Part 2 : Similarities Between The Jewish Teachings And Extra Quranic Islam.

Here are some other similarities between the Jewish / Biblical teachings and extra Quranic Islam.  This is often the realm of the sects. 

1. Burying nail clippings - a Jewish belief

In the first example, sectarian Sunni religion teaches its adherents that after clipping their finger nails, they must bury their nail clippings.  Not all the Sunni sects insist on this. To my knowledge the Hanafi sect does not say such a thing. (I am willing to be corrected, not an issue).  

The Shafie sect insists that nail clippings must be buried. When I was living in the US, there was another Malaysian student who insisted on doing this even in winter with two feet of snow on the ground.

If you ask me, throwing your nail clippings in the trash is good enough. 

The Jews have the same teachings.  Here is the Jewish (Talmudic) teaching :

The Talmud tells us that "the righteous bury their nails, the pious burn them, and the wicked carelessly discard them." The Talmud explains that nail clippings must be carefully disposed of lest a pregnant woman pass over them and miscarry.

Judaism and the Bible predate the Sunni and Shiah sects. Judaism by about a thousand years and the New Testament by about 600 years.  Burying your nail clippings is yet another sectarian teaching which seems to have a precedence in Biblical and / or Jewish teachings.

There are no such things in the Quran. These are therefore "extra Quranic" beliefs that have crept into the sectarian teachings.

  

2.  The Jewish 'shtender'  which has become the rehal

The Jews have a very long list of what they deem 'holy objects' and the treatment of these 'holy objects'.

Their books and scrolls like the Torah and the Talmud are deemed 'holy'.  The Talmud and the Torah are not allowed to be put down on the floor.  The Jews place their holy books on a short book stand which is called a shtender. Here is a picture.

 

The Muslims also follow the same tradition. The Muslims say that the Quran should not be placed on the floor. It must be placed on a short book stand called a 'rehal'.  Here is a picture. It looks almost identical with the Jewish shtender.

Here is a picture of a Jewish guy reading a holy book on a shtender.

Here is a picture of students at a Pakistani madrassah reciting the Quran on wooden rehals:

3. Kissing the Holy Book, Keeping the Holy Book Closed


Sectarian teachings teach adherents to kiss the Quran after they have read it. This is to show respect to the "holy book."  It is also considered bad form to leave a Quran lying open when you are not reading it but to close the book.  This is not found in the Quran. 

The Jews say the same thing about how to handle their holy books.   The following is taken from this Jewish site :    http://www.aish.com/jl/b/bb/48937512.html

When picking up a sacred book which has fallen to the ground, it is customary (for Jews) to kiss it as a sign of love and respect for God's teachings. For the same reason, it is customary to kiss a sacred book when closing it and putting it away. 

Sacred books and religious articles should always be handled with respect. One should avoid shaking a sacred book out of its container, and it is forbidden to throw them. Similarly, one should always be careful to place a sacred book right side up. If one leaves the room in the midst of his study, it is customary not to leave the book open, but to either close or cover it.

These are a few more teachings from the Jewish and biblical theologies which precede Islam which most certainly cannot be found in the Quran. Yet these same Jewish and biblical beliefs and teachings are sold as part of sectarian Muslim beliefs.

Can the mullahs and the religious people explain this 'copycat' behaviour  of theirs?