Abrahamic Religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism

This article discusses the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, exploring their similarities and differences in terms of their origins, beliefs, rituals and more. It highlights the commonality of monotheism and the acknowledgement of Abraham, while also noting the significant differences in their foundational beliefs and practices.

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Introduction
The three religions, namely Christianity, Islam and Judaism are together referred to as
Abrahamic religions. These three religions are religious communities that have been
semantically originated from Judaism that have been descended from the Judaism of the old
Israelites who used to worship the God of Abraham. The legacy of Abraham began to spread
through the religion of Christianity which was adopted in Roman Empire by Emperor
Charlemagne in the 4th Century. The legacy of Abraham was further spread by Islam through
the formation of the various Islamic Empires in the seventh century. The initial principles that
are mutual to all forms of Abrahamic religions, spread in this world through the Judaism in
the seventh century (Before Christ Era). Christianity started from 1st century BC and lastly
arrived Islam in the 7th century Christian era. So far as the global statistics of 2015 is
concerned, about 55% of the entire population of the world (that is about 3.6 billion of
people). Out of the population following Abrahamic religion, 33% of the people follow
Christianity, 21% of the people follow Islam and Judaism is followed by about 0.2% of the
people.
Discussion
As per the suggestions of Eickelman (2017), the term Abrahamic religion refers that
all these three religions were being derived from one unique spiritual source. Paul, the
Apostle of Christian religion have stated that Abraham is the father of everyone. Again the
Quranic term millat Ibrahim implies that Islam religion perceives itself as standing epitome
of the customs and the religious traditions of Abraham. Lastly, the Judaists claim that one
among three fathers who are Biological Patriarchs is Abraham other than Jacob as well as
Isaac. All these three religions claim that they have descended from Abraham in various
ways. It is stated that the Torah records the fact that Abraham is the direct ancestor of

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Israelites from the end of Isaac. Who was in turn born to Sarah as promoted in the Genesis.
Again, the Islamise legacy believes that Muhammad who was an Arab is actually one
descendent of Ishmael, who was son to Abraham. Based on the Jewish tradition, Ishmael’s
decedents, the Ishmaelite are equated with the Arabians. However, Hildebrandt (2015), states
that although all three religions have a basis of commonality in terms of history and theology,
there are many underlying problems. On one hand where there is commonality and sameness
among the three stated religions, in bigger measure, the ancestry which they share is
peripheral to their own foundational beliefs and hence there are crucial differences. One
example can be provided here. The common beliefs among the Christians like that of
Incarnation, resurrection of Christ as well as that of Trinity are rejected by the Islamise or the
Judaists. Again, Judaism as well as Islam have some primary beliefs that are similar, but on
the other hand, the Christians do not share the beliefs. Those are monotheism and even the
adherence to a set of divine regulations (Idel & McGinn, 2016). Moreover, there are some
key beliefs shared by the Islam and Christianity like prophetic as well as Messianic position
that is attributed to Jesus Christ, are not at all accepted by the Judaists.
Tanakh, the most primary text of Judaism, draws a picture of the relationship between
God and the Israelites (Reeves & Reed, 2018). The religion hails Abraham as the first
Hebrew, who is also the father of all Jewish people. The great-grandson of Abraham was
Judah from whose name the religion derives its name from. The Christianity made its advent
as a small sect from among the Judaists and began to spread with Jesus. Initially viewed as
the messiah, after his death, Jesus was viewed as the “God Incarnate”. As Moritz et al.
(2017), states, the Christians believes that when time ends, Jesus would return again on the
Judgement day and re-establish Earth as the abode of God. After several periods of relative
peace as well as alternative prosecution passed, vis-à-vis, the Roman authorities under
various administrations, Christianity came to be the state church in the whole of the Roman

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empire in 380, however, since its beginning, Christianity have been split into different
churches (Nirenberg, 2014). The Byzantine rulers made a great effort to unify the whole
Christendom, although the attempt eventually failed. In the latter part of the 16th century, the
rise and development of the proletariats further segregated the Christendom into many other
denominations.
Lastly, talking of Islam, it is basically a philosophy that is founded under the
guidelines of the Quran. Muhammad is being considered as the supreme among all the
Islamic prophets, however, Islam texts reveal that every prophet preached Islam thereby
framing a back story for the advent of the religion, recognizing prophets from Judaism as
well as Christianity along with others. The teachings and the sayings in the Quran are
reflected as the words of Allah (Norenzayan, 2016). The conception of god under Islam is
unitary and this conception is called Tawhid.
Monotheism is the popular belief of almost all the religions under Abrahamic
religions. All the three religions that are under focus here, preaches strictly that God is
unique, who rules, loves, judges as well as punishes as well as forgives. In this context, Ray
et al. (2014), states that there is a slight deviation in Christianity, which although does not
believe in three gods, have a strong belief in the Trinitarian principle or the position of three
persons or hypostases. However, the strict and ardent followers of monotheism, that are the
Jewish and the Islamise. That is why, Islam typically views Christianity to be polytheistic.
The manifestation of Jesus is also different for the various religions. The followers of Islam
as well as Christianity have reverence towards Jesus Christ (Isa in Arabic). The Christians
have a perception that Jesus is their saviour and God Incarnate. Muslims view Isa (other
name for Jesus) as one of the prophets of Islam and a messiah.

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However, there is unanimity among all the three religions regarding the presence of
one supreme godhead, who has created the whole universe and is the ruler of history, who is
liable to send prophets as well as messengers to reveal the divine will. Another unanimous
belief is that one day the intervention of God in human history would ultimately take place
and that would be the time of last judgement.
The Christians, Islam as well as the Judaists vary in their rituals also. Baptism as well
as the Holy Communion are the main rituals of Christianity. However, the five most
important rituals namely Shahadah, Zakat, Hajj, Sawm and Salat are pillars of Islam
(Papaconstantinou & Schwartz, 2016). Lastly, the Barmitzvah and the Sabbath are the most
important.
The Christianity and Islam always varies on the concept of original sin. Christians
believe that we human have a natively sinful nature owing to the rebellion of our common
ancestor, Adam. In sharp contrast, the concept of original sin is not present in Islam (Peters,
2018). They believe that every man is born sinless. However the weakness in human nature,
leads man towards sin.
Conclusion
These three religions that essentially are acknowledged as Abrahamic religion, have gone
through evolution through ages. The original scriptures of all three religions have been
destroyed to quite some extent many a times. However, the customary beliefs of these three
religions about the role of Christ, the concept of monotheism and the acknowledgement of
Abraham makes them somewhat similar in approach. However major differences still exist.
Currently Globalisation have had its impact on all these religions and the stringency in the
religious ethics of all religions have been slackened. The approach of religion have now
become much more humane. The conception that religion is for man and that man is not for

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religion, have gained ground. Although, conflicts regarding supremacy of religion is the
greatest form of terror, however, it is the most common scenario and the whole concept of
religious war dates back from the Crusades. Nevertheless, none of the religions
conspicuously despises the other religions and there is harmonious coexistence of all the
three religions.

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