Essay on Comparison of Judaism and Islam - 1508 Words

Comparison of Judaism and Islam Because of the history of political and religious warfare that has separated them, the underlying unity of Judaism, and Islam is seldom recognized except by scholars. Yet these two great world religions have the same origins, the same central belief in monotheism, and to a large extent the same genealogical and scriptural authorities. It is in a greater sense a tale of two sons or two brothes. It is not surprising that these religions should share a common belief of creation and patriarchy, since the roots of these two are to be found in the basin of Mesopotamia, in the â€Å"Fertile Crescent† of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. There, in the ancient civilization of Sumeria, the descent of the†¦show more content†¦Sarah orders Hagar and her son Ishmael cast out: â€Å"But God appears to Hagar as she sits a distance from the child, in despair, unable to endure watching him die. God promises to make Ishmael father of a great nation. The boy is saved. Arab nations claim descent from Ishmael.† (Chaim Potok, p.32) Similarly, God intervenes to save Sarah’s son Isaac from the sacrificial knife of Abraham in the famous test of his faith. The Hebrew people claim descent from Isaac. In this paper, I will examine the beliefs and practices of Judaism, and Islam, with the view that these two â€Å"brothers† common origins and ideas are more significant than their obvious differences. Starting with Judaism we see Abraham is regarded by his people as the first Jew, however a better case can be made for regarding Moses as the founder of Judaism. Born in roughly the 14th century B.C.E., Moses was raised in anonymity in the court of the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I, having been saved from a decree ordering the death of all new-born Hebrew males. Moses thus had an Egyptian upbringing, and the basic belief in a universal God that some say may have been related to the experimental monotheism of an earlier pharaoh, Akhenaton: â€Å"About a century before Moses, the pharaoh of an Egypt swollen with the spoils of empire envisioned a single god, one natural force at work upon the suffocating multiplicity of gods and men†¦ His name was cursed; his god wasShow MoreRelatedEssay on Comparison of Islam to Christianity and Judaism862 Words   |  4 PagesComparison of Islam to Christianity and Judaism Comparison of Islam to Christianity and Judaism Islam has long been viewed by many in America as a fringe religion. When many Americans here the term Islam or Muslim they associate it with such groups as the Nation of Islam or the Black Muslims. However these groups and others like them often have very little in common with the true Islamic faith. 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