Comparing and contrasting three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - Essay Example

? and Section # of Comparing and Contrasting three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism Introduction: Religion is a fundamental part of a person’s life, it is a belief system that provides most of the people on this planet with the purpose of life and answers the mysteries of their life. Religion serves as an answer to all the questions in their life that may not have any answers. Apart from having a belief system, religions also provide specific practices and rituals that are used to strengthen the bond between the human life and the belief system that the human follows. Looking at the bigger picture, some religions focus more on practice, while others put more emphasis of the fundamental beliefs and values. Christianity is one of the most widely practiced religions in the world, which is then followed by Islam and the Judaism. These three religions have many similarities and differences between them, which will be discussed; a proper introduction with mention of core beliefs systems that these three religions have will be discussed. In order to understand how these religions affect the followers and their lives, one needs to understand the fundamentals of the religion (Huston, 1991). Islam: The believers of Islam believe in One God, Allah. Allah, the God of Abraham is the supreme authority in the Islamic religion. A Muslim believes in the sovereignty of Allah’s position and power, and believes that Prophet Mohammed was the last prophet to land on this Earth; this forms as the key belief, followed by all of the sects of the religion. Muslims also follow the faith on the premise that Abraham and Allah had an agreement where the believers of Allah will be granted a position in heaven, here after. For Muslims, the life of Prophet Mohammed is the prime example of how a Muslim should lead his/her life. The practice of Prophet Mohammed is considered a model for the followers, as narrated by the colleagues of the Prophet. The holy book, the Quran, is the book of Allah sent by Him through revelations on the Prophet; This book is in Arabic. The history of Islam starts around 570 AD; it is said that when Mohammed was 40 years old, he saw Angel Gabriel who asked him to repeat a message from Allah. This revelation took place for the next 23 years, resulting in the Muslim belief on all the Hebrew Prophets; this list included Moses and Jesus, however, the divinity of Jesus was not accepted. The basic Islamic beliefs include the uniqueness of Allah, belief in the books of Islam (Torah, Bible, and Quran), belief in God’s prophets, belief in the day of judgement and in the angels of Allah. Islam further emphasizes on the practice of humility, tolerance, courage and obedience to law; it forbids consumptions of pork and alcohol. The five pillars which are very important for Islam are Testimony to the faith, Prayers (which are called Namaz), Charity (2.5% of income going to the needy and charity), Fasting (during the month of Ramazan from dawn to sunset) and Hajj. Hajj is a ritual that is followed every year, the focus of which is the Kaaba. It is a three to five days full of rituals. There are two major sects of Islam, the Sunni and the Shia. Sunni constitute about 90% of the Muslim population; believing that the successor to Mohammed should be chosen by the community and negate the presence of a middle man between Allah and people. Shias, the rest of the 10%, believe that Mohammed’s successor should be his relatives, believing in an intermediary between Allah and people, called the Imam. They believe that those who have religious authority should rule the government too. Christianity: Christianity also calls for believing in One God, the God of Abraham. About 4,000 years ago, Abraham lived in the Middle East and believed that only God had made everything and was the supreme power. Christians base their religion on the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus was born in Bethlehem; he traveled to northern Palestine throughout his life. He taught a new covenant to the people between God and his people. The followers of Abraham, who were now called Jews, when started following Jesus, converted to the Christian faith; they started worshipping in the way described by Jesus. The basic concept of Christianity is based on a trinity; they believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ (the son of the God) and the Holy Spirit (The presence of God on Earth). Their Holy book is the Bible. Christians believe that Jesus was divine as well as human. Christians also believe that Jesus died on a cross, was buried; however, he rose three days later. They believe that he then continued his ascend to the heavens to be with God, the Father. The Holy book is divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The bible has no one sacred language; to date, the revelations of the Bible have been translated into numerous languages. The basic goal of Christianity is to achieve salvation; salvation means to spend the eternal life with God in heaven. The opposite of this is damnation which would mean they would burn in hell. According to the religion, damnation would occur if people don’t listen to Jesus and his teachings without any being sorry about their wrongdoing. Salvation can be reached by listening to Jesus and they way he lived his life. There are different sects in Christianity; almost all of them believe in baptism and communion. Baptism is an important ritual, which is the initiation of the person into Christianity and re-enactment of Jesus’s blessing to the river Jordan. Communion is the re-enactment of Jesus’s breaking of bread and sharing of wine at the last dinner before he died. Christianity has three main sects, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Christians; all believe that God continues to reveal his teachings to the world and Jerusalem is their holiest city because Jesus died there and then rose from the dead (David, 2008). Judaism: Judaism is the religion followed by the Jews. They claim that they have been active for more than 3000 years and are the oldest monotheistic religion today. The start of this religion is the same as the Christian religion; They believe that Abraham had a special covenant with God and promised that Abraham’s descendants would have a special relationship with God. The land that God promised is called Canaan. The history of the religion goes more than 300o years ago. In about 200 BC, God made the promise of the covenant to the people; then in 1370 BC Hebrew travel to the Egypt due to a famine and draught situation; upon reaching there they are enslaved. Moses, in 1290 BC brings the people back to the Promised Land where he receives the Ten Commandments. According to the history, the Hebrew kingdom reaches the height of its power in 931 BC. They pray three times a day, which includes many prayers and rituals. The sacred book for the Jews is the Torah, Talmud and the Tanakh. Similarities between Islam, Christianity and Judaism: Islam, Christianity and Judaism all believe in the oneness of God. These religions have been divided into different schools of thoughts and sects, to show different interpretations of the events that took place and the books that were sent from God. They put tremendous importance of Prophets. Believers of these religions consider Jerusalem to be an important religious site. Similarities between Islam and Christianity: Muslims and Christians believe in the Prophet hood Jesus or the Messiah. The concept of salvation and damnation is clearly indicated in both the religions, serving as the main purpose for which mankind was sent to this life. Similarities between Islam and Judaism: Islam and Judaism both use the sacred language in which their books were revealed as the prime scripture in which the book of their religion is present. Both believe that Torah was a book sent from God to guide its people. Fasting is an important aspect in both the religions. Similarities between Christianity and Judaism: Christians and Jews believe in the process of ongoing revelation, where Muslims believe that revelation seized on Prophet Mohammed. Conclusion: These three religions bear similarities with each other as they are branches coming out of the same stream of Hebrew Prophets. All these religions give importance of beliefs as well as rituals and they play an important part in the lives of the believers. Works Cited A Book Kay, D. The semitic Religions – Hebrew, Jewish, Christians and Moslem. Pomona Press Smith, H. The world religions: our great wisdom traditions. HarperSanFrancisco Read More