I n t r o d u c t i o n

We ought to view all monotheistic religions (religions which enjoin belief in one God) in the spirit in which St. Peter viewed them when he said, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him." [Acts10:34,35]

The same is the spirit of the oft-repeated definition of "Muslims" in the Qur'an: "Those who believe and work righteousness" (al-lazina amanu wa amalu-s-salehat) [Qur'an 2:25, 2:62, 2:25 etc.]. And "Trust in the Lord and do good," as the Psalms say. [Psalms 37:3]

It is essential that any discussion of Islam as a monolithic religion must begin with its very fundamental concept of unity of God (Tawhid). In this context, it is also important to note that the creed of Islam is very simple. To become a Muslim, one has only to declare in sincerity, and preferably in the presence of a person already professing Islam, "I testify that there is none worthy of worship (god) but God, and that Muhammad is the Prophet of God". The first part of the Muslim creed is a dialectically rigorous rejection of polytheism in favour of monotheism. It underlies the pivotal Muslim doctrine of divine unity (Tawhid), and has historical antecedents in both Judaism and Christianity.

The first part of the creed presupposes a cosmology that includes an invisible as well as a visible world. Underlying the cosmology of this first part of the creed, which is universalistic and acknowledged by all monotheistic faiths, is a concept of prophesy which is particularized and, by demanding recognition of Muhammad as God's Prophet becomes unacceptable to non-Muslims. None of the teachings of prophets who preceded Muhammad are denied. From Adam and Abraham to Solomon and Jesus, the Biblical and even extra-Biblical prophets are affirmed, many of their actions and utterances being lauded in the pages of the Qur'an. For this reason Muslims do not subscribe to the Jewish view which according to Jewish tradition asserts that prophecy ceased about 400 B.C. so that there could be no new scriptures after that time.

Christians maintain, on the contrary, that prophecy continued and that the writings that eventually became the New Testament were also divinely inspired. But since Muslims maintain and believe that Muhammad is also the last prophet, the revelations communicated through him supersede, even as they mark the culmination of all earlier SCRIPTURES. The authority of both, Jewish and Christian scriptures is subordinated to the content of Muslim revelation, and the former serve as a theological, not merely a chronological, preamble to Islam.

It is a well known fact that there is no trace today of the scrolls of Abraham. We are also aware of the sad story of the Torah of Moses and how it was destroyed by Pagans several times. The same fate befell the Psalter. As for Jesus, he had not had the time to compile or dictate what he preached. It was his disciples and their successors who gleaned his utterances and transmitted them to posterity in a number of recensions [a critical revision of the text], of which at least 70 recensions of the Gospels are known, and with the exception of four, all are declared by the Church to be apocryphal.

For such reasons, both the Torah and the Gospels are regarded as corrupted (Arabic term Tahrif, which means altering the words or misrepresenting the meaning) in their present form. Consequently, in these earlier revelations, whatever disagrees with the Qur'an is abrogated by the Qur'an.

Our presentation of some remarkable points of similarities and differences (set out in chart-form below) is meant to demonstrate and illustrate (as examples of practical application) how this principle of abrogation permeates not only the whole spectrum of Islamic teachings based on the Qur'an and the Traditions of Prophet Muhammad in general, but also underlies the whole Islamic legal system (Shar'iah and Fiqh). It is because of such application of this principle of abrogation that the Qur'an retells many stories found in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. No doubt the majority of Muslims, therefore, acquire their knowledge of the Bible solely from the Qur'an. Nevertheless, many Muslims have studied and several novelized lives of Jesus have been published in the twentieth century, especially in Egypt.

The Muslim position on this issue is twofold:

a) that the injil [Arabic for 'Bible'] like the Qur'an, was a real Scripture -- the original Word of God, sent down from the heavens and transmitted to the human Messenger (Prophet) Jesus on earth, through the medium of the celestial messenger (the angel Gabriel), as the highest form of infallible divine inspiration called wahy in Arabic.  Christians have lost their injil, whereas Muslims have managed to meticulously preserve every word of their Qur'an in its original purity. [For further information please see The Preservation of the Original Teachings of Islam] [Also Click here to view two articles by Maulana Mohammad Aleem Siddiqui about how the Qur'an and the Prophetic Traditions were arranged and compiled.]
    God is transcendent and beyond all the physical perceptions of man and also above all the limitations and bounds of language. The Scriptures have been revealed to the Prophets in different languages and at different times according to the needs and circumstances of those times. The phenomenon of Divine Guidance may be explained by using the following metaphor that "the Prophets are like lightbulbs and revelation is the electric current -- when the current contacts the light bulb, the light bulb provides light according to its voltage and colour. The mother-tongue of a Prophet is the colour of the light bulb, whereas the power of the light bulb, (i.e., the current and other things) are determined by God Himself. The human factor then, is just an instrument of transmission and only an intermediary." [Dr. Hamidullah, Introduction to Islam]

b) that not only the Prophet Muhammad's p.b.u.h. own words, sayings or utterances, as distinct from God's Words (the Qur'an) but also a record of his actions and tacit approvals, have all been separately preserved. They are known as Hadith, Traditions, or Sunnah. Muslim scholars  maintain that The New Testament, which contains the writings of the disciples of Jesus are really more like the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, p.b.u.h., whereas the injil, which has been lost, was like the Qur'an. Accordingly, since the Qur'an has remained unaltered to the present day, (compared to the other Scriptures) Muslims assert that only the Qur'an contains the Words of God -- the truth in toto (i.e., the whole truth and nothing but the truth). Whereas the earlier Scriptures/Books such as The New Testament, The Old Testament, etc. contain only partial truths (i.e., much less than the whole truth).

The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways

[For further study, please see "Treatment of Minorities - the Islamic Model" on this web site.]

Similarities
The Lord's Prayer compared to Surah Fateha

The Islamic prayer is simpler than the Christian prayer. We do not say that one is good and that the other is bad. No, both are very good indeed, however one seems simpler than the other. Let us compare them.
 
 

If we carefully compare the parts of each prayer which are written above as separate paragraphs (a) (b) and (c), we will observe that there are differences only in language, yet there are no differences whatsoever in meaning. There is in both prayers absolutely the same spirit of (a) Adoration (b) Submission and (c) Supplication.

It is also of interest to note that a Prophetic Tradition (Hadith) that is included in Abu Dawud's collection of Hadith is as follows: "Narrated Abu Darda': I heard the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) say: If any of you is suffering from anything or his brother is suffering, he should say: Our Lord is Allah Who is in the heaven, holy is Thy name, Thy command reigns supreme in the heaven and the earth, as Thy mercy in the heaven, make Thy mercy in the earth; forgive us our sins, and our errors; Thou art the Lord of good men; send down mercy from Thy mercy, and remedy, and remedy from Thy remedy on this pain so that it is healed up." [Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 28, Number 3883]
 
 

What follows here are further points for a comparative study of Christianity and Islam (in simple columnar form) highlighting similarities and differences. We must also bear in mind the importance of the Qur'an's declaration which requires Muslims to regard Christians as their close friends:

The Qur'an gives 12 Commandments to the Muslim Community. Click here for further elaboration.

[789] The meaning is not that they merely call themselves Christians, but that they are such sincere Christians that they appreciate Muslim virtues, as did the Abyssinians to whom Muslim refugees went during the persecution in Mecca. They would say: "It is true we are Christians, but we understand your point of view, and we know you are good men." They are Muslims at heart, whatever their label may be.

[790] Qissis: I have translated as "devoted to learning," following the Commentators. It seems to be a foreign word, possibly Abyssinians rather than Syriac as the reference seems to be to the Abyssinian Christians. Their real devotions to learning and the renunciation of the world by the Monastic Orders are contrasted with the hypocrisy and arrogance of the Pharisees and Scribes.

[394] Read this along with Quranic verse 4:157, where just like that it is said that the Jews neither crucified nor killed Jesus, but that another was killed in his likeness. The guilt of the Jews remained, but Jesus was eventually taken up to God.

[395] Jesus was charged by the Jews with blasphemy as claiming to be God or the Son of God. The Christians, (except a few early sects which were annihilated by persecution, and the Unitarians [in Yusuf Ali's time] who are almost Muslims) adopted the substance of the claim and made it the cornerstone of their faith. God clears Jesus of such a charge of claim.

[396] The Muslims are the true Christians, for they follow (or should follow) the true teachings of Christ, which did not include the blasphemy that he was God or the Son of God in the literal sense. But there is a large body of men, who by birth inherit such teaching nominally, but their hearts do not consent to it. Their real Muslim virtues (which from their point of view they call Christian virtues) entitle them to be called Christians, and to receive the leading position which they at present occupy in the world of men.

[397] All the controversies about dogma and faith will disappear when we appear before God. He will judge not by what we profess, but by what we are.

"injil has been lost"  . . . For example, many Christians believe the the New Testament Gospels were written from one and the same source which has come to be known as "Q" which has been lost to antiquity. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were believed to have seen this source material. For more detailed information click here.