Did The Jews Ever Pray
Like The Muslims Do?
by unknown Author
----------
Although the Quran is very clear that Abraham is the founder of
Islam and the one who received all the rituals of Islam, Many
Muslims reject this Quranic notion. Please see our file Who
founded Islam? Salat as we know it today was given to Abraham who
taught it to his children and they taught it to their children
and so on. The prophet Muhammed was told to follow the Religion
of Abraham. Had the religion of Abraham not known to him then, we
would not expect God to tell him to follow it.
"Then we inspiredyou (O Muhammed) to follow the religion of Abraham, monotheism; never was he an idol-worshiper." 16:123
Salat as practiced by the Muslims today involve standing infront
of God, bowing and falling prostrate. May Muslims who could not
accept the teaching of the Quran that Salat, like all the rituals
of Islam, were passed down to us from Abraham are surprised to
see that the Jews and Christians of today do not do their salat
like the Muslims. Again the Quran did not ignore that fact, See
19:58-59.
[19:58]
"These are some of the prophets whom GOD blessed. They were
chosen from among the descendants of Adam, and the descendants of
those whom we carried with Noah, and the descendants of Abraham
and Israel, and from among those whom we guided and selected.
When the revelations of the Most Gracious are recited to them,
they fall prostrate, weeping."
[19:59]
"After them, He substituted generations who lost the Contact
Prayers (Salat), and pursued their lusts. They will suffer the
consequences."
Quran mentioned that salat were lost after some
generations of the people of the book. Losing it involved
changing it in every aspect. The salat as practiced today by most
of the Jews and Christians are different than what was given to
their prophets. Very few Jews and Christians kept the inherited
Salat.
In a book entitles "To Pray as a Jew" I found a lengthy
explanation of the the Prayers as done by the ancient Jews and
few of the contemporary Jews. In this book the author put
diagrams showing the movement and positions during the prayer. A
one look at these diagram is enough for the Muslims to realize
the similarity of the prayers of the Jews then and Salat as
practiced by the Muslims.
-------------
In his comment about these positions the author wrote :
"In most contemporary congregations very few people keep to
the tradition of falling prostrate. Sometimes it is only the
Prayer leader and the rabbi who does so. In more traditional
congregations, however, some worshipers, men and women, will join
the Prayer Leader and rabbi in the act of prostrating themselves.
In Israeli synagogues, the practice is more widespread than in
synagogues elsewhere. Since this is a position that we are
unaccustomed to, one who has never done this before might very
well demur But once accomplished, the experience provides such a
spiritual uplift that one looks forward to repeating it. Those
willing to try this ancient ritual form on the rare occasions
that call for it might welcome the following diagrams of the
correct procedure"