Mohammed and His Jewish Connections. A Thought.

[Stewart (SDA)]

Mohammed (576-632AD).

 

Mohammed and his connections with Judaism.

His hopes toward the Jews, and their rejection of him.

 

JEWISH INFLUENCES.

 

Though Mahomet was “unable to read”, he was in possession of a very retentive memory.

 

“From the age of 12 [he] wandered with [trading] Caravans... and whereever he went, amongst the colonies of Jews (who were the chief manufacturers in the towns,) or lying beside the camp fires of the Caravans at night... he learned of the Jewish religion and a garbled version of Christianity.” (Europe in the Middle Ages, Plunket, p.67)

 

“When he was 25 Mohomet married... and [she] brought him not only a fortune, but a trust and belief in his mission that he was to need sorely in the coming years.” Before long, “Mahomet declared that God, and later the Angel Gabriel, had appeared to him in visions and had given him messages condemning the superstitions of the Arabs.”

 

The Arabs worshipped/venerated many gods, but Mahomet adopted the staunch monotheism of the Jews. (Note that the name “Allah” is derived from the Hebrew term, “Elo-ah”, which is the singular form of the Hebrew word, “Elohim”.)

 

MECCA and MEDINA.

Things became difficult for Mohammed in Mecca, his home town. The Arabs there rejected his claims, and he, together with his followers were finally made “outlaws, and no one might trade with them or give them food.” (Plunket p.69)

 

Mohammed then “sent messengers through Arabia to find if there were any tribe that would welcome a prophet, and at last he received an invitation to go to Yathrib. This was a larger town than Mecca... and [it] was popuated mainly by Jewish tribes who hated the Arabian idol-worshippers, and welcomed the idea of a teacher whose views were based largely on Jewish traditions.”

 

So in 622AD, Mohammed and his followers fled secretly from Mecca to Yathrib. (Yathrib was later re-named Medina, or, 'The city of the Prophet'.)

 

HIS HOPES TOWARD THE JEWS.

Mohammed seems to have had high hopes that the Jews of Yathrib (Medina) would accept him as a prophet.

 

THE JEWS REJECT HIM.

But they “soon showed that they were not prepared to accept this wandering Arab as Jehovah's final revelation to man. They demanded miracles, and sneered at the [then developing] Koran, which they declared was a parody of their own Scriptures”. (Plunket p.70.) The links between the two 'books' were very apparent, and very strong.

 

The Jews “could not accept him as a genuine messenger from God... and he in turn is said to have accused them of perverting the revelation given to them : 'You have concealed what you were ordered to make plain.'” (Hourani p.18.) Or in other words, “You people have failed to do the work that you were raised up to do.” And so, Mohammed appears to have believed that he was taking on the Jew's mantle, and that he was to do the work that they had failed to carry forward.

 

The rejection is described by another historian :

 

The “Jews stood aloof in sullen unbelief; they disclaimed a Messiah sprung from the loins of Hagar the bondwoman. Nothing remained [for Mohammed now,] but to employ the stern proselytism [i.e. conversion technique] of the sword. The tone of Mohammed changed at once [toward the Jews]... and the Koran bitterly mocks their vain hope “that the fires of hell shall touch them only for a few days.”” (Milman vol.2 p.246)

 

It is interesting that the Koran develops the doctrine of hell-fire, perhaps more than any other “holy book”. “Verily those who dis-believe our signs, we will surely cast them to be broiled in hell-fire; [and] so often as their skins shall be well burned, we will give them other skins in exchange, that they may taste the sharper torment; for God is mighty and wise.”

 

How disappointed hopes, together with personal rejection, can turn a man's love into the most intense animosity!

[Stewart (SDA)]

Mohammed's knowledge of Judaism and of Christianity [woven tightly into the Koran,] were derived from interesting sources.

 

The Jews of Arabia, and the Arabian Christians were both, during the 6^th and 7^th centuires A.D., poor representatives of their professed faiths, and in terms of their doctrine, these groups were far from pure. Jewish and Christian “fables” ran rife, and despite having grown up on a framework of truth, the stories were often unrestrained and running wild.

 

A historian writes:

 

“The Jews of Arabia had ever been held in contempt, and not without justice [i.e. not without good reason], by their more polished brethren of Babylon and Tiberias, as a rude and barborous people; they had revolted back to old Arabian habits; they are said not even to be noticed in the Talmud. [Of course even Judaism has had its genuine “cranks”, just as we have had them in Christianity.]

 

But Mohammed's “notions of Chrsitianty were from equally impure sources... [and] the spurious gospels of the Infancy and of Barnabas contribute far more to the Christianity shown in the Koran than the writings of the Evangelists.” (Milman, Latin Christianity, vol.2 p.190-191.)

 

Those that have looked into works such as the Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus, and the Epistle of Barnabas, will, I feel quite confident, assent to their erroneous nature. But let us take note that these (and other similar works,) formed the basis for much of the Koran.

[LifeHiscost]

 

How disappointed hopes, together with personal rejection, can turn a man's love into the most intense animosity!

An inevitable outcome of rejecting the Holy Word a person is convicted of by the Holy Spirit.

 

Thus it had been with these Jewish leaders. They were convinced that a divine power attended Christ, but in order to resist the truth, they attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. In doing this they deliberately chose deception; they yielded themselves to Satan, and henceforth they were controlled by his power. {DA 322.2}  

 

God is Love!  Jesus saves!