The Viewpoints of Islam and Christianity Regarding Allah (God)

The distinguishing feature of Islam is its insistence on absolute monotheism and the forbidding of anything, at all, to be associated with God.  This includes the refusal of the idea that Jesus (peace be upon him), the Messenger of God, was God.  Allah says in the Qur'an:

Surely they have disbelieved who say that Allah is the Messiah [Jesus], the son of Mary.  But the Messiah said, "O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.  Truly, whoever sets up partners in worship with Allah, then Allah has forbidden Paradise for him, and Fire will be his abode.  And for the wrongdoers there are no helpers.  Surely, they have disbelieved who say, "Allah is the third of three," for there is no God but Allah Who is one.  And if they do not cease what they say, verily, a painful torment will befall the disbelievers among them....  The Messiah, the son of Mary, was nothing other than a messenger; many were the messengers who passed before him.  His mother was a woman of truth....  (5:72-75)

Muslims believe that neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament had mentioned in any way that Jesus was the son of God.  According to a contemporary American scholar, Barbara Brown:

The doctrine of divinity states that Jesus is the Son of God, the Word of God made flesh.  Even though Jesus himself never claimed to be divine, Paul gave him this attribute for one reason - to gain converts among the Gentiles.  The Gentiles were pagans who were used to worshipping gods that had wonderful legends and myths behind them.  Several of the pagan deities of the time such as Mithras, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris were all the offspring of a supreme ruling god, and each had died a violent death at a young age, coming back to life a short time later in order to save their people.  Paul took this into account, giving the pagans something similar in Christianity.  He attributed divinity to Jesus, saying he was the Son of God, the Supreme, and that he too had died for their sins.  In doing so, Paul compromised the teaching of Jesus with pagan beliefs in order to make Christianity more acceptable to the Gentiles.

The term "son of God" was not something new.  However, it had been used in the Old Testament to refer to David (Saul 2:7) and his son Solomon (I Chronicles 22:100) and to refer to Adam (Luke 3:38) in the New Testament.  In his famous Sermon on the Mount, detailed in Matthew 5, Jesus tells his listeners, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."  In all cases, the term "son of God" was not meant to be applied literally but to signify love and affection from God to the righteous.  "Son of God" means a special closeness to God, not to be of God.  After all, people are sons of God, and Allah is the creator of all life.[7]

Christians who lived during the time of Jesus (peace be upon him) believed that he was the divine messenger to them, bringing them the words of God and guiding them.  However, after the ascension of Jesus to heaven, Saint Paul, who was deeply influenced by Roman paganism, wanted his preaching of Christianity to be more appealing to the Gentiles, so he compromised the teachings of Jesus (peace be upon him) by adopting certain pagan ideas and interpolating them into Christianity.  Thus, the idea of the trinity spread even though it was not part of the original teachings of Jesus (peace be upon him).

 Prophethood (nubuwwa)

The prophets were the people who received divine revelation.  Allah has sent numerous prophets and messengers to humankind since the dawn of history.  These prophets were of two types:  "local" and "universal."  While the local prophets were sent with specific messages to specific groups of people, the universal prophets were sent with messages and books for all of humankind.  There were only five universal prophets, and their names were Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (may the peace of Allah be upon all of them). 

A unique characteristic of all the prophets and messengers is that they were infallible - that is, they never committed any sin.  The easiest way to see this is to consider that these people were the examples sent for humanity to follow, and so if they committed errors, people would be obliged to follow their errors, thereby making the prophets and messengers untrustable. Infallibility means protection, and, in Islamic terminology, means the spiritual grace of Allah enabling a person to abstain from sins by his own free will.  This power of infallibility and sinlessness does not make a person incapable of committing sins; rather, he refrains from sins and mistakes by his own power and will. 

Infallibility is essential since the job of the prophets and messengers is not only to convey the divine scriptures of Allah but also to lead and guide humanity towards the right path.  Therefore, they have to be role models and perfect examples for mankind.  This has basis in both the Qur'an and conventional wisdom; the Qur'an mentions infallibility 13 times.  Allah says to the Satan:  "Certainly you shall have no authority over My servants except those who follow you and go astray." (15:42)  The Satan then says to Allah:  "By Your might, then I will surely mislead them all, except Your chosen servants among them [the messengers and imams]."(38:82)

Not only did Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) not commit any sins, but he was also never harsh to human beings or animals.  Allah says:  "And by the mercy of Allah you dealt with them [people] gently, and had you been severe and harsh-hearted, they would have broken away from you."  (3:158)

In most societies, people with bad records would be ineligible to be presidential, governmental, or mayoral candidates since they would be expected to lead society and be good examples of righteousness and honesty.  Unfortunately, as a campaign of distorting the image of the prophets of God, many distorted stories exist today, such as the stories in the present-day version of the Old Testament accusing Prophet David (peace be upon him) of adultery with Baathsheba, Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) getting drunk, Prophet Lot (peace be upon him) committing incest, and Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) committing adultery with the Ethiopian women.  These are examples of the ethical wrongdoings and moral weaknesses that the enemies of Allah tried to ascribe to His pure messengers.

The Holy Qur'an[9] speaks of the sins attributed to certain prophets such as Adam (peace be upon him).  These verses should not be understood literally in the sense that Adam was committing a sin; allegorical verses are common in the Qur'an.  Adam (peace be upon him) did not disobey the obligatory commands of Allah; the command that he did not honor was a recommended command, and, therefore, in the Islamic law, he cannot be considered to have committed a sin.

Although Allah preordained who the prophets were going to be, the prophets nonetheless had to strive for this position.  The foremost example of this testing that the prophets had to endure can be seen in the life of Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him), the father of the prophets.  Abraham (peace be upon him) was born into an idolatrous society, but by the purity of his nature he recognized that the idols his people worshipped were capable of nothing, neither harm nor good.  So one day, when no one was present, he smashed all of them but the largest, and when the people came to him and asked who had destroyed their gods, he told them to ask the remaining statue if they really believed that their stone idols had power.  Although the people realized at that point that their idols were powerless, they didn't know how to respond, so out of shame and anger they cast Abraham (peace be upon him) into a huge fire.  But Allah protected Abraham (peace be upon him) from the fire and confounded the plots of the polytheists.[10]

After being tortured for and then saved by his faith in Allah, Abraham (peace be upon him) still had to undergo the hardest test of obedience to Allah - the direct order, from Allah, to sacrifice his son Ishmael.[11]  This order came to him in a dream, and although sadness overwhelmed him, he was a strong believer in Allah and did not question it.  Ishmael too accepted the command of Allah unquestioningly and allowed his father to lead him to a mountaintop to be sacrificed.  His only request was that his father place him face down so that his father would not see his expression as he was being killed.  Abraham (peace be upon him) raised his blade, still ready to comply with the command of Allah.  But just then came the revelation that this had only been a test, that God would not order Abraham (peace be upon him) to sacrifice his son, and that Abraham (peace be upon him) could sacrifice a sheep in his stead.  This event is commemorated every year on a holiday called the Feast of Sacrifice ('eid al-adhaa) on which animals are killed and the meat distributed to the poor.

After passing these tests, Abraham (peace be upon him) became the leader of humankind as well as the father of the prophets of the three main monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Although Allah sent prophets to every group of people on the earth, the Qur'an only mentions the names of 25 of them.  The first of them was Adam (peace be upon him), the father of humanity, and the last of them and the seal of the prophets was Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family).

Why did Allah send different prophets and different religions?  

The way of Allah is one, and because the final messenger, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), has come, there should be no dispute as to what is the right way to follow.  However, throughout history, different messengers with slightly different messages were sent to different peoples because the religious needs of humanity were growing and developing just as the human race was itself growing and developing, and also because different civilizations needed different types of guidance.  Nevertheless, the source and basic message behind them was the same - namely, Allah the Exalted and Glorious.

Allah sent Moses (peace be upon him) with the Torah as a light and guidance for the Children of Israel (the Jews) along with many other prophets such as David, Solomon, and so on (peace be upon them).  1,500 years after Moses, Allah sent Jesus (peace be upon him), the son of Mary (peace be upon her), confirming the Torah and bringing the Gospel which has also been likened to guidance and light.  Finally, 600 years after Jesus (peace be upon him), Allah sent Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) with the Qur'an to confirm all the messages before him and to complete the revelation of religion to mankind.

Since all the Judeo-Christian-Islamic prophets were sent sequentially, the question arises as to why Judaism, Christianity, and Islam now exist as separate religions.  The answer is that the followers of these religions, particularly Judaism and Christianity, corrupted the original teachings given to them and ended up making sects of their own rather than following the pure word of God.  But as the Qur'an says:

For each of you, We have made a Law and a clear way.  If Allah had willed, He would have made you one nation but that He may test you in what He has given you.  So strive as a race in good deeds.  Your return is to Allah; then He will info

"Behold! the angel said: 'God has chosen you and purified you and has chosen you above the women of all nations. O Mary! God gives you the good news of a word from Him, whose name shall be Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, honored in this world and the hereafter, and one of those brought near to God" (3:42).

Islam regards its teachings to be a re-affirmation and culmination of the teachings of previous monotheistic religions like Judaism and Christianity. Hence, all Muslims believe in Moses and Jesus as Prophets of God. Prophet Muhammad was commanded to recite in the Qur'an:

Islam is the final religion revealed to human beings through the last Prophet who was called Muhammad. He was born in Mecca (in Saudi Arabia) in the year 570 A.D. Muhammad was a very truthful and honest person. He was also very pious and detested the moral decadence of his society. At the age of forty, God asked him, through the angel Gabriel, to proclaim the religion of Islam publicly. God's message to humanity was delivered in the Qur'an which was revealed to Muhammad. The Qur'an, which is the holy book for Muslims, contains 114 chapters (called Suras). Muslims believe that it is the pure word of God, unadulterated over 14 centuries. It deals with issues which affect human beings in their earthly lives; issues like piety, upright human conduct, worship, the creation of a just and virtuous society and the practice of ethics.

Islam has two major schools of thought - the Shi'i and the Sunni. The Sunnis believe that the community selected its own leader after Prophet Muhammad's death whereas the Shi'as believe that the Prophet had, by divine will, appointed 'Ali to be his successor. Leadership is thus divinely designated. It is to be noted that both the Sunnis and the Shi'as are united in their major beliefs i.e., they believe in the same God, the same book, the same Prophets and pray in the same direction. The differences are mainly theological and jurisprudential.