How an Imageless God’s Three Religions lasted longer than the pagans; mashallah

For thousands of years before Prophet Abraham, Allah sent tens of thousands of prophets to all the bands, tribes, nations and empires on the earth, and not one of God’s Prophets was able to establish an ongoing to the present imageless monotheistic community.

A famous example of polytheistic distortions of God’s Prophets teachings of pre Abrahamic religion is the Sumerian Kings List Text, a 4,000+ year-old clay tablet. This ancient Sumerian text lists the names of eight ancient monarchs who ruled the world for almost two hundred thousand years before the Great Flood. Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs are considered the earliest true literate writing systems, both having gradually evolved from proto-writing between 3400 and 3100 BCE.

The Sumerians were a very sophisticated civilization that existed more than 5-6000 years ago between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia, which eventually became Babylonia and is now Iraq and Syria. More than a dozen Sumerian King List copies have been discovered at Babylon, Susa, and Assyria, as well as the Royal Library of Nineveh from the 7th century BCE.

The Sumerian king list also featured events from the Great Flood, legends about Gilgamesh and stories of antediluvian monarchs. Etana, Lugal-banda, and Gilgamesh were among the legendary individuals featured in the list.

Many modern scholars have discovered parallels between the Sumerian King List and the Book of Genesis. For example, the list covered the eight monarchs that ruled for generations before the deluge, as well as the eight generations that occurred between Adam and Noah before the Great Flood.

So Allah decided to do things in a very different way. Allah decided to make a personal covenant with one small tribe and send over the next thousand years, six hundred of his prophets to this small tribe and work continually with the people of this tribe; until they were able to establish an ongoing imageless monotheistic community that would always have an ongoing core of righteous and loyal believers; Mashallah.

Allah selected Prophet Abraham the Hebrew (Genesis 14:13) and the descendants of Prophets Ishmael, Issac, and Jacob to be the first, but not the last monotheistic community. “There is for you an excellent example (to follow) in Abraham and those with him.” [Qur’an 60:4] and “Indeed Ibrahim was a nation obedient to Allah, a Hanif, he was not one of the polytheists.” [Qur’an 16:120].

“Praise to Allah, who has granted to me in old age (Prophets) Ishmael and Isaac. Indeed, my Lord is the Hearer of supplication [Qur’an 14:39]. And “O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring (Ishmael) to dwell in a valley without cultivation, near your Sacred House (the Ka’ba); in order our Lord, that they may establish regular Prayer: so fill the hearts of some among men with love towards them, and feed them with fruits: so that they may give thanks”. [Qur’an 14:37}

We know this because one day Abu Dharr asked the Messenger of Allah: How many prophets are there in all? He. replied: One hundred and twenty four thousand. Abu Dharr then asked: How many of them were messenger (bringing sacred scriptures) prophets? He replied: Three hundred thirteen from the above group. He asked: Who was the first of them? He replied: Adam…The first prophet among Bani Israel was Musa and the last of them was Isa and they were in all six hundred (Jewish) prophets.” (Biharul Anwar, Vol. 11, Pg. 32)

During the many centuries between Prophet Adam and Prophet Abraham, God’s Prophets focused totally on teaching the Divine truth of imageless monotheism. And for thousands of years before Prophet Abraham, the prophets who God sent to the thousands of tribes and nations on the earth spreading the Divine truth of imageless monotheism; not one of them was able to establish an ongoing imageless monotheistic community that lasted more than a few generations. “And when there came to them a Messenger from Allah, confirming what was with them, a party of the people who were given the Book threw away the Book of Allah behind their backs, as if they did not know it!” (Qur’an 2:101)

And: “The people of Noah denied before them, and the companions of the well and Thamūd; and ʿAad and Pharaoh and the brothers [neighbors] of Lot; and the companions of the forest, and the people of Tubbaʿ. All denied the messengers [Allah sent to them] so My threat was justly fulfilled.” [50:12-14]

So God decided to do things in an radically different and unique way. Instead of the theology truth of imageless monotheism, God decided to make a partnership loyalty covenant with a small tribe, and send six hundred of his prophets to this small tribe; and work continually for centuries with the people of this tribe, until they were able to establish an ongoing loyal community that would always have a core of righteous and loyal believers.

Qur’an 5:20-21 states: “Moses said to his people: O, my people, remember the favor of Allah upon you when he appointed among you prophets and made you possessors [of the Land of Israel] and gave you what he had not given anyone among the worlds. O my people, enter the holy land which Allah has assigned to you.”

The Hebrew Bible makes reference to several different kinds of a partnership loyalty covenants (Hebrew: בְּרִיתוֹת) with God. These include the Noahic Covenant set out in Genesis 9, which was decreed between God and all living creatures, as well as a number of more specific covenants with Prophet Abraham, and with the whole Israelite people.

The Bible offers differing verses about how many major covenants were created between God and Israel, ranging from one to ten. The Noahic covenant mentioned in Genesis 9:9-17 applies to all of humanity and is ongoing. In this covenant with all living creatures, God promises never again to destroy all life on Earth and creates a rainbow as a sign of this ongoing “everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

The covenant in Genesis 15 is the basis for brit milah (the covenant of circumcision) for ongoing Judaism. The covenant a partnership loyalty was for Prophet Abraham and his offspring, both of natural birth, and adoption or conversion.

Two other covenants of partnership loyalty God makes with Prophet Abraham are land and a multitude of descendants, without stipulations (ongoing and unconditional) on Prophet Abraham’s descendants for the covenant’s fulfillment: Genesis 12: And to make of Prophet Abraham a great nation and bless Abraham and make his name great so that he will be a blessing, to bless those who bless him and curse him who curses him and all peoples on earth would get an ongoing blessed through Prophet Abraham.

The success of this unique ongoing partnership covenant with Abraham’s descendants explains why the God of the Hebrews publicly and spectacularly defeated Egypt’s Pharaoh; and why Prophet Jesus only needed to performed smaller healings as signs of his faith; and why Prophet Muhammad did not need to do miracles at all. Mashallah!