ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY Essay, Research Paper
Although Islam is less known than Christianity, it is the fastest growing religion in the in our country today. Islam is actually derived form Christianity. History books indicate that one night in the year 610, the first of many revelations came to Muhammad from God by way of the angel Gabriel. The message Muhammad received told him that there was but one God, not many gods, as most Arabs believed. This God was creator of the world, and He would one-day judge mankind.
The word Islam means “surrender” or “submission,” submission to the will of Allah, the one God. Muslims are those who have submitted themselves. The basic creed of Islam is brief: There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah. Islam teaches that there is one God, the creator and sustainer of the universe. This God, Allah, is compassionate and just. Because He is compassionate, He calls all people to believe in Him and worship Him. Because He is also just, on the Last Day He will judge every person according to his deeds. On the Last Day, all the dead will be resurrected and either rewarded with heaven or punished with hell. The life of each Muslim is always within the community of the faithful, all are declared to be “brothers to each other,” with he mission to “enjoin good and forbid evil.” Within the community, Muslims are expected to establish social and economic justice. They are also expected to carry their message out to the rest of the world. In the early Islamic community, this meant the use of force in the form of jihad, or holy war. The object of jihad was to gain political control over societies and run them in accordance with the principles of Islam. During the decades following the death of Muhammad certain essential principles were singled out from his teachings to serve as anchoring points for the Islamic community. These have come to be called the “five pillars of Islam.” After the sudden death of Mohammed in 632, Caliph Abu Bakr ordered one of the prophets? companions to collect, from oral and written sources, all of Mohammed?s utterances. They were written in the Qur?an which is basically the ?Muslim Bible?. The Qur?an is the written version of the teachings that Mohammed preached while he was alive. A second source of guidance for most Muslims is al-Hadith (Tradition), a vast body of transmitted stories of what the Prophet said or did or what was said or done in his presence and therefore approved by him
It was Muhammad’s contention that Christianity had departed from belief in God’s message as revealed in their Scriptures. God had sent many prophets, among them Abraham, who is considered the founder of the faith for Islam, as he is also for and Christianity. The Koran, using sources in the older Scriptures and later traditions, relates the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Moses and Aaron, David, Solomon, Jesus. After Muhammad’s death in AD 632, it was feared that the content of the revelations might be lost, as those who had originally memorized it died. It was therefore decided to collect all the revelations, from what ever source, and make a compilation. Christianity and Islam are two of the most significant religions since their creation. Islam means ?submission? in Arabic, and a Muslim is one who submits to the will of God. Christians were called so because of Jesus? title Christos, which is Greek for Messiah. Both religions are very similar with only some of
In conclusion, even though Islam religion is the fastest growing religion today I do believe it is due to the inference that more people today our out for themselves and are also scared because they don?t know what to believe in, thus they choose the one with the most rules for the reason that they feel it is better for their being. Like every religion, people choose which rules they want to abide by, through the word of man. Why even choose or change a religion?