Thank you
@Terry Sampson for the opportunity to discuss the similarities and differences between the God of Islam known as Allah and the God of Judaism, also referred to as Yahweh, Elohim or Hashem amongst other names. I feel more comfortable referring to the God of Judaism as Yahweh but that is just a preference and recognise other names are completely valid too.
How can we best understand Allah and Yahweh? I would argue the best way is to study what Allah and Yahweh has revealed of Himself through His Chosen Messengers and Prophets. However study alone is not sufficient. We must devote ourselves to the worship of Allah or Yahweh. We must recognise their Chosen Messengers and faithfully follow the commandments and ordinances revealed. Do you agree? Study alone will help but is not sufficient.
So we initially come to learn about Yahweh through the Tanakh and Allah through the Quran. It is important at this early stage to acknowledge our respective faiths and where we stand in regards our beliefs about the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, and how we see the Jewish Prophets and Muhammad.
As a Christian I would assume you see the Tanakh as at least Divinely inspired, authentic and authoritative. It includes revelation from Yahweh through a series of His Prophets whom we could easily list. As a Christian I presume you believe in Jesus as the Promised Messiah in the Tanakh whose advent had been expected by many Jews when Christ was born. I would presume you recognise the New Testament as being somewhere along the spectrum between Divinely Inspired to the literal Word of God.
Christians have a spectrum of beliefs and attitudes towards Muhammad and the Quran. For example Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church has stated publically that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. However many Christian conservatives reject this. It seems clear from our conversations to date you would lean heavily in favour of Christians who reject Allah being the same God as the Christian God.
Baha'is on the other hand, see a clear lineage of God's Prophets/Messengers that includes the Jewish Prophets, Christ, Muhammad and more recently the twin Prophet/Founders of the Baha'i Faith, the Bab and Baha'u'llah. Included in that recognition is the acknowledgement of the Divine inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures, New Testament, the Quran as well as the Writings of our Twin Prophets.
It must be acknowledged that adherents of Judaism would generally reject the claims of Divine Revelation in regards Jesus, Muhammad, the Bab and Baha'u'llah. Muslims OTOH believe in many of the Jewish prophets, see Jesus as being both a Messenger and Prophet (Nabi and Rasool) like Moses in that they were bearers of a Divine Revelation whose Message to some extent over rides the need to follow previous Messengers. Muslims usually see Muhammad as the final Prophet for humanity for all time and would reject the claims of the Bab the be the Promised Qa'im and Baha'u'llah to be the Return of Christ.
In summary although we are comparing theological differences between Judaism and Islam when it comes to God, neither of us are adherents of either religions. There is a great deal of history between the Jews and Christians and history between the Muslims and Baha'is.
I write this to set the scene and to assist anyone silly enough to be following our conversation.
The obvious starting place is therefore the Tanakh which we would both regard as sacred scripture and Divinely Inspired. We need to agree what the Tanakh says about Hashem/Yahweh. The next step would be to see how that is consistent or inconsistent with the Quran. Does that seem reasonable? Any problems or comments with what I've written? I know I haven't answered the question, rather laid the ground work.
Once we are in agreement, perhaps you could provide a summary of some of the key aspects of Yahweh/Hashem as presented in the Tanakh.
Thank you again Terry.
