Compare/ Contrast essays

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April 29 , 2008

Christianity and Islam

Since back in the Middle Ages , these two religions have been at odds with one another . Conflicts that have spawned between them have caused the fall of cities and even nations and the deaths of innumerable people throughout history . This brings to question how similar or different these two religions are . Thus , this seeks to compare and contrast Christianity and Islam in three major levels which are history substance , tradition

Christianity began as

a separate religion from Judaism back in the old Roman era . At that time , the religion 's main icon , Jesus Christ was said to have taught the Word ' and gained prominence . After his death and supposed resurrection , his followers founded a church in his name which is known today as Christianity . Comparatively , Islam was also founded by a singular icon in the person of Muhammad who journeyed throughout the Arabic world in to unite them together as Muslims Although both religions were founded by singular main icons , these icons are very different from one another . Jesus is considered by Christianity as a god who is one with the holy trinity and therefore is both man and god . On the other hand , the Islamic icon Muhammad is not considered as a god but only as the highest among the prophets (Nigosian 4 . Another similarity between the two religions is that both seem to take their origins from Jewish historical text and both acknowledge the accounts in this more ancient text to have occurred . In fact , there are Muslim writings that point out that Ishmael who was one of Abraham 's sons in Jewish text may have been the first Muslim . Furthermore , Jesus Christ himself is acknowledged by Muslim text as a prophet although not a god and inferior to Muhammad (Nigosian 52

Both Christianity and Islam have ten commandments that may have been lifted due to similarity from Judaism . This is a known fact in Christianity since their commandments are exactly the same as the Jewish version while the Muslim version is only slightly different . If the teachings of Christianity that were preached by Jesus Christ are to be examined , it is evident that the main thrust of the religion are faith sacrifice , and forgiveness . In fact , Christians are taught that Jesus Christ died on the cross despite all that had been done to him by men so that all sins of the world could be forgiven and are urged to develop the same sense of forgiving nature . In the case of Islam , the main thrust with regard to the same area is more on justice and fairness According to the teachings of Muhammad , justice must always be served and forgiveness is not an option when serving it (Nigosian 88 . Still there are several similarities between the two religions when it comes to content . One similarity is that both religions are monotheistic although Christianity views three personas of one god while...