(→‎Religious usages of Islam taken from the Jews)
===Religious usages of Islam taken from the Jews===
===Daybreak distinguished by thread===
===Fixed times for prayer===
Again, Muslims of all lands, at the fixed time of their five prayers, wherever they happen to be, whether in the house or in the street, perform their devotions on the spot, - especially at places where people are passing by. This strange practice is entirely confined to them, and would be seemly In no other religion. But in the days of the Prophet there were Jews in Arabia who used this habit; for many of them were descended from the Pharisees, of whom our Savior said:- "They love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men." (Matt. 6:5) Thus the Companions of Mohammed looking upon the Jews as the People of the Book and children of father Abraham, regarded such practices as having descended from him, and so adopted, and have continued them to the present day, as we see, unchanged, though they are no longer kept up by the Jews themselves.<ref>Does it not seem strange to the Reader, that although the Qur'an repeatedly attests our Scriptures as the Word of God, yet but one quotation is taken from them; viz. Qur'an 21:105, - Verily we have written in the Psalms after the mention (of the Law) that my servants the righteous shall inherit the earth; an evident reference to Psalm 37. 11; - "But the meek shall inherit the earth ." Now before saying anything about the next matter, one may ask, was the Book of the Psalms in existence before the Qur'an or not? For we have given above a verse in which is revealed the inheritance given by the Lord to his servants, as mentioned in the Psalms before the Qur'an was revealed. The Qur'an quotes from the Psalms: is it not clear, therefore, that the Psalms were before the Qur'an? How then could the Qur'an, produced so late in the world, have been placed on the heavenly Table?</ref>
While this work is dated and strongly reflects 19th century prejudices, much of the information is still valid, and deserves to be updated with more recent research. It proves a deep and faithful understanding with some of the more obscure elements of the Jewish tradition, and reinforces the notion that the early Jewish-Islamic relationship was based in some part of a Noahide relationship, where the followers of the new faith studied not all, but a limited set of the Jewish tradition.
the answer of one Rabbi is "a wall," and of another "a span"; and again. "Our leaders tell us that the two are so close that a mere ray glances from one to the other." And so we find similar passages in the Avestic and Pehlavi writings, as, — "the distance is but as that between light and darkness."