Fitra is an Arabic word meaning 'innate human nature'. However, other common translations include "primordial nature" and "innate disposition", or the original innocent state of humans after being created by Allah. All humans were created to worship One God.
2) Articles of faith
3) Pillars of Islam
4) Prophets: 124,000 and 315 Messengers. Original message preserved in Arabic and Muhammad is seal of Prophets from lineage of Abraham.
5) Jesus in Islam. Compare/Contrast to Christian view. Virgin Birth, salvation, Messiah (Tanakh concept, not divine).
6) Absolute Monotheism/Universal. Best of Judaism and Christianity. No Trinity and not tribal or nationalistic.
7) Why Muslims pray towards Mecca, the Ka'ba. The Temple did not exist during time of Abraham or Muhammad, only the Rock. The importance of the Isra and Miraj. (Jacobs Ladder, the gateway to heaven).
8) The historical significance of the Hajj and the importance of Hajar and Ishmael in Islam.
9) The meaning of Jihad and Shaheed (Martyrs). When is it allowed and what are the rules?
10) What is the role of women in Islam and compare to Orthodox Judaism and Traditional Christianity (Corinthians). Equality vs. the Role.
11) What are the origins of Anti-Semitism in Islam. Zionism vs. Qur'an, Hadith, Tafsir, and Seerah. Ibn Kathir and Sayid Qutb (the Muslim Brotherhood). What role does replacement theology play in Anti-Semitism? Being "Cursed" or the "Anger of Allah" upon them.... Deut. 28 vs Qur'an (Fatiha). Meccan Surahs vs Medina Surahs.
Maimonides was born Moses ben Maimon on the eve of Passover in 1135 in Cordoba, Spain, to a prominent rabbinical family. In his family tree figured King David and Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi, who had compiled the Mishnah. His primary teacher was his father, Rabbi Maimon ben Joseph, a Jewish judge, who taught him not only the Talmud, but also the fundamentals of mathematics, astronomy and philosophy. Maimonides was only 13 when his family was forced to leave Spain. After wandering homeless for many years -- wanderings during which his father died -- Maimonides and his brother David finally settled in Cairo, Egypt. There Maimonides continued his Torah studies, while his brother David, a dealer in gems, supported the family. When David perished in a sea voyage, the burden fell on Maimonides. Maimonides refused to make money from his Torah knowledge, and therefore, in order to earn a living, he taught himself medicine. Within a short time, he was so famous as a healer that he was appointed physician to the Court of Sultan Saladin in Cairo. He was also appointed the chief rabbi of Cairo.
II. The 5 Pillars of the Faith
A. Why the Jews rejected Jesus and Muhammad as Prophets of God.
1. Eternal Covenant (Shariah, Land, Promises, Israel was chosen to be given the covenant of the Torah),
a. Qur’an 2:47 “O Children of Israel! Remember My favor wherewith I favored you and how I preferred you to (all) creatures”
b. Qur’an 5.44: “It was We who revealed the law (to Moses): therein was guidance and light. By its standard have been judged the Jews, by the prophets who bowed (as in Islam) to Allah's will, by the rabbis and the doctors of law: for to them was entrusted the protection of Allah's book, and they were witnesses thereto: therefore fear not men, but fear me, and sell not my signs for a miserable price. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) Unbelievers.”
c. 2 covenants for humanity (Torah was only for Israel). All righteous gentiles who follow 7 laws (Muslims who follow the Shariah; no murdering of innocent people) go to heaven; if they convert and become a Jew, that much harder to go to heaven. This coincides with the Islamic perspective that all previous Prophets only sent for individual nations, only Muhammad sent for all of humanity. (Qur’an=universal).
Israel as the light onto the Nations. Maimonidies said that as Islam and Christianity are daughter religions of Judaism (successors to the Torah and Hebrew Prophets), that the divine purpose of the rapid growth of these religions was to spread the 7 laws of Noah to the Gentiles.
Isaiah 42:6 - "I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations,
Isaiah 49:6 - He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
2. Laws (Halachah=Shariah)
a. (Shabbat, Holidays, Dietary laws, tefillin, mezuzah, etc ),
3. Prophecies regarding the end of days.
a. Blessings and curses for following or disobeying the Torah (Deut. 28)
b. One blessing was being able to stay in the land of Israel and one curse was being exiled to the four corners of the earth. That before the Messiah comes; they will start to be gathered back into the land of Israel.
Deut 4:27 And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.”
Deut 9:4 Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.
Deut 9:5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Deut 11:23 Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.
Deut 14:2 For thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that [are] upon the earth.
Deut 28:1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe [and] to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
Deut 28:65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
Deut 30:1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call [them] to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,
Deut 30:3 That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
B. The 7 laws of Noah (Genesis 9) A covenant for all of humanity
1. No shirk (idolatry; saying that God has a son or a mother or worshipping an image or statue of Jesus or Mary).
2. No adultery, fornication, homosexuality (sodomy), incest
3. No Murder
4. No Stealing
5. To set up courts of Justice
6. Not to take off the limb of a live animal. (Like done in Far East).
7. No blasphemy (a human claiming to be God (incarnation) or that God has a begotten son).
III. The 6 books of the Mishnah (Oral Torah from Moses written down in approx. 200 CE). Mishnah equivalent to our Hadith. Qur’an tells you to pray but not how to pray!
1. Seeds: agricultural issues and daily prayer
2. Set feasts: ritual requirements of the Sabbath, festivals, and fasts.
3. Women: treats matrimonial law, women’s rights and responsibilities, laws of divorce and vows.
4. Damages: treats many types of civil and criminal law along with a popular ethical guide.
5. Sacred Things: Formal ritual of the Jerusalem Temple
6. Ritual Cleanness: (Tohorot=Taharah) Treats various aspects of human, ritual, and food purity.
A. Talmud= "Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it Joshua. Joshua transmitted it to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly. They [the Men of the Great Assembly] said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, raise many students, and make a protective fence for the Torah.".
Jerusalem Talmud written in the beginning of the 5th century. Babylonian Talmud written in 6th century.
It must be remembered that when the Talmud was written, it was before Islam, so that almost all Gentiles were idolators. Because the majority of Christians were Trinitarians who ascribed a partner/son to Allah thusly being polytheists. So when the Talmud refers to the dicotomy between Jews and Gentiles it is not a racial thing but rather the Monotheists of the World (the Jews) vs. The Idolators (The Gentiles). As the Qur'an says:
005.017: In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary. Say: "Who then hath the least power against Allah, if His will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every - one that is on the earth? For to Allah belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For Allah hath power over all things."
005.072: They do blaspheme who say: "Allah is Christ the son of Mary." But said Christ: "O Children of Israel! worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Whoever joins other gods with Allah,- Allah will forbid him the garden, and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong-doers be no one to help.
019.088-92: They say: "(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!" Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous! At it the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin, That they should invoke a son for (Allah) Most Gracious. For it is not consonant with the majesty of (Allah) Most Gracious that He should beget a son."
Qur’an 9:31, “They have taken as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were bidden to worship only One Allah. There is no Allah save Him. Be He Glorified from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him)!”
Milk and Meat (chicken?)
1. Exd 23:19 “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.”
1)Rabbi Moses bin Maimon (Maimonidies) writes the Mishnah Torah in the 12th Century..
2)Rabbi Yoseph Karo (1488 to 1575) was among the Jews expelled from Spain, and he had made his way through Europe and Turkey and finally ended in Tzfat (Sefad). There he wrote one of the most important books in Judaism - the Shulchan Aruch "The Prepared Table" - and it is a code of Jewish law which is followed to this day. Rabbi Karo was Sephardi, and Rabbi Moses Isserles (known as Ramah), a Polish rabbi from Krakow, wrote an Ashkenazi commentary to the Shulchan Aruch. To this day, the Shulchan Aruch by Joseph Karo, as amended by Moses Isserles, dictates Jewish law.
IV. History of the Hebrews from Abraham (2000 BCE) to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (200 CE), and the writing of the Mishnah and Talmud (Palestinian and Babylonian).
a. From ‘Hebrews’ to ‘Children of Israel’ to ‘Jews’
b. St. Paul addresses ‘the Hebrews’ (100 CE)
c. Where the words Judaism and Jew came from
d. Moses to Joshua to King David to King Solomon (900 BCE) and the building of the first Temple to Assyria and Babylon to the building of the 2nd temple by Ezra to the Greeks and the Persians to Jesus and the destruction of the 2nd Temple by Rome and the expulsion of the Jews in 135 CE.
e. From Canaan > Israel > Israel and Judea > Palestina > Israel.
1. Emperor Hadrian in 135 CE, after he exiled the Jews from Judea, renamed it Palestina; after the Jews ancient arch-enemy, the Philistines, to dissociate the land from the Jews.
f. Omar retakes Palestine from the Christians in 638 CE.
i. Cleans off the holy Temple Mount from being a dung hill
ii. Allows Jews to live in Jerusalem
V. The different denominations of Judaism and the issue of conversion.
a. Orthodox (Traditional); Chasidic, Misnagdeem, Modern.
1. Neturei Karta: ‘forcing the hand of God.’ Does the gathering of the exiles come before or after the coming the Messiah. Is the 3rd Temple built before or after the coming of the Messiah?
2. Satmar
3. Lubavitch. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, (1745-1812). He was known as the Alter Rebbe and the Ba'al HaTanya. He wrote the famous work, the Tanya, and founded the Lubavitch sect of Hassidism. The Lubavitch Hassidim are known as Chabad - which is an acronym for chochmah, ("wisdom"), binah ("understanding") and da'at ("knowledge.") According to Kabbalah, these are the three intellectual of the ten sefirot - channels of Divine energy - and their name for this Hassidic sect hints how much its teachings are steeped in Kabbalah.
4. Breslav. Rabbi Nachman of Breslav (1772-1811) was the great-grandson of the Ba'al Shem Tov. He wrote Likutei Moharan, concentrating on the fallen and encouraging them to return to God through heartfelt prayer. But he is perhaps best known for his allegorical stories of beggars and princes through which he tried to teach deep truths to simple people. He founded the Breslaver sect of Hassidism.
b. Reform (Secularist); in the early 19th century Germany- the founding of Zionism (Jewish nationalism or atheistic socialism; kibbutz=commune).
i. Theodore Herzl (1860-1904) marries a Christian and has all non-Jewish kids. The goal: Have an army to protect themselves from pogroms and persecution. Religious Freedom. Have a state like all other nations have states. Muslims have 56 states; Christians have numerous states; Hindus have India, etc…
ii. “The Wandering Jew.” The German Jews never looked at as Germans, but always as Jews. Really a nation without a homeland. “Next year may we be in Jerusalem.” The Qibla of the Jews have always been Jerusalem. They have always considered themselves in exile or diaspora.
iii. The majority of Israel Jacobson’s (1768-1828) 10 children became baptized Christians.
c. Conservative
d. Reconstructionist (the disbelief in miracles).
VI. The different communities of Jews
a. Ashkenazi (German/Russian Jews who migrated there mostly after the 12th century).
i. The importance of the Cohenim and Levites. (Genetic testing in Zimbabwe matched).
ii. Before 1492, 90% of Jews lived in Muslim countries
b. Sephardim (Jews who went to North Africa/Middle East after 1492)
c. Yemenite Jews
d. Ethiopian Jews (King Solomon and Queen of Sheba).
Unbroken Chain of Transmission
