Judaism, Christianity and Islam are monotheistic religions interlinked with one another in one way or the other. As much as they share a lot of similarities, there are also a lot of differences between these three religions.
In Judaism, Humans care about God in the exact same way as God cares about humans and this makes it easier for man to relate himself with God as well. Followers of Judaism also believe that their actions cannot affect their God in any way, either positively or negatively. They also believe that their God is the only force in the world that is to be served as well as praised. In Christianity, human believe that God is independent and is the one who created the universe as well as humans themselves. The followers believe that God is transcendent yet he is actively involved within the world and its nature as well as believing the fact that God was created from the same substance that the university is created from. In Islam, the followers of this religion believe that God is one and absolute, having no rivals or beings of the same superiority. They also believe that God created them as well as the universe for a purpose that is to see how humans prevail in their nature and how humans concede evil and good with their perspectives. They believe that God exists everywhere and is purely made of light while humans are made from sand and mud .
While in Judaism, individuals are asked to have faith in god and understand their god, they are also expected to have actions that portray their god, Christians are supposed to help every race and ethnicity to commemorate their god and relay the religion’s powerful existence. They are expected to think of God as their father rather an eternal being. In Islam, the followers are expected to follow the teachings of their god, maintain peace and serenity in the world, avoid violence and evil while respect every other religion as much as they respect their own .
Religious leaderships are divided in Judaism and are elected governments by Jewish population. Each region or country has different leaders of religion and this scenario transpired in Judaism only after the destruction of their second temple in Jerusalem back in 70 C.E. In Christianity, religious leadership is maintained by one elected leader who is highly civilized in terms of religion as well as other aspects of common knowledge that is needed. Mainly, the pope is the religious leader in Christianity and is someone who has been brought up religiously, away from other elements that could influence him in the world. In Islam, religious leadership after their last Prophet was maintained through the caliphate system where one caliph was voted by the public and he would preach and lead on the basis of their holy book and quotes from the final Prophet known as Hadith .
Moses was given the book of Torah which is believed to be written by Moses for the purpose of basing all Judaism principles and is believed to have included direct revelations from the Judaism god himself. This gives Moses the authority of being a human leader and justifies his importance within Judaism as without him, there would be no Judaism knowledge of God or the principles of Judaism.
In Christianity, the same case lies with Jesus who developed the bible, also believed to consist of revelations from the Christian god himself and states the basic principles of Christianity. This justifies Jesus’ importance as without his presence, there would be no bible and no Christian beliefs could ever gather any ground.
In Islam’s case, the final prophet of Islam, Muhammad, wrote down his revelations from the Islamic god and this book later became known as the Quran. This justifies Muhammad’s importance to Islam as without him, there would be no hadith or Quran and this would, in turn, halt the progress or establishment of Islam itself .
All three religions believe that there is one god and emphasize that this god is the sole reason for the creation of the universe as well as the humans themselves. All three religions also believe that god is extremely loving and caring for his followers and the rest of mankind as well as all other creations that coexist in the universe. The three religions also believe that god has relayed the basic fundamentals for the religions and a form of manual that the followers are obligated to follow. All three religion’s god demands that his followers be good rather than evil and that god is extremely merciful. All three religions also admit that they have similar backgrounds and correlate at a certain juncture .
On the other hand, all three religions are different in the way that Judaism doesn’t follow the later revelations that were made through the bible and Quran. Christianity expresses that Jesus came into the world as a form of god and walked the Earth in human form yet was the son of god. Islam asserts that Quran has the final revelations from god which is not accepted by both Christians and Jews. Each argument that is pitted against one religion is commonly shared by the other two religions and this very reason is the cause that all three religions have had numerous wars against each other and still have arch rivalries against one another .
There are political elements in all three religions and these are all shared political elements that are similar to one another. A more staggering fact is that all three religions allow the use of arms and force to exert truth on others if necessary and this is the biggest political element available as well as the sole similarity that has seen so many wars waged against one another in the past millennium. This political element of power is observed through forced dominance, exile of other religious leaders and capture of land and infrastructure as well as destruction of religious structures of other religions, much witnessed in Jerusalem, is well noted in history of all three religions and can exactly clarify why political elements are actually present in all three religions .
All three religions have leaderships that want to gather faith, land, and as many religious followers as possible. These religions fight one another to prove that they are closest to god and they are following the correct revelations of god and his intentions. However, leadership in the world is completely based on power and money as well as respect and fear from others. The world’s leadership can be distinguished from religious leadership as the world’s leadership aims for resources and monetary value while religious leadership aims for clarifying their deity as well as proving they’re right and the ones in power .
Works Cited
Corrigan, John, et al. Readings in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Prentice Hall, 1998.
