Ancient Religious Art Without Prophets – OpEd
Recent research on the oldest surviving rock art of Southeast Asia shows that the region's first hunter-gatherer humans who arrived over 50,000 years ago, brought with them a rich art practice. Published in the archaeological journal Antiquity, the research shows that these earliest people skillfully produced paintings of animals in rock shelters from southwest China to Indonesia, including very early sites in Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia.
The oldest paintings were identified by analyzing overlapping superimpositions of art in various styles as well as numerical dating. It was found that the oldest art mainly consists of naturalistic images of wild animals and, in some locations, hand stencils.
The research shows that 40,000 - 50,000 year old dates for some rock art in Sulawesi, Indonesia is not an anomaly; and it reminds us that all prehistoric religions were passed down orally for many hundreds of generations before any part of it was written down. Oral transmission explains why there are so many versions of similar religious narratives.
Islam teaches that God's Prophets were inspired and sent to the whole of mankind in different languages, different lands and at different times. One version of this hadith puts the number of prophets sent to mankind as 124,000 (Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 5, 169). Whether the number was exactly 124,000 or not is not important.
What was essential was that no land, people or period was neglected by God. Prophets were sent to every human language group since the age of Adam. The Qur'an says: "There never was a people without a Warner (Prophet) having lived among them' (35:24) and "We would never visit our wrath (chastise any community) until We had sent a Messenger to give warning" (17:15)
Since there are over 7.000 languages now spoken in the world, and another 10-20,000 that were spoken over the previous 10,000 years and then died out, all human societies have have been taught the way God wants each of them to conduct their Divine worship (Qur'an 21:25), and the moral behavioral rules they should observe (Qur'an 16:90-92).
Even today when hundreds of languages are dying out, the African continent is home to some of the most multilingual countries in the world. For example Cameroonhas a population of around 27 million people; and over 250 different languages are spoken as first languages.
As a non-Orthodox Reform Rabbi who first became interested in Islam when I studied Islam at a university (UCLA) over 65 years ago, I have continued my study of Islam off and on since that time. In many ways Ahadith relating Muhammad's comments about Orthodox Judaism, and religion in general, prefigure the thinking of most Reform Rabbis some 12-13 centuries later.
This is why I think of myself as a Muslim Hebrew, i.e. a Jew who firmly believes in the one and only God, and who remains faithful to the covenant the God made with the Jewish People at Mount Sinai. If the Orthodox Jews in the generation of Prophet Muhammad had followed his teaching that "religion is easy", Reform Judaism would have developed 14 centuries ago.
The termivri(the Hebrew) first appears in the Torah, when Prophet Abraham is called "the Hebrew'."And it was told to Abram the Hebrew" (Genesis 14:13) And Prophet Joseph uses the name as both a geographical and an socio-ethnic term: "I was kidnapped from the land of theivrim"Genesis 40:15 and 'a Hebrew youth' 41:12, and "The Egyptians could not eat with theivrim, since that would be an abomination" Genesis. 43:32.
The name for Abraham's grandson Jacob was later changed to Israel, and the name Israel largely replaced Hebrews after the Hebrews left Egypt. Banu Israel is the best name for Jews because it was the name given to Jacob by God himself; and it has been in use for over 3,000 years.
The word Muslim is a religious identity term that refers to faithful monotheistic believers. The word Hebrew is a linguistic, geographical and ethnic identity term like German the language, Germany the homeland and Germans the people. The word descendent is a biological inherited birth identity term like nobility or tribe.
Islam was a religion designed by God to overcome all other self-identities: "O mankind, We created you from male and female, and made you peoples and tribes, that you may know (respect) one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted." (Quran 49:13)
"Once all humans were but a single community; then they disagreed (formulating different beliefs and rites). Had it not been that your Lord had already so ordained, a decisive judgement would have been made regarding [the truth of] their disagreements." (10:19) Then all human communities invented different religions of their own with different creeds and ways. This worldly life is a trial to see whether or not you yourselves recognize truth by competing in doing acts of kindness, toleration and welcoming others who are different into your own lands.
And: "Who is better in religion than one who submits himself to Allah while being a doer of good and follows the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth? And Allah took Abraham as an intimate friend." (4:125)
So Jews have many names to self-identify because they have been immigrants for a little more than half of their 36-8 centuries of Jewish history. Even more important, by God's design Prophet Abraham's biological descendants through Isaac and Jacob became the first ongoing monotheistic community to last to this very day. "And remember Our servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - those of strength and [religious] vision. Indeed, We chose them for an exclusive quality: remembrance of the home [the "safe haven" Land of Israel]. And indeed they are to Us among the chosen and outstanding." (38:45-7)
"And We certainly settled the Children of Israel in an agreeable settlement [the Land of Israel] and provided them with good things. And they did not differ until [after Torah] knowledge had come to them. Indeed, your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that over which they used to differ. So if you [O Muhammad] are in doubt, about that which We have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you. The truth has certainly come to you from your Lord, so never be among the doubters. (Qur'an 10:93-4)
Qur'an 5:20-21 states: "Moses said to his people: O, my people, remember the favor of Allah upon you when he appointed among you prophets and made you possessors [of the Land of Israel] and gave you what he had not given anyone among the worlds. O my people, enter the holy land which Allah has assigned to you."
None of the Messengers sent prior to Prophet Abraham were able to establish an ongoing monotheistic community that lasted. "And when there came to them a Messenger from Allah, confirming what was with them, a party of the people who were given the Book threw away the Book of Allah behind their backs, as if they did not know it!" (Qur'an 2:101)
And "Those who disbelieve are steeped in arrogance and defiance. How many generations have We destroyed before them? They cried out when it was too late to escape. And they marveled that a warner had come to them from among them. The disbelievers said, "This is a lying magician." "Did he turn all the gods into one God? This is something strange." The notables among them announced: "Go on, and hold fast to your gods. This is something planned. We never heard of this in the former faith. This is nothing but a fabrication. (Qur'an 38:2-7)
And finally: "The people of Noah denied before them, and the companions of the well and Thamūd; and ʿAad and Pharaoh and the brothers [neighbors] of Lot; and the companions of the forest, and the people of Tubbaʿ. All denied the messengers [Allah sent to them] so My threat was justly fulfilled." [50:12-14]
It is narrated from Abu Dharr that one day he asked the Messenger of Allah: How many prophets are there in all? He replied: One hundred and twenty four thousand. He then asked: How many of them were messenger prophets? He replied: Three hundred thirteen from the above group. He asked: Who was the first of them? He replied: Adam...The first prophet among Bani Israel was Musa and the last of them was Isa and they were in all six hundred (Jewish) prophets." (Biharul Anwar, Vol. 11, Pg. 32)
"And it is thus that We appointed [chose] you (Muslims) to be the community of the middle way, so that you might be witnesses to all mankind, and the Messenger might be a witness to you." (Qur'an 2:143) or "And who is better in religion than one who submits himself to Allah while being a doer of good and follows the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth? And Allah took Abraham as an intimate friend." (4:125)
We know the names of some of the prophets sent to the Israelite people, but we do not know the names of many others. The Rabbis taught that 48 male prophets and 7 female prophets prophesied in Israel: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Hulda and Queen Esther.
"You who believe, be steadfast in your devotion to God and bear witness impartially: do not let hatred of others lead you away from justice, but adhere to justice, for that is closer to awareness of God. Be mindful of God: God is well aware of all that you do." (Qur'an 5:8)
As J. C.. Reeves writes: The Psalms were obviously one of the favorites for the Qumran community, with thirty-nine manuscripts containing psalms discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls (more than any other Biblical book). As one of the Psalm manuscripts states: "All these he (King David) composed through prophecywhich was given him from before the Most High." (11q5 27:11)