1. Ahmed Mirza M.D Naqshbandiya Foundation For Islamic Education(NFIE)
ISLAM AND JUDAISM
Ahmed Mirza M.D
Naqshbandiya Foundation For Islamic Education(NFIE)

2. Abraham:Father of Jews,Christians&Muslims
Abraham means "Father of Many Nations.“He believed in One God
Jews know this one God as Yahweh or Yehovah, the self-Existent or Eternal. Jehovah, the Lord.
Muslims know this God as Allah. They say there is "No god, but God."
Christians know the Sacred One first in Matthew 1:23 as Emanuel, "God with Us."

3. Prophet Abraham in Islam Faith, sacrifice, commitment and patience
Salam (peace) be upon Abraham! Quran (37:109).
In Islam, Prophet Ibrahim/Abraham is the friend of God and the father of Prophets (Ismail/Ishmael and Ishaq/Isaac and the grandfather of Prophet Yaqub/Jacob). He is also one of the ancestors of the Prophet Muhammad.Peace&Blessings be upon them

4. Abrahamic Faiths
Law+Way
Law
Way

6. Prophet Abraham in Islam
Salat-Prayer: Muslims must ask God to send His blessings upon Prophet Ibrahim/Abraham&his Family during five daily prayers&face towards Kaaba in Makkah built by Abraham&Ishmael .
Hajj-Pilgrimage:“You must adhere to the traditions and rituals (of Hajj), for these have come down to you from (your forefather) Ibrahim in heritage”Hadith (Tirmidhi).
Eid-ul-Adha: The sacrifice is offeredin commemoration of the supreme act and spirit of sacrifice offered by Prophet Abraham in lieu of his son Ismail/Ishmael.

8. O God! Send blessings upon Muhammad and upon the House of Muhammad as You sent blessings upon Abraham and upon the House of Abraham; indeed, You are praiseworthy and glorious. O God! Bless Muhammad and the House of Muhammad as You blessed Abraham and the House of Abraham; indeed, You are praiseworthy and glorious

9. Abraham in Judaism&Christianity
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of he earth shall be blessed
Genesis 12:1-3 (NRSV)

10. THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN MUSLIM SYMBIOSIS: The Golden Age of Jewry in Muslim Spain(711-1496)
In the 13th century, nearly 90% of the world’s Jewry lived under Muslim rule.  Jews read and wrote in Arabic, worked hand in hand with Muslims at commercial projects, and even studied the Koran in the schools known as madrassas.  Once introduced to the great Sufi thinkers, many of the more mystically inclined Jews responded to the deep piety of their spiritual cousins and ingested their ideas

11. Reviving the Model of Muslim Spain
“I believe there are three reasons that learning about Al-Andalus is crucial to the world today:
1.The level of civilization that Al-Andalus achieved. At a time when the rest of Europe was shrouded in the Dark Ages, the Muslim city of Cordoba in Al-Andalus was the most advanced city on the entire European Continent. In philosophy, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, poetry, theology, and numerous other fields of human endeavor, medieval Islam was the world's most advanced civilization”.Three wise men:Averroes,Maimonides,Thomas Aquinas Jacob Bender

12. Reviving the Model of Muslim Spain
2.Al-Andalus in particular, and Islamic civilization in general, served as both the repository of ancient Greek knowledge and science, and the transmission point in its journey to the Christian-dominated West.
Three wise men:Averroes,Maimonides,Thomas Aquinas Jacob Bender

13. Reviving the Model of Muslim Spain
3.The culture of Al-Andalus is now justly celebrated for the extent that religious pluralism and tolerance were hallmarks of this most glorious age, as manifested in Islam's respect for ahl al-kitab, the "People of the Book."
Three wise men: Averroes,Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas, Bender

14. Mosque,Cathedral,Cordoba

15. The Golden Age of Jewry in Muslim Spain(711-1496)
THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN MUSLIM SYMBIOSIS:
The Golden Age of Jewry in Muslim Spain( )
Mosque
Synagogue

17. THE THREE WISE MEN OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Averoes, Maimonides, and Aquinas lived during a time of unprecedented and reciprocal spiritual intellectual and cultural exchange between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, specially during the so called Golden Age of Muslim Spain that continues to inspire, both by its high level of civilization and its tolerance.

18. Three wise men: Averroes.
Ibn Rushd,Averroe‘s, was born in Cordoba, Spain in1126 and died in He is without question the greatest mind produced by Islamic civilization in Al-Andalus. As a young man, Ibn Rushd already excelled in theology, religious law, astronomy, literature, mathematics, music, zoology, medicine and philosophy.
Three wise men: Averroes, Moses Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas Jacob Bender

19. Three wise men: Averroes
It is in the field of philosophy, however, that Ibn Rushd left an indelible mark upon the intellectual history of Western civilization. In the year 1169, Ibn Rushd was asked by the Caliph to undertake new and up-to-date Arabic translations and commentaries of the works of Aristotle. Ibn Rushd's commentaries on Aristotle have had an immense impact upon both Christian and Jewish philosophy for hundreds of years.
Three wise men: Averroes, Moses Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas Jacob Bender

20. Moses Maimonides ( )
Visionary thinker’Prolific author,Wrote on topics ranging from physics to Jewish Law, theology to politics, psychology to Biblical exegesis, and from philosophy to medicine. Rich and complex in their own right, Maimonides' writings must, however, be understood within their 12th-13th century Spanish Muslim context,of the works of three of the most well-known Islamic thinkers, al-Farabi (ca ), Avicenna (Ibn Sina) ( ) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd) ( ).
The Influence of Islamic Thought on Maimonides: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:Jun 30, 2005;

21. Moses Maimonides & Ibn Rushd
Born 12 years after Ibn Rushd.
Most important Jewish thinker in the last 2,000
Both were born in Cordoba in Al-Andalus
Both became philosopher/theologians
Both became interpreters of Aristotle
Both harmonized the reason with the revelations
Both became jurists of Shariah&Halakhah
Both lived part of their lives in Fez in Morocco
Both became court physicians, Ibn Rushd to the Caliph of Cordoba, Rabbi Musa to the great Salah-ah-Din in Egypt.

22. Moses Maimonides
Shining example of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish symbiosis that went on for 800 years and was ultimately extinguished by the Spanish Inquisition in Jews at that time fled to the only country that would allow them an asylum, the Ottoman Empire where they celebrated 500 years of prosperity

23. Moses Maimonides 13 principles of faith
God’s Existence
God's unity
God'sSpirituality and Incorporeality
God's Eternity
God alone should be the object of worship
Relevation through God's Prophets
The preeminence of Moses among the Prophets
God's law given on Mount Sinai
The immutability of theTorah as God's Law
God's foreknowledge of human actions
Reward of good and retribution of evil
The coming of the Jewish Messiah
The Resurrection of the dead

24. Three Wise Men:Thomas Aquinas
Born near Naples,Italy in1225,is the most important and influential Christian philosopher of the Middle Ages. His masterpiece, the Summa Theologiae, is widely considered the most comprehensive exploration of philosophy and theology in the entire history of Christianity. And like Ibn Rushd and Rabbi Musa before him, as was primarily concerned with finding a way of incorporating Aristotle's rationalism into Christian theology.
Three wise men: Averroes,Maimonides,Thomas Aquinas Jacob Bender

25. Rabbi Abraham Maimonides (1186-1237)
Eminent exponent of the medieval Jewish-Sufi synthesis,compiled treatise Kifayat ul-'Abidin [the compendium for those who serve God] advocated an ideal of sublime piety based on a discipline of mystical communion,recommended Sufi practices, solitary contemplation and dhikr, repetitions of the divine names.
Sources:Eliezer Segal

26. Rabbi Abraham Maimonides (1186-1237)
Abraham grew up in a truly multi-cultural world, where Moslems, Jews and even Christians interacted in one of the most accepting societies in the history of man. Unlike our current epoch, when the voices of hatred speak far louder than those of friendship, medieval Egypt was a place of mutual respect, protective laws and surprisingly strong and positive relations between the religions. It was also a time and place rife with Sufis and Sufi thought - and Jewish libraries often contained books by such masters as al-Ghazali, as-Suhrawardi and al-Hallaj, all dutifully transcribed into the blocky Hebrew script of the local Jewish population. Sufis and Jews knew each other, read each other's books and even compared notes on spirituality and the quest for divine union with God. Tom Block

27. Kifayat ul-'Abidin [the compendium for those who serve God] Abraham Maimonides
Mystical masterpiece,2500-pages, first three chapters re-hashing his father's thought and laws ,fourth section spelled out in minute detail the tariqa,the Sufi Path, including sincerity, mercy, generosity, gentleness, humility, faith, contentedness, abstinence, mortification and solitude. He also mentions that upon successful completion of the "path" and the achievement of divine union with God,the seeker is to wear the Sufi garb. He himself, wore Sufi Khirqah implying that he had not only followed the Sufi Way, but had completed it!The Kifaya, had already spread to distant lands in his own lifetime, taking with it his ideas on Sufism tomblock.com

28. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111)
al Ghazali played a similar role to Islam as did Maimonides to Judaism: aligning mystical and more orthodox streams, allowing these two impulses to coexist within the same religion. Quoted time and again in Jewish tracts,his treatises have been found copied out into Hebrew in medieval Jewish libraries, and his ideas are sprinkled throughout medieval Jewish texts.

29. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111)
Al-Ghazali’s influence on Jewish mysticism was far reaching,Jewish mystics,Moses Maimonides (12th century), Abraham he-Hasid (13th century), Obadyah Maimonides (13th century), Judah Halevi (12th century), Abraham Ibn Hasdai (13th century) up to the Kabbalist Abraham Gavison of Tlemcen (17th century) specifically quoted the Sufi master in their own exegesis of Jewish life and law.Rabbi Gavison stated “I have translated the poetry of this sage, for even though he be not of the children of Israel, it is accepted that the pious of the gentiles have a share in the world to come and surely heaven will not withhold from him the reward of his faith.”

30. Solomon Ibn Gabirol (b.1020).
Personified the interweaving of Judaism and Islam.He assimilated ideas from Sufis Ikhwan as-Safa, to such an extent that after the Bible,it was his primary source of inspiration!He also followed the teachings of Sufi mystic Ibn Masarra ( ), who had introduced Sufism to Spain.
MEDITATION
Three things remind me of You,
the heavens
who are a witness to Your name
the earth
which expands my thought
and is the thing on which I stand
and the musing of my heart
when I look within.
Statue of Solomon Ibn Gabirol
in a park in Málaga, Spain

31. Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165-1240)
Ibn Arabi&Ibn Gabirol,were the two great followers of Sufi mystic Ibn Masarra ( ) . Where al-Ghazali was known as the “Renovator of Islam,” Ibn Arabi was the “Distiller,” taking 500 fertile years of Sufi thought,and creating a unified vision of Islamic mysticism, influencing virtually all of Islamic spirituality that postdated his fertile life span and much of Jewish mysticism, as well.

32. Abraham Abulafia( )
“In addition to Abulafia’s belief in the ability to commune completely with God, he borrowed much of what is today commonly thought of as particularly Jewish mystical prayer from the Muslim mystics called the “Science of the Letters.” This system, based in a complicated series of chants, breathing techniques, movements of the head, and special clothing, had very little to do with the traditional laws of Judaism.  Many of these same ideas and rites, however, could be found in the Sufi practice of that time.Abulafia imported the emotional aspects of Sufism into Kabbalistic practice” Shalom/Salaam, Tom Block

33. Abraham Abulafia
The gentle melding of Sufism with Judaism produced a period of tremendous fertility in the Jewish religion – some have even claimed it to be the most productive and creative epoch in the entire history of Jewish mysticism.   After the Sufi influence was digested, a few hundred years after Abraham Abulafia’s death, the face of Jewish worship itself had changed, with reverberations reaching deep into the inner sanctum of the Jewish Kabbalah and down to the Baal Shem Tov’s Hasidism.  Even today, contemporary Jewish adepts in Jerusalem, Europe and even Brooklyn worship in ways that are more reminiscent of Sufism than earlier, pre-medieval Jewish spirituality
Shalom/Salaam,Tom Block

34. A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue Philosophy and Mysticism in Bahya ibn Paquda's Duties of the Heart Diana Lobel
Written in eleventh-century Muslim Spain , Bahya Ibn Paquda's Duties of the Heart is a profound guidebook of Jewish spirituality.Diana Lobel explores the full extent to which Duties of the Heart marks the flowering of the "Jewish-Muslim symbiosis,"
Bahya a maverick who integrated abstract negative theology, devotion to the inner life, and an intimate relationship with a personal God,steeped in Islamic traditions represents a genuine bridge between religious cultures. He brings together, as well, a rationalist, philosophical approach and a strain of Sufi mysticism, paving the way for the integration of philosophy and spirituality in the thought of Moses Maimonides.

35. Kitab al-hidayah ila fara’id al-qulub (Guidance to the Duties of the Heart) Bahya Ibn Paquda's Ten Principles
1.Sincere profession of the oneness of God (ikhlas al-tawhid)
2.Consideration for all created beings (al-i'tibar bilmakhluqin)
3.Obedience to God (ta'at Allah),
4.Abandonment(tamakkul,the principle of giving oneself entirely to Him)
5.Sincerity of action (ikhlas)
6.Humility (tawadu')
7.Repentance (tawba)
8.Constant examination of one's conscience (muhasaba),
9.Abstinence and asceticism (zuhd)
10.Love of God (mahabba)

36. Kabbalah Jewish mysticism, developing during 12th to 17th AD
The Zohar (Book of Splendor)
a mystical interpretation of the Torah
God as ultimate reality,
God as the Boundless is En Sof, transcendent,beyond all human comprehension
Ten emanations (sefirot) come from En Sof,
Ten forms of God's presence in creation

37. Kabbalah
Divine Will generates Wisdom and Intelligence
Wisdom and Intelligence generates Grace/Love and Power
the union of Grace/Love and Power produces Beauty
from Grace, Power, Beauty springs the natural world
other emanations: Sovereignty, Glory/Presence or Shekina, Community or Knessetl, human beings are imbued with something from all of God's emanations

38. TREE OF LIFE

39. Daniel Pearl Foundation
The Daniel Pearl Foundation was formed in memory of journalist Daniel Pearl to further the ideals that inspired Daniel's life and work. The foundation's mission is to promote cross-cultural understanding through journalism, music, and innovative communications

40. The Daniel Pearl Foundation Judea Pearl
“We hope our impact would take effect on both the symbolic and substantive dimensions. Symbolically, we wish to demonstrate that even the hardest issues underlying Jewish-Muslim tensions could be discussed in a civil, friendly and respectful manner. Substantively, we wish to remind people of the common principles that underlie the two Abrahamic traditions, to understand the mechanism of the golden age when the two societies thrived as friendly neighbors and, most importantly, to explore how these commonalities can help us shape a future of peace and understanding. Fostering Muslim-Jewish Dialogue”
Judea Pearl and Akbar Ahmed discuss their message of reconciliation at Duke University, February 25, 2005

41. The Daniel Pearl Foundation Akbar Ahmed
“I hope that what sticks with them is the common humanity that binds us, transcends all other loyalties, ethnic, political, ideological. Our roots go back to a common idea, to the patriarch Abraham. The number one idea Muslims and Jews share is that there is an omnipotent God. They both have Holy Books; they believe in an afterlife, in doing good and avoiding evil and that the 10 commandments guide society. This is a very, very strong common base, unfortunately, it isn't often known. Fostering Muslim-Jewish Dialogue”
Judea Pearl and Akbar Ahmed discuss their message of reconciliation at Duke University, February 25, 2005

43. Conclusion:Three Wise Men Jacob Bender
“I believe that some eight hundred years after they lived, Ibn Rushd the Muslim, Rabbi Musa the Jew, and Thomas Aquinas the Christian can still all enter both our hearts and minds if we let them. Their words, and their life stories, can both inform and inspire us about some of the greatest issues confronting us at the beginning of this new century: the relationship between religion and the state, between faith and science, between reason and revelation; the dangers of political extremism; and the courage it often takes to oppose injustice and search for truth

44. Conclusion:Three Wise Men Jacob Bender
By reading and interpreting their writings, we can discover that we, Muslims, Jews and Christians, are all Ibnu Ibrahim, the children of Abraham, PBUH. We can discover that in the struggle to create a more just and peaceful world, we may perhaps have more in common with those in other traditions who share our values of justice than with the more extreme followers within our own religious families”.

45. Three wise men: Averroes, Moses Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas
Three wise men: Averroes, Moses Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas. Jacob Bender
Just as our three wise men were not afraid to challenge prevailing opinion within their own religious community in the Middle Ages, so today I believe we must also be willing to openly criticize our co-religionists when they engage in extremism and intolerance. Thus Muslim religious leaders around the world condemned the Taliban's destruction of the ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan and the 9/11 terror attacks by Al-Qaeda. Thus many Christian ministers in the US denounced the bigoted attacks on Islam by Reverends Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell and Franklin Graham And thus many Jews, like myself, have for decades supported the right of the Palestinian people to an independent state and condemned Israel's brutal occupation with its assassinations, house demolitions, closures, and illegal settlement policy
Three wise men: Averroes, Moses Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas. Jacob Bender