Short answer
Yes. The Shema confesses the same one God (﷾) as the first half of the Shahada. The Shema, Judaism's daily confession of faith, says: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one". The Shahada, Islam's declaration of faith, begins: "There is no god but Allah". Both confess one God (﷾), with no partner, image or equal. In the Qur'an, God (﷾) tells Moses: "I am Allah: There is no god but I". Arabic-speaking Jews called the God (﷾) of the Shema by that same name. Saadia Gaon, a rabbi of the 10th century, put the Shema into Arabic as "Allah our Lord is Allah, the One". Maimonides, a 12th-century rabbi, ruled that Muslims declare God's (﷾) unity without flaw. So on the oneness of God (﷾), Judaism and Islam agree. They differ over the Shahada's second half: whether Muhammad (ﷺ) is His messenger. Islam answers the main Jewish replies below.
Full explanation
The Shema: the heart of Jewish faith
The Shema is Deuteronomy 6:4, the heart of Jewish faith. Jews say it every morning and evening. The Mishnah, the rabbis' first book of law (c. 200 CE), explains its place in the prayers. It does so as halakha, that is, as Jewish law. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korchah, a 2nd-century Jewish teacher, says the Shema comes first for a reason. A person must accept the kingship of God (﷾) before the commandments. That is the shape of the Shahada too: first God (﷾) alone, then the way He revealed to live.
“HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.”
Halakha on the order of the Shema. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korchah, a sage of the 2nd century, explains why the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) is said before the passage "if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments" (Deuteronomy 11:13-21). It is so that a person first takes on himself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven (ol malkhut shamayim), and after that the yoke of the commandments (ol mitzvot).
Rashi: "our God" now, the God (﷾) of all peoples later
What do the words "the LORD our God, the LORD is one" mean? Rashi (d. 1105), the best-known Jewish commentator on the Bible, reads them in two steps. "The LORD our God" is Israel's God (﷾) now. "The LORD is one" looks to a day when all nations call on Him. The prophets Zephaniah and Zechariah foretell that day. Isaiah already calls "all the ends of the earth" to turn to Him.
Rashi reads "the LORD our God, the LORD is one" in two steps. The LORD is our God now, and not yet the God of the other nations; in the future He will be the one LORD of all. He brings Zephaniah 3:9, that all the peoples will call on the name of the LORD, and Zechariah 14:9, that in that day the LORD will be One and His name one. He refers the reader to the Sifre.
“For then will I turn to the peoples A pure language, That they may all call upon the name of the LORD, To serve Him with one consent.”
“And the LORD shall be King over all the earth; In that day shall the LORD be One, and His name one.”
“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, All the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is none else.”
Isaiah says it the Shahada's way
The prophet Isaiah states the Shema's faith in the Shahada's own shape. Like "no god but Allah", he denies every other god: "beside Me there is no God", "there is none else". Psalm 18:32 asks "who is God, save the LORD?" Its Hebrew word for God (﷾) there is Eloah. Eloah, the Aramaic Elah and the Arabic ilah are one old word for God (﷾). Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic are sister languages, called Semitic. The Arabic name Allah is usually derived from al-ilah, "the God".
“Ye are My witnesses, saith the LORD, and My servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe Me, and understand That I am He; before Me there was no God formed, neither shall any be after Me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside Me there is no saviour.”
“Thus saith the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer the LORD of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last, And beside Me there is no God.”
“I am the LORD, and there is none else, beside Me there is no God; I have girded thee, though thou hast not known Me;”
“Declare ye, and bring them near, Yea, let them take counsel together: Who hath announced this from ancient time, And declared it of old? Have not I the LORD? And there is no God else beside Me, A just God and a Saviour; There is none beside Me.”
“For who is God, save the LORD? And who is a Rock, except our God?”
Saadia Gaon's Arabic Torah: "Allah our Lord is Allah, the One"
Jews who spoke Arabic called this God (﷾) Allah (﷾). Saadia ben Joseph (882-942) headed the Jewish academy of Sura, in Babylonia (today's Iraq). "Gaon" was the title of such a head. He translated the Torah, the five books of Moses, into Arabic for Jews who spoke Arabic. The copies that survive are written in Hebrew letters. In the Hebrew, Elohim is the word for God (﷾), and YHWH is God's (﷾) own name, shown in English Bibles as "the LORD". Saadia renders not only Elohim but YHWH itself as Allah. His Shema reads "Allah our Lord is Allah, the One". His Ten Commandments open "I am Allah your Lord", and in Exodus 6 God (﷾) says "My name Allah". In Yemen his translation was copied in many Torah manuscripts, verse by verse beside the Hebrew. The Targum stood beside them both. It is an old translation into Aramaic, a language related to Hebrew.
Saadia's Arabic Shema, printed in Hebrew letters: i'lam Al Isra'il anna Allah rabbuna Allah al-wahid, "Know, O people of Israel, that Allah our Lord is Allah, the One". The divine name YHWH is rendered Allah both times; "our God" (Eloheinu) is rendered rabbuna, "our Lord". Elsewhere Saadia renders Elohim too as Allah (Genesis 1:1; Exodus 6:2). The editor notes that the manuscript from Yemen and the London Polyglot read i'lam ("know"), and the Constantinople printing of 1546 reads isma' ("hear"). The next verse begins wa-ahbib Allah rabbaka, "and love Allah your Lord".
Where the Hebrew has God say to Moses "I am the LORD" (ani YHWH), Saadia writes ana Allah, "I am Allah". In the next verse God says He appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the Able, the Sufficient (for El Shaddai), "but My name Allah alone I did not make known to them" (wa-ismi Allah faqat lam u'arrifhum). The name YHWH itself is rendered Allah.
The first of the Ten Commandments, "I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt", reads in Saadia's Arabic ana Allah rabbuka alladhi akhrajtuka min balad Misr: "I am Allah your Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt".
Maimonides: Muslims declare God's (﷾) unity without flaw
A leading rabbi of the Middle Ages judged how Muslims confess this God (﷾). Maimonides (1138-1204) was a Jewish legal scholar and philosopher. He lived among Muslims and wrote most of his works in Arabic. He was asked whether Muslims are idolaters. He answered in a letter that they are not idolaters at all, and that they declare God's (﷾) unity without flaw. In his law code he wrote that God (﷾) was using the spread of Christianity and Islam to prepare the world to serve Him together. He did not accept the Prophet (ﷺ), and the same texts record his objections.
Obadiah, a convert to Judaism, had been told by his teacher that Muslims are idolaters, because the stones they throw at their place of worship are for Merkolis, an ancient idol. Maimonides answers that these Ishmaelites are not idolaters at all (einam ovdei avodah zarah kelal): idolatry has already been cut off from their mouths and hearts, and they declare the unity of God as is fitting, a unity without blemish (yihud ka-ra'uy, yihud she-ein bo dofi). He adds at once that although they lie about the Jews, saying that the Jews say God has a son, the Jews will not lie about them and call them idolaters. He allows that someone may call the House they honour a house of idolatry, and asks what of it. Those who bow toward it today have their hearts only toward Heaven, as the Talmud says of a man who bows to an idol's house thinking it a synagogue (Sanhedrin 61b). All these Ishmaelites today, children and women (taf ve-nashim), are free of idolatry. Their error and foolishness in other matters cannot be put in writing, because of the sinners and wicked of Israel, but in the unity of God they have no error at all. He grants that some Muslim practices (the bowing in prayer, the thrown stones, the bared head, the unsewn garment) resemble rites of three old pagan cults of that land, and that these rites are rooted in idolatry. But Muslims, he reports, say they throw the stones at Satan, and none of it is done for idolatry, in mouth or in heart. He rebukes the teacher for shaming a convert. He praises Obadiah for seeing that all other religions are stolen from Israel's (genuvot), one adding, one taking away, one changing.
Halakha 4 in the uncensored text. A king of David's line who studies the Torah and keeps the commandments, compels Israel to walk in them and fights the wars of the LORD is presumed to be the Messiah. If he succeeds, rebuilds the Temple in its place and gathers Israel's exiles, he is surely the Messiah; the texts printed by Mechon Mamre and Sefaria's Wikisource add that he defeats all the nations around him. If he does not succeed, or is killed, he is surely not the one the Torah promised: he is like the worthy kings of David's line who died, and God raised him only to test the many (Daniel 11:35). Then Maimonides writes of Yeshua ha-Notzri (Jesus the Nazarene), who imagined he would be the Messiah and was killed by the court (nehrag be-veit din). He applies Daniel 11:14 to him. The prophets, he says, foretold a Messiah who would save Israel, gather its exiles and strengthen its commandments; Jesus caused Israel to be destroyed by the sword and scattered, caused the Torah to be changed (le-hachalif ha-Torah), and led most of the world to worship a god besides the LORD. Then he says that all the matters of Jesus the Nazarene and of the Ishmaelite who came after him serve only to prepare the way for the King Messiah, and to set the whole world right to serve the LORD together, citing Zephaniah 3:9. Through them the world has been filled with talk of the Messiah, the Torah and the commandments, spread to far islands and many peoples. Those peoples debate the commandments. Some say they were true but have lapsed in this age and were not meant for all generations; others say they hold hidden meanings, not their plain sense, and that the Messiah has already come and revealed them. When the true Messiah comes, those peoples will know that their fathers inherited falsehood and that their prophets and fathers misled them. Printed editions were censored. On Sefaria (Torat Emet Hebrew) the failed claimant is 11:5 and the lines on Jesus and the Ishmaelite are 11:6-9; Sefaria's layer of censorship omissions reinserted marks 11:5-9 as cut. Soloweyczik's English of 1863 keeps 11:5 but not the names, the court, the changed Torah, the other god or the misled prophets.
The Qur'an: the same words to Moses
The Qur'an puts the same confession in God's (﷾) own mouth. At the sacred valley, God (﷾) says to Moses: "I am Allah: There is no god but I." The Qur'an says every messenger before the Prophet (ﷺ) was sent with this same message. Its chapter (surah) 112 sums it up in four short verses. There is one God, who neither begets nor is begotten, and none is like Him.
“Verily, I am Allah: There is no god but I: So serve thou Me (only), and establish regular prayer for celebrating My praise.”
“Not a messenger did We send before thee without this inspiration sent by Us to him: that there is no god but I; therefore worship and serve Me.”
“Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him.”
| Where | The words |
|---|---|
| The Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4 | "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one." |
| Saadia Gaon's Arabic Torah | "Allah our Lord is Allah, the One." |
| God (﷾) to Moses, in the Qur'an | "I am Allah: There is no god but I." |
| The Shahada | "There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." |
Judaism and Islam agree on the first half of the Shahada. They differ over the second.
"Our Allah and your Allah is one"
The Qur'an tells Muslims how to speak to Jews and Christians: gently, and with this confession. It invites them to common terms, to worship none but God (﷾). It also says the sons of Jacob promised to worship "the god of thy fathers, of Abraham, Isma'il and Isaac". That is the God (﷾) of the Shema.
“And dispute ye not with the People of the Book, except with means better (than mere disputation), unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong (and injury): but say, "We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; Our Allah and your Allah is one; and it is to Him we bow (in Islam)."”
“Say: "O People of the Book! come to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than Allah." If then they turn back, say ye: "Bear witness that we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to Allah's Will).”
“Were ye witnesses when death appeared before Jacob? Behold, he said to his sons: "What will ye worship after me?" They said: "We shall worship Thy god and the god of thy fathers, of Abraham, Isma'il and Isaac,- the one (True) Allah: To Him we bow (in Islam)."”
Where Judaism and Islam part: the prophet
If the God (﷾) is the same, what divides Judaism and Islam is the prophet. The Torah records God's (﷾) promise of a prophet "from among their brethren", with God's (﷾) words in his mouth. A Jewish reader will point to verse 15, where Moses says "from the midst of thee, of thy brethren". But God's (﷾) own words in verse 18 say only "from among their brethren". Deuteronomy calls the sons of Esau Israel's "brethren", and the sons of Ishmael are brethren in the same sense. Elsewhere the word means fellow Israelites (17:15), so it allows both. The full case is on the page linked below. Muslims hold that this prophet is Muhammad (ﷺ), a son of Abraham through Ishmael. Muslims believe in all the prophets of Israel and make no distinction among them. So a Jew who says the Shema already confesses the first half of the Shahada. The only question left is the second.
“I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him.”
“A prophet will the LORD thy God raise up unto thee, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;”
“And command thou the people, saying: Ye are to pass through the border of your brethren the children of Esau, that dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you; take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore;”
“Say ye: "We believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them: And we bow to Allah (in Islam)."”
The Jewish replies, answered
Deuteronomy 6:4 — Torah, Devarim, chapter 6, verse 4
“HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.”
Cited for
The Shema names God alone. The Shahada puts a man's name beside God's in the creed itself, which the Shema never does.
The response
The second half of the Shahada is not worship of a man. It bears witness that Muhammad (ﷺ) is God's (﷾) servant and messenger, which is what he told Muslims to call him. The Torah joins the same two beliefs. At the sea, Israel "believed in the LORD, and in His servant Moses". The Qur'an has the Prophet (ﷺ) say he is only a man, to whom revelation came.
Where it lands — Belief in God's (﷾) messenger follows the Torah's own pattern with Moses. The Shahada adds a messenger, not a partner.
Deuteronomy 6:4 — Torah, Devarim, chapter 6, verse 4
“HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.”
Cited for
The Shema is covenantal. It says "the LORD our God": the God who took Israel as His own people at Sinai. A universal "no god but Allah" is not the same confession.
The response
Islam agrees that God (﷾) chose Israel: "I preferred you to all other (for My Message)". It adds that He is Lord of all the worlds. Rashi's reading fits this. The LORD is now Israel's God (﷾), and in the future He will be the one LORD of all nations. Maimonides saw the spread of Christianity and Islam as part of preparing the world for that day.
Where it lands — "Our God" names Israel's calling, not a different God. Rashi's own reading looks to the day when all peoples call on the one God (﷾).
Qur'an 9:30 — Surat al-Tawba (The Repentance), verse 30
“The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!”
Cited for
The Qur'an itself says "The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah" ('Uzair is Ezra). So Islam does not really hold that Jews worship the one God alone.
The response
The verse reports a saying and rejects it. Its Arabic verb, qalat, is past tense: "said". Its closing words, "Allah's curse be on them", fall on those who said it. The verse condemns the Christians' saying about Christ in the same breath. It does not say the Shema is false, or that Jews pray to another god. Al-Tabari (d. 923), an early commentator on the Qur'an, records whom the early commentators named. They named one man, or a few named men who came to the Prophet (ﷺ), as saying it. No surviving Jewish text calls Ezra the son of God, and Maimonides denied that Jews say God (﷾) has a son. The same Qur'an tells Muslims to say to Jews and Christians: "Our Allah and your Allah is one".
Where it lands — The Qur'an rejects a saying about Ezra, not the Shema. On the God (﷾) the Shema confesses, it says Jews and Muslims worship the same One.
Deuteronomy 13:1 — Torah, Devarim, chapter 13, verse 1
“All this word which I command you, that shall ye observe to do; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”
Cited for
The Torah forbids adding to its commandments. So even if the God is the same, a later prophet with a new law cannot be from Him.
The response
The verse tells Israel not to add to or take from what God (﷾) commanded. It does not bind God (﷾). The same book records His promise of a prophet from among Israel's brethren, with His words in his mouth. It warns whoever will not hearken to him. A Jew may turn this round: the Qur'an calls Muhammad (ﷺ) "the Seal of the Prophets", meaning the last, so Islam also closes the door. The difference is in the texts themselves. The Qur'an itself names its prophet the last. The Torah never calls Moses the last; it promises a prophet still to come. The Qur'an says it confirms the earlier scripture and guards it.
Where it lands — The Shema does not decide between Judaism and Islam. The question of the promised prophet does, and the Torah itself raises it.
Qur'an 29:46 — Surat al-'Ankabut (The Spider), verse 46
“And dispute ye not with the People of the Book, except with means better (than mere disputation), unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong (and injury): but say, "We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; Our Allah and your Allah is one; and it is to Him we bow (in Islam)."”
Cited for
A shared word proves nothing. "Allah" is simply what Arabic calls God, and a different faith can use it of a different God.
The response
The Qur'an identifies its God the way the Torah does: the one God (﷾) who spoke to Moses, the God (﷾) of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jewish authorities judged the same way. Saadia rendered the name YHWH itself as Allah. Maimonides ruled that Muslims declare God's (﷾) unity without flaw.
Where it lands — The God (﷾) of the Qur'an is described as the God (﷾) of the Torah, and leading rabbis accepted that Muslims worship Him alone.
Qur'an 3:67 — Surat Al 'Imran (The Family of Imran), verse 67
“Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian; but he was true in Faith, and bowed his will to Allah's (Which is Islam), and he joined not gods with Allah.”
Cited for
The Qur'an says Abraham was not a Jew. That takes the patriarch away from his own descendants and rewrites the Torah's story.
The response
The Qur'an gives its reason in the same passage: the Torah and the Injil (the Gospel Jesus preached) were revealed only after Abraham. The name "Jew" comes from Judah, Abraham's great-grandson, and the Torah was given at Sinai centuries later. A Jew may reply that the Qur'an came later too. But the Qur'an does not make Abraham a follower of its law. Its word for him is muslim, "one who submits" to God (﷾), a description of his faith. It has Abraham and Ishmael pray "make of us Muslims". Islam does not deny that Israel descends from Abraham. It says Jacob's sons vowed to worship the God (﷾) of Abraham.
Where it lands — The verse is about the later name and law, not Abraham's family. On his faith in one God (﷾), Judaism and Islam agree.
Perspectives
Orthodox Judaism
The Shema is Israel's confession of the one God, the LORD who took Israel as His people. Accepting it means accepting God's kingship and then His commandments as given at Sinai. Muslims worship the one God, as Maimonides ruled. But Muhammad (ﷺ) is not a true prophet, because a prophet may not change the Torah's law, and nothing may be added to the Torah.
The Shema is the centre of Jewish faith: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees that the LORD is one. The Qur'an has God (﷾) say the same to Moses: "I am Allah: There is no god but I". So the Shema's centre is the first half of the Shahada, not a rival to it.
Saying the Shema is accepting the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, and after it the yoke of the commandments.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees with the order: God (﷾) alone first, then the way He revealed. The Shahada has the same shape. The open question is whether God (﷾) later sent a prophet with His words, as Deuteronomy 18:18 promises.
"Our God" is covenantal: the LORD is now Israel's God, and will be one for all nations in the future.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees that God (﷾) chose Israel, "I preferred you to all other (for My Message)", and adds that He is Lord of all the worlds. Rashi himself says that in the future the LORD will be the one God of all nations. So "our God" names Israel's calling, not a different God.
Muslims are not idolaters: they declare God's unity without flaw.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees, and this ruling grants the page's point: Muslims worship the God (﷾) of the Shema alone. So God (﷾) is not what divides Judaism and Islam. Only the question of the last prophet remains.
Nothing may be added to the Torah's commandments, so a later prophet with a new law is not from God.
Rebuttal
The verse tells Israel not to add to God's (﷾) commands; it does not bind God (﷾). The same book promises a prophet from among their brethren, with God's (﷾) words in his mouth. The Torah never calls Moses the last prophet.
The Islamic perspective
The God (﷾) of the Shema is Allah (﷾), the God (﷾) of Abraham, Moses and every prophet. The first half of the Shahada is the Shema's own confession. What divides Judaism and Islam is not God but whether Muhammad (ﷺ) is His messenger.
In the Qur'an God tells Moses: I am Allah (﷾), there is no god but I.
Every messenger was sent with the same message, that there is no god but God (﷾).
The Qur'an tells Muslims to say to Jews and Christians: our God (﷾) and your God is one.
Arabic-speaking Jews rendered the God (﷾) of the Shema, and the name YHWH itself, as Allah.
The Shahada's second half names a servant and messenger. In the same way the Torah joins belief in God (﷾) with belief in His servant Moses.
Islam claims Abraham's faith in one God (﷾), not the later law or the name of any people.