Religion 101

Concluding my five-part overview of ten striking similarities and prominent parallels between Judaism and Islam, which some who are unfamiliar with either faith might find rather surprising:

9.  Jews and Muslims both observe religiously mandated dietary rules and regulations.   Most people who know anything at all about Judaism have at least heard about the fact that observant Jews “keep kosher,” mainly meaning that they eat only “kosher foods.” Pork, for example, is avoided, because pork is “not kosher.”  In a similar manner, Muslims are also required to eat only certain kinds of food (known as “halal” foods), and to avoid certain other kinds of food (“haram” foods). In the U.S., when passing through neighborhoods with a significant Jewish or Muslim population, one may often see signs in shop windows advertising themselves as “kosher butchers” or “halal grocers,” for instance.

The term kosher means “ritually correct.” Jewish religious laws, derived from the Torah (the first section of the Hebrew Bible), mandate that both food selection and food preparation be “ritually correct.” In practice, this can get quite complicated, but observant Jews are religiously obligated to abide by all of the specific food laws –which are collectively known as the laws of kashrut (“correct,” “proper”) — that are enumerated in the Torah.

Certain kinds of food are forbidden altogether, such as pork and shellfish, because they are “ritually impure.” Other kinds of food must be prepared in certain ways that are deemed “ritually correct”; for example, all blood must be drained from meat before it is cooked or eaten (kosher butchers can help with this), and meat and dairy products must not be intermixed or eaten together (so a hamburger is okay, but a cheeseburger is not kosher).

Many Jewish households keep entire separate sets of pots, pans, utensils, sometimes even sinks and refrigerators, with one such set used exclusively for meat and the other for dairy, just to ensure no intermixing of the two occurs. Of course, not all Jews strictly follow all of these dietary laws; most Orthodox Jews do keep kosher, whereas many Reform Jews may be more lenient in the degree to which they adhere to the rules.

In Islam, there are also a number of religiously mandated dietary restrictions. The Quran expressly forbids both eating pork and drinking wine (a prohibition which Muslims understand extends to drinking any sort of alcoholic beverage). Islamic religious law has sifted further through the Quran and extracted additional guidelines, working out a basic division between types of foods which are classified as either halal (“permitted”) or haram (“forbidden”). Alcohol, pork, blood, improperly slaughtered animals, and a number of other types of food are classed as haram or impermissible.

There are both similarities and differences between kosher and halal lists of foods. For example, both Jews and Muslims are forbidden to eat pork. On the other hand, Jews cannot eat shellfish, but most Muslims can (depending upon the specific sect); by contrast, Muslims cannot drink alcohol, but Jews can (so long as the beverage is kosher; some drinks may contain non-kosher ingredients).

10.  Jews and Muslims both traditionally segregate men and women during worship services.  Within Judaism, this practice of separately seating male and female worshippers varies by branch or denomination. In Orthodox synagogues, Jewish men and women sit in separate areas of their own (there is often an upstairs gallery for women), whereas in Reform synagogues the sexes are not separated from each other.

In Islam, segregation of the sexes during prayer also prevails, but specific customs vary from culture to culture and place to place. Often only Muslim men pray at mosques, while women are expected to pray at home; elsewhere, Muslim women may pray at a mosque, but generally do so either in the rear of the prayer hall (behind the men) or else in an altogether separate area of their own, sometimes hidden from view by a partition, or in an upstairs gallery or a different room.

There are, of course, numerous additional similarities between Judaism and Islam that could further extend this list. For both religions, a “day” technically begins or ends at sunset, rather than at midnight or at dawn. Each religion has its own unique lunar calendar, differing from the widely accepted standard Western or “Gregorian” calendar, and each numbering its years according to its own scheme. Observant Jewish and Muslim males both frequently wear, as an act of piety, somewhat similar skullcap-like head coverings — yarmulkes (the Yiddish term) or kippahs (the Hebrew term) for Jewish men, and the often somewhat larger kufi or taqiyah “prayer cap” for Muslim men.

But hopefully a sufficient number of similarities has already been outlined to adequately underscore just how much in common Judaism and Islam actually share with each other. In some ways, the two faiths are perhaps not so radically different from each other as newcomers unfamiliar with either of them might have expected them to be.

As mentioned in my previous blog entry, a recent Pew Forum survey finds that 78.4% of the U.S. population self-identifies as Christian — clearly an overwhelming majority. By contrast, Jews account for only 1.7% and Muslims a mere 0.6% of the U.S. population.

(From a planetary perspective, things look very different. The Pew Forum also reports that Christians account for only 32% and Muslims for some 23% of the total world population. And on the global stage, Jews comprise less than 1% of our combined human populace.)

In any case, a lot of Christians — U.S. Christians in particular, who comprise the vast majority of the American populace — remain relatively uninformed about the basics of both Judaism and Islam. We now continue, therefore, with our ongoing list of similarities and commonalities shared between Jews and Muslims, at least some of which many non-Jews and non-Muslims might find somewhat surprising:

7.  Jews and Muslims both require male circumcision.  In the Bible, Abraham was commanded by God to undergo circumcision, as a sign of the divine covenant established between them. This requirement was subsequently inherited by all of Abraham’s male descendants; accordingly, it has since remained an established practice throughout the long history of Judaism.

According to the Torah (the first section of the Hebrew Bible), male Jewish newborns are to be circumcised on the eighth day after their birth. This occasion is commonly known as a bris (short for “covenant of circumcision”), and has the status of a religious ceremony. The actual procedure is performed by a trained Jewish specialist known as a mohel (“circumciser”), and a celebratory meal follows the ritual.

Although it is not commanded by the Quran, male circumcision is mentioned approvingly in hadith collections (compiled sayings or deeds of the prophet Muhammad, looked up to by faithful Muslims as a reliable guide to understanding and behavior). Muhammad himself was circumcised, as were previous prophets going all the way back to Abraham.

Consequently, male circumcision (known as khitan or tahara) has been a common standard practice — a virtual requirement — in Islam since its earliest days. Most Muslims consider the rite obligatory, and even those who may not still regard the practice as religiously meritorious and highly recommended.

Specific timing and associated customs regarding the rite of circumcision vary from Islamic culture to Islamic culture.  In some area, boys traditionally undergo it as a puberty rite, or similar youthful rite of passage (for example, upon memorizing the Quran in its entirety); elsewhere, it may be performed shortly after birth, by a doctor in a modern hospital. While no particular age is specified for the rite, somewhere around the age of seven is a common and widespread practice.

In contrast with their Judaic and Islamic cousins (all three being regarded as Abrahamic faiths), most Christians do not regard circumcision as a religious obligation.

8.  Jews and Muslims both pray a set number of times each day.  Of course, individuals may pray any time they want, as often as they want, and as many times as they want. But in both Judaism and Islam, there is also a fixed number of set times each day that the faithful are religiously required to engage in formal prayers. Any additional prayers beyond that essential baseline is optional, but this bare minimum is mandatory.

Many with only a smattering of knowledge about Islam may at least be aware of the relatively well-known Muslim practice of praying five times each day. This prayer practice is one of the so-called “Five Pillars of Islam,” the observance of each of which is mandatory for all Muslims.

Five times a day, every day, Muslims stop whatever else they may be doing in order to participate in their formal prayers. Wherever they may happen to be at the designated prayer times, they must find a suitable location (if nearby, a mosque is ideal, but not necessary). These five daily prayer times are obligatory; if one of them is missed due to unavoidable circumstances, it must be made up later.

Wherever on the face of the earth that they may currently find themselves, Muslims worldwide are required at these five daily periods to face the direction of Mecca (in Saudi Arabia), and then perform the prescribed ritual prayers. Whatever language they may otherwise speak in their daily lives, these formal prayers are memorized and uttered in Arabic, the language of the Quran.

These five prayer times are set, and specific: at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and nightfall. Traditionally, a muezzin (a sort of Islamic town crier) would announce the call to prayer for the local community from atop a mosque’s high minaret (a tall tower or spire) at the onset of each appointed prayer time. Today, such modern conveniences as P.A. systems, automatic timers, and even online websites have supplemented or replaced the traditional muezzin‘s prayer call in many places around the globe.

Likewise, Jews also traditionally pray a fixed set of times each day. However, rather than numbering five, these Jewish formal daily prayers occur at only three times each day — at morning, afternoon, and evening. (A fourth daily prayer is added on sabbaths and holidays, and a fifth one for Yom Kippur, Judaism’s most sacred holy day.)

Daily synagogue services are held corresponding to each of these three daily Jewish prayers. Of the four major contemporary branches of the Jewish faith, both Orthodox Judaism as well as Conservative Judaism regard the three daily prayers as mandatory; Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism both consider them optional, a matter of personal choice.

(To be continued, in Part Five.)

According to a recent Pew Forum survey, 78.4% of the U.S. population self-identifies as Christian — clearly an overwhelming majority. By contrast, Jews account for only 1.7% and Muslims a mere 0.6% of the population.

Overwhelming majorities (of whatever sort) sometimes pay little attention to, and may actually know very little about, the tiny minorities around them. This, of course, often holds true regarding religious majorities and minorities; a lot of American Christians know relatively little about Judaism, and even less about Islam.

Knowing so little about them, many Americans may wrongly assume that Jews and Muslims have almost nothing in common, religiously speaking, with each other. Many might be surprised to learn that there is actually a significant amount of common ground shared by these two faiths.

In my two previous blog entries (Part One and Part Two of this five-part series), I began enumerating the first four of ten noteworthy similarities between Judaism and Islam, with which readers unfamiliar with either faith might be unaware. That “top ten” list now continues below:

5.  Jews and Muslims both believe in the resurrection of the dead, in a day of judgment, and in heaven and hell.  Christians share these beliefs as well, making them a commonality among all three Abrahamic religions. While the specific details (and particular interpretations thereof) may vary among individual sects, branches, and denominations, probably most Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe in some variant of this whole package or cluster of related religious ideas about the afterlife and the end of time (or the end of the world, at least as we know it).

The generally accepted idea, which developed initially within Judaism and then was subsequently inherited by both Christianity and Islam (insofar as those two later faiths share Semitic theological roots), is that there will come a day when God will collectively raise from the dead every person who has ever lived, and then individually pronounce divine judgment upon every living soul.

All who are deemed adequately righteous in God’s eyes — those who have sufficiently satisfied the necessary divine criteria (conceived variously by the different religions) — will enjoy eternal bliss in heaven. Conversely, all whom God deems unrighteous are judged and sentenced accordingly; those who are found irredeemably guilty of having failed to meet the divinely mandated minimum standards (conceived differently by different religions, but required for entry into paradise) will instead suffer eternal torment in hell.

Again, there are variant understandings of just precisely what all of that really means, or just exactly how it will all actually play out, among the three major Semitic religions (not to mention among their numerous internal subdivisions). But that basic kernel or core idea is present in some form within each of them, and plays an important role within their respective theologies.

This entire cluster of beliefs about “last things” also sharply distinguishes the three Abrahamic faiths from other major world religions, which may maintain fundamentally and radically different beliefs of their own about the nature of the afterlife, or of ultimate human destiny (for example, Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh beliefs in reincarnation).

6.  Jews and Muslims both regard Jerusalem as a holy city.  (Christians do too, of course.) It would be difficult to overstate the central importance for Judaism of the city of Jerusalem. The capital of Israel today and one of the world’s oldest cities, Jerusalem was originally established (according to biblical tradition) by King David as his capital city approximately three thousand years ago (circa 1000 B.C.).

David’s son, King Solomon, established the first Temple there, making Jerusalem the religious center of the Jewish universe — a status which the ancient city continues to enjoy today, despite the Temple having been destroyed twice (the First Temple was destroyed in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians; the rebuilt Second Temple was subsequently destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D).

Even though the Temple remains a long-vanished thing of the past, Jerusalem today remains a city of profound religious history and meaning for Judaism. The Temple Mount (the original site of both Temples), with its famous Western or “Wailing” Wall (the ancient remains of a Temple courtyard wall) continues to attract pilgrims by the thousands, who come to pray — as they have for centuries — in the presence of what Jews still regard as the holiest place on Earth.

The city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia is, of course, the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad, and also the locus of the well-known Hajj or annual pilgrimage to Mecca (as one of the “Five Pillars” of Islam, it is religiously incumbent upon every Muslim who is able to do so to make the formal pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in one’s lifetime). It should therefore come as no surprise that, in Islam, Mecca is regarded as the holiest city.

The nearby city of Medina, home to Muhammad’s tomb and a refuge to which Muhammad and his companions were forced to flee due to increasing persecution in Mecca — a watershed event in the birth of Islam, referred to as the Hijra (“flight,” “migration”) — is an optional addition to the Hajj which many Muslim pilgrims also undertake. Medina is therefore understandably revered as the second holiest city in Islam.

For Muslims, Jerusalem is also a sacred site; in fact, it ranks as Islam’s third holiest city, right after Mecca and Medina.

Islam recognizes the validity of previous revelations from God to previous prophets throughout history, including biblical history, and Jerusalem figured prominently as a holy city to those earlier prophets.

Jerusalem also figures prominently in the story of Muhammad’s miraculous night journey and ascension, according to which the archangel Jibril (Gabriel) transported Muhammad first from Mecca to Jerusalem (for prayer), and then from Jerusalem to heaven (where he met and spoke with some of those previous prophets), all in a single night.

Jerusalem was also the first qibla (“direction”) that Muslims were instructed to face during their prayers, until a later divine revelation received by Muhammad subsequently resulted in changing the direction faced for Islamic prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca.

Today, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the sacred site not only of the Western (“Wailing”) Wall — the sole remaining remnant of Judaism’s Second Temple — but also of Islam’s al-Aqsa mosque, as well as its Dome of the Rock shrine.

Built upon the site of the long-vanished Jewish Temple — the “rock” of the shrine’s name being the Temple’s actual Foundation Stone (which Jews believe marks the site of the Temple’s Holy of Holies or inner sanctum, making it the holiest site in Judaism) — the Dome of the Rock is believed by Muslims to mark the spot in Jerusalem to which Muhammad had been transported during his miraculous night flight, and from which he subsequently ascended to heaven for a brief visit, as described previously.

The nearby al-Aqsa mosque is Islam’s third holiest house of worship, after Mecca’s Grand Mosque (home of the Kaaba and focus of the Hajj pilgrimage) and Medina’s Mosque of the Prophet (home of Muhammad’s tomb).

(To be continued, in Part Four.)