Between the Two Religions …
There Are Differences 

We owe it to the truth to say that there are differences between the two religions. These differences may seem fundamental at first sight, but in reality they are not. Of these, we will mention the following :

- Islam is a religion of absolute Oneness of Allah : "There is no god but Allah". Therefore, unlike in Christianity, there is no room for the Holy Trinity in Islam.

- In Islam, Christ is a prophet; he did not have a human father. Mary conceived him from the Spirit of God. Christ was given birth and created; he is the Word of God.

- In Christianity, Christ is the second person in the Holy Trinity. He is a God in whose person two natures have come together : deity and humanness. He is equal to God, the Father, in essence; he was begotten, not created.

- In Islam, "No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another", and "Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good see it; and anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil shall see it". There is no such thing as the mystery of redemption in Islam.

- In Christianity, Christ was crucified, and he died for the salvation of the human beings.

- In Islam, there is nothing of the kind. Christ was not crucified(*), nor did he die for the sake of the people.

In Islam, there is no such thing as intercession generally speaking; there are no saints or temples consecrated to them, and union with Allah is direct. The world of Christianity is full of saints to whom the believers resort, seeking intercession for them with God.

In spite of everything that has been said, Koranic verses on the tolerance of Islam are many and marvelous, so are the Prophet's positions - and those of the Orthodox Caliphs - vis-à-vis Christianity and the Christians.

The chapter "al-Buruj"(**) - to mention but this one - amply demonstrates the fact that Allah - the Great and Almighty - considers the Christians believers. Allah had pronounced curses on the Jews - the makers of the pit (of fire),  who threw the Christians of Najran into it and set fire to them.

If Islam does not recognize the divinity of Christ, it is not to belittle the son of Mary, but to glorify Allah as the One and Only, for "There is none like unto Him".

It would not be logical on the part of Islam to reject the divinity of Mohammed Ibn Abdu-Allah and to accept that of the son of Mary; for as the saying goes : "He who considers you his equal has not wronged you", which no doubt fits in very well here.

In His Book, Allah commanded Mohammed to  remove all ambiguity and confusion and to settle the matter once and for all : "Say : I am but a human like you".

From Islam's viewpoint, Christ is, as has been said earlier, a holy prophet, whose mother conceived him from the Holy Ghost. He does not have a human father, and he spoke in childhood and worked miracles. In the Holy Quran, he is always and forever called "Jesus son of Mary", the woman whom Allah had purified, and chosen over the women of the worlds.

Apart from the two exceptions mentioned above, it may be said that Islam’s view of the Gospel is no different from its view of the Holy Quran; it considers the Gospel a revealed Book, too, as this verse shows : "It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus). Before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the Criterion (of Judgment between right and wrong)".

We would not be honest to ourselves and to the reader if we did not say that the Quran accuses the Christians of having forgotten some of that which Allah has revealed; that is, some of the Gospel :

"From those, too, who call themselves Christians, We did take a Covenant, but they forgot a good part of the message that was sent to them : so We estranged them, with enmity and hatred between the one and the other", [The Table Spread : 14].

Known as the Canonical Gospels and acknowledged by the Church, the Four Gospels - Mathew, Marcus, Luke, and John respectively - are in the Christian faith revealed books, written by these four evangelists on the basis of revelation.

In addition to these four gospels, there are other apocryphal ones which the Church does not acknowledge.

Islam believes that there was only one Gospel which Allah had sent down to Christ Jesus the son of Mary, His Prophet and His Messenger, and that it is not exactly the same as the gospels which were written later.

It is to this Revealed Gospel that the following verse alludes : "And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him : We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light", [The Table Spread : 46]. So do 3rd and 4th verses of the chapter "The Family of Imran" quoted earlier.

Islam holds that the revealed Gospel - the only one - speaks of neither the divinity of Christ nor of his being the son of God, two points which are mentioned in the Four Gospels referred to earlier. The Holy Quran says :

"They do blaspheme who say : 'Allah is Christ the son of Mary", [The Table Spread : 72].

"Say not : 'Trinity'; desist, it will be better for you : for Allah is One God : Glory be to Him : Far exalted is He above having a son", [Women : 171].

"And behold! Allah will say : 'O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men : worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah ?' He will say : 'Glory to Thee! Never could I say what I have no right (to say)'", [The Table Spread : 116].

The purpose of this brief survey of the Koranic verses is to help us form a general opinion on the position of Islam with regard to the Christian faith, the Christians, the anchorites, Christ himself, and his Mother Mary.

There are, therefore, disparities between Islam and Christianity; however, as we have already said, they are not as fundamental as they appear to be at first glance. That is because both Christianity and Islam view Christ as the Word of God :

"O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him : his name will be Christ Jesus the son of Mary", [The Family of Imran : 45].

"Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) a Messenger of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him : so believe in Allah and His Messengers", [Women : 171].

John's Gospel -  the Gospel of the Holy Spirit- begins as follows : "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God".

Our purpose is not to conduct a theological research here. That would be beyond our scope anyway, in terms of both our personal abilities and our qualifications for discussing such matters.

However, for the sake of reconciling the two views (Islamic and Christian) and of conciliating the hearts and the minds, we will say the following :

In Islam, Allah revealed His Word to Man; in Christianity, God's revelation is Man.

Lastly, we must honestly and courageously acknowledge that Christian beliefs and mysteries are beyond the scope of the human mind which has, on many occasions, clashed with Christianity and gone amiss in its mysterious worlds.

This explains why all the heresies - which, in their essence, were nothing more than intellectual theological battles waged by the Christian mind against those beliefs and mysteries - emerged beginning from the fourth century; that is, ever since the Roman Empire acknowledged Christianity as an acceptable religion among other religions.

Arianism, nestorianism and Jacobinism - the most important and the most dangerous heresies in the history of Christianity - which concerned themselves with the person of Christ as a god with two natures, rejecting one or the other - are proofs from within Christianity that the mystery of incarnation was like a sledge hammer that fell upon the Christian minds with blows during 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries, thus impairing them.

Whatever the case, the two religions (Christianity and Islam) need not be similar and in agreement in letter and spirit to coexist and cooperate with each other.

The beauty of the universe lies in its diversity, and the universe is the creation of Allah - The Great and Almighty - "If thy Lord had so willed, He could have made mankind one people".

Both Christianity and Islam call for the worship of God, enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil, and believe in the Last Day and the Last Judgement.

Allah is One in Christianity and in Islam, but the paths leading to Him are many. Like the mosque, the church is a place for worship, prayer and piety. Let the Muslim live his Islam, and the Christian his Christianity. In such a situation, the world will be an inkling as to what Heaven would be like, and the Lebanon will turn into a paradise on God's vast earth.

The misfortunes of the Lebanon emanate from the fact that the Christian does not behave in accordance with the teachings of Christ, and the Muslim does not act according to the tenets of the Holy Quran and the Prophet's Sunna.

Generally speaking, the Muslim does not have a good grasp of Islam; the same statement also applies to the Christian: he is just not well-grounded in Christianity. Likewise, the Muslim is unacquainted with Christianity, and the Christian has no knowledge of Islam. We are all victims of ignorance; and as the poet said : "Ignorance destroys the mansion of glory and noble-mindedness". That is why we have destroyed the Lebanon.