Islam and Christianity: Two Figureheads in Two Influential Texts

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Religion is growing worldwide. Two of the fastest growing faiths are Islam and Christianity. Each of these faiths has a book that expresses their beliefs and gives rules or commandments to live by. Islam has the Quran, and Christians have the Bible. Many people in today’s world would deny that there are any similarities between the two books; however, two figures appear in both texts, Abraham and Jesus. The stories of Abraham and Jesus are incredibly similar but, the theological interpretation of these stories creates differences between the Bible and the Quran.
Abraham and Jesus were very important during their own lifetime as well as in today’s religious world. It is fitting that they connect the present with the past, Islam and Christianity, and are also connected to each other. Christians view the story of Abraham and Isaac as metaphor for the eventual crucifixion of Jesus. It is crucial to be objective when comparing religion. There are some though, who will ignore facts in order to believe what they want. For an example, a lack of objectivity and obscuring truths to fit their own beliefs comes from Hafiz Salihuddin who decided to ignore the asteroids and chaotic movement of the cosmos in order to believe that the universe was created by Allah. In his paper, he makes the entertaining leap that the universe was born in the big bang, and that this was controlled process. (Salihuddin pp. 212) When examining holy texts, it is imperative to keep an objective perspective.
The identities of Abraham and Jesus created by the Bible and the Quran are very similar. Jesus is a well-known person in almost every culture on earth. A portion of his fame is generated from the picture that history paints of him. For Christians, He is the Mess...

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...Isaac is the same in both texts. He goes to the mountain, starts the sacrifice and is stopped by either the Lord or Angels.
When comparing stories of Abraham and Jesus in the Quran to the same stories in the Bible, there are remarkable similarities. Yet despite them, the identities of Abraham and Jesus are very different in each text. Stunningly different interpretations of each person stemmed from reading the same stories. As a society we always feel the necessity to focus on the differences in our faiths while ignoring the glaring connections.

Works Cited

Dawood, N. J. The Koran. London, England: Penguin, 1990. Print.
Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1996. Print.
Salihuddin, Hafiz. "Creation Of The Universe: A Religious And Scientific Study." Dialogue (1819-6462) 8.2 (2013): 208-216. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

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