Differences between The Qur'an, The Tanakh and The Bible

I believe I may have put it in a way you misunderstood, but this is expected.
To continue with your teacher example, think of it this way:

You are going to fail class, the teacher offers you the oppertunity to make up a bad test, allowing you to pass, if you study for it.

You now have a choice, you can study and make up the test, or you can fail.

The teacher knows if you are the kind of student who will make it up or not, but they offer it anyway.

God gives you the choice. He says "such and such will befall you unless you repent", the repentance is completely up to you. An issue that Judaism accepts is the fact that we have free will, because we are not puppets on strings. Omniscientiance tells us that God will know whether we will repent or not (the threat of punishment being the nessicairy incentive for us), but it is anthropomorphisized as if he has reacted to us (the same way that saying the Hand of God does not mean an actual Hand of human imagination).

Exodus 32:14 The Lord [then] reconsidered the evil He had said He would do to His people.

Okay, let me address some of the points I didn't get before, due to lack of time.

First I have a general question about a comment on the Torah I read. Is it true that the written Torah is really a commentary on the Oral Torah given to Prophet Moses? I was under the impression that Prophet Moses was given the Torah actually recorded on tablets.
I'd appreciate any clarification on this subject.

Moving on,
I asked for evidence that Prophecy had ceased at the time of Prophet Muhammad pbuh and Prophet Jesus pbuh, and the evidence presented was:

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 11a, Yoma 9b, Sotah 48b, Tosefta Sotah 13:4, Shir HaShirim Rabbah 8:11) records a formal decision made by the Sanhedrin that the office of prophet was formally closed with Malachi.

They were the panel of 71 Judges who begun their appointment in the book of Judges (previously, since Judges could only be someone who had recieved smicha "ordination", Moses and Joshua had been the effective Judges of Torah law). Consider them the Jewish supreme court for Torah law, and each one had to be ordained in a direct line from Moses.
http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/sanhedrin.htm
These Judges are mandated by God in Deut. 16:18, but Sanhedrin usually refers to the highest court.

Devarim 16:18 You shall set up judges and law enforcement officials for yourself in all your cities that the Lord, your God, is giving you, for your tribes, and they shall judge the people [with] righteous judgment.

I can understand the appointment of Judges in any society, and its part of Islamic law as well, but I don't see where God gives the authority to the judges to determine when Prophecy pauses and for how long etc. If you examine the Rashi commentary, he only refers to the affairs of the society as the function of the Judges.

So if you could clarify how these Judges came up with this decision, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also I had trouble finding the references from the Talmud you provided. The format is very different from other scriptures, so if you could help me out in how to freferences from the Talmud, that would be greatly appreciated.

And Yoshiyahu also mentioned:

Hosea 3:4,5

Hoshea 3:4-5 For the children of Israel shall remain for many days, having neither king, nor prince, nor sacrifice, nor pillar, nor ephod nor teraphim.

Afterwards shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness at the end of days.

And Rashi commentary reads:
having neither king nor prince nor sacrifice in the Temple in Judah.
nor pillar The pillar of Baal in Samaria of the kings of Israel.
nor ephod of the Urim and Tummim, which discloses to them hidden things.
teraphim They are images constructed, having in mind a particular hour established, at which time they speak of their own accord and tell of hidden things. So does Jonathan translate: and there shall be no ephod or oracle.

Yoshiyahu, I'm a little confused as to how this relates to a period with no Prophets. Even if it did, how do we know that this isn't the period between Prophet Jesus and Prophet Muhammad saws?

Moreover, SpaceFalcon has made an interesting point on Judaic theology:

Some commentative rules: Bad prophecies do not have to come true because God may have changed his mind, but Good events prophesized must come true as only those who merited them would recieve them.

So according to this, even if we found the ceasing of Prophets written anywhere in the Torah (which I have yet to see), God could have changed His mind and sent another Messenger!

So we already accpet that the covenant of God was for both Israel and Ishmael, and we have accepted that the Jews as a nation cannot claim perfect adherence to the Law througout history, just like any other nation cannot.
And we have seen that islam does not claim to be a new religion, but simply a continuation of the message of the previous Prophets.

I found the information on the Ark very interesting, but I'm still not sure how that demonstrates that Prophets cannot recieve revelation from God without it.


:W:

format_quote Originally Posted by Ansar Al-'Adl

First I have a general question about a comment on the Torah I read. Is it true that the written Torah is really a commentary on the Oral Torah given to Prophet Moses? I was under the impression that Prophet Moses was given the Torah actually recorded on tablets.

Haha, no no. The torah was always a scroll, and the commandments in Ex. 20 and Ex. 34 were inscribed on Tablets.

Also, the Oral law is the way conveyed to Moses as to how we should keep the 613 commandments.

The most obvious example is "...you may slaughter of your cattle and of your sheep, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you..." (Deuteronomy 12:21). As rashi wrote:
you may slaughter… as I have commanded you We learn [from here] that there is a commandment regarding slaughtering, how one must slaughter. [Since this commandment is not written in the Torah we deduce that] these are the laws of ritual slaughtering given orally to Moses on [Mount] Sinai. — [Sifrei ; Chul. 28a]

I can understand the appointment of Judges in any society, and its part of Islamic law as well, but I don't see where God gives the authority to the judges to determine when Prophecy pauses and for how long etc.

They are the main authorities by order of God. They have the divine right of supreme interpretation of the law's implementation. They make formal decisions based on Torah and Oral law (Much like Rabbis, except they had the right to impose additional things such as a death sentance for murder, where a Rabbi does not have that authority).

I do not have those tractates (as the talmud is 73 seperate books, it's a bit expensive to purchase), so I cannot quote the exact conversation at this time.

Also I had trouble finding the references from the Talmud you provided. The format is very different from other scriptures, so if you could help me out in how to freferences from the Talmud, that would be greatly appreciated.

If you can find a copy of the talmud, then I reccomend you consult with a Rabbi. The talmud is, by nature, difficult to follow. The pages offered should reveal their conclusions, although the argument may extend back several pages, with intermittent arguments.

So according to this, even if we found the ceasing of Prophets written anywhere in the Torah (which I have yet to see), God could have changed His mind and sent another Messenger!

According to the opinon of Rambam a prophet who claims a good thing will happen must happen. However, the ending of the prophets was not prophisized, it was an event that occured as a reaction to the loss of the communication tool (the Ark), see quote below.

I found the information on the Ark very interesting, but I'm still not sure how that demonstrates that Prophets cannot recieve revelation from God without it.

Exodus 25:22: "I will commune with you there [through the Tabernacle/Temple], speaking to you from above the ark-cover, from between the two cherubs that are on the Ark of Testimony. [In this manner] I will give you instructions for the Israelites."
The sanhedrin interpreted this to refer to the fact that God would communicate to Israel through the Ark. Thus Rashi said:
I will arrange My meetings with you there When I arrange a meeting for you to speak with you, [it is at] that place that I will arrange for the meeting where I will come to speak to you.

The sanhedrin declared that God specifically restricted his consultation with Israel to the holy of holies through the ark, and when the Ark was removed [by God] then the ability for prophets to speak with God was also removed.

I was just reading Space Falcons signature

سلام
الله اكبر
لا إله إلا الله
أمّة إسرائيل حيّه
هذا أرضي و بلدي

"peace.. Allah is the greatest, there is no G-d but Allah, the nation of Israel is ___? (i dont know what the word حيّه means) then he says "this is my earth and my ____? (land i think) can somebody correct me because i am curious