(CNN)Muslims will be fasting this Friday. It's Ashura, the 10th day of the first month on the Islamic calendar. Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Mohammed encountered Jews fasting on this day, who told them they were marking the Hebrews escape from Egypt, and he decided to join them.

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If you're wondering why Muslims would celebrate a Jewish holiday, that's because neither Mohammed nor the early Muslims saw themselves as part of a new faith (religion).

Rather, a reboot, the restoration of monotheism to its original factory settings. Mohammed was concluding the line of prophecy that went way back to Adam in the Garden of Eden and includes Noah and Abraham. Moses and Jesus, too: They're named much more often in the Quran than Mohammed is.