Differences Between the Fundamentals
of the Three Abrahamic Faiths
Written By: Sarah Junejo
Since the time of the biblical Abraham, the
dominant religions of the Middle East have changed from polytheistic to
monotheistic. The monotheistic
religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam all trace their roots to Abraham and
generally agree upon the fact that they worship God, with their own belief
structures developed around it.
The oldest of these 3 religions is
Judaism, which began around 3000 years ago.
It was founded by Moses and follows the holy book Torah. After Judaism, Christianity came into being,
approx. 2000 years ago. Their holy book
is the Bible and they consider Jesus their Messiah and the son or God. Islam was founded by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
about 600 years after Christianity. The
holy book is Quran, which contains many of the same writings as Torah and the
Christian Bible.
There isn’t a set of beliefs a
person should believe in to be considered a Jew. What came closest to the writing down of Jewish beliefs were the
13 principles gathered by Maimonides.
Today, they are referred to as Ram bam and are considered to be the
minimum requirements of the Jewish faith.
They are as follows:
·
God
exists
·
God is
one and unique
·
God is
incorporeal
·
God is
eternal
·
Prayer
is to be directed to God alone and no other
·
The
words of the Prophets are true
·
Moses’
prophecies are true, and Moses’ was the greatest of all prophets
·
The
written Torah (first 5 books of Moses) and Oral Torah (teachings in the Talmud)
were given to Moses
·
There
will be no other Torah
·
God
knows the thoughts and deeds of men
·
God
will rewards the good and punish the wicked
·
The
Messiah will come.
·
The
dead will be resurrected.
These are very basic principles and as we will
later see in this essay, many of them extremely similar to that of Christianity
and Islam. A Jew is required to follow
all Jewish customs along with these principals. Rabbis are the learned scholars in the Jewish tradition. They are always observing and explaining the
covenant (the promises of God in scripture).
Judaism also focuses a lot on relationships such as the relationships
between God and the mankind God and Jewish nation and the relationship between
a Jewish nation and the land of Israel.
As far as Christianity is concerned, their
first fundamental lies in the fact that Bible is the word of God, and a divine
truth in itself. The second fundamental
states that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in a sense that no other is. Their belief in God is that of Trinity, that
God is three gods merged into one.
Christians believe in all the previous prophets and accept them as
messengers of God. They also believe
that the birth of Jesus was supernatural and was sent by God in order to die on
the crow and save all of mankind from the sin of Adam. It is also believed that Jesus was given
over to the Jews and killed very slowly and painfully.
They also believe in the Messiah, or in the
second coming of Jesus to purify the kingdom of God. Christians have a deep faith in the end of the world and the Day
of Judgment where everyone shall be judged according to their deeds, and then
sent to heaven or hell accordingly.
The Muslim tradition basically has 3 fundamentals that everyone follows. The first one is Tawheed or the oneness of God. He does not have a colleague or a partner and there is not one like Him. The second fundamental is Nabuwwat or Prophethood. This states that Muslims believe in all prophets sent by God and that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the last of the prophets sent by God. The last one is Qayamat or Resurrection, which is the belief in the Day of Judgment when all human beings will be raised from the dead and their good and bad deeds will be judged and recompensed accordingly. Another important belief in Islam is that of abiding by the 5 pillars of Islam, which is praying 5 times a day, (sat, giving zakat, performing hajj once in a lifetime, fasting in the month of Ramadan, and Shahadah, which is claiming the oneness of God). Muslims believe that Jesus was lifted a live from Earth and will return before the Day of Judgment along with Al-Mahdi. This concept is very similar to that of Judaism and Christianity.
Now, if we take all these 3 religions and
compare them, we shall see that the basic concepts, although are same but
contain many difference as we search in depth.
The concept of Messiah, even though pretty much the same has differences
such as the fact that the Jews await a Jewish Messiah, the Christians await the
reappearance of Jesus. Here also,
there’s a difference, as Christians believe he was crucified and Muslims
believe he was raised alive. Also, they
have separate holy books that all three consider to be eternally truthful. They have different social institutions, for
example, Jewish are associated with synagogues, the Muslims with the mosques
and the Christians with churches. Also,
all 3 have different central figures.
For Judaism, it’s Moses, Christianity – Jesus and Mohammad (PBUH) for
Islam. Their perception of God and
Jesus also varies greatly. Jews
consider God as the one and only but sometimes is referred to as the father of
the Jewish Nation; Jesus for them is just a historical figure and is not
considered the Messiah. Muslims
consider God as the one and only, has no partners what so ever and is known by
the name Allah. Jesus is considered a
very esteemed messenger of God.
Christianity considers Jesus as the Son of God. All of them have
different main days of worship; for Jews it is Saturday, Friday for Muslims and
Sunday for Christians.
Despite all these difference, we can still see
the similarities between these Abraham faiths and that is the only reason why
they are referred to as “People of the book”.
God sent all 3 messengers to spread his word and to create similarities
between them. We can only hope for
peace between all 3 in the world today so that the message of God can be spread
more and more throughout the world.