Compare Christianity and Islam

Answer 1

Islam and Christianity are much more similar than most people realize. Here are some similarities between the two faiths. Both....

• worship the same god
• revere the same prophets, including Jesus, but excluding Muhammed
• acknowledge that there is only one god, God.
• are based on Judaism
• hold the New and Old Testaments as holy books
• agree with many judaic beliefs
• were founded in the Middle East
• were originally persecuted faiths
• have fought wars in the name of God

Some differences are...

• Muslims hold Muhammed as the most important prophet, whereas Christians don't even acknowledge him as one.
• Muslims pray five times per day.
• The Christian holy day is Sunday, and the Muslim day of worship is Friday
• Muslims are required to give to charity
• Muslims denounce the Trinity as a man-made concept (many Christians agree)
• Muslims do not believe that Jesus was crucified.

Answer 2

Islam & Christianity share many similarities.

One striking difference is that in Christianity, Jesus claims to be the son of GOD.

Muhammed was a prophet. One thing that has been bothering me is that if GOD sent his ONLY son to save the souls of all mankind, why then, 8 centuries later, did he send a mere prophet to, as the Muslims say, "set mankind straight" with the FINAL, FINAL word of GOD?

To their credit, Muslims do not recognize Jesus as GOD's son, but just a prophet.

Both Christianity and Islam vary from their original form, but to be fair, Christianity has changed A LOT, while Islam is much closer to its original form. The Quran was written about 100 years after the death of Muhammed, so we can only guess about any imperfections in the current day Quran.

Also, Islam was born amidst the chaos of ever-changing Christianity. Islam commands that the Quran not be translated - this is one way that Islam has avoided the multiple fractures that exist in Christianity today.

Islam & Christianity share many similarities. Let us first discuss similarities followed by differences.

Basics of Abrahamic Religions

Abrahamic religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam are based on the concept of Monotheism - a single Omnipotent God. Holy books are the divine messages brought by a series of Prophets.

Similarities between Islam & Christianity

1. Both Muslims and Christians believe in the same God.
2. The virtues of both the religions emphasize on the creation of a society which is righteous, caring for all its members and humanity, and differentiation between right and wrong.
3. Both believe in the life after death and the day of resurrection, paradise and hell.

Islamic Perspective

According to Islam, Allah-the God is omnipotent creator of everything. He sent many prophets during different era and revealed holy books in order to guide the people about his omnipotent existence and to differentiate between good and evil. These include Abraham,Moses, Jesus Christ and Muhammad (peace be upon them all). When after some centuries people would start deviating from the original teachings, Allah would sent a prophet to "refresh" the truth.

It is must for Muslims to believe in the all earlier prophets and holy books and show utmost respect for all the prophets without any discrimination since they all came from the same God. Names of all prohets are followed by words "may peace be upon them".

According to Islam ALLAH/GOD is a single omnipotent entity who is creator of everything, who knows everything, who has always existed and will always exist. All the Prophets were his chosen human beings to deliver his devine message. Muhammad peace be upon him was the last of these messengers.

Christian Perspective

Christians believe the Jesus Christ as son of God, who was born of virgin Marry... Trinity i.e Father, Son and the Holy spirit is the core concept of Christianity. Jesus Christ was betrayed by one of the disciples and as a result he was crucified by the state authorities. He however got resurrected later.

Differences Between Islam and Christianity

Jesus Christ - Son or a Prophet?

Christians consider Jesus Christ as son of God, a part of Trinity whereas

Muslims consider Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) a holy prophet who was born to virgin Marry (Marium in Arabic) as a miracle of God who could speak while in infancy, could cure lepers and raise dead (temporarily to convince non-believers). He however was not son of God, nor did he himself ever claim to be son of God.

Taking wives, having sons, death are humanly attributes and God is above all these. Concept of Trinity would itself negate the concept of monotheism on which all Abrahamic religions were based? Why all the earlier prophets emphasized on a single omnipotent God if God had a son?

Crucifixion of Jesus?

According to Christianity, Jesus Christ was betrayed by one of the disciples upon whose information, the Jesus was arrested and subsequently crucified. His body was later found missing as he got resurrected.

According to Muslims although Jeus Christ was betrayed by the disciple who led the arresting officer to the place where Jesus was staying, they couldnot arrest him. Jesus being a prophet was raised alive to the heavens and his appearance was taken by that disciple who was later crucifixed. Jesus will come back to the world before end of time and will clarify all that.

Holy Bible vs Quran

According to christians, although the guiding principles were divine, the books (many) were authored by disciples and followers of Jesus. They in literal sense are not taken as words of God himself.

Quran is considered by Muslims as a word of God himself in literal sense which was revealed over several years through Angel Gabriel and Prophet commanded to jot it down as it came. It was after his death that Quran was compiled as one book in its current shape. It was never authored later, only compiled.

The aurgument which supports this claim is that since its compilation over 1400 years have passed with many billion copies, yet you cannot point out a difference of even a single comma or fullstop between any two copies. May these be from any part of the world any any time period.

Although Quran can be translated and read in any language for easy understanding, such translations are not considered as Quran in their own right.