The Similarities Between The Different World Religions

When people think about the religions of the world they only think of the differences and there is so much more then that because they really have a lot of similarities. Many religions have strong core ideas that surround their whole standpoint; these core ideas/ core beliefs essentially come from things such as narratives, narratives are a really good way to send a specific message to large groups of people. Core beliefs are what support peoples spirituality and their faith. They guide people through their religion and through life in a really big way.

The most common similarity that Christianity, Islam and Judaism have is that they all believe in the existence of one God. There are many other reasons too, one major one being that they all refer to the prophet Abraham as there founding father. Abraham is another important figure uniting the three religions. That’s why Christianity, Judaism and Islam are referred to as the Abrahamic religions. Abraham belongs to the Aramaic people and is believed to be the Patriarch of the Jewish people. According to the Bible, he and his son are said to be the founding fathers of the Arabic people. In addition to that, the Quran states that Islam was not a new religion, but rather to be seen as a continuance of Abraham’s original religion.

They all believe in the same prophets and all three religions acknowledge that Moses was a prophet of God. The prophets of Israel and Judah are one of the most amazing groups of individuals in all history. The Islamic faith eagerly awaits the return of the Prophet Jesus born by a miracle of God without a father. The Prophet Mohammed’s words give an account of the signs that will precede the coming of Jesus. Through Christianity, the prophets confirmed that God is sovereign over history. Another common Muslim name is Mary. In fact, the Virgin Mary’s name occurs more times in the Quran than in the New Testament; Muslims also believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. However, they believe that over time the original revelations to Moses and Jesus became corrupted. The Old Testament is seen as a mixture of God’s revelation and human fabrication. The same is true for the New Testament and what Muslims see as Christianity’s development of “new” and erroneous doctrines such as that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus” death redeemed and atoned for humankind’s original sin.

Jerusalem plays a key role in all three of these religions where the historic center of Jerusalem is home to all three religions. Jerusalem is such a big part for Muslims because that is where the Dome of Rock is and Muslims go there to worship because it is thought as the place where Muhamad ascended into heaven. For Jewish people Jerusalem is the spiritual homeland. Christians worship Jerusalem as the place where Jesus resurrected. The most important place that Christians worship is there church of holy Sepulcher. That is why Jerusalem is such a key part of all three of the religions and is the common holy land.

The scriptures also play a huge role with these religions. The scriptures belonging to the three Abrahamic religions have similarities too. The Jewish holy book consists of the Tanakh and the Talmud. Christians adopted the Tanakh for their Bible, but call it Old Testament. The Quran also tells the story of Jesus” crucifixion. Muslims believe it represents a spiritual, rather than actual event and that “God intervened to save Jesus” in what would otherwise have been his final moments (Quran, 4:157).

A thing that many people wouldn’t think about is why singing could be such a big part of church but to these three religious it’s one of the things that is very common. It all started in the past, when churches were full of worshippers, a speaking voice alone couldn’t reach those seated in the back pew. The choral tradition of chanting and singing has its roots in the attempt to repair this acoustic deficit. Whether it’s church Gospel music, the chanting tradition in synagogues or the characteristic Muslim call to prayer, all these vocal traditions can be traced back to this primary need to get the message across.

Pilgrimage is major part of these religions another thing that they all have in common. They all travel to different places but they all show the say meaning. For Muslim pilgrims the most famous place for them to go to is Mecca. The Jewish pilgrims journey to Jerusalem and Roman Catholics pilgrims go to Santiago de Compostela.

In all three religions, there are both common and specific names for “God”. Muslims use the Arabic word “Allah” to refer generally to God, as do Arabic-speaking Christians. But Muslims also use the term to speak. A popular belief is that Jesus, the Messias, will come and reveal it to the people. Similarly, Christians and Jews also have a specific name for their God it is Elohim or Yahweh. But however, “Yahweh the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered” and was therefore replaced by referring to him, not with a particular name, but using the general terms “Lord” or “God”. God is the main part of all three of the religions and is probably the most important reasons as to why they are so similar.

There is much more to religious then the differences these three religious have so many similarities that play a huge role in all of their religions. You wouldn’t think that the Christian, Muslims and Jews would have so many common beliefs and practices. People think that because of who is part of what religion where they come from and how they speak but all of them have very similar roots and that is why so many things are in common of what we believe in.