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Example research essay topic: Five Pillars Of Islam Christianity And Islam - 2,280 words

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Christianity and Islam: Salvation It is beyond doubt that Christianity and Islam have many similarities. Yet each maintains its own unique characters which distinct one from the other. Both religions belong to the monotheistic family. Christian and Muslim believe only in one God, the creator and ruler of heaven and earth.

Devotees of both religions, like Judaism, trace their ancestry to the patriarch Abraham, with whom God made covenant that He would be the divine protector of him and his descendants. Christian and Muslim relationship to God is personal and therefore special. The belief in God s mercifulness and support and prayer to be led along the straight path unites Muslims and Christians (Vroom, 94). All creation points to God and God far transcend human comprehension. They both hold the same traditional belief in God s omnipotence as well as human responsibility. Christianity and Islam also have a number of identical prophets such as Adam, Noah, Moses and also angel Gabriel, God s main messenger.

Still, it is unquestionable that despite many insights that Muslims and Christians share concerning various issues, they also have different views regarding the same matters for examples, their view of salvation and law. This passage will discuss and compare Christianity and Islam view of salvation. Christianity is currently the religion with the most number of followers in the world. Christians regard their faith as the new covenant through which God promised eternal life and salvation. The essence of Christianity is the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was a Jewish born about two thousand years ago.

He was believed to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah. He was conceived by Virgin Mary through Holy Spirit and was meant to save mankind from eternal destruction of sins. Through his death and resurrection, the name of God is glorified and men are finally reconciled with their Creator. Main scriptures used by Christian are The Old and New Testament. The Old Testament tells about God s relationship with His people before Jesus time whereas the New Testament consists primarily of Jesus life stories and his teachings. The heart of Islam is not a person but the revelations, called Qur an which literally means reading or reciting.

The revelation was received by Muhammad in the seventh century. He claimed no divine power nor extraordinary knowledge, merely a man chosen by God or Allah to serve as His messenger. The word Islam means submission to the will of Allah. A Muslim is one who surrenders to Allah.

Central to Islam is its confession of God as Creator and the only God. The oneness and unity of God is indisputable. Qur an is believed to have such lyrical beauty and power unsurpassed that it cannot and should not be translated. Allah had spoken to ancient prophets to convey messages and warning to humans who had rebelled against Him. Those earlier revelations, however, had been incomplete, and they had been obscured and confused in their passage through time.

Muhammad was to be the last and the greatest of all prophets, the Seal of Prophets, and the message he received was the final and complete reminder to all people. If Christianity supercedes Judaism, then Islam supercedes both of them and Qur an was the final corrective in the monotheistic tradition. With the second largest number of followers in the world, the influence of Islam certainly cannot be underestimated too. Salvation is the ultimate goal of Christians as well as Muslims.

Salvation essentially means freedom and the quest for freedom has always been the primary theme of humans history. That is why it is tremendously important for both believers. Salvation plays a critical role in both religions and it has long been one of the major stage set of pros and cons between Muslims and Christians. Muslims and Christians believe that the gravity of human s sin is so severe that work alone can never save one s soul. Not only do people turn away from God but also from each other. Only God alone has the power to forgive men of their sin.

He possess the sole ability to redeem people from endless suffering in hell. The waywardness of human saddens God. Muslims and Christians have faith that in spite of men s disobedience and wicked nature, God is Most Merciful and never cease to forgive them. He will never let His people keep on straying on the wrong path which will eventually lead them to a terrible end.

That is why God intervenes time and again to bring His creation back to Him. He made revelation to send His message and warning to people through ancient prophets. Both religions believe that by faith in the one God and obedience to Him, God will not let His people fall into irrevocable ruin. Their God is Most Merciful and Compassionate.

Despite the same insight that Islam and Christianity share above, there is an enormously deep gulf which separates their perception of salvation. The core of the conflict is Jesus Christ. For Christians, salvation can only be achieved through faith in Jesus Christ and accepting him as one s personal savior. Salvation means to be freed from bondage of sins and to receive promise of a secured place with God in the heavenly kingdom. On the other hand, the salvation concept of Islam is more about being saved from punishment in hell rather than slavery of sin. To realize this, a Muslim must not only seek to submit totally to God but also to obey the shariah or the central law of Islam: The Five Pillars of Islam.

Speaking about Jesus and his intimate relationship with God and God in his internal relatedness with Jesus is a non-negotiable part of the Christian faith (Vroom, 110). One cannot talk about salvation without mentioning the crucial figure who never fails to be associated to it, that is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of God who incarnated on earth as a man, to suffer, die and be raised again so that men receive redemption from God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3: 16).

Belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God therefore involves the Christian concept of God directly (Vroom, 109). Christians believe in the dual nature of Jesus, one divine, and the other human. For Christians, the deepest truth about God has become clear in Jesus. What God is like is revealed in Jesus cross and resurrection. His mercifulness and unconditional love is revealed through the cross.

Through his blood, men s sins are atoned for. In other words, men are no longer slaves to sins. Through his suffering and victory over death, men are granted with promise of redemption from sins which leads to salvation and ultimately the Kingdom of Heaven. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (Romans 10: 9). The cross is the central Christian symbol, signifying many things at the same time. It refers to much more than just the wooden cross on which Jesus died, it refers to the long history of God with human beings.

The Bible says that God has a special bond with one people, Israel, with whom He has a long history. As related in the Bible, the cross stands at the end of that history (Vroom, 103). Thus there is on the one hand, the limitation to one people, the descendants of Abraham, and on the other hand, the universal meaning: All people on earth will be blessed through you (Gen 12: 3). The purpose of the covenant is the universal salvation of people, the means of the covenant is the special history of God with Israel, from which Jesus ancestors came.

By faith in him and grace of God alone men are saved from eternal death. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1: 1). He is the only way to God, the father. I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14: 6). The view of Christ is therefore directly connected to the view of sin and salvation. Jesus appearance in this world is bound up with sin.

The love of God has been recognized in the appearance of Jesus for he is the unmistakable proof of God s compassion. In other words, the heart of God becomes visible in the death and resurrection of Jesus. An important distinction between the Qur an and the Bible is that the Qur an does not speak of a covenant between God and a people but rather of the lives of all people before the face of God. For Islam, God is the God of all people. Qur an does not concern a salvific history but obedience in faith among all people (Vroom, 104). That is the key point of salvation to Islam.

The Qur an is set within that which is universally human. It is a message for all people, all people should become Muslims, for God is the sovereign God of all people. Hell awaits people who have turned down faith in and obedience to Allah and His Messenger. Unrepentant non-believers and sinners will experience the torments of hell. Those who have made covenant with Allah but then turn away from their promise to fulfill shariah, the divine law, cannot escape this grievous destiny too. It prescribes patterns of worship, The Five Pillars of Islam, as well as guidance for social conduct.

Muslims do not accept the divinity of Jesus (Becker, 24). For them, Jesus is a great prophet, although the title of the greatest prophet still belongs to Muhammad. It is precisely Jesus cross that, in traditional Qur and exegesis, is incompatible with his status as prophet: God lifted him up (Sura 4: 158). This is often interpreted as saying that God does not permit the one He sent to be crucified.

The classic Muslim concept of God s power is still at odds with the suffering and dying of Jesus Christ. The suffering Christ remains incomprehensible for Muslims (Wessels, De muslims nasty, 106; 127). Muslims are able to recognize the prophecies of Jesus as the words of God but because of the unity and exalted ness of God, the confession that God is revealed through the actions, dying and rising of Jesus Christ remains a stumbling block. Nothing can be associated with divinity except the one God. The first sentence a Muslim must know is the Shahadah: There is no God but God. This means that ultimately there is only one Absolute Reality, one Divine Truth.

The traditional explanation of the Qur an happens to state that Jesus did not in fact die on the cross (Becker, 20). Denying the divinity of Jesus, Islam naturally denies the redemption through the cross and also the fact of the crucifixion. It can also be concluded that Muslims reject Christians conviction of salvation through faith in Jesus. The implementation of the Five Pillars of Islam is one of the most fundamental requisites to be a Muslim. The first pillar of Islam is the professing of the Shahadah: There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his Messenger. The unity and oneness of God is unarguable.

The second pillar is the execution of shall, a round of prayers done five times a day. The performance of repetitive prayers reminds one constantly of the presence of God in one s life and strengthens one s belief in God and his goodness. As a result, one s faith is carried into the depths of the heart and permeates every aspect of his or her life. The third pillar is zakat, the spiritual tithing and almsgiving.

Besides to encourage charity, this act helps to decrease inequalities in wealth and prevent personal greed. The fourth pillar is fasting. During Ramadan, fasting is compulsory for all Muslims. By abstaining from physical desires, one relies the dependence of oneself to the Creator and thus, feels even more fervent drive to surrender completely to God.

The last pillar of Islam is hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. Every Muslim who can afford it is strongly encouraged to carry out hajj at least once in his or her lifetime. It involves a series of symbolic rituals designed to bring the faithful as close as possible to God. The pilgrimage also draws Muslims from all over the world together in this spiritual union.

A Muslim has to do his or her best to satisfy these obligations as they are considered God s commandments (Fisher, 366). The Five Pillars constitute only a central core of duties, a minimum (Eastman, 399). Negligence to them will bring undesirable fate to the believer for essentially they are acts of sincere sacrifice and submission to God, which what Islam is chiefly about. The argument between Christianity and Islam regarding the issue of salvation is only part of the whole stage of discord between the two religions, which over centuries has been one of history s saddest stories. This dispute has continued to this very day and the effort to eliminate all the evils both religions abhor for each other is certainly going to be a huge uphill task to be accomplished. It is an unsurprising fact that the issue of religion has never been an easy one to be dealt with.


Free research essays on topics related to: christianity and islam, death and resurrection, belief in god, concept of god, five pillars of islam

Research essay sample on Five Pillars Of Islam Christianity And Islam

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