Jews and Muslims
The secrets of Rabbi Shimon Yohai is a Jewish apocalyptic text of 7th century. According to this book, Prophet Muhammad is the promised Messiah of the Hebrew Bible. He would liberate the Jews from the ‘wicked’ Christian Byzantines. It is even mentioned that the second Ishmaelite Arabic king (Umar Al Khattab) would be a friend of Israel. He would rebuild the Jewish temple mount. It is little wonder, then, that Umar Al Khattab was given the title ‘Al Farooq’ by contemporary Jews.
The stories of Muslims killing Jew tribes come from late hadiths and sirahs. These sources were composed in Abbasid times when the religious distinction between Muslims and Jews was very sharp. They are not mentioned in Quran itself.
On the contrary, contemporary Muslim sources like “constiution of Medina” note great affinity between Muslims and Jews. In these sources, Jews and Muslims constitute one Qaum.
This is the standard Basmala of Islam. It is the phrase recited before each chapter of the Qur’an except 9th. In Islamic countries, Basmala is usually the first phrase of preamble.
surprisingly, archaeology has discovered that Basmala is Jewish in origin! In 2018, archaeologists found an inscription from ancient Jewish settlement of Jabal Dabub in Yemen. The text of the inscription reads “bismillah rahman rahim” (In the name of Allah, the merciful)
PS: Before the coming of Islam, the Jews of Yemen and Arabia used to address their God by the name “Allah”.
In Pre-Islamic Arabic and Yemen, a Jewish synagogue was known as “Masjid”. (Masgid) This is mentioned in several Pre-Islamic inscriptions of Yemen.
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