What are the similarities between: Buddhism, Christianity, and Muslims?

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Clarification of Question by sraposo53-ga on 26 Nov 2004 07:30 PST

What are the similarities between: Buddhism, Christianity, and
Muslims?  Could there common ground be that they worship the founder
of their particular religion?  All three had a profit like creator?

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Clarification of Question by sraposo53-ga on 29 Nov 2004 14:56 PST

What are the similarities between: Buddhism, Christianity, and
Muslims?  What is their COMMON GROUND?  Im not looking for the
differences between each, im looking for simularities.  I suggested
the creators of each religion, because thats all i could come up with,
hoping that someone could help me out.  Most of you have done quite
well and others i don't think are reading the question.  The
characteristics of each religion, is there something that they all
share?  Thanks for the help, hope to get an answer soon.

Regrettably I am unable to provide a comparison matrix for each given
religion.  However, the one common element that binds people to these,
and many other religions is very simple - it is a fear of death.

Buddhism and Christianity are both religions. Muslims are people that
adhere to the religion called Islam. It is probably not possible to
find similarities between 2 religions and one group of religious
believers. Why not just ask for similarities between Buddhism,
Christianity and Islam?

Christianity and Islam both claim a common start with God selecting
Abraham as the first leader of a chosen people. Abraham [formerly
Abram]and his wife Sarah [ formerly Sar`ai].
Genesis 11;31 states that Abram`s father was Te`rah, and his wife was Sar`ai.
At Genesis 12;1,2, God told Abram to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go
to Canaan [ present day Israel]. They made it to Haran and settled
there [Genesis 11;31].
God promised Abram that He, 
God, would make a great nation out of Abram`s offspring[Gen.12;2] 
After god changed their names to Abraham and Sarah, they were blessed
at a very old age with a son, Isaac.Genesis 21;1-3
But thirteen years before, Abraham had a son Ishmael to his servant girl Hagar.
The Bible comment about Ishmael, although Abraham`s son, is at Genesis
16;12.."As for him, he will become a zebra of a man, and the hand of
everyone will be against him, and before the face of all the others he
will tabernacle"
It is from the line of Ishmael that the Muslims claim descent. And
Christianity, via Jesus, for their line of descent.

There are many similarities between Islam and Christianity some of which are:

- Both of them claim to worship same ONE God. The God may be called
God or Allah (in Arabic)

- A Muslim cannot be a Muslim unnless and until he/ she reveres all
the prophets sent prior to Muhammad(SAW-Peace Be Upon Him) including
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, Jesus (Peace Be Upon All
of them).

- Muslims, like good old Christians, believe in Mary (PBUH) as virgin
and that no man had touched her. They believe in the miraculous birth
of Jesus(PBUh). Mary (or  Mariam/ Maryam PBUH) is one of the most
revered women in Islam. Infact, one whole chapter in the Muslim Holy 
Book (Qur'an) is named after her.

- Muslims believe that Jesus (PBUH) spoke to his people when in the cradle.

- Muslims believe that Jesus (PBUH) was a prophet of God sent to the
Jews like many prophets sent before him.

- However, Muslims do not believe in the concept of trinity, or
Jesus's godhood or crucifixion of Jesus. Also they believe that
Muhammad (PBUH) is the last prophet of God.

- Muslims also believe that a book Injeel (Gospel of Jesus) was
revealed to Jesus though in time it lost its original teachings.

- Comment by pugwashja "It is from the line of Ishmael that the
Muslims claim descent. And Christianity, via Jesus, for their line of
descent." needs some clarification............Arabs do claim their
descent from Abraham via his son Ishmael(PBUH) as Jews claim to the
same via Isaac. but in general Islam is an evangelical religion like
Christianty. I am surprised to see that Christians have a claim to
descend from Jesus (PBUH) as he did not have any children. So I think
Christians may be called aderents of the teachings of Jesus (PBUH)
while Muslims, the adherents of Muhammad (PBUH).

As for Buddhism and Islam, I don't have much knowledge of Buddhism.
However, as far as Budha's teachings are concerned they are very
spritual and some islamic scholars do say that Budha may be a prophet
from God for his own people like many other prophets of God sent
before Muhammad (PBUH). Any only God knows better.

could it be that all three religions have a common thread in
worshiping the creator of that religon?

Muslims do not worship Mohammad. Most Buddhists do not worship the Buddha.

Hi Endeavour. You are right in picking me up on that point. Christians
are not a physical line from Jesus. It is his teachings they should
follow. The basics are clearly set out in the Bible. It is only man
changing the scriptures in small ways to justify his own ideas where
the problems start. An example is the idea of the trinity. Even
priests say it is a "mystery" that we are not meant to understand. So
how come Jesus said he can do nothing of his own initiative. John
5;19,30, 7;28, 8;28,42, and 10;18. Clearly God and Jesus are two
separate individuals. Together, working as a team as they did during
the creation [Genesis 1;26..let US make man in OUR image][Proverbs
8;29,30..when he decreed the foundations of the earth.[30] then I came
to be beside Him as a master worker]
Does Muhammad, even as a prophet, have such a close relationship?.

Just wondering if you are still waiting for an answer as your question
concerning worshipping the creator has been answered by pinkfreud-ga.

Clarifying my previous comment:

"... worshipping the creator of the religion ..."

pugwashjw says and I quote, "Clearly God and Jesus are two separate
individuals. Together, working as a team as they did during the
creation [Genesis 1;26..let US make man in OUR image]..... Does
Muhammad, even as a prophet, have such a close relationship?.

Though I am not a Bible or even a linguistic scholar, however, one
thing that I would try to clarify is the use of the word "US" in
Genesis:1:26 quoted above. There is a big difference in the use of the
words we/ us/ them/ our etc. where in eastern languages it is quite
common to use these words for a single person in order to give him/
her respect or acknowldege his/ her grandeur or magnify him/ her. Thus
if some king or a president is saying,"We will certainly have dinner
with you.". It means that HE is planning to do this without meaning
that he is saying it to mean that he and some other fellow are both
planning to have dinner with you. People also tend to respect their
parents like this. e.g. "She was a nice lady. They were especially
nice to my little brother." (I would say that this is a bad
translation as this cannot be translated in English in the proper
way).

Since the Bible (Both the old and the new testaments) and the Quran
were revealed in oriental/ eastern languages, it is not really
surprising for the people speaking these languages (e.g. Arabic,
Aramaic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu etc.) to see words we/ us/ them etc. to
be used for God without even thinking of meaning that God means some
one beside Him as well. However, when these books were translated from
their original language to latin/ western languages that the problem
starts arising where the people speaking e.g English (or Greek or some
other language of the same group for that matter) can't comprehend
that we/ us/ them can be used for any singular person as well. Problem
becomes much more worse in case of Bible, where  we don't have any
original copy of the Bible in the languages it was revealed in i.e
Aramaic/ Hebrew. As far as I know, the earliest copies go to Greek
Translations of the original. However, this is not the case with the
Quran as we can very well read it in Arabic in its original form and
confirm this even today.

Thus when according to Genesis 1:26, it says.... "Let US make man in
our image", it only means that God in His magnificence and glory is
using the word US for himself".

I will quote a similar verse from Quran Chapter 7:10 - 11, "It is We
Who have placed you with authority on earth, and provided you therein
with means for the fulfilment of your life: small are the thanks that
ye give!

11. It is We Who created you and gave you shape; then We bade the
angels bow down to Adam, and they bowed down; not so Iblis; He refused
to be of those who bow down."

Muslims take the above verses to be said by God only ... not with any
other person along with him.

Hope this clarifies the point I was trying to make. Though it was not
really as per the original topic.

And only God knows better.

first of all i want to say something about the guy that says that
people believe in religion is afraid of death.
were christians afraid of death when thrown in to fight the lions
during roman's time?
were buddists afraid of death when they burn themselves alive as a sign of protest?
were muslims afraid of death when they crash boeings into the twin towers?

religion is a powerful force if you think you can just brush it off as
a joke or only dumb people believe in it then you are so wrong.

ok now for your questions.
Both muslims and christians believe in the old testiment (and the jews
too, and mormons... and greek orthodox and a lot of other people) the
difference comes in when jesus came.  christians believe that he's
apart of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) muslims believe
he's a good teach a prophet but definately not God.  They are both
monotheism (believe in one God, because Christian believe in the
Trinity - a very deep subject)

Buddists believe in either many gods or no gods, depending on who you
talk to... because their defination of "god" is very different from
western religions.  they believe that people will be re-born and you
are trying to do better each time.  and there are spirits everywhere
so the ones that are higher up are kind like "gods"

hope this helps.

hope everyone can look into this more... it's a serious topic