Questions: Religion & Spirituality

It is nothing like pagan religions, where people were buried with their belongings, or polytheistic religions in which every city had its own god.

Christianity, which most of you belong to, is considered by some to have begun as a sect of Judaism. Since the Jews no longer had a sovereign state, it lacked the institutions that might have kept it within Judaism. Its revolutionary feature was its claim to universality, which separated it from Judaism and gave rise to missionary work.

Judaism centers on the revelation of the Torah to Moses, alongside later rabbinic traditions. Christianity is different: the Gospels were written decades later by people traditionally linked to the apostles. Rather than being presented as God's direct words, they mainly recount Jesus' life. One could argue that this makes Christianity easier to reinterpret and reform.

Islam, meanwhile, also claimed universality but almost immediately became the religion of a state. Within a century it had spread from al-Andalus to Khorasan. Muslim scholars developed detailed traditions in hadith, sira, aqidah, fiqh, kalam, and tafsir. In that sense, Islam combines Judaism's strong textual tradition with Christianity's missionary outlook while avoiding what many see as their weaker aspects. Its legal and theological traditions are so comprehensive that major reform is far more difficult.

Muslims also tend to place greater emphasis on the ummah and religious commitment. British Protestant schools in the Ottoman Empire initially aimed to convert Muslims, but their own reports admitted they achieved little success because Muslims were deeply attached to their faith. Many schools instead focused on converting Armenians.

Recently, a comedy portrayed Jesus as gay and drew relatively little reaction from Christians, despite Christianity being the world's largest religion. Try making a similar claim about the Prophet Muhammad to a Muslim. If your head is still attached afterward, consider yourself lucky :D