Maimonides in the context of "Islamic–Jewish relations"

Criticism of Christianity has a long history that stretches back to the initial formation of the religion in the Roman Empire. Critics have challenged Christian beliefs and teachings, as well as actions taken in the name of the faith, from the Crusades to modern terrorism. The arguments against Christianity include claims that it is a faith of violence, corruption, superstition, polytheism, homophobia, bigotry, pontification, abuses of women's rights, and sectarianism.

In the early years of Christianity, the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry emerged as one of the major critics with his book Against the Christians, along with other writers like Celsus and Julian. Porphyry argued that Christianity was based on false prophecies that had not yet materialized. Following the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire, dissenting religious voices were gradually suppressed by both governmental and ecclesiastical authorities. Christianity has faced significant theological criticism from thinkers of other Abrahamic religions, particularly including Judaism and Islam. Notably, Maimonides, the renowned rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and Torah scholar of the 12th century, argued that Christian practices and doctrines constituted idolatry and deviated from the strict monotheism (shituf) of Jewish and Muslim theologies. Similarly, Islamic scholars have critiqued Christian beliefs about the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, viewing these concepts as incompatible with the concept of monotheism. These critiques reflect deep theological disagreements rooted in their shared scriptural traditions and divergent doctrinal interpretations. A millennium later, the Protestant Reformation led to a fundamental split in European Christianity and rekindled critical voices about the Christian faith, both internally and externally. In the 18th century, deist philosophers such as Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were critical of Christianity as a revealed religion. With the Age of Enlightenment, Christianity was criticized by major thinkers and philosophers, such as David Hume, Thomas Paine, and the Baron d'Holbach. The central theme of these critiques sought to negate the historical accuracy of the Christian Bible and focused on the perceived corruption of Christian religious authorities. Other thinkers, like Immanuel Kant, offered critiques of traditional arguments for the existence of God, while professing to defend Christian theology on novel grounds.

The Masoretes (Hebrew: בַּעֲלֵי הַמָּסוֹרָה, romanized: Baʿălēy Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Masters of the Tradition') were groups of Jewish scribe-scholars who worked from around the end of the 5th through 10th centuries AD, based primarily in the Jewish centers of the Levant (e.g., Tiberias and Jerusalem) and Mesopotamia (e.g., Sura and Nehardea). Each group compiled a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides in the form of diacritical notes (niqqud) on the external form of the biblical text in an attempt to standardize the pronunciation, paragraph and verse divisions, and cantillation of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) for the worldwide Jewish community.

The ben Asher family of Masoretes was largely responsible for the preservation and production of the Masoretic Text, although there existed an alternative Masoretic text of the ben Naphtali Masoretes, which has around 875 differences from the ben Asher text. The halakhic authority Maimonides endorsed the ben Asher as superior, although the Egyptian Jewish scholar, the Saadya Gaon, had preferred the ben Naphtali system. It has been suggested that the ben Asher family and the majority of the Masoretes were Karaites. However, Geoffrey Khan believes that the ben Asher family was probably not Karaite, and Aron Dotan avers that there are "decisive proofs that M. Ben-Asher was not a Karaite."

The Mishneh Torah (Hebrew: מִשְׁנֵה תוֹרָה, lit. 'repetition of the Torah'), also known as Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka (ספר יד החזקה, 'book of the strong hand'), is a code of Rabbinic Jewish religious law (halakha) authored by Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon/Rambam). The Mishneh Torah was compiled between 1170 and 1180 CE (4930 and 4940 AM), while Maimonides was living in Egypt, and is regarded as Maimonides' magnum opus. Accordingly, later sources simply refer to the work as "Maimon", "Maimonides", or "RaMBaM", although Maimonides composed other works.

Mishneh Torah consists of fourteen books, subdivided into sections, chapters, and paragraphs. It is the only medieval-era work that details all of Jewish observance, including those laws that are only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem is in existence, and remains an important work in Judaism.

Mosaic authorship is the Judeo-Christian tradition that the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, were dictated by God to Moses. The tradition probably began with the legalistic code of the Book of Deuteronomy and was then gradually extended until Moses, as the central character, came to be regarded not just as the mediator of law but as author of both laws and narrative.

The books of the Torah do not name any author, as authorship was not considered important by the society that produced them, and it was only after Jews came into intense contact with author-centric Hellenistic culture in the late Second Temple period that the rabbis began to find authors for their scriptures. By the 1st century CE, it was already common practice to refer to the five as the "Law of Moses", but the first unequivocal expression of the idea that this meant authorship appears in the Babylonian Talmud, an encyclopedia of Jewish tradition and scholarship composed between 200 and 500 CE. There, the rabbis noticed and addressed such issues as how Moses had received the divine revelation, how it was curated and transmitted to later generations, and how difficult passages such as the last verses of Deuteronomy, which describe his death, were to be explained. This culminated in the 8th of Maimonides' 13 Principles of Faith, establishing belief in Mosaic authorship as an article of Jewish belief.

Sephardic law and customs are the law and customs of Judaism which are practiced by Sephardim or Sephardic Jews (lit. "Jews of Spain"); the descendants of the historic Jewish community of the Iberian Peninsula, what is now Spain and Portugal. Many definitions of "Sephardic" also include Mizrahi Jews, most of whom follow the same traditions of worship as those which Sephardic Jews follow. The Sephardi Rite is not a denomination nor a movement like Orthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism, and other Ashkenazi Rite worship traditions. Sephardim are communities with distinct cultural, juridical and philosophical traditions.Sephardim are the descendants of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. They may be divided into the families that left Spain during the Expulsion of 1492 and those families that remained in Spain as crypto-Jews, fleeing in the following few centuries. In religious parlance as well as in modern Israel, the term is broadly used for all Jews who have Ottoman or other Asian or North African backgrounds, whether or not they have any historical link to Spain, but some prefer to distinguish Sephardim proper from Mizraḥi Jews.Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews have similar religious practices. Whether or not they are "Spaniard Jews", they are all "Jews of the Spanish rite". There are three reasons for this convergence, which are explored in more detail below:

• Both groups follow the Halakha, without those customs specific to the Ashkenazi tradition.
• The Spanish rite was an offshoot of the Babylonian-Arabic family of Jewish rites and retained a family resemblance to the other rites of that family.
• Following the expulsion, the Spanish exiles took a leading role in the Jewish communities of Western Asia (the Middle East) and North Africa, who modified their rites to bring them still nearer to the Spanish rite, which by then was regarded as the standard.

The Jewish Golden Age in Spain began shortly after the Muslim conquest in the 8th century and lasted until the Christian Reconquista resulted in the expulsion of Jews by the 15th century. During this period, Jews living in what was collectively called al-Andalus (Muslim-ruled Spain and Portugal) experienced relative tolerance, prosperity, and socio-cultural integration within the broader Muslim society that had come to dominate the region. Owing to this environment, Jewish culture flourished and several Jews rose to prominence in scholarly and religious spheres, including Maimonides, Hasdai ben Shaprut, Shmuel ha-Nagid, Solomon ben Judah, and Judah ha-Levi. The Jewish community of al-Andalus also contributed greatly to the Muslim world's advancements in astronomy, medicine, and science.

Jews under Muslim authority in Spain and Portugal were designated as dhimmi (Arabic: ذمي)—a legally protected class of non-Muslim subjects—in exchange for paying jizya (جِزْيَة) and accepting certain restrictions. Although they still held a second-class status relative to Muslims, the dhimmi framework in al-Andalus gradually allowed for the development of stability and co-existence that was otherwise uncommon in Jewish history in Europe; Jews were able to occupy a variety of positions in government and diplomacy, medicine, and science, while also playing a key role in the Muslim world's transmission of classical knowledge to Christian Europe. Further, the Jewish Golden Age in Spain brought about remarkable achievements in Hebrew poetry, religious scholarship, grammar, and philosophy. Some historians, however, view this to be more of a myth.

Classical theism is a theological and philosophical form of theism that conceives of God as the ultimate reality, characterized by attributes such as omnibenevolence, omnipotence, and omniscience. Rooted in the ancient Greek philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, classical theism presents God as a deity that is immutable, impassible, transcendent, and entirely self-sufficient. This understanding of God emphasizes divine simplicity, where God's essence and existence are identical, making him fundamentally distinct from all created beings.

Throughout history, classical theism has significantly shaped the doctrines of major religious traditions, particularly within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Jewish thought, philosophers like Philo and Maimonides emphasized the unity and transcendence of God, aligning closely with classical theistic principles. The early Church Fathers, like Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Augustine incorporated classical theistic ideas into Christian theology, establishing a framework that was later to be refined by medieval thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas. Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna and Al-Farabi adopted classical theistic concepts to articulate a vision of God as utterly singular and beyond human comprehension.

Tzedakah (Hebrew: צְדָקָה ṣədāqā, [ts(e)daˈka]) is a Hebrew word meaning "righteousness", but commonly used to signify charity. This concept of "charity" differs from the modern Western understanding of "charity". The latter is typically understood as a spontaneous act of goodwill and a marker of generosity; tzedakah is an ethical obligation, and it is not properly "charity", like in Christendom, but a way to empower poor people to support themselves, helping them in developing their talents and skills. The Medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides as well as the 16th century Jewish legal scholar Joseph Caro dedicated sections of their books on Jewish law (respectively, The Code of Maimonides and Shulchan Arukh) to discussions of charity, indicating the importance of this particular mitzvah to Jewish faith practices and tradition.

Tzedakah (Tzedaka) refers to the religious obligation to do what is right and just, which Judaism emphasizes as an important part of living a spiritual life. Unlike voluntary philanthropy, tzedakah is seen as a religious obligation that must be performed regardless of one's financial standing, and so is mandatory even for those of limited financial means. Tzedakah is considered to be one of the three main acts that can positively influence an unfavorable heavenly decree.