Saturday, January 19, 2013

Who Was Mohammed and How Did He Differ From Moses?



Nadene Goldfoot
While Moses lived from 1391-1271 BCE, Mohammed lived from 570-632 CE.  Moses lived till age 120 and Mohammed died at age 62.  There is about a span of 2,000 years apart from these two prophets.  We know Moses had at least 2 sons, Gershom and Eliezer.  Mohammed had many children.  There are many Muslims who claim their heritage from him including the King of Jordan.

Moses was the great grandson of Levi, one of the 12 tribes of Israel.  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the forefathers of Judaism, and Jacob was the father of 12 sons who became the 12 tribes.  In fact, this father to son line lets us know that Jacob’s Y dna haplogroup should be what all the 12 sons carried, and Jacob, in turn, received this haplogroup from Abraham.  Since the Levites produced both Moses and Aaron, they should be the proginators of the Cohen gene, haplogroup J1, found recently by geneticists.

Moses was raised as a prince of Egypt  in the Pharoah’s house and was given the best education from birth .  He received information from G-d directly and wrote it down.

Mohammed, son of Abdullah and Amina, was born and  lived in Mecca, Arabia which was 766.37 miles away from Jerusalem. He was born into a Hashemite clan called the Banu Hashim  of the Quraysh tribe, which was a powerful merchant  tribe that controlled Mecca  Dr. Rafat Amari, a professor who has spent 20 years studying the history of Arabia, Islam and Mecca, has written a piece saying that Mohammed was not a descendant of Ishmael, Abraham's first son by his wife Sarah's handmaid.  

"Historians say that the family of Mohammed was a  family which lived in Saba-Yemen. In the 5th century A.D., Qusayy Bin Kilab, the 8th ancestor of Mohammed, gathered an alliance of many Yemeni families forming Quraish, the tribe from which Mohammed later came.  These families only came to occupy Mecca in the 5th century A.D. The city of Mecca was built by the tribe of Khuzaa'h in the 4th century A.D. Mohammed’s family is not connected to any Ishmaelite tribe because Mohammed’s family didn’t leave Yemen until the 5th  century A.D., and that’s about  1,100 years  after the Ishmaelites disappeared. Mohammed’s tribe could not have lived in the same locations as the Ishmaelite tribes at any time throughout history."

Mohammed was expelled from his own tribe  when he began preaching his Islam and monotheism.  After all, these people worshipped a large stone called the Kabba. It may actually be a meteorite.  It is said that he could neither read or write.  At the age of 40, his mind became strongly occupied by meditations on G-d, the hereafter and the Day of Judgement, which he thought was very close.   His background included meeting many Jews and Christians from the Meccan trade caravans who probably got him started with religious questions.  He was convinced that he was chosen as the Arab Prophet, and claimed having had revelations publicly.  He said he had these revelations through the intermediation of the angel Gabriel.  These came to make up the Koran.

He tried to tell the Jews that there was no difference between Judaism and Islam, but Jews could see that he borrowed much of their religion in the first place and stuck with their own religion.  Jews have always been warned not to follow other prophets as there would be false ones coming along.  For remaining faithful to Judaism, the Jews of Medina were slaughtered if they did not accept Islam.  Therefore, we think of Islam as converting by the sword.  Judaism was created to be a light upon the nations of the world and influenced by seeing their example of lifestyle.  The Jews were offered nothing that they didn't already possess.

According to the Koran and different  hadiths ( a saying or an act or tacit approval or disapproval ascribed either validly or invalidly to Mohammed), Jesus will set things right at the end of the world by returning to end the dhimmi status of non-Muslims in Islamic societies.  He will abolish Christianity and impose Islam upon everyone.  Another tradition says that he will break the cross, kill swine and abolish jizah, the poll tax put on non-Muslims.  Allah will perish all religions except Islam.  In another hadith Mohammed says, “How will you be when the son of Mary descends amongst you and he will judge people by the Law of the Koran (Aur’an) and not by the law of Gospel.”

Moses gave us a way in which to live. Moses did have a temper which kept him out of Canaan.  He was pictured as being very human with faults. He even stuttered, and called on his brother, Aaron to speak for him on his behalf.   Mohammed, on the other hand, is held up as a role model of human behavior.   Mohammed threatens us if we do not convert.  I myself have already received a threat.  Jews make it hard for others to convert.  Usually one has to press the issue three times in order for a rabbi to take someone seriously that they are that interested in Judaism.

Resource: http://middleeast.about.com/od/glossary/g/me080921.htm
The Truth about Muhammad by Robert Spencer
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadithhttp://religionresearchinstitute.org/Mohammad/ishmael.htm
http://truthexchange-sow.com/events/past-conferences/upcoming-events/meet-conference-speakers/about-dr-rafat-amari/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6pQyOIi-TI Genealogy of Mohammed

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