Introduction
In Genesis Chapter 12 God said to Abram, who would later be Abraham, “Go forth from the land of and from your father’s house and I will show you.. I will make you a great nation…”. Such is the central tenet of the three great Abrahamic religions. Hence the name Abrahamic. They all have as their starting point that moment when God revealed himself to Abram and commanded his obedience. Islam since its founding in the 7th Century AD by Mohammed has many teachings and tenets that differ from Christianity and Judaism but all ultimately all three faiths preach of One True God who revealed himself to man.
About Islam
Briefly, Islam is the religion that Muhammad started in the 7th century after God revealed himself to him. Islam means submission and to a Muslim, this means total submission to the will of God. Muslims hold that Muhammad is the final prophet. Finally because instead of founding a new religion Muhammad’s faith, Islam, is in fact, merely the perfection of the monotheistic faith in God. According to their faith, Jews and Christians have distorted the revealed faith in God by altering the texts and entering their flawed interpretations. Muslims believe that Muhammad could not have done the same because at the time God revealed himself to him Muhammad was illiterate and unlearned. He did not have formal training or wisdom to have made any editorializing or modification to the word of God hence Muslims believe that the Koran is the pure and unadulterated word of God as revealed through the teachings and acts of Mohammed.
Islam borrows many ideas and principles from Judaism and to a lesser degree Christianity. They also believe in one true God which they name Allah. Allah has revealed himself in the past to Abraham, the prophets, and to Jesus who they called Isa. However for one reason or the other, these past prophets have distorted the word of God. Therefore, as the Final Prophet, Mohammad merely corrects and perfects what the past prophets have said. Thus, parts of the Gospels and the Torah are also present in the Koran.
They believe in the concept of a fall of man and Angels. In their version of the Fall Iblis, that is devil, refused to bow down before man because Iblis believed that he was better than man and was thus punished for his arrogance. This only defers from the Christian version in that Allah simply told the angels to prostate/bow before man, in the Christian version God revealed that he would become a man. Muslims believe in heaven, angels, and the climactic Final Judgment. They believe that Allah is omnipotent and is already aware of all that will happen to man everything is predestined. Muslims believe that to sin is to turn away from Allah. In part because of their beginning as warriors’ faith, Muslims believe that there is no greater honor than to die for their faith. One might criticize this but must also realize that the Crusaders also believed in salvation through battle.
Essentially, Islam represents a reformation, or to Muslims, a perfection of the revealed faith in God. It started at a time when many Jews who lived in the Middle East behaved much like the Jewish Pharisees of Israel during Jesus time they profess the Jewish faith yet do live it by heart. Mohammed spent some time living among Jews which is likely where he got the inspiration that Jews had corrupted God’s teachings.
Conclusion
Islam is essentially a restatement of Israeli faith flavored with Arabic tastes. They both believe in one God, only they worship him in their unique way. However Islam is immutable, it does not change. So fixed is Muslims in the idea that their faith is pure and perfect that not since the schism between Shi’ites and Sunnis has anyone made a serious effort to reinterpret their faith. Many of their beliefs which were spawned from the harsh deserts where the faith was born are still held on to while their counterparts in Christianity and Judaism have since gone to dust.