Jews, Muslims, Christians. What are the main differences and the main similarities in their beleifs?

Question

I think the following is correct:

Jews, Muslims & Christians all believe in the old testament.

Jews believe in a prophet called Abraham who they believe WAS NOT the son of God/Allah.

Christians believe in Abraham and in a prophet called Jesus who they believe WAS the son of God/Allah.

Muslims believe in Abraham, Jesus (who they contend was NOT the son of God) and in a later prophet called Mohammed who again they believe was not the son of God.

If this is right it makes you wonder why they all fight so much. Please correct me if I'm wrong but in a constructive way, not table thumping.

Answer 1

You are correct in that all three believe at least part of the old testament. Christians and Jews believe the whole, while Islam splits at the sons of Abraham. Arabs, and the people who were to become the first Muslims, are supposed to be descendents of Ishmael, Abraham's son with his wife's maidservant Hagar.

Other than that, Islam reveres all of the same prophets as Christians and Jews. They all share something like 90% of their beliefs, but of course the last 10% is what causes the problems.

Christians believe that Jesus is the last prophet and the Son of the Living God. That he came here to die for our sins and rose again on the third day. All who believe in him and turn from their sins will be saved.

Jews believe that Jesus was a heretical cult leader and not the Messiah come to deliver their people. Also, no prophets had existed for a long time at the time of Christ. They believe in following the laws of their holy books the Torah and Talmud. These two contain the old testament and more books that are not included in the Christian bible. They believe they are the Chosen People of God. They also do not believe in Hell.

Islam considers Jesus just one of the prophets, and Mohammed(however you spell it) as the seal, or end, of the prophets. His holy writings, the Qu'ran, are the most correct ones and therefore superior to all that went before. They believe that he wrote the holy books in a desert cave by taking dictation from the Archangel Gabriel. He then spread these teachings to the rest of the Middle East. They believe that Allah is one, as opposed to the Christians' trinity, and he will judge you according to your actions when you die. To live a life right with God there are five "pillars" that need to be done.
1) Profession of faith in Allah-"There is one God and Mohammed is his prophet"
2) Prayer-five daily prayers, sunrise, sunset, noon, once between each.
3) Alms to the poor
4) Fasting-no eating, drinking, or sex from dawn to dusk during Ramadan
5) Pilgrimage to Mecca
They also believe heavily in martyrdom. A person will be forgiven transgressions if they are killed in defence of Islam.

I hope that helps. As you can see the main sticking point between Christians and the other two is their treatment of Christ. The Jewish/Islamic conflict grows from them being two groups of people with common ancestry and living in a place of limited resources. Despite how it may appear, The Israel/Palestinian conflict is only the latest flashpoint. The saddest part is that all three reigions tell their followers to let other people do as they will. Christians are told to try to convince, but not force people to the faith. The Qu'ran tells Muslims to accept the Christians and Jews as brethren for they are people of the book(they recieved the word of God also). Jews are not to oppress the stranger among them for they had been the stranger and oppressed before. Instead of passing along the message of God, we all just fight. That is just sad.

Answer 2

The main difference is that most Jews rejected Christ, some Jews and the gentiles became Christian as they accepted Christ, and Mohammed came along about 600 years later and claimed to be superior to Christ, in being the 'last of the prophets' and delivering what he said was God's word to mankind. Seems a bit strange that some of the comments above talk about the universality of Islam. If that is the case, and your religion is based around this book, why is it then that as Muslims themselves say, it cannot be translated from Arabic without losing its true original meaning. Surely a universal religion would have a universal book that would be able to be translated into different languages for all to hear the true Word of God.

Answer 3

Christianity and Judaism both originally true religions as is Islam from the one and only God Allah. However, the first two were limited for the Jaws of certain place at their time and were not intended to be eternal nor universal, and for this reason their resources were not preserved so they were changed and corrupted. Islam is the universal final religion of Allah to all people every where and to the last day so its resources were preserved and its miracle always fresh and available which is the holy Quran. Now why we fight, this should be answered by the hostile parties by which I mean the Jews who came from every place of the world and invaded Palestine and tortured and killed its original Muslim citizens against all the international laws by the help of the Christian country America which in her turn waged a new crusader campaign started in Afghanistan but was defeated hopefully in Iraq. Muslims are just responding in very limited scale as their leaders are servants for the Jews and Americans and oppress their own citizens, so don't be surprised that Muslim counter terrorism is limited to individual not country scale.

Answer 4

They were all meant to bring us sinning human beings together.Jew,muslim, christian or whatever.Jews don,t agree with the christians and the muslims. The christians tried to convert the muslims during the crusades. The muslims will tell you that they are the only TRUE religion and allah and their prophet only belong to them.They will kill without a second thought for what they think will please god.But when you look around the world you will find that since before the time of the prophets of the middle east, there are fantastic religions thousands of years older. So for muslims to turn around and say that THEIRS is the only true religion is a bit rich!!!!!!
For a religion claiming to be peaceful can some one please explain to me why for the last two thousand years the world has been fighting Islam?

Answer 5

All three are desert religions, meaning that they originated in desert regions. This explains a lot about their machismo and suppression of women. Yes, even in Christianity there is discrimination of females. To give only one example: Can a catholic woman be elected Pope?
They are all three monotheistic, although Muslims often think that the Christian Trinity represents three gods and that Christianity is therefore polytheistic.
All three are so-called "revealed" religions, which means that they are religions revealed by their God to certain "chosen" people, Christ (and the apostle Paul), Moses, Mohammed.
They all believe to be the one and only real religion. Since logically only one can be the true one, which one is? Or are they all wrong?

Answer 6

Jews, the people of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, are God's Chosen People on this earth. He selected them to display to the rest of the world who He is. Jesus was a Jew. The Jewish people follow the teachings of what we call the Old Testament and do not believe that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah, the Christ, the Chosen One.

Muslims follow the teachings of the man Muhammad and the Koran, their Holy Book. They believe that everyone who is not a Muslim should die to the glory of their god Allah.

Christianity believes that Jesus is the Messisah prophesied, the Redeemer, the Christ who came to set us free. Through faith in Jesus, and faith in Jesus alone, we are restored to a right relationship with the Creator God, our Father in Heaven and are bound to eternal life with Him.

Answer 7

Muslims belief on One Allah and they also belief that he is alone and had no assistance He has neither father nor any son while Christians don,t this is one of most major difference and Christians also deny Prophet Muhammad (SAW) while Muslims belief in all prophets Mosses(PBUH) JESUS(PBUH) AND ALL OTHER
Muslims belief in old testament new testament and bible and Quran Majeed . While Christians only belief in bible and Jews in testaments . Muslims ,Christ and Jews all belief that Jesus will return one day to destroy evil they all belief on judgement day
Mr Steve u r wrong plz don,t provide wrong information Muslims r peaceful nation and Islam is one of the most glorious religion of world It means Peace and In Quran Allah Says ** KILLING ONE PERSON WHETHER HE OR SHE IS MUSLIM OR NON MUSLIM IS LIKE KILLING WHOLE HUMANITY**
there is no teachings to kill a person just because he is non Muslims some stupid Muslims r misrepresenting Islam they r illiterate and unaware about Islam

Answer 8

thier main difference is they believe in the same god however they have different ways to appease him.be it jehovah,alla,or a trinity also thier middlemen to god are different moses, mohamed, and jesus are the three main prophets of these religions they all believe in an after life or immortal soul and they all cannot get along and will kill others for thier god.

Answer 9

Jews-still waiting for the savour to come
Muslim-Mohammad was the last
Christains-Jesus was the savour, he will be back for the big war between good and evil

Jews-No pork
Muslims-No pork
Christains-Can eat anything

They all believe in the golden rule,they all believe a person will save them or lead them against evil

Answer 10

Judaism is a religion of action; they are God's caretakers of the earth and are waiting for a human messiah to help in their endeavor.

Christianity is a religion of faith -- they are waiting for Jesus to bring peace on earth.

Judaism is about Life.
Christianity is about death.