature which is written in Persian language but in Hebrew script. Equally, with the exception of the Jews themselves, the Bible does not contain such warm references to any other people as it does to the Persians. Those who are today sowing the seeds of discord between the Jews and the Persians do not seem to know anything of Iranian history or to have read the Bible.
Fourteen books of the Bible have either directly dealt with an event which has happened in Iran, or have references to Iran. There are seven books out of the 14 which are in the form of memoirs of the Jews in the courts of the Medes and the Achaemenids, while seven others refer to events which happened in Iran. In the first category one can mention the Book of Esther which is about the history of a Jewish girl who is married to Khashayarshah, whose name is given as Ahasuerus in the Bible. She prevents the massacre of the Jews by Haman with the help of her uncle Mordecai and the support of her husband, the Persian king.
In Jeremiah we have the reference to the Medes as God’s sword against the enemies of Israel. Ezekiel is about the period of exile in Babylon which was ended with Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon. In Ezra there is the story of the rebuilding of the Temple with the assistance of Cyrus and Darius. In Isaiah there are many complimentary references to Cyrus and God’s support for him. The book of Daniel is about the period of his service at the court of Darius and his forecasts which he made for that king. In fact, I have visited his beautiful tomb which is in southern Iran and which is a place of pilgrimage by Muslims and Jews alike. The book of Nehemia is about the story of the cup-bearer and confidante of Ardeshir who is called Artashasanta in the Bible. In Zechariah we again have the story of the rebuilding of the Temple at the orders of Darius.
Speaking about the influences of Judaism in Islam or the similarities between the Bible and the Koran, the range of similarities is so vast that one does not know where to begin. First of all, the Jews and the Arabs are both Semitic people, and many of their beliefs and practices were based on common Semitic traditions which they had inherited from their common ancestors. The code of Hammurabi (c. 1792-1750 BC), which was in turn based on the much older laws of the Sumerian ruler, Uru-ka-gina of Lagash (c. 2375), provides us with the first examples of the laws of retribution, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” which we can find in the Bible and the Koran.
The Tale of Aqhat which provides us with glimpses into the religion of Yugarit (from 1700 to 1365 BC when it was destroyed in an earthquake) begins with the ritual Daniel undergoes in his old age to obtain a son, the supernatural manner of the conception of his child and his joy at the birth of his son Aqhat.[1] The motif of the righteous man who is childless and granted a son by God is familiar from the stories of Abraham and Isaac in the Bible and the Koran. Strangely enough, the death of Aqhat and his resurrection on the third day and being called the Son of God have also clear echoes in Christianity.
GOD IN THE BIBLE AND THE KORAN
The name of the supreme god in the Tale of Aqhat is El, which is also used in the Bible. However, the nature of the Biblical God is entirely opposed to that of the gods. He is not merely more exalted than they. He is in relation to them incomparable and unique: “Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his redeemer, the Lord of Hosts; I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no god.” (Isaiah, 44:6)
The religion which man possesses rests not simply on the fact that he recognizes the existence of God. Rather do we find religion if we know that our life is bound up with something eternal, if we feel that we are linked with God, and that He is Our God. Of this Heavenly Father our minds may form their own conceptions and ideas, and our hearts can concurrently pray to Him: “Thou, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is for everlasting.” (Isaiah, 63: 16) “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” (Isaiah, 63: 16)
To know of this One God, in whom all things and each thing find meaning and significance, and to bear witness to Him, constitutes the monotheism given to the world by the Prophets of Israel. Man experiences in himself the meaning of breathing in that air of infinitude and eternity which embraces his earthly existence. “The nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge,” thus the Psalmist expresses his yearning. (Psalm, 73: 28) “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.” (Psalm, 24: 1) “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah, 6: 3)
“All nations are as nothing before him, they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity.” (Isaiah, 40:17) They are only a “drop in a bucket” or “the small dust of the balance.” The parts of the earth are like “a grain of sand,” and a thousand years are in his sight “but as yesterday when it is passed.” “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.” (Psalm, 19:1) “O Lord our God, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Thou has set thy glory above the heavens.” (Psalm, 8:1)
God is “from everlasting to everlasting,” and yet has “been our dwelling place in all generations.” (Psalm, 90:1) “For thus says the High and Lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy and: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” (Isaiah, 57:15) Anxiety and confidence unite together. There is exaltation and there is awe. As the prophet, in like mood says: “and thy heart shall tremble and be enlarged.” (Isaiah, 60:5)
Can one find any difference between these exalted descriptions of God and the beautiful Koranic verses, which the Muslims use regularly in their daily prayer: “Say, He is God, the One. God, the eternal, the absolute. He begetteth not. Nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him.” (Koran, 112: 1-4)
IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE
The biblical God is both immanent and transcendent. He is the God of the farthest remoteness and yet he is the One who is with man and to whom man may cry “Hear my prayer!” (Psalm, 4:1) “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.” (Psalm, 145: 18) “Seek thee the Lord while he may be found, call thee upon him while he is near.” (Isaiah, 55: 6) Hence, to speak of the expansion of life may be a true word of prayer: “Out of straitness I called upon the Lord: the Lord answered me, and let me into enlargement.” (Psalm, 118: 5)
Compare with these verses the following verses of the Koran: “Whithersoever you turn there is the face of God.” Or: “We shall show them our signs in the heavens [in the firmament] and in their own souls.” (Koran, 41:53)
So, God is manifest both in the world of nature, as well as, supremely, in the soul of man. “If my servants inquire of thee concerning Me” God charges Muhammad “lo, I am near.” (Koran, 2: 186) Indeed, “God is closer to man than his own jugular vein.” (Koran, 50:16) The Islamic prayer addresses God as “He who is far and cannot be seen and is close and hears every whisper.”
In the Bible He and Thou are made to follow immediately upon one another; all meditation about God soon resolves itself into invocations addressed to him, into an expression of personal intimacy and connection: “The Lord is a high tower for the oppressed, a high tower in times of trouble, and they that know thy name put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” (Psalm, 9:11-12)
This closeness to God is frequently reflected in the Koranic verses, too. The merging of the Lover and the Beloved is a recurring theme in the Koran: “Then He turned to them, that they might turn.” (Koran, 09:118) “God was pleased with them, and they were well pleased with God.” (Koran 58:22). So God addresses the blessed saints in Paradise: “O thou soul in peace, return to thy Lord, pleased with Him and He pleased with you;” (Koran, 89:27) for “He loveth them and they love Him.” (Koran, 5:57) This last verse is of great significance as supporting the Sufi doctrine of Love (mahabba) and as providing the ultimate authority for the idea of a trinity of Lover, Beloved and Love.
GOD’S COVENANT
Like the Bible which speaks of a special Covenant between God and His Chosen People, the Koran also speaks of a Covenant (mithaq) between God and mankind. The Koran teaches that man was created in order that he might be God’s vice-regent (khalifat’ullah) in the earth. (Koran, 27:62) Even before the earth or aught else was made, man entered into an eternal covenant to worship God as the One Lord. “And when thy Lord brought forth their descendants from the reins of the sons of Adam, and took them to witness against themselves, ‘Am I not,’ said He, ‘your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yea, we witness it.’” (Koran, VII, 782) “Adore, and draw thou nigh,” (Koran, 17, 24) these were the last words uttered by the Voice in the first revelation of all. Elsewhere in the Koran we are told that every godly act of man is preceded by an act of God’s favour towards man. Not only man seeks and thirsts for God, but God also seeks man. In fact, the word Islam with its root in Armaic aslama, to make peace, means entry into a covenant of peace with God and submission to His command.
MI’RAJ AND THE REVELATION ON SINAI
Prophet Muhammad’s mystical Night Journey (Mi’raj) was almost a re-enactment of the Revelation of God to Moses through the Burning Bush. We read in the Koran: “He carried His servant by night from the sacred temple (Mecca) to the temple that is more remote (of Jerusalem) whose precincts we have blessed, that We might show him of our Sings.” Concerning this miraculous journey which took place in a twinkling of an eye, we further read: “It is not but a revelation that was revealed: One terrible in power taught it him, endued with wisdom. Evenly poised he stood in the highest part of the horizon: then came he nearer and approached, and was at the distance of two bow-shots, or even closer. And He revealed to His servant what He revealed; his heart falsified not what he saw. Do ye then dispute with him concerning what he saw? He had seen him also another time, near the Sidra-tree which marks the boundary, near which is the garden of repose. When the Sidra-tree was covered with what covered it, his eye turned not aside, nor did it wander, for he saw the greatest of the signs of His Lord.” (Koran, 53:1-15) One can also clearly see similarities between Muhammad’s first Revelation on Mount Hira and the Revelation of God to Moses on Mount Sinai.
HIJRA AND EXODUS
Indeed, one can also find similarities between Muhammad’s Hijra or migration from Mecca to Medina with the Mosaic role of the leader of Exodus and the liberation of the Jews. The Hijra was so significant that it marked the beginning of the Islamic calendar, as it brought to an end 13 years of intense persecution of the Prophet and his followers in Mecca and the start of the liberation and emancipation of Muslims in Medina. In the same way, the Exodus put an end to the enslavement of the Jews and their departure for the Promised Land.
ETHICAL AFFIRMATION OF THE WORLD
Another characteristic of Judaism, which it possesses and has passed on to both Christianity and Islam, is the ethical affirmation of the world. Judaism is the religion of ethical optimism. This optimism is anything but the self-contented complacency of one who declares the world to be good simply because he is himself well off in it, anything but an unthinking trifling which denies suffering, or explains it away. This superficial road can lead no religious man to optimism. Moreover, nothing is more foreign to the religion of Israel or to the historical experience of the Jews. Judaism knows too much about life not to speak of its want and suffering as want and suffering. The Book of Job and many other books of the Bible show us the trials and tribulations which the men of God have to undergo. Similarly, the Koran teaches that the road to salvation is not always smooth: “We shall surely test you with fear and hunger and the loss of wealth and of the beloved ones and the fruits of your life. But give glad-tidings to those who are patient. Their recompense will be without measure.” (Koran 2:62)
In both the Koran and the Bible, the cry of joy in existence is less frequent and less stirring than the lament that this world is a place of misery and affliction, and that our pilgrimage on earth has but a pittance of happiness. “The days of our years are three score years and ten, or even, by reason of strength, four score years; yet is their pride but labour and sorrow!” So says the prayer of Moses, and throughout the whole Hebrew Bible this note can be heard echoing. It is a book of sighs and tears, of sorrow and affliction, a book of spiritual oppression and anguish of conscience. All troubles of men raise their voices in it, and so, too, afterwards, in the later songs which Judaism sang through the centuries.
In the Koran there is no shortage of ba’sa’ and zarra’ (affliction and tribulation); yet man is told to turn to God as a safe refuge: “Say, I seek refuge with the Lord of the Dawn, from the mischief of created things; from the mischief of Darkness as it overspreads.” (Koran, 113: 1-3) “Verily, man is in loss. Except such as have faith; and do righteous deeds. And (join together) in the mutual enjoining of Truth, and of patience and constancy.” (Koran, 103: 1-3).
Yet the Bible never abandons the goal of the world. Its optimism is the strength of the moral will. It is based upon a complete trust in God: “For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak! Be not afraid because of them.” As the Koran says, “Allah-u Akbar”, “God is greater”. “Akbar” means both greater and the Greatest. It means that God is above everything else. So, man should not fear anything except God, for “there is no power and no might but with God.” (Koran, 18: 39) “Who is He who answers the prayers of the needy when he turns to Him and dispels the evil?” asks the Koran. (Koran, 27: 62)
The optimism of Judaism consists in a belief in the good which wills the good. It is the belief in God, and consequently the belief in man, in God through whom good finds reality, and in man who is able to realize the good. Good was placed by God in the world of man as a moral demand, and man is therefore able to make it his possession, and his world: “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse, therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, both thou and thy seed.” (Deut. 30:19)
In these days of ecological disaster and moral confusion we will do well to remember these beautiful, and in the original rhythmic and poetic, verses of the Koran, linking man’s soul to the physical creation, celebrating the magnificence of nature and the need to preserve it: “By the sun and its glorious splendour. By the Moon as it follows it. By the day as it shows up its glory. By the night as it conceals it. By the firmament and its wonderful structure. By the earth and its wide expanse. By the soul, and the proportion and order given to it. And its inspiration as to its wrong and its right. Truly he succeeds who purifies it. And he fails that corrupts it.” (Koran, 91: 1-10)
ONENESS OF JUDAISM AND ISLAM
Judaism and Islam speak the same language. Not only are the Hebrew and Arabic very close as two Semitic languages and have many words in common, but both religions speak the same language in a figurative sense as well. They use the same methods of debate and reasoning, and adhere to identical notions of what religion is about. Discussion and dialogue and, at times disputation, between the Jews and Muslims, are possible in a way which is not possible say between Muslim and Jewish people on the one hand and the followers of other religions further east on the other. For Muslims Judaism is a predecessor, deserving not only of tolerance. Indeed, according to the Koran, the two faiths are one and the same thing. Both of them are religions of Islam, of submission to the will of God.
The Koran says: “Say: We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in the books given to Moses, Jesus and the Prophets, from their Lord. We make no distinction between one and another among them, and to God do we submit.” (Koran, 3: 84) This means that the prophets in the Jewish-Christian-Muslim dispensations form one family literally. But the argument is wider. All men of faith form one family.
The second Sura of the Koran is addressed to Banu Isra’il (Children of Israel) and addresses them as the Chosen People. “Children of Israel, remember My blessing wherewith I blessed you, and that I have preferred you above all beings… O Children of Israel, call to mind My favour which I bestowed upon you and made you excel among the nations….” (Koran 2: 135-136) In the same Sura, we read: “God did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of ‘Imran above all people, offspring, one of the other, and God heareth and knoweth all things.” (Koran, 2: 33-34) This is a familiar theme in the Koran which has been repeated many times. Elsewhere in the Koran we read: “We did aforetime grant to the children of Israel the Book, the power of command and prophethood. We gave them for sustenance things good and pure; and we favoured them above other nations. And we granted them clear signs in affairs of religion….” (Koran, 45: 16-17)
However, the Sura goes on to say that not only the Jews, but all those who believe in God will achieve salvation: “Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians and the Sabians, whoever believes in God, there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve.” (Koran, 2: 62). In other words, revelation is not exclusive to any one people, be it the Jews, the Christians or Muslims, but that anybody can be saved by believing in God and His messengers and leading a virtuous life. Surely, this idea is not alien to the Jews either, for Judaism is not exclusive.
However, the pride of place is accorded in the Koran to Abraham, who is described as a “Muslim”, namely as someone who submitted totally to the will of God, even when he was ordered by God to sacrifice his beloved son. Abraham is credited as the prophet who taught monotheism and who built the Ka’bah, Islam’s most sacred place. In Muslim tradition, Abraham is referred to as al-Khalil, the Friend of God, hence the town where he is reputed to be buried, Hebron, is known in Arabic simply as al-Khalil. Likewise, Moses is al-Kalim, the Interlocutor of God, and Joseph is al-Siddiq, the Truthful.
In the Sura of Ma’ida we read: “It was We who revealed the Torah to Moses: therein is guidance and light. By its standard have been judged the Jews, by the Prophets who bowed to God’s will and by the Rabbis and the Doctors of Law: For to them was entrusted the protection of God’s Book, and they were witnesses thereto.” (Koran, 5: 44) The same Sura of the Koran even questions why the Jews go to Muhammad for judgment or guidance, confirming that the Torah is sufficient unto them: “But why do they come to thee for decision when they have Torah before them? Therein is God’s plain command.” (Koran, 5: 43).
According to Muhammad, not only is the Koran complementary to the Torah, it does not even claim that it has superseded it, and that other earlier faiths should necessarily turn to Islam. In the same Sura of Ma’ida we read: “To thee we sent the scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety… To each among you have We prescribed a law and an open way. If God had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but His plan is to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of all is God. It is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which you dispute.” (Koran, 5: 48-49)
The meaning of the above verses is that the existence of various faiths and different nations and ethnic groups is not something arbitrary and wrong which should be corrected; and that all should, whether they like it or not, become members of the same faith or the same community. The Koran says that, if God had willed it, He would have made us all a single nation. The fact that we are not a single community and members of the same faith is part of God’s design. So irrespective of which faith we follow, we will all receive God’s blessings and approval, provided that we act with sincerity and piety: “O mankind, We have created you male and female, and appointed you races and tribes, that you may know one another. Surely the noblest among you in the sight of God is the one who is the most pious. God is All-knowing, All-aware”. (Koran, 33:55).
Contrary to the practices of some fanatics, the Koran preaches that there should be no coercion in the matters of religion: “Summon men to the way of the Lord with wisdom and kindly warning. Debate with them in the kindliest manner.” (Koran, 16: 126) “Wilt thou force men to become believers?” (Koran, 10: 10) “Let there be no compulsion in religion” (Koran, 2: 257).
Islam does not promise salvation to Muslims alone, but gives equal hope to the righteous and God-fearing of all religions: “Whether Muslims, Jews, Christians or Sabians [or Sabaeans], whosoever believes in God and in the Last Day and does good to others, verily he shall find his recompense with his Lord. For him there shall be no fear, neither any torment or suffering.” (Koran, 2: 62) Therefore, the followers of all the monotheistic religions, as well as all those who believe in spiritual values whether they belong to any other faith or to none, should come together sure in the belief that they are all the children of one God and all of them have been created for a divine purpose.
Judeo-Christian-Islamic civilisation
Despite centuries of conflict between Jews and Christians, recently the term “Judeo-Christian” has become rather popular. Despite the Crusades and many centuries of bloodshed between the Christians and Muslims, the time has come for us to forget past differences and to speak of a Judeo-Christian-Islamic civilisation. All three religions have almost identical views of God, of creation, of Revelation, of the inspired nature of the Scriptures, of ethical laws, of the importance of love and charity, the belief in the afterlife and the hope for the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth.
The Jews can play a very important role and do a very great service to the Middle East and to humanity at large. Not only have they provided the foundation and the basis of Christianity which is the dominant religion of the West, and Islam which is the dominant religion in the Middle East and large parts of Asia, at the moment they can serve another purpose in bringing the East and the West together. They have close ties with the West, because millions of them have lived for centuries in Diaspora in the West. The largest Jewish community in the world is in the United States of America. At the same time, they are a Middle Eastern people and their home is in the Middle East.
Once again, Israel has provided the Jewish people with their Middle Eastern home. Having one foot in the West and one in the Middle East, they can act as a bridge between the East and the West. Having been greatly tried and tested during centuries of persecution, and more recently in the crucible of the Holocaust, and now grappling with the problems of nation building in the Middle East, they can and should sympathise with the problems which the Middle East and the Muslim world as a whole is facing. They can interpret the West to the East and they can also provide a true representation of the Muslim world to the West. Having been a persecuted minority in the West, they should understand and sympathise with the plight of the Palestinians who now live under Jewish control, and other Muslim minorities in different countries, especially in the West.
The Muslims, on their part, should become more aware of the enormity of the Holocaust and should show greater sympathy for the recent sufferings of the Jews, although the Muslims were not involved in causing those sufferings. What is needed is for both the Jews and Muslims to go back to the roots of their scriptures which have so much in common, and they should get away from transient and short-term political problems which divide them at the moment, and which will have to be resolved, sooner or later.
In a world beset by materialism and conflict, searching for meaning and thirsting for spirituality, the Jews, Muslims and Christians can return to that common fountain of life which has nurtured them for centuries and millennia and, once again, provide light and guidance to the modern world. While Muslims and Jews, as the result of misunderstanding and conflict, can cause more bloodshed in the Middle East and probably bring about the end of the civilisation as we know it, yet in harmony and unity they can usher in the dawn of a new civilisation which will be beyond the imagination of modern man.
The Koran addresses the “People of the Book” to come to an agreement around the belief in one God and not worshipping various man-made gods and physical or human idols: “O People of the Book! Come let us agree to common terms between us and you: That we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, lords and partners, other than God.” (Koran, 3: 64). This sentiment can surely be accepted by many Jews, Christians and Muslims as a basis for coexistence and reconciliation.
As someone who believes strongly in Humanism, but who also respects the spiritual legacy of various religions that have provided the spiritual basis of past civilisations from the dawn of history to the present time, I believe that religions, especially the three religions that have had the greatest impact on the Middle East and the West, namely Judaism, Christianity and Islam, can still play a decisive role in the future course of history. Conflicts between these three religions can result in a great deal of pain and suffering. On the other hand, if they can reach a common understanding and stress what unites them, rather than what divides them, they can lead mankind towards a glorious future of peace and harmony. For the sake of humanity, especially for the future of the Middle East, let’s hope that they will choose the path of mutual understanding, harmony and collaboration.
[1] See: Francis Landy, The Tale of Aqhat (Meynard Press: 1981)
F Jahanpour 