Covenant in other religions

Islam

Covenants (mīthāq, ʿahd) were of great importance in the formative period of Islam (7th century ce, or 1st century ah—after the Hijrah [Hegira], the Prophet Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina). More than 700 verses of the Qurʾān, the Muslim sacred scripture, have to do with various aspects of covenant relationships. As one recent Muslim writer, Sayyid Qutb, states, Islam combines both the Old and the New Testaments (covenants) and the Last Covenant, of Islam, as well. All revelation from Adam to Muhammad is regarded by Muslims as a unit, mediated through a series of prophets, or messengers, with whom God made a covenant: Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Though the concept is difficult, it seems that the prophet in each case was given a revelation and a religion to which he covenanted with God to witness faithfully. This concept of a covenant of the prophets conveys the conviction of the unity of revelation as well as the unity of God in past history.

On the second level, the Muslim community itself is often regarded as being composed of those who have accepted the covenant with God. In this connection, the grace, or providence, of God in nature or creation is of great importance. In addition to this view is the repeated emphasis upon the doctrine that God alone is humanity’s sole benefactor, and for these reasons the response of gratitude is an important element in the structure of the covenant. It is also necessary that rewards and punishments are included. These are predominantly, as in the Christian concepts, focussed upon the hereafter, paradise, and hell, though not exclusively so. The recipients of the rewards and punishments are described as those who obey or disobey the commands of Allah (God) commands, which include prayer, paying the zakāt (head tax: an obligatory charity), belief in the messengers of Allah, fearing God alone, and refraining from theft, adultery, murder, and false witness. They are further obligated to show kindness to parents and to strive in the cause of God with their persons and property.

On the historical and social level, it seems quite certain that the community of the formative period in Islam was based on covenant acts, in which persons or groups formally proclaimed their acceptance of Muhammad’s message and swore an oath of loyalty, accepting the obligations outlined above. References to the clasp of hands indicate that this was probably regarded as the formal act of commitment and acceptance by the community. In later Islamic theology, as in Christianity, the covenant idea seems to have been of comparatively little importance.

Other religions

It seems that only in the religions stemming from the biblical tradition is covenant of central importance. Though gods are often invoked as guarantors of promises sworn to in Iranian and, in India, pre-Hindu Vedic religious traditions, the covenant with a deity or the community as a covenant-bound one apparently was of relatively little importance. The great importance of Mithra in early Iranian religion as god of the covenant and the related gods Mitra (the Indian counterpart of Mithra) and Varuna in Vedic religion suggests that such concepts may have been more important than was once realized.