The face-to-face encounter between Islam and Christianity

1. With a large majority in Christianity, Christianity and Islam are among the world's

most populous religions. According to the Britannica overview on Aug 2021, there

are approximately 1.5 billion Muslim followers and about 2.1 billion Christian

followers. These two religions share few similarities, such as monotheism, and being

originated in the Middle East, in spite of the fact that both religions have historical

relationships, their holy texts, traditions, and doctrines are distinguishable from each

other.

2. Since these two religions originated from the Middle East, both Christianity and

Islam have a typical history dating back to the Middle Ages. They were two of the

three Abrahamic religions that were founded during this era (Thomas et al., 2009).

Islam, literal meaning “surrender”, Britannica stated that, “the believer(called a

Muslim, from the active particle of islām) accepts surrender to the will of Allah (in

Arabic, Allāh: God), Allah is viewed as the sole God—creator, sustainer, and

restorer of the world”. It was founded by Prophet Mohammad's teachings as an

expression of abandonment to Allah's need, in 610 C.E. which was within the 7th

century. Almost one and a half billion people consider themselves Muslims. They

board large parts of Africa and Asia. Since 1900, there are sizeable Muslim

communities within the West. Furthermore, before the Muslim conquest, Christianity

dates back to around 33 AD and Christians could recall confidently the stable growth

and expansion in the 600 years. By the year 300, the cities of the empire were found

in churches starting from Spain and the geographical region within the west to Egypt

and Syria within the east, additionally as in peninsula and therefore the Balkans.

(Wilken, 2009), The spread of Christianity to the East was no less impressive.
 Woefully, Islam is not been acknowledged solemnly by Christians for being a

religion within the biblical tradition, with the exception of Christians who resided in

the middle east during the early century. However, Islam has broadened

ubiquitously. Subsequently, Islam has always faced plethora of challenges despite

the drastic change in situation and occurrence with time.

3. Significantly, differences in their Holy Text also exist. As a case in point, it includes

the Prophet's teachings that Allah(God) has made known to him, that for Muslims

who consider the Quran to be the Word of God and their sacred text of Islam.

Britannica said “He is the sole creator and sustainer of the universe, wherein every

creature bears witness to his unity and lordship”. "Quran" means "recitation,"

because in public lectures and sermons the Quran was first heard. Moreover, the

Quran alone is holy scripture that is a section of the Islamic principle, the hadith.

However, the Bibles, the Hebrew scriptures which is also claimed as the old

testament, are the sacred text of Christianity and the New Testament that people from

all over the world have written. The term bible originates from the Latin medieval

Biblia, meaning books. The Bible collects Christian scriptures. The canon only

contains books deemed authoritative, which are therefore regularly read, studied, and

used for religious services.

4. Looking from both perspectives, One of the main aspects of Islam is the 5 pillars, the

core practices of Islam which are one of Islam's unifying features. The

implementations include a religious pattern such as the, five mandatory prayers,

charities which are known as Zakat in Islam, fasting, that is done from sunrise till

sundown and the yearly pilgrimage to Makkah which is called Hajj. A great number

of Muslims have a commitment to pray five times daily to Allah. One of the defining
 aspects of Islam is the importance of sacred spots such as Mecca, Medina and

Jerusalem. Muslims assemble, pray and learn scripture in mosques in order to glorify

Allah. Muslims believe that his prophetic function re-establishes Allah's revelation to

humanity and completes it. The Qur'an recounts the tale of the divine revelation of

creation. It is mentioned in the holy text that the world was formed in six days which

Allah created. Through the word of God, the world and all in and around it came

about. "Be," and it was God ordered. The Quran does not tell the creation daily, nor

does God rest on the seventh day. He synchronized the world just by sitting on his

throne, after completing his creation. And the earth ends on the final day when God

resurrects the dead and by ones deeds judges all people. Nevertheless, Traditional

Christian beliefs include the belief that there is the one and only god which is living

as the son, father and the holy spirit, the One and One True Gods, the faith of the

Messiah who is believed to be Jesus himself, the God and the human being, sent to

save the world. Christianity also recognizes the focus on faith in Christ as the major

component of religion. Christian practice in churches through evangelism and social

action means a rally to worship, association and study, and involvement with the

world. Through the study of the Scriptures, Christians seek God in their daily life.

Filled with promises of blessings, the New Testament strongly encourages prayer,

offering guidelines and examples, to those who pray in a way God acceptable.

Sacraments, sacred rites that convey the sacred power or grace of God, are the major

rituals of Christianity. Baptism, the Eucharist, and the Christian ritual are the two

most major significant sacraments that most Christians follow till now.

5. By doing a final analysis we can point out the fundamental differences that exist in

closer scrutiny between these two faiths and show that they outway the similarities.
 A potential viewer would be wise before making the choice to consider their

histories, cultures, traditions, and beliefs.

References –

 https://www.patheos.com/library/islam

 https://www.patheos.com/library/christianity 

 Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Volume 1 by Thomas, 2009

 https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/01/christianity-face-to-face-with-islam by

Robert Louis Wilken.