Allah has a body according to Judaism {Errors in Jewish Aqeedah}

[Abdullah Ali al Hanafi]

Allah has a body according to Judaism {Errors in Jewish Aqeedah}

Quote Israeli Jewish Website:

''We will bring some statements by our great rabbis who thought that G-d indeed does have a physical body''

''Maimonides, in The Laws of Repentance 3:7, wrote: "Five are called apostates…one who says there is one G-d to the world, but He has body and image." The Ra'avad criticized him, "And why is this called apostasy? Some of those greater than he [Maimonides] believed this, based on what they saw in the Scriptures, and even more on what they saw in the Aggadah, which distorts one's mind." This is the Ra'avad's testimony that Torah scholars greater than Maimonides thought that G-d has body and image (that He can be grasped by the senses). About Maimonides it is said, "From Moses to Moses there arose none like Moses" and who is "greater" than he? The Tannaim and Amoraim. Indeed, as we have seen, the Mishnah and Gemara reflect their belief in the physical nature of G-d, while Maimonides tried long and hard to refute these beliefs in his book "A Guide to the Perplexed" (see there). Certainly he would not have tried so hard and given so many explanations were the anthropomorphic concepts not so deeply rooted in the words of Chazal and the Gemara.

Thus testified R' Yedayah the son of Abraham, who lived in 13th century France (as brought in the Rashba's responsa, part one, paragraph 418): "It is very well known that belief in material aspects [of G-d] spread in the early generations throughout almost all the Diaspora from the very day of the exile." In the will attributed to Maimonides )Igros Kushta, 277, p. 15), it is written about the Jews of France: "They speak despisingly of the Creator, blessed be He, in their books, and use anthropomorphic descriptions concerning the Creator, blessed be He, time and again."

Moreover, Maimonides admitted that he really forced the Scripture to make it match his viewpoint -- his opposition to anthropomorphic conceptualizations of G-d. He wrote in "A Guide to the Perplexed," part two, chapter 25: "The Scriptures do not show that the world is created ex nihilo any more than they show that G-d has a physical nature. But the gates of interpretation are not closed before us…and it would be possible to interpret them [the verses speaking of the world created ex nihilo] as we have done when we rejected the physical nature [of G-d]…when we interpreted the Scriptures in a way denying G-d's physical nature."

This you should know -- all those whom Maimonides called apostates have explicit verses to support them! Maimonides has neither verses nor Gemara to back him up on this issue; not only is it not explicit in the Torah, repeated in the Prophets, and said a third time in the Writings, but the Scriptures show exactly the opposite, as the Ra'avad pointed out.

According to the Gemara, there are physical forms to those who serve the Holy One, blessed be He, and even G-d Himself has a form. What is His form? The form of Man. (Perhaps they determined this based on the verse, 'For in the image of G-d made He man," Genesis 9:6.) Therefore they specifically forbade the image of Man, as they said, "'You shall not make before me' -- you shall not make Me."

Rashi explained: "[All the prophets] thought they were seeing, but they did not see, while Moses looked through a clear aspaklaria and knew that he was not seeing His face." So we see all the Sages agreeing that Moses and the prophets all saw a physical G-d who has a form. The Sages merely discussed the quality with which they saw Him and which parts of Him they saw.

many of the Sages, the Tannaim, the Amoraim, and the Rishonim held anthropomorphistic views and believed that G-d and His angels, demons, Paradise, and Hell all had actual physical forms and a specified place in the world of our senses. In his fight against the anthropomorphic concepts of G-d Maimonides did not tread a well-trod path, but came out against the opinion of many of the best of Jewish sages. Maimonides's fight against those views was not easy, for the Scriptures are full of anthropomorphic descriptions of G-d and His servants, and it seems clear that the authors and readers did indeed believe in their physical nature. Maimonides himself admits that to block the opening he even distorted the text in the name of reason.

Daat Emet << Israeli Website

[maneatinglizard]

It seems Maimonides was influenced by Muslims, while previous Jewish scholars truly believed that Allah had a body, Naudhubillah.

This doesn't really surprise me, however. According to the Bible, many Jews at the time of `Eesa rejected Heaven and Hell.

[ibn Mikael]

I've never heard of most Jews believing such things; many of the most vocal opponents of Christian anthropmorphism tend to be jews; check out jews for judaism.org

[Abdullah Ali al Hanafi]

I've never heard of most Jews believing such things; many of the most vocal opponents of Christian anthropmorphism tend to be jews; check out jews for judaism.org

keep in mind that most todays religious jews rely on Maimonides and his school of thought but the article i posted shows that Maimonides basically opposed the ''sages'' jewish scholars before him.

[maneatinglizard]

It's funny how, even though Islam is the "youngest" of the Ibrahmi religions, the others have copied it quite a bit.

Anthromorphism was rejected by Jews due to influence from Islam.

Heaven and Hell as Christians believe in it are influenced by Islam.

[ibn Mikael]

keep in mind that most todays religious jews rely on Maimonides and his school of thought but the article i posted shows that Maimonides basically opposed the ''sages'' jewish scholars before him.

That may be true...I don't know, but I do know that Maimonides is considered to pretty much be the most authoritative scholar in the Jewish tradition. From what I've read of his works, it's not hard to imagine that he was considerably influenced by Islam. Even the way he writes reminds me of how we Muslims write; for example: just like the Muslims who say stuff like after the names of the Prophets or after Allah name, so too does Maimonides.

[Abdullah Ali al Hanafi]

That may be true...I don't know, but I do know that Maimonides is considered to pretty much be the most authoritative scholar in the Jewish tradition. From what I've read of his works, it's not hard to imagine that he was considerably influenced by Islam. Even the way he writes reminds me of how we Muslims write; for example: just like the Muslims who say stuff like after the names of the Prophets or after Allah name, so too does Maimonides.

Yes but keep in mind that Maimonides was even opposed by other ''sages'' and that Maimonides was relatively a late-comer in jewish scholarship since he lived in islamic Spain,

even jews admit that maimonides and other jewish philosophers were influenced by islamic scholars such as al ghazali and ibn rushd etc,

regarding Maimonides his writing style that is very true that he copied it from muslims look for example at the 13 principles of maimonides on ''Jewish Aqeedah'' and compare it with aqidah an nasafi and aqeedahtul tahawiyyah the numerical style the style of making short lucid points,

but the fact remains that Maimonides is followed today by a majority of religious jews but the rabbis before him held views of tasjeem and those rabbis were in the majority through jewish history (this part of their history they try to conceal from outsiders)

[NNoor]

This doesn't really surprise me, however. According to the Bible, many Jews at the time of `Eesa rejected Heaven and Hell.

This is true. There is virtually no mention of an afterlife, soul or immortality in the Torah. Some people even argue that the soul was a concept introduced into Western philosophy by Plato (since he precedes both the New Testament and the Quran), and that this concept later "seeped" into Christianity. Of course, the soul is mentioned quite clearly in the Quran itself, so there is no question of it "seeping" in there, though one can imagine some kafir arguing that the Prophet borrowed this idea from Plato, nauzubillah.

If you read the Old Testament that survives today, you will see that it is mostly full of nonsense, and resembles fairy-tales more than a Divine Scripture (especially the accounts that deal with the Israelites). From the Old Testamentt, it really seems that the Israelites had fallen into polytheism at some time, and that "yaweh" was just a tribal god and the patron god of the Jews, but only one of many in the pantheon. The yaweh from these stories is far from the transcendental being that Muslims worship.

Also, I don't think the Old Testament even contains the story of Ibrahim as it appears in the Quran (the one with him rejecting material idols and "finding" Allah, and then destroying the idols in his town, etc.)

[Suhaib_Jobst]

It's funny how, even though Islam is the "youngest" of the Ibrahmi religions, the others have copied it quite a bit.

Indeed, because the realm of Islam had such an advanced intellectual, spiritual and scientific advancement which exceeded the realm of Christianity or the Jewish scholars at that time. The question is, what will be the impact now? Unfortunately, the Umma seems to have sunk to such a state that such appears to be a dream at this point in time.

Heaven and Hell as Christians believe in it are influenced by Islam.

One can also mention alot of notions about Angels. All of these spiritual concepts were not too present in Christianity, at least not after the distortion/corruption occurred, but evolved as more and more Christian theologians - such as Thomas Aquinas - borrowed heavily from Muslim works. Wa Allahu A'lam.

[Suhaib_Jobst]

This is true. There is virtually no mention of an afterlife, soul or immortality in the Torah.

Interesting, as I have read many quotes from Jewish scholars which seem to indicate that Judaism lacks a hereafter. One said that they believe that this worldly life is it. Of course, its possible that this is just one interpretation and there are multiple Jewish views on the subject. Wa Allahu A'lam.

If you read the Old Testament that survives today, you will see that it is mostly full of nonsense, and resembles fairy-tales more than a Divine Scripture (especially the accounts that deal with the Israelites). From the Old Testamentt, it really seems that the Israelites had fallen into polytheism at some time, and that "yaweh" was just a tribal god and the patron god of the Jews, but only one of many in the pantheon. The yaweh from these stories is far from the transcendental being that Muslims worship.

I noticed the same exact thing. It is actually easy to decipher what could be those few remnants of what has been preserved, and corruptions by human hands. When you look at these stories, which are quite exclusivist and even don't deny other deities but which just claims that the tribal god YHWH was above the rest, than they are clearly corruptions inserted into the scriptures by Judaic supremacists. Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) does not condone the behavior of a people who act arrogant and superior to others and who slaughter entire peoples, such as the ancient Israelites of the Old Testament are portrayed. Also notice how they give Him some human qualities, anthropomorphism is clearly apparent there wa na'udubillah.