Abrahamic Religions and the Suspicion between Them (Essay Sample)

Abrahamic Religions and the Suspicion between Them
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Abrahamic Religions and the Suspicion between Them
The three major religions in the world today are Christianity, Islam and Judaism. All these religions have their roots in the Middle East and are linked to one another in many ways. Christianity was born from the Jewish traditions while Islam borrows from both Islam and Christianity. There exists a clear religious diversity between these three religions, the fact that they share a common trunk notwithstanding. This diversity can be attributed to a number of factors (Peters, 2010).
Firstly, the fact that each religion is based on inspirations given to the prophet who started it brings about major differences between them. Judaism is anchored on the belief that God gave the law to Moses hence Jews highly respect him. This law is contained in the Torah. Judaism, unlike the other two religions, lays a lot of emphasis on actions as opposed to dogma (Peters, 2010). As such, Jews highly observe the rules that govern human behavior as opposed to beliefs in traditions. Christians, on the other hand, hold the belief that Jesus Christ was the prophet who was directly inspired by God hence they endeavor to abide by his teachings, which are contained in the bible. Jews differ from Christians here as they do not believe in the prophets who came after theirs such as Jesus Christ and Mohammed. As such, any teachings that were delivered by these two prophets are not followed by Jews. Clearly, this is one of the reasons the three religions differ despite having a common trunk (Phipps, 1999).
Christians subscribe to teachings contained in both the old and the new testaments of the holy bible. The Old Testament is based on the Jewish Torah, which means that both religions agree on matters documented in the Old Testament. However, Jews do not follow the teachings contained in the New Testament of the holy bible and this serves as a source of diversity between the two religions. Muslims, on the other hand, use the Quran as their holy book (Phipps, 1999). The teachings contained in the Quran differ from those contained in the bible in various ways. In particular, the lifestyles of the two prophets differed in a number of ways. While Jesus Christ never married, Mohammed is believed to have had several wives. This fact brings about diversity between the two religions with regard to the number of women men are allowed to marry. While Christians view polygamy as a license to promiscuity, Muslims allow and practice it to date. It is, however, worth noting that the New Testament does not explicitly disallow polygamy. On the other hand, Jews practiced polygamy as Moses did not impose a limit as far as the number of wives a man could marry was concerned. Polygamy, therefore, seems to be a well established institution in both ancient and comparatively modern days among the Jews. The practice of taking concubines was also highly practiced among the Jewish community (Peters, 2010).
Today, Muslims and Christians also differ when it comes to change of one’s religion. While Christianity does not force its followers to remain Christians for life, Muslims seem to lack the freedom to change their religion at will. This again can be attributed to the lifestyles of Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ. While Prophet Mohammed forced his followers to continue believing in Islam, Jesus never did this. In fact, Prophet Mohammed proposed that whoever changed his Islamic religion needed to be punished by death. Further, Christians today regard God as their father in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Conversely, Muslims subscribe to God but do not consider him their father as Mohammed regarded this as blasphemy. The two religions also differ in regard to man’s image. Christians believe that man was created in the image of God while Muslims believe that God has no image in line with the teachings of Prophet Mohammed (Phipps, 1999).
Christians and Muslims also tend to differ as far as the issue of forgiveness is concerned. While Christians believe in forgiving those who trespass against them in line with the teachings of the bible, Muslims believe in avenging against their trespassers as this is what the Quran demands. Prophet Mohammed suggested that people needed to avenge against those who trespassed against ...