The Enemies of Judeo-Sufism Were the Enemies of the Rambam and his family...

Today it is no surprise that there are some backwards members of various segments of the Jewish community who will - acting on their own ignorance of Judaism - accuse Judeo-Sufis of `avodah zarah, or otherwise being part of some bizarre Shabbtaist or Frankist agenda. Their general accusations are nothing new, as these were the same caliber of attacks leveled against the son and grandsons of the Rambam.

David ben Joshua (ca. 1335-1415), last known of the Maimonideans was similarly fascinated by Sufism and integrated it in the same manner as his predecessor. His Judeo-Sufi work Al-Murshid ila-l-Tafarrud (The Guide to Detachment), embodies the most all-encompassing synthesis of Rabbinical belief with Sufism.

Despite Abraham Maimonides’ political and religious prestige, the pietist movement, like many revivalist trends in religious history, met with virulent opinion. The pietists were accused of introdcing “false ideas,” “unlawful changes,” and “gentile (sufi) customs,” and they were even denounced to the Muslim authorities.2

By this time persecution against the movement had grown. The very same brand of opponent – “who attempt to refute those with real understanding” – who leveled accusations and proposed banning Moses ben Maimon, had now continued in opposition to his family legacy; working in collusion with “Islaamic” authorities of Egypt to have the Maimonides Synagogue closed. This persecution eventually culminated in the exile of David ben Avraham (1222-1300) from Egypt, and the gradual disappearance of this Judeo-Sufi pietist movement from Judaism.2 In spite of this, however, the intellectual legacy of the Maimonides family, and certainly of Maimonides himself, remains unscathed and unimaginably influential in the current era.


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1. Josef W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach, Medieval Islamic Civilization: L-Z. pp 547

2. Ibid. pp. 547

Judeo-Sufi Rabbis and Recommended Reading

Rabbi Ya`qov Yosef, disciple of the Besht, quotes Rabbeinu Bahya on Muhammad the Chassid

The full eBook that this selection is from can be purchased here: http://www.hashlamah.org/ebooks.php

In an anecdote about a pious person, a chasid, one of the early masters of the Chasidic movement, in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe, Rabbi Ya`qov Yosef of Polonnoy writes in Hebrew of the chasid with the following saying:

It was told of a pious man (chasid) that he met some people returning from a great battle with an enemy. He said to them, ‘You are returning, praised be God, from a smaller battle, carrying your booty. Now prepare yourself for the greater battle.’ They asked, ‘What is that greater battle?’ and he answered, ‘The battle against the instinct and its armies.1

This “chasid” was none other than Muhammad himself, though it is highly unlikely that Rabbi Jacob of Polonnoy had any idea that he was in fact quoting a very famous hadith, popular amongst both Mutasawwuf and Islamic literates alike. There is no question, however, that Rabbeinu Bahya was aware of the identity of this chassid of whom he wrote.

In the same way, today readers of Hebrew and English-from-Hebrew translations of Bahya ibn Paqudah’s works might be just as surprised to know that this term for “battle” in this hadeeth was “jihad” and that this was the same Arabic term employed throughout Bahya’s works for both the external and great internal struggle (jihadu-l-akbar), the struggle against the self, or as Rabbi Ya`qov termed it, the “instinct” (“jahada-n-nafsa” in the original hadeeth). While there is absolutely no dispute that Bahya had much larger implications than mere “holy war” the Mutasawwufin would similarly claim that - as this source originates with Muhammad - that Muhammad neither meant by “jihad” physical struggle, but struggle against “the instinct and its armies.”

But if Muhammad was well acquainted with Jewish tradition, and if he saw himself as somehow implementing it, to an extent, amongst the Arabs, then the natural and problematic question is why would this not be clear amongst Islamic Orthodoxy today, or in the past. Todd Lawson, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto offers a poignant observation:

Undoubtedly, one of the reasons such material has been ignored in the context of this problem has to do with what we now know are unsuitable categories - especially in the case of Islam - of 'orthodoxy' and 'heterodxy' as methodological guides in religious studies. In the past, in many scholarly circles, it was felt that 'real (cf. orthodox) Islam', which was naturally the most populous Islam, is what we should be studying. Whatever the 'real Islam' might be, we now know that the majoritarian version of Islam, that is to say Sunni Islam, represents a consolidation of doctrines and positions that were worked out over time and in discussion, sometimes heated, sometimes not, with alternative views of what 'real Islam' was.2

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1. Diane Lobel, A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue, 2; ix
2. Todd Lawson, The Crucifxion and the Qur'an: A Study in the History of Muslim Thought, 6-7

The Qur'an asks: Why ask Muhammad when you have the Torah?

Once we strip away the centuries of explaining the clear words of the Qur'an away, we read that Muhammad told people NOT to come to him and ask about matters which the Torah had already instructed us on:

"And why do they come to you for a decision while they have the Torah, in which is the Decision of God; yet even after that, they turn away. For they are not Believers (Mu'minin/Ma'minim)." (5.43)

وَكَيْفَ يُحَكِّمُونَكَ وَعِنْدَهُمُ التَّوْرَاةُ فِيهَا حُكْمُ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ يَتَوَلَّوْنَ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ ۚ وَمَا أُولَٰئِكَ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ

Accepting the words of the Qur'an would revolutionize the Islamic world. Thus, the Torah tells us that "Everything that I command you, you shall keep and observe; do not add to it, and do not subtract from it." (Deuteronomy 13:1) Al-hamdulillah, Muhammad understood this and it is reflected in the Qur'an which accepts the Torah, does not abrogate it, nor the commandments therein for Jews, but does not mandate the 613 mitzvot upon those who have not embraced willing the Yoke of the Torah. This was the position on Muhammad of such individuals as Rabbi Natanyel ibn al-Fayyumi, leader of the Jewish community of Yemen and the `Issuniyyah Jews.

Sunni Hadith on Muhammad paying respect to the Sefer Torah and professing belief in it

Abu Dawud narrated in his collection that Ibn Umar said:

A group of Jewish people invited the messenger of Allah to a house. When he came, they asked him: O Abu Qasim, one of our men committed adultery with a woman, what is your judgment against him? So they placed a pillow and asked the messenger of Allah to set on it. Then the messenger of Allah proceeded to say: bring me the Torah. When they brought it, he removed the pillow from underneath him and placed the Torah on it and said: I believe in you and in the one who revealed you, then said: bring me one of you who have the most knowledge. So they brought him a young man who told him the story of the stoning. (Book 38.4434)

وقال أبو داود: حدثنا أحمد بن سعيدالهمداني، حدثنا ابن وهب، حدثنا هشام بن سعد أن زيد بن أسلم حدثه عن ابن عمر قال: أتى نفر من اليهود فدعوا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم إلى القف، فأتاهم في بيت المدارس، فقالوا: ياأبا القاسم، إن رجلاً منا زنى بامرأة فاحكم. قال: ووضعوا لرسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وسادة فجلس عليها، ثم قال «ائتوني بالتوراة، فأتي بها، فنزع الوسادة من تحته ووضع التوراة عليها، وقال «آمنت بك وبمن أنزلك» ثم قال «ائتوني بأعلمكم» فأتي بفتى شاب ثم ذكر قصة الرجم نحو حديث مالك عن نافع.

How is this hadith viewed in the Ummah? Naturally it is rejected, as it is dissimilar and theological embarrassment to the mainstream dogma. The issue is pinpointed with a transmitter Hishām ibn Sa’ad Al-Madanī. Hāfith Ibn Hajr says about him in his Taqrīb, that he was "Honest" though had "mistakes, and delved into Shi'ism." Thus, once again, we find that even those who we were not Shi`ah themselves found Jewish Muhammad traditions from amongst the school of the Ahl al-Bayt. While many of the most anti-Jewish polemicists in Islamicate scholarship seem to detest him, Abu Zura’ah said, "His status is honesty" and Al-`Ijlī said, "His hadīth are permitted, and are Hasan Al-Hadīth." (Entry 7294 of Tahrīr Taqrīb published by Mu’assasat al-Risālah 1997)

The Shi`i Imam al-Mahdi will pray in Hebrew

Reported to us Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Saeed al Uqdah who said: It was narrated to us from Ali ibn al-Hasan al-Taymali who narrated to us from al-Hasan and Muhammad the sons of Ali ibnu Yusuf, from Sa’daan ibn Muslim, from Rajaal, from al-Mufadhaal ibn Umar from Abu Abdullah (Ja`far al-Sadiq, the sixth Shi`i Imam) that:

“When the Imam Mahdi calls out, he will pray to God in Hebrew.” (al-Numayni, Kitab Al-Ghayba)

Palestinian Muslims are Talmūdically Gerei Tōshav

The Torah does NOT support the idea that only Jews can live in Eretz Yisrael and it COMMANDS many times that the ger tōshav be respected and protected therein. Avōdah Zarah 64b indicates that a one fulfilling the Noachid commandments, and thus a Muslim, should be considered a ger tōshav. Oppressing Palestinians in any way is a violation of the Torah and thus Judaism.

Avōdah Zarah 65a indicates that gerei tōshav need not be formalized before a Beyt Dīn, but can be informal; lest anyone try to suggest that their status as gerei tōshav needs to be formally professed before rabbis. In either event, we know that the tenants of the Qur'ān mandate the Noachid laws and thus, by professing Islām, they are professing to be gerei tōshav, and secondarily, 65a makes it clear that this is not even an issue. Simply by professing to follow the tenants of the Qur'ān, the Palestinian Muslim is Talmūdically granted the status of ger tōshav.

It is time for Israel to truly become a Jewish State and recognize the rights of the gerei tōshav.