Islam

As in the chapter on Christianity, in this chapter too there is no pretension to encompass the Muslim religion in all its branches, but rather to focus on the general position of Judaism regarding it. About one thousand four hundred years ago, nearly six hundred years after the founding of the Christian religion, the Muslim religion was founded in the Arabian Peninsula by Muhammad, the prophet of Islam (around 4390, 630 CE). The source of its inspiration is the Torah of Israel, for the Quran, the foundational Muslim book, is full of ideas from the Bible, and through the stories of the great figures of Israel, foremost among them Abraham and Moses, it describes the history of the revelation of faith in God’s unity. Muslim law and thought as well received their inspiration from the laws and aggadot of the Oral Torah, transmitted by Jews who lived in the Arab lands. Inspired by Scripture, Muhammad discovered the tremendous power of faith in one God who has no physical presence whatsoever other than His creating and commanding word. Beyond the signs and wonders in Scripture, the greatest biblical miracle is the very prophetic speech of God to man – speech that addresses the entire public and sets a goal of establishing a nation of believers, and thereby brings about tremendous changes in the world. Indeed, Muhammad did not perform miracles; rather, in elevated language he expressed the vision of faith, and in speech full of force and momentum demanded total devotion to its realization. The meaning of the word “Islam” is submission, surrender, and total devotion to the God called “Allah.”

Inspired by the faith of Israel, Allah is one, eternal, all-powerful, the Creator of the world who rules it with might, who rewards His faithful and punishes those who deny Him. Although Islam is free of idolatry, on the level of consciousness it contains a subtle corporealization. For according to pure Jewish faith, God is not to be defined by any definition at all, and all the divine attributes, such as kindness, might, and mercy, are an illumination revealed to us, but He Himself is beyond all definition. And although in principle Islam agrees with this, in practice it tends to define Allah according to the attribute of judgment and might, and relates to him as an all-powerful mighty one before whom everyone must submit and whose authority they must accept absolutely.^¹

Since the main manifestation of Allah is in might, the Muslim believer must gird himself with might and be a soldier in Allah’s army, in order to subdue his evil inclination before him and to fight the unbelievers and subdue them before him. Of the five main commandments of Islam, four deal directly with the honor of God and submission to Him: a) the declaration of faith in Allah and in Muhammad his prophet; b) prayer to him five times a day, the essence of which is bowing and accepting the lordship of Allah; c) fasting throughout the days of the month of Ramadan in order to strengthen faith and subdue the evil inclination; d) the pilgrimage to the city of Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula; e) zakat, which is the giving of an annual tax of 2.5% of one’s property to the caliph, so that he may fulfill with it the command of God and give from it charity to the poor, and lead the jihad to establish the rule of Islam in the world. The giving of zakat must be out of love for God and acceptance of His sovereignty, that all the money is His.

The additional commandment, which is directed outward, is jihad – holy war against the unbelievers, in order to eradicate idolatry from the world and make everyone Muslims, that is, submitting to Allah, under the rule of the caliph, the successor of Muhammad, the leader of the Muslim nation. For this purpose it is a commandment to fight idol worshippers and to present them with the option of converting to Islam or dying by the sword (as detailed in halakha 4).