Quran Supports the Importance of No Work On Shabbat for Jews

Allah made Islam to be an easy religion. But the Quran tells us Jews that we must not work publicly on the Sabbath or we will be named monkeys and pigs.

Dr. Micah ben David Naziri writes: “Throughout the Qur’an, the Shabbat or “Sabbath” (Arabic: Sabt), is referenced as a Commandment the Jewish People were especially ordered in the Torah to observe. The Qur’an makes it clear that Jews violating Shabbat is haraam. This is so much the case that in a four time retold claim, the Qur’an says that long ago there were Sabbath-breakers who violated the Shabbat to engage in business while their neighbors had closed shop for the Sabbath day.

“Because of this, they were not only harming the businesses of those Sabbath-observing Jewish neighbors, but also discouraging those neighbors from observing the Mitzvah of Shabbat and encouraging other Jews to do business with them when they should not do. For this, the Qur’an says Allah turned them into “disgraced apes” — qiradatan khasiyin (قِرَدَةً خَـٰسِـِٔينَ). The Qur’an says another time, they were not just apes, but apes and pigs, al-qiradat wa-l-khanaazira (ٱلْقِرَدَةَ وَٱلْخَنَازِيرَ )”.

The Qur’an says Jewish Sabbath-breakers should be punished by ridicule (and not by death as in the Torah): “And We raised over them the Mountain for their Covenant; and We said to them, ‘Enter the Gate in Prostration (سُجَّدًا),’ and We said to them, ‘Do not violate the Sabbath,’ and We took from them a Solemn Covenant” (4:154).
وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَهُمُ ٱلطُّورَ بِمِيثَٰقِهِمْ وَقُلْنَا لَهُمُ ٱدْخُلُوا۟ ٱلْبَابَ سُجَّدًا وَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ لَا تَعْدُوا۟ فِى ٱلسَّبْتِ وَأَخَذْنَا مِنْهُم مِّيثَٰقًا غَلِيظًا

Exodus 31:14-15 and Numbers 15:32-36 in the Torah states: “You shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it (in public) shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any (public) work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.”

The rabbis felt that public work insulted God and desecrated the Sabbath so much that a sinner should be cut off from among his people.” by ridicule and name calling them as monkeys. The first part of the verse refers to the God’s demands that all Jews take their covenant with God at Mount Sinai seriously, The Torah states: “And they took their places at the foot (תחתית) of the mountain” (Exodus 19:17) – Said Rabbi Avdimi: “It teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, turned the mountain over them like a tub (גיגית), and said to them: ‘If you accept the Torah, well and good; and if not, there will be your burial.’’

The principle that God has made a covenant with a whole people, and not just with those who are good and faithful believers, helps us understand the powerful verses in the Qur’an which narrate that at Sinai, before Allah give the Torah to the Children of Israel, He made a covenant with them. Allah raised the mountain (Sinai) above the whole Jewish people:

“We took a covenant from you when We lifted the Mount (Sinai) over your heads saying, ‘Hold firmly to what We have given you (the Torah) and remember what is in it.’” (Quran 2:63). The whole nation’s future fate stood under the shadow of mount Sinai, and this explains the miracle of all Israel choosing to agree to the covenant with the One God of Abraham.

This Jewish experience at Sinai is also referred to in the Oral Torah. When God offered all the newly freed slaves the Torah, a party of them hesitated. Most of our rabbis could not conceive that the Jewish people could hesitate when offered the opportunity to commit themselves to God.

But the Torah itself faithfully records the frequent mood swings and ambivalences felt by both small and large parts of the Jewish people. God’s proposal of a covenant partnership was the most awesome offer the recently freed slaves had ever received. If many people in the Western World today have a problem making a long term marriage commitment, what about people who had been slaves in Egypt only three months earlier.

Some of the Jewish People said yes right away. Others thought about it for many hours and then decided to make a commitment, but a few remained undecided. A small minority were afraid to commit. So, would the fear of making a commitment by an ambivalent few, keep everyone else from accepting God’s proposal of an endless commitment and partnership?

Fortunately, according to Rabbi Avdimi, God came to the rescue: “The Holy One, blessed be He, lowered the [uprooted] mountain over them like a bucket, and said to them, ‘If you accept the Torah, fine; but if not, there will be your grave.” (Talmud Shabbat 88a) Sometimes, the ardor of the proposal makes all the difference in the other person’s answer. This also explains the miracle of all Israel agreeing to the covenant at Sinai; probably the only time in more than 3,500 years of Jewish history, that all Jews agreed on something.

This may also be the reason why Musa is the only prophet whose book comes not from an angel but directly from Allah. (Qur’an 4:164) Individuals who hear a prophet may choose to believe or disbelieve, but in this case God Almighty makes “an offer that you can’t refuse,” so, as far as Judaism is concerned, everyone of the Children of Israel has to struggle for all generations to come, with living up to the covenant their ancestors chose to enter into.

There are four passages in the Qurʾan that make reference to the tradition of the uplifted mountain: Q 2: 63, 2:93; Q 4:154; and Q 7: 171. For suras 2:63, 2:93, and 4:154, the context is God making a covenant with Israel within a narrative centered on Prophet Moses, which suggests that Sinai is the mountain in view. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the word for “mountain” is not jabal, but ṭūr, a term adapted from Syriac that is twice used explicitly for Sinai (Q 23:20; 95:2) and that normally stands for Sinai in the Qurʾan.

By contrast, Q 7:171 does not directly refer to a covenant with Israel; but its broader context is Moses in the wilderness (vv. 159–160), and the command, “Hold fast what we have given you” in Q 7:171 connects this passage with Q 2:63 and 2:93, where “what we have given you” is the Torah.

That these passages in the Qurʾan intend to depict the mountain literally being lifted up over Israel can be found in Ṭabarī’s late ninth century commentary on the Qurʾan. On Q 2:63, Ṭabarī quotes an interpretation ascribed to Sa’īd Ibn Zaid, who was ‘Umar’s brother-in-law and an early Muslim according to Ibn Isḥāq’s Life of the Messenger of God.

As Ṭabarī reports, his earlier source explained the Qurʾanic text as follows: “God sent his angels, and they shook (nataqat) the mountain (jabal) over them, and it was said to them: “Do you know this?” They said: “Yes, this is the Mountain (ṭūr).” They (the angels) said: “Take the Book, otherwise we shall fling it down upon you.” Then they took it with the covenant.” (Cooper, trans. 1987, 365; Cf. Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan-taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān (Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī) 1:427

Rabbi Abraham Geiger PhD, an early leader in developing Reform Judaism, noted the parallel between the Qurʾan and Talmud Bavli Abodah Zarah, but did not comment further (Geiger 1902, 161). Heinrich Speyer (2013, 303–304) cited Geiger’s study and added the reference from Talmud Shabbat.

The Jewish experience at Sinai is referred to in the Oral Torah when God offered all the newly freed slaves the Torah, a party of them hesitated. Most of the rabbis could not conceive that the Jewish people could hesitate when offered the opportunity to commit themselves to God.

But the Torah itself faithfully records the frequent mood swings and ambivalences felt by both small and large parts of the Jewish people. God’s proposal of a covenant partnership was the most awesome offer the recently freed slaves had ever received.

If many people in the Western World today have a problem making a long term marriage commitment, what about people who had been slaves in Egypt only three months earlier. According to Rabbi Avdimi, God came to the rescue: “The Holy One, blessed be He, lowered the [uprooted] mountain over them like a bucket, and said to them, ‘If you accept the Torah, fine; but if not, there will be your grave.” (Talmud Shabbat 88a)