Judaism: Thought or Race?

Introduction

Is Judaism a racial identity transmitted through descent, or a religious, intellectual, and historical identity formed over a long trajectory?

This question concerns not only the history of the Jews, but the history of religious communities generally: how does a community that began as one bound to revelation and covenant become an identity that persists even after its relationship with revelation changes?

The Qur'anic verses can offer an account of this transformation by tracing the Children of Israel, their internal division, their relationship with the covenant, and then what the Qur'an describes as corruption and the spreading of corruption, punishment, the recovery of power, and then a return to corruption.

The question, therefore, is not only: who are the Jews? Rather, it is: how did the identity of a community bound to revelation and covenant become a religious and historical identity capable of persisting even as its connection to revelation weakened?

1. The Children of Israel: A Community That Emerged within Revelation

The Qur'an presents the Children of Israel as a historical community whose existence was bound to prophets, revelation, and covenant.

﴿يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَنِّي فَضَّلْتُكُمْ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ﴾ (O Children of Israel, remember My favor which I bestowed upon you, and that I favored you above all peoples.) [البقرة: 47]

The Qur'an repeatedly reminds them of the covenant, the messengers, the Book, and divine favor. Yet the Qur'an does not present the Children of Israel as a single community uniform in faith and conduct; rather, it reveals clear internal differences.

﴿مِنْهُمْ أُمَّةٌ مُقْتَصِدَةٌ وَكَثِيرٌ مِنْهُمْ سَاءَ مَا يَعْمَلُونَ﴾ (Among them is an ummah that follows a moderate course, but many of them—evil is what they do.) [المائدة: 66]

﴿وَمِنْ قَوْمِ مُوسَى أُمَّةٌ يَهْدُونَ بِالْحَقِّ وَبِهِ يَعْدِلُونَ﴾ (And among the people of Moses is an ummah that guides by the truth and by it acts justly.) [الأعراف: 159]

Thus, the Children of Israel in the Qur'an cannot be reduced to a single monolithic body; the Qur'an distinguishes among groups according to their faith, deeds, and positions.

2. Internal Division and the Predominance of Deviation

The Qur'an reveals the existence of an internal struggle within the community itself. In the account of the people of the Sabbath, more than one position appears:

﴿وَإِذْ قَالَتْ أُمَّةٌ مِنْهُمْ لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْمًا اللَّهُ مُهْلِكُهُمْ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا قَالُوا مَعْذِرَةً إِلَى رَبِّكُمْ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ﴾ (And when an ummah among them said, “Why do you admonish a people whom God will destroy or punish with a severe punishment?” they said, “As an excuse before your Lord, and perhaps they may become God-fearing.”) [الأعراف: 164]

There were those who transgressed, those who condemned the transgression, and those who took another position toward that condemnation.

﴿لَيْسُوا سَوَاءً﴾ (They are not alike.) [آل عمران: 113]

The existence of deviation within the community does not mean that all its members shared the same deviation. Yet continued division may weaken the group adhering to the truth, while the deviant group's capacity for influence, organization, and control increases. Here begins the transformation from a community united by revelation into one that can persist through human means even when its relationship with revelation weakens.

3. Al-Samiri: A Model of Deviation from Within

The account of al-Samiri offers an important model of this kind of deviation. Moses was present, revelation was present, and the messenger was present; nevertheless, al-Samiri was able to redirect the community toward worship of the calf.

﴿قَالَ بَصُرْتُ بِمَا لَمْ يَبْصُرُوا بِهِ فَقَبَضْتُ قَبْضَةً مِنْ أَثَرِ الرَّسُولِ فَنَبَذْتُهَا وَكَذَلِكَ سَوَّلَتْ لِي نَفْسِي﴾ (He said, “I perceived what they did not perceive, so I took a handful from the trace of the messenger and cast it away; thus did my soul entice me.”) [طه: 96]

The account here does not present al-Samiri as the founder of Judaism, nor itself as a direct historical stage in its emergence. Rather, it reveals an older mechanism: the presence of revelation does not prevent deviation if a person can reshape the community's understanding and lead it away from the message.

4. From Covenant to Distortion

The Qur'an links the breaking of the covenant to a change in the relationship with revelation:

﴿فَبِمَا نَقْضِهِمْ مِيثَاقَهُمْ لَعَنَّاهُمْ وَجَعَلْنَا قُلُوبَهُمْ قَاسِيَةً ۖ يُحَرِّفُونَ الْكَلِمَ عَنْ مَوَاضِعِهِ وَنَسُوا حَظًّا مِمَّا ذُكِّرُوا بِهِ﴾ (So, for their breaking of their covenant, We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They distort words from their proper places and forgot a portion of what they were reminded of.) [المائدة: 13]

Here a sequential trajectory emerges:

Covenant ← Breach ← Hardness ← Distortion ← Forgetting.

The matter does not stop at the text, but extends to the very source of authority.

﴿اتَّخَذُوا أَحْبَارَهُمْ وَرُهْبَانَهُمْ أَرْبَابًا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ﴾ (They took their rabbis and monks as lords apart from God.) [التوبة: 31]

The problem thus shifts from merely violating a ruling to the transfer of the center of authority from God to the human being.

5. A Bond from God and a Bond from People

Among the verses most indicative of this stage is His statement, exalted is He:

﴿ضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الذِّلَّةُ أَيْنَ مَا ثُقِفُوا إِلَّا بِحَبْلٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَحَبْلٍ مِنَ النَّاسِ وَبَاءُوا بِغَضَبٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ﴾ (Humiliation was imposed upon them wherever they were found, except through a bond from God and a bond from people, and they incurred wrath from God.) [آل عمران: 112]

The verse brings together two ties: a bond from God and a bond from people.

When the community's connection to God weakens because of disbelief in His verses, the breaking of the covenant, disobedience, and transgression, the bond from people remains. This bond can take the form of community, alliance, descent, protection, mutual support, organization, and human power.

A community can thus lose part of its relationship with God while continuing to exist historically because of the human ties that unite its members. Here a fundamental point emerges: the bond from people preserves human existence, but does not thereby become a bond from God.

6. From Spreading Corruption to Power, Then a Return to Punishment

In surah al-Isra, the Qur'an presents a clear historical cycle:

﴿وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ فِي الْكِتَابِ لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُوًّا كَبِيرًا﴾ (And We decreed to the Children of Israel in the Book: “You will surely cause corruption in the land twice, and you will surely rise to great haughtiness.”) [الإسراء: 4]

Then comes punishment:

﴿فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولَاهُمَا بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلَالَ الدِّيَارِ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَفْعُولًا﴾ (Then, when the promise of the first of the two came, We sent against you servants of Ours possessing great might, and they penetrated through the dwellings; and it was a promise fulfilled.) [الإسراء: 5]

Then a recovery of power:

﴿ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَا لَكُمُ الْكَرَّةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَمْدَدْنَاكُمْ بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينَ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ أَكْثَرَ نَفِيرًا﴾ (Then We restored to you the upper hand over them, supplied you with wealth and sons, and made you more numerous in forces.) [الإسراء: 6]

Then comes the criterion of conduct:

﴿إِنْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ لِأَنْفُسِكُمْ وَإِنْ أَسَأْتُمْ فَلَهَا﴾ (If you do good, you do good for yourselves; and if you do evil, it is against yourselves.) [الإسراء: 7]

Then corruption returns, and punishment returns:

﴿وَإِنْ عُدْتُمْ عُدْنَا﴾ (And if you return, We shall return.) [الإسراء: 8]

The Qur'an thus establishes a direct relationship between conduct, power, and outcome. The community may recover wealth, sons, forces, and power, but this recovery does not mean that power itself is evidence of God's approval.

7. From the Children of Israel to the Jews: A Shift in the Center of Identity

The Qur'an does not say in any single verse that “the Children of Israel became the Jews,” and it is therefore not valid to present this as a direct Qur'anic statement. Yet the differences in Qur'anic terminology between the Children of Israel, those who Judaized, the Jews, and the People of the Book allow the question of a shift in the center of identity to be raised.

“The Children of Israel” refers to the historical community associated with Israel, the prophets, and the covenant, whereas “the Jews” and “those who Judaized” occur in contexts in which the Qur'an addresses a religious identity, positions, beliefs, and actions.

By bringing the verses together, one can envisage a gradual shift in the center of identity:

From a community defined by revelation and the covenant ← to a community that endures through a religious, historical, and social identity.

This does not mean that all the Children of Israel became Jews, or that everyone described as Jewish necessarily traces their descent to the same person or the same lineage. What is meant is a shift in the center of the community's definition and identity.

8. Is Judaism a Matter of Lineage or Affiliation?

The Qur'an does not present Judaism as a distinct biological race. Rather, it uses descriptions associated with belief, affiliation, and position, and makes judgment contingent on faith and deeds. Lineage alone is therefore insufficient in the balance of the Qur'an.

﴿لَيْسَ بِأَمَانِيِّكُمْ وَلَا أَمَانِيِّ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ ۗ مَنْ يَعْمَلْ سُوءًا يُجْزَ بِهِ﴾ (It is not according to your wishes or the wishes of the People of the Book. Whoever does evil will be recompensed for it.) [النساء: 123]

It also affirms the existence of righteous people among the People of the Book:

﴿لَيْسُوا سَوَاءً﴾ (They are not all alike.) [آل عمران: 113]

Collective identity, then, does not place all its members under the same judgment before God.

9. The Jews and the People of the Book after Christ

The emergence of Christianity does not negate the continued presence of the Jews in Qur'anic discourse.

﴿وَقَالَتِ الْيَهُودُ لَيْسَتِ النَّصَارَىٰ عَلَىٰ شَيْءٍ وَقَالَتِ النَّصَارَىٰ لَيْسَتِ الْيَهُودُ عَلَىٰ شَيْءٍ﴾ (The Jews said, “The Christians have no basis,” and the Christians said, “The Jews have no basis.”) [البقرة: 113]

At the same time, the Qur'an uses the concept of the People of the Book as a broader framework encompassing Jews and Christians. Three levels can thus be distinguished:

The Children of Israel: the historical community associated with Israel and the prophets.

The Jews/those who Judaized: a religious and historical identity appearing in Qur'anic discourse.

The People of the Book: a broader framework encompassing communities associated with divinely revealed books.

This prevents Qur'anic terms from being reduced to a single meaning.

10. The Persistence of Human Power Does Not Mean True Success

One of the most important conclusions revealed by this trajectory is that a community's historical continuity is one thing, and success before God is another.

﴿إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَنْ تُغْنِيَ عَنْهُمْ أَمْوَالُهُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُهُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا﴾ (Indeed, neither the wealth nor the children of those who disbelieve will avail them at all against God.) [آل عمران: 10]

﴿وَمَا أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُكُمْ بِالَّتِي تُقَرِّبُكُمْ عِنْدَنَا زُلْفَىٰ إِلَّا مَنْ آمَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا﴾ (Neither your wealth nor your children bring you nearer to Us, except for those who believe and act righteously.) [سبأ: 37]

The Qur'an clearly sets out the criterion of loss:

﴿إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ ۝ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ﴾ (Indeed, humankind is in loss, except those who believe, do righteous deeds, and counsel one another to truth and counsel one another to patience.) [العصر: 2–3]

Wealth, children, manpower, alliances, and the capacity to endure, then, do not turn loss into success. A community may remain powerful in this world while the standard by which it is measured before God is something else.

11. The Mechanism of Deviation: From Embellishment to Execution

The Qur'an explains a general mechanism of leading astray that is not specific to any particular community.

﴿لَأَقْعُدَنَّ لَهُمْ صِرَاطَكَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ﴾ (I will surely lie in wait for them on Your straight path.) [الأعراف: 16]

﴿وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ﴾ (And I will surely command them, and they will surely alter God's creation.) [النساء: 119]

The Qur'an reveals how an idea moves from seduction to action, and the Qur'anic mechanism can be arranged as follows:

Whispering ← embellishment ← wishes ← command ← response ← execution.

But this mechanism does not mean that any particular community is the project of Iblis. Rather, it reveals how deviation can develop from intellectual and psychological influence into individual behavior and then into a human structure.

12. From Religious Deviation to Human Structure

When the connection to revelation weakens, the community does not necessarily disappear. It may endure through historical memory, lineage and affiliation, institutions, customs, religious authority, shared interests, alliances, and economic and social power.

Here the distinction becomes clear between religion as a relationship with revelation and identity as an enduring human structure. Identity can persist historically even when its members' relationship with the text and revelation changes.

13. From Religious Identity to Modern Structures

When turning to modern history, two levels must be distinguished: first, the regularities that the Qur'an establishes concerning revelation, deviation, authority, alliance, power, and the persistence of communities; and second, what historical research establishes concerning modern institutions, movements, and organizations.

The Qur'an does not mention names such as Freemasonry, Zionism, Kabbalah, the Illuminati, or the Jesuits, and the existence of these organizations therefore cannot be treated as direct Qur'anic evidence. These phenomena can, however, be studied historically, with questions asked about their origins, ideas, relationships, documents, and the extent of their influence on the formation of identity, politics, and society. Here begins the domain of historical research, not the domain of establishing what the Qur'anic text states.

14. Is Judaism Thought or Race?

This trajectory shows that reducing Judaism to the concept of race alone does not explain all the levels with which the Qur'an engages. The Qur'an addresses a historical community, adherents of a religion, People of the Book, and individuals who differ in faith and deeds.

Judaism can therefore be regarded as a religious, historical, and intellectual identity that took shape and endured within a human community possessing memory, lineage, institutions, and affiliation, rather than as a distinct race in the biological sense. This does not negate the importance of lineage in preserving identity, but it distinguishes collective affiliation from divine judgment upon the individual.

15. The Qur'anic Map

The trajectory revealed by the verses can be summarized in an interconnected form:

The Children of Israel: a community bound to revelation, the prophets, and the covenant. ← Internal division: believers and those who deviate, and different ummahs, factions, and positions. ← Weakening commitment to the covenant: breach, disobedience, hardness of heart, distortion, forgetfulness. ← Transfer of authority: from recourse to God's judgment to a human authority that intervenes in defining religion and directing the community. ← Weakening of the bond from God while the bond from people remains. ← Continuity of the community through descent, memory, belonging, institutions, and alliances. ← Human strength: wealth, sons, manpower, organization, and the capacity to endure. ← Corruption and haughtiness, then punishment. ← Recovery of strength, then a possible return to corruption. ← ﴿وَإِنْ عُدْتُمْ عُدْنَا﴾ (And if you return, We shall return).

Thus, the Qur'an distinguishes between the community's continuity in history and the continuity of its connection to God, and between strength in this world and success before God.

From Religious Identity to a National People

An important shift can be observed in the definition of Jewish identity in the modern era: in Zionist discourse, it is no longer presented solely as a religion, but as an identity of peoplehood, nationality, and history that brings together Jews living in different countries within a conception of a single people with a historical connection to the land of Palestine.

This idea appears clearly in the founding documents of the State of Israel. The Declaration of Independence of 1948 stated that the “Jewish people” arose in the Land of Israel, that its spiritual, religious, and political identity took shape there, and that it maintained its connection to it throughout the diaspora. The declaration also linked this “historical connection” to the demand for the establishment of a Jewish state.

Here, the discourse shifted from mere religious affiliation to the concept of a people possessing a historical homeland. Nor did this stop at the historical narration (riwāya); this vision became part of the state's legal structure. The Basic Law: “Israel—The Nation-State of the Jewish People” stipulates that the Land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people, and that the State of Israel is the nation-state in which the Jewish people exercises its right to national self-determination.

Religious identity ← historical community ← people ← historical homeland ← national right ← state.

This is what makes the question “Judaism: a religion or a people?” politically and historically important: defining Jews as a people with a shared historical origin has different consequences from defining them as adherents of a religion spread among multiple peoples and countries.

Yet describing Jews as “a single race” requires greater precision. Modern sources do not treat Jews as a single biological race in the traditional sense; rather, they describe Jewish identity as potentially religious, ethnic, cultural, or based on descent or national affiliation, depending on the context.

The more precise formulation is therefore not: “A Jewish race was invented out of nothing”; rather: Judaism was presented as not merely a creed, but the identity of a people and a race with a shared historical origin, with the aim of linking Jews to the Children of Israel and Jacob, then turning this affiliation into an argument granting them a historical and national entitlement to the land of Palestine, and persuading world public opinion of the legitimacy of this claim.

Applying This to the Question of the Children of Israel

Here, the issue connects directly to the Qur'anic reading. The Qur'an speaks of the Children of Israel as a historical community bound to Israel, the prophets, revelation, and the covenant. Modern nationalist discourse, by contrast, uses the concept of the Jewish people to connect contemporary Jews to that ancient history, and then makes historical continuity the basis for a national right to the land.

The central question thus becomes:

Does historical affiliation with the Children of Israel necessarily equate to modern national affiliation with the Jewish people?

This is not one issue, but three issues that should be distinguished:

1. The Qur'anic issue: Who are the Children of Israel? What is the nature of their relationship to revelation, the covenant, and the land?
2. The historical issue: What degree of continuity exists between ancient Jewish communities and the Jewish communities that lived in different regions over subsequent centuries?
3. The modern political issue: When and how did the concept of the “Jewish people” become a basis for demanding sovereignty and statehood?

Modern political reality makes clear that these levels were brought together within the Zionist narration (riwāya): ancient history ← the Jewish people ← the historical homeland ← the national right ← the State of Israel. This appears explicitly in the Declaration of Independence and subsequently in later Israeli legislation.

Conclusion

The Qur'an does not present the Children of Israel or Jews as a single, unchanging bloc in faith and conduct. Rather, it reveals within the community believers and those who deviate, a struggle between truth and falsehood, and the possibility that the relationship with revelation may weaken while the community continues through human means.

The verse ﴿حَبْلٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَحَبْلٍ مِنَ النَّاسِ﴾ (a bond from God and a bond from people) reveals one of the most important keys to this transformation: the bond with God may weaken while the bond from people remains, allowing the community to continue socially and historically despite the change in its relationship with revelation.

Surah al-Isra makes clear that human strength does not avert God's established way: corruption, then punishment, then a recovery of strength, then a return to corruption, then a return of punishment:

﴿وَإِنْ عُدْتُمْ عُدْنَا﴾ (And if you return, We shall return.) [الإسراء: 8]

Hence, the community's continuity in history is not evidence of the validity of everything it carries, nor is its strength evidence of God's approval, just as its worldly weakness does not necessarily imply a judgment on all its members.

The Qur'an sets a different criterion for success:

﴿إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ ۝ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ﴾ (Indeed, the human being is surely in loss, except those who believe and do righteous deeds.) [العصر: 2–3]

Accordingly, by bringing the verses together, the transition from the Children of Israel to Jews can be read as a shift in the defining center of identity: from a historical community bound to revelation, the covenant, and the prophets, to a religious and historical identity that also endures through memory, descent, belonging, and human structures.

This reading neither makes Judaism a pure race nor separates it from the history of the Children of Israel. Rather, it situates it within a broader trajectory in which the religious community shifts from a direct relationship with revelation to an identity that can endure through human beings, history, and institutions.

The Qur'anic measure remains grounded in action and faith, not in name alone, descent alone, or strength alone.

For historical existence is one thing, and a bond from God is another; human power is one thing, and success in God's sight is another.