The Religion of Sumer and Akkad and the Three Religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism
The truth is that any person acquainted with the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran, as well as what is in the Sumerian clay tablets, would certainly reach one of two inevitable conclusions:
The first conclusion is that the origin of religion traces back to the writings of Sumerian men, and that the Torah, Gospel, and Quran are only a rehashing of the Sumerian religion (the creation of the first “human” Adam, the story of Abel and Cain, the story of the Flood, sin, the afterlife, heaven, hell, and so on).
The second conclusion is that the Sumerian religion is the religion of Adam and Noah pbut itself, but it was conveyed and then written in a distorted form, and the Sumerians and Akkadians (Babylonians and Assyrians) believed in that distorted form. This is what I wish to point out by showing that the Sumerian stories are nothing but unseen reports that Adam brought to the earth. They are the stories of the righteous ones from his children pbut, and what would happen to them, especially the ones who represent important landmarks on the path of religion, such as Dumuzi (the faithful son), or Gilgamesh.
Dr. Samuel Kramer noted the great similarity between what is written in the Torah and the Sumerian tablets. He even wrote chapters in his books that illustrate the similarity between the Sumerian clay tablets and the Torah, including the following:
Chapter 19, Paradise: The First Biblical Parallels” (Kramer 1981, 141).
The Sacred Marriage and Solomon’s Song of Songs” (Kramer 1969, 85).
The Sumerians knew about matters of the divine religion in detail and used to practice them, such as believing in visions, and considering them to be the words of God. They also believed in signs, and that God can talk to a person through everything he experiences.
In the book Légendes de Babylone et de Canaan [The Legends of Babylon and Canaan], Charles Virolleaud says:
We now know that mankind was created to serve the gods, and that those gods punish them for the slightest mistakes. Therefore, they must obey the wishes of the heavens accurately and do as they say. How else would they preserve this harmony and avoid the wrath of the gods? If they saw dreams of the gods inspiring in them what they wished, how would they interpret them in a way that would satisfy the gods? That is the case if there were dreams, but what if there were no dreams?
The answer is that they would resort to omens and natural indicators, as these would guide them to the truth. That is why absolute attention must be given, not only to the changes of the moon, but to the shape of the clouds. Indeed, every movement of what crawls in the grass and even the planets in the galaxy give an indication of the wills of the gods, whether good or bad. It is here that art or science would stand out and distinguish whether the will was good or bad.
The magicians must intervene, either to hasten good luck or to drive away hostile forces that threatened life. This does not mean the life of the individuals or the people. Rather, it means the life of the king who controlled the destiny of the entire nation.
This king, to whom the gods gave knowledge was, as previously mentioned, the seventh king of the antediluvian state. Thus, based on the hereditary order, he is Enoch [Idris] who occupies the seventh rank from the lineage of Adam, the chain of the patriarchs before the Flood. It is remarkable that their names have nothing in common though their acts are exactly the same. As a matter of fact, the Biblical text concerning the seventh patriarch (Enoch) is very brief:
‘Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him’ [Genesis 5:24].
Enoch became the hero of a chain of legends that made him the inventor of writing, the author of the first book, and the creator of the science of planets and stars, astronomy, and aeronomy. It seems as if he is Evedoranki. We can safely assume that this legend of the Jews is nothing but a copy or expansion of the Chaldean legend, which is older.
The rest of the kings and patriarchs—the six ancestors of Enoch and their three successors—have qualities in common. We are concerned only with the tenth character that lived through the Flood (Virolleaud 1949, 28. Translated from French to Arabic to English).
The stories of the Sumerians speak clearly—as do the other divine religions—about life after death, as well as good and righteous people entering heaven, and wicked people entering hellfire.
Those people were certain that they would live after death, yet it would be in darkness with no reward, unless they took the good path in this world either through righteousness, as had happened to Oum-Napishtim [Noah pbuh], or by applying the law among the people, as Hammourabi had done (Virolleaud 1949, 38, translated).