[mks_dropcap style=”circle” size=”52″ bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#000000″]T[/mks_dropcap]he most significant religions in the world are the Abrahamic Religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. You would think that these three religions have completely different things to offer, but you would be surprised to know that we have many similarities, from small details, to the core teaching of each religion. The word “Islam” means “Submission to God”. But is that not the basis of almost every religion? You see, people always talk about how different Muslims are from other people of other faiths and beliefs. However, Islam is incredibly close to certain religions, considering that some religions originated out of prophets of Allah.

For example, Christianity came from our Prophet Isa, or Jesus. Because of that, we have stark similarities with Christianity when it comes to our ideologies. When I went with a friend to church a couple of years ago, I was stunned by our similarities. They were talking about how everything, good and bad, is in God’s plan, and that we need to trust Him. Both Muslims and Christians believe in one God, whose name in Aramaic is Elah as ours is Allah. We also say Elah, meaning one that has no before and after and is alone worshipped. We both believe in prophets such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and that God sent them to convey his message of one true Creator. They believe in the Anti-Christ (what we call Dajjal) and that when the Anti-Christ comes, Jesus will come back to defeat him. We both believe in Satan, the evil in this world, and we both aim to ultimately enter Paradise, and avoid Hell.

Judaism and Islam have very similar beliefs too. We both worship the same God. We both believe in angels like Gabriel (Jibril) and Michael (Mikail) and that they submit themselves entirely to God, but neither of us worships them. One of the things that surprised me most was that Jews have a fixed number of prayers they must pray each day. While Muslims pray five times everyday, Jews pray three times everyday. Their prayers even look very similar to ours! I went to Niagra falls the other day and saw a woman covered like a Muslim, with headscarf and long dress. Only after seeing the man with her with a distinct Jewish outfit, did I realize she was Jewish and not Muslim! Both of us also believe in only eating pure meat, in other words “halal” or “kosher”.  We also believe in a Heaven and Hell and the Day of Judgment, where we will be judged for our actions and be sent to either Paradise or Hell.

It’s amazing to look at how alike our ways of thinking are, and yet we never make the effort to even talk to one another, and learn more about each other. We think we are so different from each other, but really, our morals and values are close to identical to one another. We all worship the same one God and aim to follow the ultimate path to enter Heaven.