It is hard for me as a Reform Rabbi to understand why most Jews in Medina, where they were a large minority, didn’t support Muhammad as a prophet for all the pagan Arab tribes. Unlike Christians, Jews do not have a strong missionary impulse, so Jews did not view Prophet Muhammad as a competitor in bringing monotheism to the pagan Arab tribes.

Jews should have seen Prophet Muhammad as a step-brother of all the Jewish prophets in the Hebrew Bible; and Muslims as monotheistic allies. Indeed, since it was believed that Muhammad’s tribe in Makka was descended from Abraham’s son Ishmael; Prophet Muhammad was a not so distant relative of all Jews.

And the Qur’an itself says, “Of the people of Moses there is a section who guide and do justice in the light of truth.” (7:159) The Qur’an also adds: ”We broke them up into sections on this earth. There are among them [Jews and all other nations] some that are the righteous, and some that are the opposite. We have tried them [all peoples and especially the Jewish People] with both prosperity and adversity: in order that they might turn (to Us)… As to those who hold fast by the [Torah] Book and establish regular [daily] Prayer, never shall We suffer the reward of the righteous to perish.” (Qur’an 7:168-170)

In addition the Qur’an, in the only passage in which the Holy Land is mentioned by that title (al-Ard al-Muqaddas), refers to the words Prophet Moses spoke: “Remember Moses said to his people: ‘O my People, recall in remembrance the favor of God to you, when He produced (600) prophets among you, made you kings, and gave You what He had not given to any other among the peoples. O my people! Enter the Holy Land which God has written for you, and turn not back (betraying your heritage), for then will you be overthrown to your own ruin.” (Qur’an 5:21)

And most amazing to me as a rabbi, the Qur’an validates a powerful passage in the Torah which describes the Jewish People’s experience of being chosen at Mount Sinai, which every rabbi should have known. “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.” (Exodus 19:16-17)

Rabbi Avdimi said that at Sinai, God made Israel an offer the Jewish People could not refuse. “And they took their places at the foot (תחתית) of the mountain” (Exodus 19:17): “This teaches that the Holy One turned the mountain over them like a tub, and said to them: “If you accept the Torah,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)