Maimonides states that God is spreading ideals of the Torah to all over world through Christianity and Islam. This is plan of God. This claim of Maimonides finds support in the fact that all of those religions are bent on destroying idolatry.
Jewish patriarch Abraham can be considered the first Jews. And as offspring of his son Ishmael, Muhammad and the Arabs were in essence of Jewish descents, or were brothers of the Jews. Having residing in Arab Peninsula and deviating from Judaism, they become polytheistic Arabs.
The word ‘Muslim’ is a derivative of the Jewish word “M’shulam”. The word m’shulam and mushlam are mentioned in ancient Jewish literature to describe the relationship between a Jew and the Creator. M’shulam means one, who is wholly devoted to G-d. Consequently, there are around 21 examples of people named M’shulam in the Jewish Bible. With the same presumptuous reasoning, we could conclude that modern Muslims are named after a man, a Jewish man, no less.
Judaism is fiercely opposed to idol-worship. They term idol-worship as an affront to God. Muslims adopted the same idea and are fiercely against idol worship.
Moreover, Muhammad adopted practices, such as prohibition of pig meat, circumcision, daily prayer rituals and fasting etc. from the Jews of Medina.
Among the Arabs and the Phoenicians, el, eloah, elohim, lah, were common names for a God. Mohammad made ‘a lah’, meaning ‘a God’, to ‘al-lah’, meaning ‘the God’. Muhammad replaced Yehowa (Jewish God) as Al-lah (Arab God). Thus, in establishing Islam (surrender or submission), he created Judaism in an Arabic form. He destroyed local Arab culture in the name of war against idolatry and replace them with Jewish tradition of hatred of idolatry and other rituals with an Arab flavor.
If you learn some Quranic verses, you will see how Islam assimilated Judaism in an Arabic form. Consider these verses:
Quran chapter 3 (clearquran.com)
- 93. All food was permissible to the Children of Israel, except what Israel forbade for itself before the Torah was revealed. Say, “Bring the Torah, and read it, if you are truthful.”
- 95. Say, “God has spoken the truth, so follow the religion of Abraham the Monotheist; he was not a Pagan.”
- 96. The first house established for mankind is the one at Bekka; blessed, and guidance for all people.
- 97. In it are evident signs; the Station of Abraham. Whoever enters it attains security. Pilgrimage to the House is a duty to God for all who can make the journey. But as for those who refuse—God is Independent of the worlds.
Chapter 4
- 125. And who is better in religion than he who submits himself wholly to God, and is a doer of good, and follows the faith of Abraham the Monotheist? God has chosen Abraham for a friend.
- 163. We have inspired you, as We had inspired Noah and the prophets after him. And We inspired Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Patriarchs, and Jesus, and Job, and Jonah, and Aaron, and Solomon. And We gave David the Psalms.
Chapter 5
- 84. And We gave him Isaac and Jacob—each of them We guided. And We guided Noah previously; and from his descendants David, and Solomon, and Job, and Joseph, and Moses, and Aaron. Thus We reward the righteous.
Chapter 7
- 157. Those who follow the Messenger (Moses), the Unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel in their possession. He directs them to righteousness, and deters them from evil, and allows for them all good things, and prohibits for them wickedness, and unloads the burdens and the shackles that are upon them. Those who believe in him, and respect him, and support him, and follow the light that came down with him—these are the successful.
Chapter 10
- 75. Then, after them, We sent Moses and Aaron with Our proofs to Pharaoh and his dignitaries. But they acted arrogantly. They were sinful people.
Chapter 11
- 96. And We sent Moses with Our signs and a clear mandate.
In sum, the Hebrews and Arabs sprang from the Jewish patriarch Abraham and having established Islam, they were rejoined with essentially the same religion in two different forms.
Islamic Sharia Law is inspired by the Jewish Halakha. Orthodox Judaism regards halakha as the collective body of religious laws for the Jews. It requires Jewish men to pray three times daily and four times daily on the Sabbath and most Jewish holidays, and five times on Yom Kippur. Muhammad adopted the last one -- five times as daily prayer.
Muhammad also wanted that people recognize his religion as unique, not copied from Judaism. So he tried to hard convert all the Jews of the Arab Peninsula, which badly failed. The Jews never accept Muhammad as their prophet. Under this situation, the only way he could establish the uniqueness of his religion is by exterminating the Jews. As a result, of the two major religious groups of the Arab Peninsula—the Jews and Pagans—the Jews suffered the worst at Muhammad’s hand, although idolatry is most hated in Islamic doctrines.
During the pre-Islamic period, monotheistic Jews and Christians from nearby countries had infiltrated Arab Peninsula. Also Arab traders, who conducted caravan trades with surrounding Christian and Jewish territories, such as Syria and Egypt, brought news of how powerful and rich they were. Thus monotheism and prophetism already had been rooted as prestigious creeds among some of the Arabs.
Mohammad was one such person, who was attracted toward the Judeo-Christian creeds during his travels to Syria with his uncle’s trade caravan. After migrating to Medina and coming in close contact with the Jews, he transformed his God and creed in line with Judaism. He claimed that Allah has communicated to him what He had earlier communicated to Moses and Jesus. He updated earlier communications and even abrogated certain doctrines that suited his goal. All in all, he primarily imposed Judaism on Arabs with Arab flavor.