Three of the world's most important religions throughout history are Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. (Waardenburg 13). Despite being smaller than Islam and Christianity, Judaism still has a significant impact on the globe. (Waardenburg 14). Some people refer to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism as "Abrahamic religions" because they have roots in the historical Abraham figure who is first referenced in the Hebrew Bible. (Erlich 2). Furthermore, in opposition to Buddhism and Hinduism, all three of these monotheistic religions—Islam, Christianity, and Judaism—believe in the God of Abraham, Adam, and Moses, whom they also refer to as the sustainer, creator, and Lord of the Universe. (Erlich 3). Additionally, the three religions share a common belief in monotheism (the oneness of God), prophets and divine revelation, sacred history, and angels (Muhammed 10). Moreover, they all emphasize judgment day, moral accountability and responsibility, as well as eternal reward and punishment (Muhammed 13). This paper explores the relationship between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity as apparent from the Koran and analyzed by Armstrong.
How Muslims Understand Islam in Comparison to Judaism and Christianity
According to the Quran, there exists only one religion which is Islam (submission to God) (Muhammed 15). Besides, according to the Quran, Islam is not only the religious belief that people are born with instinctive knowledge, but also the religion that has been taught by God’s prophets around the world throughout history (Muhammed 16). According to Muhammed (18), the Muslims’ understanding is that all the religious traditions that tend to deviate from Islamic faith, which according to Quran received its final form in the teachings of Muhammad, are deviations resulting from the inability of humans to resist their sinful inclinations and weaknesses.
From the perspective of the Muslims, Christianity and Judaism are two separate religions that originally got based on God’s revelations to true prophets: Gospel of Jesus (in the case of Christianity) and the Torah of Moses (in the case of Judaism) (Waardenburg 15). However, according to Muslims, the followers of Jesus and Moses corrupted their original teachings and introduced various beliefs, such as viewing the Jews as religiously exceptional (in the case of Judaism) and ascribing divinity to Jesus (in the case of Christianity) (Waardenburg 16). The Quran tries to urge both Jews and Christians to correct and abandon such beliefs drawing on various stories from the Old Testament, such as the deliverance of the Jews by Moses from Egypt, the fall of Adam and Eve from Eden, as well as the saga of Joseph (Muhammed 20). According to Muhammed (22), the Quranic interpretation of such stories is different from those known in both Christianity and Judaism with the Quran emphasizing that such earlier communities mentioned in the Old Testament have erred.
The Relationship of the Koran to the Old and New Testament
The Islam’s foundational doctrine is abridged in the faith affirmation known as the Shahada which states that there exists no god but God and that Muhammad is the God's prophet (Erlich 3). According to the Muslims' understanding of other religions, the Quran became revolutionary for not only teaching that God revealed his presence and truth through the prophets in other faiths, but also that God communicated that revelation in various sacred texts (Erlich 6). The Quran recognizes that the biblical teachers and role models such as Jesus, Moses, and Noah were indeed true God’s prophets (Muhammed 24). Much like the revelation of the Quran came through Muhammad, the Old and New Testaments contain a broad range of truths which got revealed to previous prophets (Erlich 7).
Additionally, the Quran makes several references to both the Old and New Testaments. For instance, when the Quran makes citations of teachings from the Old Testament, it gives citations of the sources as "tawrat” which is an Arabic reference to the Torah (Wardenburg 17). The Torah refers to the Old Testament’s first five books, traditionally ascribed to Moses (Waardenburg 18). When talking about Jesus' teachings in the New Testament, the Quran describes the revelation contained in the “injil" which is an Arabic term for "evangel." The term also refers to the gospel or good news (Muhammed 26).
How the Old Testament Prophets and Jesus Were Understood in Muhammad’s Teaching
According to Quran, God revealed His message of eternal truth to various prophets before Muhammad, including the prophets in the Old Testament (Muhammed 29). Besides, according to Muhammed (32), Islam recognizes the validity of sacred books written by such prophets. However, that does not imply that Muslims agree with every content of the scriptures wrote by prophets in the Old Testament as presented today. That is because Muslims believe that the original manuscripts of such prophets have been lost, and the information has been altered (Muhammed 33). According to Muhammad’s teachings, God revealed His divine truth through several prophets mentioned in the Old Testament, ranging from Adan, Abraham, Noah, Moses, to David (Muhammed 36). Muhammad’s teachings acknowledge that such prophets transmitted God’s revelations through sacred scriptures which the Quran describe as the Suhuf Ibrahim (Scrolls of Abraham), Tawrat (Torah), Suhuf Musa (scrolls of Moses), and Zabul (Psalms) (Muhammed 39).
On the other hand, in Muhammad’s teachings, Jesus is understood as God’s second last prophet and messenger and Messiah sent by God to guide the Israelites with a new revelation, the gospel (al-Injil) (Erlich 9). Muslims perceive Jesus as a God's prophet who neither got married nor had children and recognize him as the son of virgin Mary (Erlich 11). According to Muhammad’s teachings, Jesus is believed to have performed a broad range of miracles, most of them getting mentioned in the Quran, such as raising the dead, healing ailments like blindness, speaking as an infant, as well as creating birds from clay and giving them life (Erlich 13). However, Muhammad’s teachings rejected the biblical teachings that Jesus was God’s incarnate and the son of God (Muhammed 41). Besides, according to Muhammed (43), Muhammad’s teachings broadly denied the occurrence of Jesus’ death and russification.
The Relationship of Islamic Faith to Abraham
Islam recognizes Abraham as God’s prophet and messenger, who got nurtured by God throughout his lifetime and fulfilled all God’s trials and commandments (Waardenburg 22). According to Islam, due to his strong faith in God, Abraham got chosen by God to lead all the world's nations, and the Quran describes him as an obedient, exemplary, and a model (Waardenburg 26). In other words, the Quran describes Abraham as representing the primeval man in worldwide surrender to the reality of divine before its division into several religions. In fact, the Islamic holy day, Eid al-Adha, usually gets celebrated in memory of Abraham's bravery, and the Muslims performance of the pilgrimage is aimed at paying homage at Ka‘bah, in the Hijazi, Mecca city, which they believe to have been constructed and reformed by Abraham (Muhammed 55). Additionally, Muslims firmly believe that Abraham was a leader of the righteous during his time, and that both people of Israel and Arabian Peninsula came through Abraham (Erlich 18). Besides, in the Islamic belief, Abraham played an instrumental role during his time in cleansing the world of idolatry (Waardenburg 31).
Conclusion
All the three religions of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity emphasize their special covenant with God through Muhammad, Moses, and Jesus respectively. Christianity recognizes God's revelation and covenant with the Jews but has traditionally considered itself as dominating Judaism with Jesus' coming. Similarly, Islam recognizes Christianity and Judaism, including their biblical prophets and their revelations. Besides, Islam's respect for the biblical prophets is evident in the Quran's saying that "peace and blessing be upon him." The saying comes after every naming of any of the biblical prophets such as Moses (Musa), Abraham (Ibrahim), David (Daoud), Jesus (Issa), and Solomon (Sulayman). However, Muslims believe that the Islam faith supersedes both Christianity and Judaism, and that the Quran is the complete and final God's word, and Muhammad is the last of all the God's prophets. Besides, unlike Christianity which recognizes much of the Hebrew Bible, Islam believes that the contents of both the Old and New Testaments are alterations of God’s original revelations to both Moses and Jesus.
Works Cited
Erlich, Haggai. "Islam, Christianity, Judaism, And Ethiopia: The Messages of Religions." The Nehemiah Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies (2013): 1-19. Web. 31 July 2017.
Muhammed, Muhammed A. "A Comparison Between Islam, Christianity and Judaism and the Choice Between Them." (2015): 10-79. Web. 31 July 2017.
Waardenburg, Jacques. "Christians, Muslims, Jews, And Their Religions." Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 15.1 (2004): 13-33. Web. 31 July 2017.
