similarity between islam and christianity

A talk given to a discussion group at Brentwood Cathedral

For some people, maybe especially Christians, reflecting on Christianity and Islam is like comparing chalk and cheese or mixing oil and water. Could they be more different? Aren’t they actually opposed to, or in competition, with each other? However, Christians and Muslims have been reflecting on what each other is about for a very long time, though perhaps not in England, where significant interaction with Muslims was not common before the 1960s. For those of us who work together as Christians and Muslims in common initiatives and shared encounters we are not so strange to each other and, from a religious perspective, can helpfully see ourselves as cousins or jointly children of Abraham.

What can be exciting, or challenging, or both, is that the areas of our similarity lie very close to our differences. 

Christians and Muslims:

• Believe in one God … though Christians believe in the Trinity
• Are dependent on Scripture…  but have Bible and Qur’an
• Jesus is a key figure … but incarnation is an exclusively Christian belief
• Read events from Jesus’ life in scripture ... but there is no crucifixion in the Qur'an

You may be aware of these differences, and similarities, and when we start thinking about where we differ we can come up with a long list. But, a key point made to me by a Muslim friend when we were discussing this some years ago is that the difference between Christianity and Islam is all to do with Jesus. There are other differences, but to my mind, all the key dividing differences between the two religions are rooted in our different perspectives on Jesus Christ (and yes the Muslims call him that too).

So what can we say about Jesus together? Let’s hear from Zahra what Muslims believe about Jesus:

• Born of the Virgin Mary
• Sinless
• Very close to God
• Called the Word of God
• Worked miracles
• Will return to battle the Antichrist and usher in a new age

Sounds familiar?

So the question for us as Christians is, how do we react to the idea of Jesus as shared figure, important to both religions, who have some shared and some distinct beliefs about him? On the shared side – I heard a Muslim speaker speaking about Mary at an event, and Mary is a key figure in the Qur’an, there is a very striking portrayal of her as a uniquely pious woman. I complimented him on how he spoke of Mary across our Christian-Muslim divide (I didn’t use those words but conveyed the ‘but’ of ‘but you’re a Muslim talking about “our” Mary’, which I wouldn’t do now). In a powerful and moving moment he graciously said, ‘but of course, how could it be otherwise?’ and embraced and kissed me as one of Mary’s children.

We can raise the temperature of our comparison by focusing on our differences. If I start talking about Jesus as the Son of God, or Saviour, of salvation through his death and resurrection then we will part company. We can then share our disagreement over ‘Original Sin’ and why God the Father should need to send his Son to die so that human beings can be ‘saved’. So let’s hear a little about ‘salvation’ in Islam, which I don’t think has the same emphasis on salvation as Christianity.

• The message of the Prophet Muhammad – submission to God/the will of God
• Repentance
• Forgiveness of sins
• Characteristics of a life turned towards God 

Again there is a mixture of similarity and difference, we can recognise some elements as common to Christianity – repentance and forgiveness – then others which have a different feel to them – submission – or which are entirely different – the centrality of the shahadah.

And I haven’t even mentioned ‘Trinity’ yet! The Qur’an explicitly argues against the idea of the Trinity, though as a Christian reader of the Qur’an I often ask myself whether the issue is with the Trinity itself or distortions of the Trinity which may have been characteristic of early interactions between the Prophet Muhammad and Christianity. But from my own theological studies I am all too aware that the doctrine of the Trinity developed out of explanations of how Jesus could be God and man and the relationship between the Son of God (or God the Son) and God the Father. So the difference here is essentially the same issue and the same disagreement.

But returning to the shahadah, perhaps Zahra could tell us a little about tawhid and why Islam has a specific difficulty with ‘Trinity’.

In Islam God is absolute and nothing can be associated with God.

And then we have to talk about the Qur’an, if we’re looking at similarities then we could consider the Qur’an to be the Muslim Bible (though that is a comparison which doesn't really work). It follows in the tradition of ‘Abrahamic’ or Judaeo-Christian scripture and is specifically aware of itself, or refers to itself, as both a Book and revelation. And this is how we see our own Book, yet they are not the same. It would be impossible not to be aware of how non-Muslims relate to the Qur’an, sales of the Qur’an rocketed after 9/11 as people wanted to find out more about the religion claimed by bombers and terrorists. And of course the Qur’an does not answer that question – it does not tell you to blow yourself up, it shares the Judaeo-Christian rejection of suicide, it does not tell you to attack your neighbour, to start wars or kill the innocent. Something else that Christians and Muslims have in common …

Still, people approach the Qur’an in this way, or feel this way and give themselves a Qur’anic justification, just as they have done and still do with the Bible, e.g. Christians, usually Americans, attacking places and people connected to the provision of abortions. Again this doesn’t tell us anything about the Qur’an, so let’s hear what Zahra has to say about it:

• the first revelation to Prophet Muhammad in the cave
• brought from God by the archangel Gabriel and recited to Muhammad
• recited by Muhammad to his followers, memorised by them, written down and later consolidated
• the significance of the Arabic original and the limitation of translations
• its status as the actual Word of God

From a Christian perspective the Qur’an is challenging because it refers to incidents from Christian scripture, retelling them with some differences, having a different emphasis and taking issue with some of the key differences/beliefs of Christians. As it comes later it also raises the issue of supersessionism (or ‘upgrading’) – making what came before out of date, less relevant.

The other key difference between our two scriptures is the nature of the Qur’an, as the absolute Word of God it is perfect, complete, unchanging, infallible. Some would describe the Bible in those terms, though I think even those with the ‘strongest’ view of the Bible would not say that every word was directly spoken by God, in effect the whole of the Qur’an is the quoted speech of God and should be in quotation marks. Thus as well as having different, though related, contents our two scriptures do not line up with each other because they are very different. Thus for Christians it is Jesus who is the Word of God, whereas for Muslims the spoken, revealed Word of God is the Qur’an.

Sadly, another thing that Christians and Muslims have in common is abuse and misuse of our scriptures and there are many different approaches to it, whether Protestant, Catholic, liberal or evangelical and also within Islam. Many scholars of Islam, Christian, Muslim and non-religious talk about Islam being hijacked by terrorists and extremists, thus the Qur’an has been described as a ‘manual of hate’. For myself I began this journey by reading the Qur’an just over ten years ago and I would encourage people to read the Qur’an rather than being informed by preachers of hate and media perceptions. I recently heard Prince Ghazi of Jordan speaking at a conference on the topic of ‘love’ in the Qur’an. For those who speak negatively about Islam and Muslims, or claim to be Muslim but have hatred in their hearts for non-Muslims as well as Muslims, and choose verses ripped from their context it is described as a book of hate. For those who take the trouble to read it and listen to what it says about peace, care of neighbour, women and orphans and of the love and mercy of God, it is a book of love.

Zahra told us about memorising the Qur’an and Muslim commitment to read it through one or more times each year.

Finally, though some discussions on this subject would begin with him, we must talk about the Prophet Muhammad. The Islamic creed, the shahadah, says ‘There is none worthy of worship but God, and Muhammad is his messenger.’ Muslims do not worship Muhammad but he has a key place in Islam as the original preacher of the message of Islam, the bearer of the revelation of the Word of God (much as Mary was bearer of the Word of God, Jesus), the prime example of a life lived in submission to God and, as his wife Aiysha described him ‘a walking Qur’an’. I have already mentioned that, theologically, we should compare Jesus and the Qur’an with each other in their centrality in both faiths. But there are similarities between Jesus Christ and the Prophet Muhammad, both were specially chosen by God, both were given a key message and began with a small group of ‘disciples’, both preached the Word of God and the testimony/interaction with angels is there too.

Naturally, as Christians and Muslims, we must disagree about the exact nature of theprophethood of Muhammad but as Christians we should be aware of the man who is so important for over a billion Muslims around the world.

Brief overview of Prophet Muhammad:

• as a man
• as prophet/messenger
• the Sunnah
• biographies
• as a mercy to all creation
• Muhammad and Christians/inter faith

Our intention in this presentation was to give you an overview of some of the main similarities and differences between Christianity and Islam, to offer a positive Christian view of Islam and use that to introduce Islam from a Muslim perspective. For us as the staff of the Christian Muslim Forum it is important that each faith is represented fairly and that each faith stands on its own merits, that Christianity is not judged for not being Islam and Islam not portrayed as a deficient when compared with Christianity. They are different with similarities or similar with differences, we can and should acknowledge both and not make what is different difficult. Part of our ‘mission’ as the Christian Muslim Forum is to explore our differences creatively, and, of course, positively. Christians and Muslims are not a threat to each other.

Julian Bond, Director, Christian Muslim Forum

Zahra Imame, Project Worker, Christian Muslim Forum