… that God was imperfect to begin with and required spiritual adjustment to a higher, faultless state.
Because Islam’s teachings have remained constant, there are no creedal inconsistencies. Is it true that early man lived by one creed and set of rules, the Jews by another, and the Christians a third?
That only Christians are saved by Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice? Islam answers No to both questions. Islam teaches that from the creation of man till the end of time, salvation has depended on acceptance of the same eternal creed, and adherence to the teachings of God’s prophets.
Along this line of thought, a person might question how different religions view the fate of Abraham, as well as that of other early prophets. Was Abraham subject to the laws of Judaism? Apparently not. If Judaism refers to the descendants of Judah, then Abraham, being the greatgrandfather of Judah, was most certainly not a descendant
.
Genesis 11:31 defines Abraham as being from an area in Lower Mesopotamia called Ur of Chaldees, in what is now presentday Iraq.
Geographically speaking, and applying the terminology of today, Abraham was an Arab. Genesis 12:45 describes his move to Canaan (i.e., Palestine) at the age of seventyfive, and Genesis 17:8 confirms he was a stranger in that land.
Genesis 14:13 identifies the man as “Abraham the Hebrew”—
“Hebrew” meaning:
Any member of an ancient northern Semitic people that were the ancestors of the Jews. Historians use the term Hebrews to designate the descendants of the patriarchs of the Old Testament (i.e., Abraham, Isaac, and so on) from that period until their conquest of Canaan (Palestine) in the late 2nd millennium BC.
Thenceforth these people are referred to as Israelites until their return from the Babylonian Exile in the late 6th century BC, from which time on they became known as Jews.
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