Part 2

Part 2: Angels and Divine Revelations

The U.S. population is overwhelmingly a Christian population (78% according to a recent Pew Forum survey), which of course means that all other religions also present within the U.S. are, by definition, “minority religions” (no matter how large they might be on the wider, global scene). Perhaps unsurprisingly, many average Americans’ familiarity with these other faiths pursued by a few of their neighbors tends to be a bit on the thin side. Many who are unfamiliar with the specifics of, say, Judaism and Islam may simply assume that such “other” religions are probably radically, perhaps even unimaginably different from each other — completely alien faiths, with little to no common ground or similarities of belief and practice.

But those who may possess only a casual familiarity with either Judaism or Islam might be very surprised to discover just how much common ground these two faiths actually share, or how many striking similarities and provocative parallels exist between them.

I previously I began a sort of “Top Ten” list of such shared Judaic/Islamic similarities. That list continues here with beliefs about angels, prophets and divine revelations.

Read more of Reed Hall's Religion 101 on Beliefnet.

God’s Messengers

Both the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and the Talmud (rabbinic literature) are filled with accounts involving angelic activity of various sorts, including that of the angel Gabriel, the angel Michael, and others unnamed. Likewise, the Quran speaks of angels as God’s created messengers and functionaries, including Mikail (Michael), Israfil (Raphael), and many others; indeed, the very revelation of the Quran to Muhammad was itself facilitated by Jibril (Gabriel), the greatest member of the angelic hierarchy.

Yet another similarity shared between Judaism and Islam is that both faiths sternly warn against regarding angels as objects of worship per se, or as themselves being on par with God; to do so would be to commit the sin of idolatry.

Moses

For Judaism, Moses is the prophet par excellence, since it was to — and through — Moses that God revealed the Torah (“law,” “instruction,” “teaching”), the extensive body of binding commandments that serve as the basis for the divine covenant established between God and the Israelites at Mount Sinai. The first five books of the Bible, which contain this material, are collectively referred to as the Torah (or alternatively as “the five books of Moses”). The second or middle section of the Hebrew Bible, known as Nevi’im (“the Prophets”) contains accounts of such important subsequent prophets in later Israelite history as Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and many others.

Muhammad

For Islam, Muhammad is the prophet through whom God revealed the Quran (“recitation”), the holy book which Muslims revere as the literal word of God and as the final divine revelation to be bequeathed to humankind; the prophet Muhammad is therefore regarded by Muslims as the last prophet through whom God will speak to humanity. Islam recognizes the reality and validity of previous divine revelations from God to other peoples in other times; the Quran recognizes Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Jesus, and other biblical figures (along with some additional, non-biblical figures) as true prophets through whom God spoke to his creation, even while it then goes on to add Muhammad as the final figure in that list, after whom prophecy and revelation come to a close.