Muhammad's Views On Jews
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Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
's views on
Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
s were formed through the contact he had with Jewish tribes living in and around
Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...
. His views on Jews include his theological teaching of them as
People of the Book People of the Book, or ''Ahl al-Kitāb'' (), is a classification in Islam for the adherents of those religions that are regarded by Muslims as having received a divine revelation from Allah, generally in the form of a holy scripture. The clas ...
(''Ahl al-Kitab or Talmid'' ), his description of them as earlier receivers of
Abrahamic The term Abrahamic religions is used to group together monotheistic religions revering the Biblical figure Abraham, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The religions share doctrinal, historical, and geographic overlap that contrasts them wit ...
revelation; and the failed political alliances between the Muslim and Jewish communities. As stated in the
Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
, after his migration (''
hijra Hijra, Hijrah, Hegira, Hejira, Hijrat or Hijri may refer to: Islam * Hijrah (also ''Hejira'' or ''Hegira''), the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE * Migration to Abyssinia or First Hegira, of Muhammad's followers in 615 CE * L ...
'') to
Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...
from his home-town of
Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
, he established an agreement known as the
Constitution of Medina The Constitution of Medina (; or ; also known as the Umma Document), is a document dealing with tribal affairs during the Islamic prophet Muhammad's time in Medina and formed the basis of the First Islamic State, a multi-religious polity under his ...
between the major Medinan factions, including the Jewish tribes of
Banu Qaynuqa The Banu Qaynuqa (; also spelled Banu Kainuka, Banu Kaynuka, Banu Qainuqa, Banu Qaynuqa) was one of the three main Jewish tribes that originally lived in Medina (now part of Saudi Arabia) before being expelled by Muhammad. They were merchants an ...
,
Banu Nadir The Banu Nadir (, ) were a Jewish Arab tribe that lived in northern Arabia at the oasis of Medina until the 7th century. They were probably a part of the Constitution of Medina, which was formed after Muhammad's Hijrah. Tensions rose between th ...
, and
Banu Qurayza The Banu Qurayza (; alternate spellings include Quraiza, Qurayzah, Quraytha, and the archaic Koreiza) were a Jewish tribe which lived in northern Arabia, at the oasis of Yathrib (now known as Medina). They were one of the three major Jewish ...
that secured equal rights for both Jews and Muslims as long as Jews remained politically supportive.


Muhammad and the Jewish tribes of Medina


Reception of Muhammad by Jewish contemporaries

In the course of Muhammad's proselytizing in
Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
, he viewed
Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...
and Jews, both of whom he referred to as "
People of the Book People of the Book, or ''Ahl al-Kitāb'' (), is a classification in Islam for the adherents of those religions that are regarded by Muslims as having received a divine revelation from Allah, generally in the form of a holy scripture. The clas ...
", as natural allies, sharing the core principles of his teachings, and anticipated their acceptance and support. Muslims, like Jews, were at that time praying towards
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
.Esposito, John. 1998. Islam: the Straight Path, extended edition. Oxford university press, p. 17 During the height of Muslim persecution in Mecca, Muhammad was offered the position of arbitrator in the highly diverse Medina, which had a large Jewish community.''Encyclopedia of Religion'', 2nd ed., Lindsay Jones, Muhammad article, Many Medinans converted to the faith of the Meccan immigrants both before and after Muhammad's emigration, but only a few came from Jewish backgrounds because most of the Jewish community rejected Muhammad's status as a prophet. Their opposition "may well have been for political as well as religious reasons". According to
Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
, "Jews would normally be unwilling to admit that a non-Jew could be a prophet." Mark Cohen adds that Muhammad was appearing "centuries after the cessation of
biblical prophecy Bible prophecy or biblical prophecy comprises the passages of the Bible that are claimed to reflect communications from God to humans through prophets. Jews and Christians usually consider the biblical prophets to have received revelations fr ...
" and "couched his message in a verbiage foreign to Judaism both in its format and rhetoric."Mark R. Cohen, ''Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages'', p. 23, Princeton University Press As Muhammad taught of new ''
Islamic prophets Prophets in Islam () are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers (; sing. , ), those who transmit divine revelation, most ...
'' (such as Lot, and
Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
) and that his message was identical to those of
Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...
and
Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...
, the Jews were furthermore in the position to make some Muslims doubt about his prophethood. Judaism does not list Lot, nor
Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
as
Prophets in Judaism According to the Talmud, there were 48 prophets and 7 prophetesses of Judaism ( ''Nəvīʾīm'', Tiberian: ''Năḇīʾīm,'' "Prophets", literally "spokespersons"). The last Jewish prophet is believed to have been Malachi. In Jewish tradition i ...
, and the
Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
(
Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Middle Aramaic , a loanword from , 'assembly,' 'sitting together,' hence ' assembly' or 'council') was a Jewish legislative and judicial assembly of either 23 or 70 elders, existing at both a local and central level i ...
11a) states that
Haggai Haggai or Aggeus (; – ''Ḥaggay''; ; Koine Greek: Ἀγγαῖος; ) was a Hebrew prophet active during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the author or subject of the ...
, Zachariah, and
Malachi Malachi or Malachias (; ) is the name used by the author of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Nevi'im (Prophets) section of the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh. It is possible that ''Malachi'' is not a proper name, because it means "messenger"; ...
were the last prophets, all of whom lived at the end of the 70-year
Babylonian exile The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile was the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were forcibly relocated to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The deportations occurre ...
, and nowadays only the "
Bath Kol In the Abrahamic religions, the voice of God is a communication from God to human beings through sound with no known physical source. In Rabbinic Judaism, such a voice is known as a ''bat kol'' ( ''baṯ qōl'', literally "daughter of voice"), ...
" (בת קול, lit. ''daughter of a voice'', "voice of God") exists. The Jews, according to Watt, could argue that "some passages in the Qur'an contradicted their ancient scriptures". Watt also states that many of the Jews had close links with
Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy (, died 631), also called Ibn Salul in reference to his grandmother, was a chief of the Arab tribe Banu Khazraj and one of the leading men of Medina (then known as Yathrib). Upon the arrival of Muhammad, Ibn Ubayy became a Musl ...
, "the potential prince of Medina" who "is said that but for the arrival of Muhammad, had not become" the chief arbitrator of the community. The Jews may have hoped for greater influence if Ubayy had become a ruler.''The Cambridge History of Islam'', pp. 43–44 Watt writes that the Islamic response to these criticisms was:
The Qur'an, met these intellectual criticisms by developing the conception of the religion of Abraham. While the knowledge of Abraham came from the Old Testament and material based on that, Abraham could be regarded as the ancestor of the Arabs through
Ishmael In the Bible, biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) is the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137. Traditionally, he is seen as the ancestor of the Arabs. Within Isla ...
. It was also an undeniable fact that he was not a Jew or Christian, since the Jews are either to be taken as the followers of Moses or as the descendants of Abraham's grandson,
Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...
. At the same time Abraham had stood for the worship of God alone. The Qur'an therefore claimed that it was restoring the pure monotheism of Abraham which had been corrupted in various, clearly specified ways by Jews, and Christians.
Watt states that the charge of altering the scripture may mean no more than giving false interpretations to some passages, though in contemporary Islam it is taken to refer to textual corruption. The corruption of previously revealed books is referred to as
tahrif (, ) or corruption of the Bible, is a term used by most Muslims to refer to believed alterations made to the previous revelations of God—specifically those that make up the ''Tawrat'' or Torah, the ''Zabur'' or Psalms, and the '' Injil'' or Go ...
. The Qur'an also stated that there was nothing surprising in Muhammad's rejection by Jews, as that had occurred to other prophets mentioned in Jewish scripture. Watt claims that the Qur'an "also went on to criticize Jewish exaggerations of their claim to be the chosen people"Watt, ''Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman'', p. 116 and argued against the supposed claim of the Jews of Medina "that they alone had a true knowledge of God". The Qur'an also criticized the Jews for believing that
Ezra Ezra ( fl. fifth or fourth century BCE) is the main character of the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible, he was an important Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen'') in the early Second Temple period. In the Greek Septuagint, t ...
is the Son of God, a claim unattested either in Jewish or other extra-Qur'anic sources. Michael Cook considers the charge of considering Ezra as the Son of God to be petty or obscure. The
Encyclopedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a multi-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, Jewish holida ...
article on Ezra says, "Muhammed claims (Sura 9:30) that in the opinion of the Jews, Uzayr (Ezra) is the son of God. These words are enigma because no such opinion is to be found among the Jews, even though Ezra was singled out for special appreciation (see Sanh. 21b; Yev. 86b)." In the
Constitution of Medina The Constitution of Medina (; or ; also known as the Umma Document), is a document dealing with tribal affairs during the Islamic prophet Muhammad's time in Medina and formed the basis of the First Islamic State, a multi-religious polity under his ...
, Jews were given equality to Muslims in exchange for political loyalty. According to ''
The Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...
'', Muhammad became increasingly hostile to the Jews over time. He grew to perceive that there were irreconcilable differences between their religion and his, especially when the belief in his prophetic mission became the criterion of a true Muslim."Singer, I. (ed.). (1901–1906). ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'', 12 Volumes. New York:
Funk & Wagnalls Funk & Wagnalls was an American publisher known for its reference works, including ''A Standard Dictionary of the English Language'' (1st ed. 1893–5), and the ''Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia'' (25 volumes, 1st ed. 1912).Funk & Wagnalls N ...
. Entry on ''Muhammad''
When the Jewish community challenged "the way in which the Quran appropriated Biblical accounts and personages; for instance, its making Abraham an Arab and the founder of the Kaa’bah at Mecca" Muhammad "accused them of intentionally concealing its true meaning or of entirely misunderstanding it, and taunted them with being." It is, however, important to note that neither the
Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
, or Islamic exegesis called Abraham an Arab, and that ''The Jewish Encyclopedia'' was completed in 1906 and western scholarship on Islam at the time was heavily influenced by
Orientalism In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...
. According to E.H. Palmer in his 1880 translation of the Qu'ran, "When it became obvious that Islâmism and Judaism could not amalgamate, and that the Jews would never accept him for their prophet, Mohammed withdrew his concessions one by one, changed the
qiblah The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to be a sacred site built ...
or point to which he turned in prayer from
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
which he had at first adopted to the
Kaabah The Kaaba (), also spelled Kaba, Kabah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaba al-Musharrafa (), is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is consi ...
at Mecca, substituted the fast of Rama''dh''ân for the Jewish fasts which he had prescribed, and, in short, regarded them as the irreconcilable enemies of his creed."


Banu Qurayza

After the Battle of the Trench in 627, the Jews of Banu Qurayza were accused of conspiring with the Meccans. According to Watt, though Qurayza does not appear to have committed any overt hostile actWatt in Encyclopedia of Islam, Banu Qurayza Article and been overtly correct in their behavior,The Cambridge History of Islam, p. 49 they had most likely been involved in negotiations with the enemy." Marco Scholler believes the Banu Qurayza were "openly, probably actively," supporting Meccans and their allies. Nasr writes that it was discovered that Qurayzah had been complicit with the enemy during the Battle. A minority of Muslim scholars reject the incident holding that Ibn Ishaq, the first biographer of Muhammad, supposedly gathered many details of the incident from descendants of the Qurayza Jews themselves. These descendants allegedly embellished or manufactured details of the incident by borrowing from histories of Jewish persecutions during Roman times. The Quran contains an indictment of Medinan Jews and Christians who rejected the bayyina of the Prophet, the clear evidence on the basis of which man chooses obedience or rejection of God. This verse is referring to the fate of those who reject the message of Islam, including both the People of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) and polytheists (those who worship multiple gods). The verse is misinterpreted as saying that those who disbelieve in Islam will be condemned to Hell and will remain there forever. It also describes them as the "worst of creatures," highlighting the severity of their disbelief in the eyes of Islam. However, this verse is only referring to the greatest of sinners, as clarified in the following verse.


See also

*
Islam and Judaism Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
* Judaism's view of Muhammad * Mukhayriq


References


External links


Muhammad and the Jews of Medina
{{Jews and Judaism Views of Judaism by individual