Abrahamic religions

The Abrahamic religions (also known as Abrahamic faiths, Abrahamic traditions, religions of Abraham, Abrahamic monotheistic religions, semitic religions, Semitic monotheistic religions, and Semitic one god religions, etc.)^[1] are historically the world's three primary monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which share a common origin and values. The origins of Abrahamic religion are found in Judaism, which began in the first and second millennium BCE in ancient Israel and Judah during which time the Hebrew Bible was composed. Some 1,500 years later Christianity was formed by the Jewish followers of Jesus of Nazareth and is based primarily on the New Testament books. Islam was founded by Muhammad in the 7th century CE upon the teachings in the Quran, which commonly refers to Israelite figures like Moses and David, and also to Jesus. For some 1,300 years their histories and thought have been intertwined. They are considered inextricably linked to one another because of a 'family likeness' and a certain commonality in theology.^[2] They are faiths that recognize a spiritual tradition identified with Abraham.^[3]^[4]^[5] The sacred narratives of all three of these religions feature many of the same figures, histories and places in each, although they often present them with slightly different roles, perspectives and meanings.

Today, there are an estimated 3.8 billion followers of these three Abrahamic religions,^[6] accounting for more than half of the world's population.^[7]

By contrast, the major non-Abrahamic world religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. They are the "Eastern religions" that include the "Dharmic" religions of India and the "Taoic" East Asian religions.

Historically the three Abrahamic religions have been universally considered to be Judaism, Christianity and Islam.^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

Etymology

It has been suggested that the phrase, "Abrahamic religion," may simply mean that all three religions come from one spiritual source.^[3] Christians refer to Abraham as a "father in faith."Rom. 4 There is an Islamic religious term, Millat Ibrahim (The religion of Abraham),^[4]^[5] indicating that Islam sees itself as having practices tied to the traditions of Abraham.^[12] In addition to Jewish direct birth descendancy from Abraham, adherents follow his practices and ideals as the first of the three spiritual "fathers," Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

All three major Abrahamic religions claim a direct lineage to Abraham.

Abraham is recorded in the Torah as the ancestor of the Israelites through his son Isaac, born to Sarah through a promise made in Genesis.Gen. 17:16^[13] All variants of Judaism through the early twentieth century (prophetic, rabbinic, reform, and conservative) were founded by Israelite descendants.
Christianity is sourced from Christ, known to be Jewish, and therefore making the same ancestry claim as above.
Muslims have a tradition that Muhammed, as a Mecca-region Arab, descends from Abraham's son Ishmael.^[14]

However, the term 'Abrahamic faiths,' while helpful, is also misleading.^[15] It conveys an unspecified historical and theological commonality that is problematic on closer examination. While there is commonality among the three religions, in large measure their shared ancestry is peripheral to their respective foundational beliefs and thus eclipse crucial differences. For example, the core Christian beliefs of Incarnation, Trinity, and Jesus' Resurrection are categorically denied by Judaism and Islam (see for example Islamic view of Jesus' death.) There are key beliefs in both Islam and Judaism that are not shared by Christianity, and so on.^[16]

Common aspects

The three great faiths called Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were born of an event that each remembers as a moment in history, when the One True God appeared to an Iron Age sheik named Abram and bound him in a covenant forever. Abram is the later Abraham, the father of all believers and the linchpin of the faith, and indeed the theology, from which the three communities of that God's worshipers emerged. The history of monotheism had begun.
— F. E. Peters^[17]

Abrahamic religions share the following similarities:

Monotheism: All three religions claim to be monotheistic, worshiping an exclusive God, though known by different names.^[17] For all three, God creates, is one, rules, reveals, loves, judges, and forgives.^[15] However, Christianity's complex Trinitarian doctrine conflicts with Jewish and Muslim concepts of monotheism. They reject the incarnation of God in Christ—one of the distinctive features of the Christian religion. Although Christianity does not believe in three gods, rather three personalities in one "Almighty God,"^[18] the concept of Trinity remains a problem for the other major Abrahamic religions.^[19]
Jerusalem:
- Judaism: Jerusalem became Judaism's holiest city in 1005 BCE when David established it as the capital of Israel, and his son Solomon built the First Temple on Mount Moriah. Since the Hebrew Bible relates that Isaac's sacrifice took place there, Mount Moriah's importance for Jews pre-dates even these prominent events. Jews pray in its direction, thrice daily pray for its restoration and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple on Mount Moriah, close the Passover service with the wistful statement "Next year in Jerusalem," and recall the city in the blessing at the end of each meal. Jerusalem has served as the only capital of all three Jewish states that have existed in Israel since 1400 BC. It is the only city that has had a Jewish majority during all of the twentieth century. ^{[citation needed]}
- Christianity: The Romans destroyed the Second Temple and expelled the Jews from the area in 70CE. There has been a continuous Christian presence there since.^[20] William R. Kenan, Jr., professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, writes that from the middle of the fourth century to the Arab conquest in the middle of the seventh century, the Roman province of Palestine was a Christian nation with Jerusalem its principal city.^[20] According to the New Testament, Jerusalem was the city Jesus was brought to as a child to be presented at the TempleLuke 2:22 and for the Feast of the Passover.Luke 2:41 He preached and healed in Jerusalem, ceremonially cleansed the Temple there, held the Last Supper in an "upper room", possibly the Cenacle, there the night before his death on the cross, was arrested in Gethsemane, the six parts to Jesus' trial—three stages in a religious court and three stages before a Roman court—were all held in Jerusalem. His crucifixion at Golgotha, his burial nearby, and his resurrection and ascension and prophecy to return all are said to have occurred there.
- Islam: Jerusalem, the city of David and Christ, became a very holy place to Muslims like Mecca and Medina. The Al-Aqsa mosque, which translates to "farthest mosque" in sura Al-Isra in the Qur'an and its surroundings (Jerusalem) as "the holy land". The first Muslims did not pray toward Mecca, but toward Jerusalem. Another reason of significance is its connection with the Miʿrāj^[21] (the Prophet Muhammad’s ascension to heaven).^[22]^[23]
Prophetic tradition.

All three religions affirm one personal eternal God who created a contingent universe, who providentially rules history, who sends prophetic and angelic messengers and who reveals the divine will through inspired Scriptures. They also affirm that obedience to this creator God is to be lived out historically, and that one day God will unilaterally intervene in human history on the day of judgment and will determine for all humanity their eternal destinies of heaven or hell based upon a person's beliefs and actions.

This theological continuity among them is profound, especially given that the great religions of Eastern Asia, the dominant schools of Greek philosophy, modernity and postmodernity, in short almost all other religious and philosophical systems, cannot claim anything close to this level of doctrinal continuity.^[15]^: p.236 They all believe that God guides humanity through revelation to prophets, and each religion recognizes that God revealed teachings up to and including those in their own scripture. However, each rejects revelations claimed by the later religions. Jews accept, for example, that God guided Melchizedek and then Abraham but no prophets claimed by other religions after them. Christians accept the Hebrew prophets and scripture, but reject Islam's prophet and scriptures. Islam accepts that God revealed guidance for Jews and Christians and then adds their own perceived revelations in their scripture.^[17]

Genesis and the Qur'an: The Qur'an talks about the Great flood and the story of Noah's ark that was also mentioned in the Old Testament with some minor differences.
Semitic: The peoples and languages Abrahamic religions arose from were in fact of one people—Jews and Arabs are among the Semites.^[24]
An ethical orientation: all three religions speak of a choice between good and evil, which is associated with obedience or disobedience to a single God and to Divine Law.
An eschatological world view of history and destiny, beginning with the Creation of the world and the concept that God works through history, and ending with a Resurrection of the dead and final judgment.^[25]
Association with the desert, sometimes called desert monotheism, which some commentators believe has imbued these religions with a particular ethos.^[26]^{: pp. 55, 150}
Acceptance of some of Judaism's religious obligations found in the Bible as a spiritual devotion to the traditions of Abraham (rather than of Moses) by Christianity^[27] (see also Biblical law in Christianity and Judeo-Christian); and by Islam, including those that have parallel accounts in the Qur'an, such as the stories of Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses.^{[neutrality is disputed]}

The significance of Abraham

For Jews

For Jews, Abraham is, through Isaac and Jacob, the founding patriarch of the Children of Israel. God promised Abraham: "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you."Gen. 12:2 With Abraham, God entered into "an everlasting covenant throughout the ages to be God to you and to your offspring to come."Gen. 17:7

Abraham is primarily a revered ancestor or patriarch (referred to as Avraham Avinu אברהם אבינו "Abraham Our Father") to whom God made several promises: chiefly, that he would have numberless descendants, who would receive the land of Canaan (the "Promised Land.") According to Jewish tradition, Abraham was the first post-Flood prophet to reject idolatry through rational analysis, although Shem and Eber carried on the tradition from Noah.

Abraham not only symbolically appears as a fundamental figure for Judaism, but is recognised to have observed the tenets of the Torah before it was given to Moses. Modern scholars do not accept that the K'tav Ivri is named after Abraham (who was known as the "Ivri", which occurs in Genesis Gen 14:13 with the phrase Avram ha-Ivri, and is the origin of the English word Hebrew). The early Midrashic sources explicitly state that the laws of Torah (Passover) were observed by the Patriarchs long before Sinai,^[28] and in one case with a simultaneous explicit example for chronological calculations:Gen. 26:5^[29]

The nation of Israel was created by the story which made all of them descendants of Jacob (Israel). All could claim fathers (the sons of Jacob and their offspring) who had been miraculously led out of Egypt and through the sea and the desert into the promised land. This was the covenant that was re-enacted in rituals and offerings of the annual festivals, and of course it's the story that is still celebrated and told, and present in ritual, in every Passover celebration today.
— Helmut Koester^[30]

For Christians

Christians view Abraham as an important exemplar of faith, and a spiritual, as well as physical, ancestor of Jesus—a Jew considered the Son of God through whom God promised to bless all the families of the earth. For Christians, Abraham is a spiritual forebear rather than a direct ancestor, as defined by Paul the Apostle,Rom. 4:9–12 with the Abrahamic Covenant "reinterpreted so as to be defined by faith in Christ rather than biological descent";^[31] see also New Covenant. In Christian belief, Abraham is a role model of faith,Heb. 11:8–10 and his obedience to God by offering Isaac is seen as a foreshadowing of God's offering of his son Jesus.Rom. 8:32^[32]

The tendency of Christian commentators to interpret God's promises to Abraham as applying to Christianity rather than Judaism, whose adherents rejected Jesus, is derived from Paul's interpretation of all descendants who believe in God as being spiritual descendants of Abraham.Rom. 4:20 Gal. 4:9 ^[33] However, in both cases he refers to these spiritual descendants as the "sons of God"Gal. 4:26 rather than "children of Abraham".^[34]

For Muslims

There are several reasons that Abraham is significant in Islam. For Muslims, Abraham is a prophet, the " messenger of God" who stands in the line from Noah to Muhammad, to whom Allah gave revelations,^{[Quran 4:163]}, who "raised the foundations of the House" (i.e., the Ka'aba)^{[Quran 2:127]} with his first son, Isma'il. Ibrahim (Abraham) is the first in a genealogy for Muhammad. Islam considers Abraham to be the "first Muslim" (Surah 3)—the first monotheist in a world where monotheism was lost. He is also referred to in Islam as ابونا ابرهيم or "Our Father Abraham", as well as Ibrahim al-Hanif or "Abraham the Monotheist". Islam holds that it was Ishmael, (Isma'il, Muhammad's ancestor) rather than Isaac, whom Ibrahim was instructed to sacrifice. In addition to this spiritual lineage, the northern Adnani Arab tribes trace their lineage to Isma'il, and thus to Abraham.^[35]

Muslims see Abraham as one of the most important of the many prophets sent by God. Thus he represents, for some, a common focal point whom they seek to emphasize by means of this terminology.^{[citation needed]}

The religions

Abraham had eight sons by three women: Ishmael by his wife's servant Hagar, Isaac by his wife Sarah and six by his wife Keturah.

Judaism

Judaism is unquestionably the oldest of all existent Abrahamic religions. Jewish historical origins begin with Abraham after he married Sarah, and left Ur of the Chaldees. Through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob (also known as Israel) the Jews derive an uninterrupted history. The Jewish people are generally referred to as the Children of Israel, signifying their descent from Jacob.^[36] The genealogy is recorded in the Torah.

Judaism moved from an unorganized religion of the Hebrew tribes, to a Law-based religion with an emphasis on prophets in 1,400 BCE when the Torah was given to the Jewish people. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman Empire in 70 CE, its focus moved toward Rabbinic Judaism as a result of the Diaspora.^[37]

Christianity

The Christian faith is generally accepted to have begun in Judea in the 1st century CE, then part of Iudaea province, as a radically reformed branch of Judaism (see Early Christianity). After centuries of trying to establish a unified Christendom, Christianity split into many separate churches and denominations. Today Christianity is the largest religion in the world.

Islam

Muslims believe that Islam is a faith that has always existed and that it was gradually revealed to humanity by a number of prophets including Adam (the first human), David and Christ. The Qur'an also discusses Judaism and Christianity. They consider that the final and complete revelation of the faith was made through the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a descendant of Abraham, in the 7th century CE^[35] cities of Mecca and Medina.

The Supreme Deity

All three religions worship a Supreme Deity conceived strictly monotheistically as One Being. The Christian god is at the same time (according to most of mainstream Christianity) an indivisible Trinity (Tri-unity), a view not shared by the other religions.

God in Judaism

Jewish theology is based on the Hebrew Bible, where the nature and commandments of God are revealed through the writings of Moses, the Torah, the writings of the prophets, psalmists and other ancient canonized scriptures, together with the Torah known as the Tanakh. Additionally, it usually has a basis in its Oral Law, as recorded in the Mishnah and Gemora that form the Talmud.

This Supreme Being is referred to in the Hebrew Bible in several ways, such as Elohim, Adonai or by the four Hebrew letters "Y-H-V (or W) -H" (the tetragrammaton), which observant Jews do not pronounce as a word. The Hebrew words Eloheynu (Our God) and HaShem (The Name), as well as the English names "Lord" and "God", are also used in modern-day Judaism. The latter is sometimes written "G-d" in reference to the taboo against pronouncing the tetragrammaton.^{[citation needed]}

The word "Elohim" has the Hebrew plural ending "-īm", which some Biblical scholars have taken as support for the general notion that the ancient Hebrews were polytheists in the time of the patriarchs; however, as the word itself is used with singular verbs, this hypothesis is not accepted by most Jews. Jews point out other words in Hebrew used in the same manner according to the rule of Hebrew Grammar, denoting respect, majesty and deliberation, similar to the royal plural in English and ancient Egyptian, and the use of the plural form "vous" for individuals of higher standing in modern French. Jewish Biblical scholars and historical commentary on the passage also suggest that Elohim in the plural form indicates God in conjunction with the heavenly court, i.e., the Angels. The pre-Christian era, early CE-period Kabbalistic and later in the European Chasidic movements after the Baal Shem Tov, such as Breslov and Chabad, all indicate the use of Elokim as denoting the multidimensional existence of God on, in, and through every possible dimension of the created existence. See Likutei Moharan and the Tanya, as well as the Zohar, Bahir, and the Kabbalistic texts of Sefer Yitzirah, Sefer Refayim, and Sefer Malachim, to name a few. Including the writings of the Ramchal (R. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto), Drech HaShem and others such as the Rashbi (R. Shimon bar Yochai, author of the Zohar) all explain the use of the Elokim as a pluralistic singularity, one essence sustaining all levels of creation from the mundane physical to the sublime and Holy spiritual.^[38]

God in Christianity

Christians believe that the God worshiped by the faithful Hebrew people of the pre-Christian era has always revealed himself as he did through Jesus; but that this was never obvious until the Word of the Lord, the revelation of God, became flesh and dwelt among us (see John 1). Also, despite the fact that the Angel of the Lord spoke to the Patriarchs, revealing God to them, it has always been only through the Spirit of God granting them understanding, that men have been able to later perceive that they had been visited by God himself. After Jesus was raised from the dead—according to Christian scriptures—this ancient Hebrew witness of how God reveals himself as Messiah came to be seen in a very different light. It was then that Jesus' followers began to speak widely of him as God himself,John 20:28 although this had already been revealed to certain individuals during his ministry. Examples were the Samaritan woman in Shechem and Jesus' closest apostles^[39]

This belief gradually developed into the modern formulation of the Trinity, which is the doctrine that God is a single entity (YHWH), but that there is a real "threeness" in God's single being, which has always been evident albeit not understood. This mysterious "threeness" has been described as, for want of better terms, hypostases in the Greek language (subsistences in Latin), and "persons" in English. In the traditional Christian concept, God the Father has only ever been revealed through his eternal Word (who was born as Jesus, of the Virgin Mary, God the Son) and his Spirit (who after the Resurrection was given to humanity at Pentecost, establishing the Christian church).^{[citation needed]}

Nonetheless Christians stress that they only believe in one god. To believe in 3 gods would be thought of as heretical.

God in Islam

There is only one God in Islam. Allah is the Arabic word for God, used by all Arabs of all faiths. Islamic tradition also describes the 99 names of God. These 99 names describe attributes of God, including Most Merciful, The Just, The Peace and Blessing, and the Guardian. Islamic belief in God is distinct from Christianity in that God accepts no partners and has no progeny. This belief is summed up in chapter 112 of the Qur'an titled Al-Ikhlas, which states "God is One, He is the Eternal, the Absolute. He does not beget nor was he begotten. And there is none like Him".^{[Quran 112:1]}

See also: Islamic concept of God

Muslims believe that the Jewish God is the same as their God, and that Jesus was a divinely inspired prophet and was neither God nor His son. The Qur'an also draws a similitude between Jesus and Adam—the first human being created by God—saying they were both 'created from dust' by God who said the simple word "Be" (Arabic, 'kun').^{[Quran 3:59]} Thus, both the Torah and the Gospels are believed to be based upon divine revelation, but most Muslims believe them to have been corrupted (both accidentally, through errors in transmission, and intentionally by certain Jews and Christians over the centuries). Muslims revere the Qur'an as the final uncorrupted word of God, or 'The Last Testament' as revealed through the last prophet, Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad is regarded as the "Seal of the Prophets" i.e. the last in a long chain, and Islam as the final monotheist faith, perfect in all respects as taught by the Qur'an.^[Quran 5:3]

Religious scriptures

All these religions rely on a body of scriptures, some of which are considered to be the word of God—hence sacred and unquestionable—and some the work of religious men, revered mainly by tradition and to the extent that they are considered to have been divinely inspired, if not dictated, by the divine being.

Jewish

The sacred scriptures of Judaism are the Tanakh, a Hebrew acronym standing for Torah (Law or Teachings), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings). These are complemented by and supplemented with various (originally oral) traditions: Midrash, the Mishnah, the Talmud and collected rabbinical writings. The Tanakh (or Hebrew Bible) was composed between 1,400 BCE, and 400 BCE by Jewish prophets, kings, and priests. The Hebrew text of the Tanakh, and the Torah in particular, is considered holy, down to the last letter: transcribing is done with painstaking care. An error in a single letter, ornamentation or symbol of the 300,000+ stylized letters that make up the Hebrew Torah text renders a Torah scroll unfit for use; hence the skills of a Torah scribe are specialist skills, and a scroll takes considerable time to write and check.^{[citation needed]}

Christian

The sacred scriptures of most Christian groups are the Old Testament, which is largely the same as the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament. The latter comprises four accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus (the Four Gospels, traditionally attributed to his apostles Matthew and John, and the later converts Mark and Luke), as well as several other writings by the apostles (such as Paul). They are usually considered to be divinely inspired in some sense, and together comprise the Christian Bible. Thus, Christians consider the fundamental teachings of the Old Testament, in particular the Ten Commandments, as valid (see Biblical law in Christianity for details). However, they believe that the coming of Jesus as the Messiah and saviour of humankind as predicted in the Old Testament would shed light on the true relationship between God and mankind by restoring the emphasis of universal love and compassion (as mentioned in the Shema) above the other commandments, also de-emphasising the more "legalistic" and material precepts of Mosaic Law (such as circumcision and the dietary constraints and temple rites). Some Christians believe that the link between Old and New Testaments in the Bible means that Judaism has been superseded by Christianity as the "new Israel",^[40] and that Jesus' teachings described Israel not as a geographic place, but rather an association with God and promise of salvation in heaven, a revisionist position rejected by Jews.

A Bible handwritten in Latin, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. This Bible was transcribed in Belgium in 1407 for reading aloud in a monastery.

The vast majority of Christian faiths (generally including Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Anglicanism and most forms of Protestantism) derive their beliefs from the conclusions reached by the First Council of Nicaea in 325 in a document known as the Nicene Creed. This describes the belief that God (as a Trinity of distinct persons with one substance) became human on earth, born as Jesus pursuant to the Old Testament scriptures, was crucified by humanity, died and was buried, then was resurrected on the third day to rise and enter the Kingdom of Heaven and "sit at the right hand of" God with a promise to return. Christians generally believe that faith in Jesus is the way to achieve salvation and to enter into heaven, and that salvation is a gift given by the grace of God.

Christians recognize that the Gospels were passed on by oral tradition, and were not set to paper until decades after the death of Jesus, and that the extant versions are copies of those originals. Indeed, the version of the Bible considered to be most valid (in the sense of best conveying the true meaning of the word of God) has varied considerably: the Greek Septuagint, the Syriac Peshitta, the Latin Vulgate, the English King James Version and the Russian Synodal Bible have been authoritative to different communities at different times. In particular, Christians usually consult the Hebrew version of the Old Testament when preparing new translations, although some believe that the Septuagint should be preferred, as it was the Bible of the Early Christian Church, and because they believe its translators used a different Hebrew Bible to the ones that make up the current Masoretic Hebrew text, as there are some variant readings of the Dead Sea Scrolls confirmed by the Septuagint. In the same sense that the Jewish mystics viewed the Torah as something living and existing prior to any written text, so too do Christians view the Bible and Jesus himself as God's "Word" (or logos in Greek), transcending written documents.

The sacred scriptures of the Christian Bible are complemented by a large body of writings by individual Christians and councils of Christian leaders (see canon law). Some Christian churches and denominations consider certain additional writings to be binding; other Christian groups consider only the Bible to be binding (sola scriptura).^{[citation needed]}

Islamic

File:Aziz efendi-muhammad alayhi s-salam.jpg

"Muhammad" in a new genre of Islamic calligraphy started in the 17th century by Hafiz Osman.^[41]

Islam's holiest book is the Qur'an, comprising 114 suras ("chapters of the Qur'an"). However, Muslims also believe in the religious texts of Judaism and Christianity in their original forms, albeit not the current versions (which they believe to be revised or changed). According to the Qur'an (and mainstream Muslim belief), the verses of the Qur'an were revealed from God through the Archangel Jibrail to the Prophet Muhammad on separate occasions. These revelations were written down during Muhammad's lifetime and also memorized by hundreds of hafiz. These multiple sources were collected into one official copy in 633 AD, one year after his death. Finally, the Qur'an was given its present order in 653 AD by the third Caliph.

The Qur'an mentions and reveres several of the Israelite prophets, including Jesus, among others (see also: Prophets of Islam). The stories of these prophets are very similar to those in the Bible. However, the detailed precepts of the Tanakh and the New Testament are not adopted outright; they are replaced by the new commandments revealed directly by God (through Gabriel) to Muhammad and codified in the Qur'an.^{[citation needed]}

Like the Jews with the Torah, Muslims consider the original Arabic text of the Qur'an as uncorrupted and holy to the last letter, and any translations are considered to be interpretations of the meaning of the Qur'an, as only the original Arabic text is considered to be the divine scripture.^{[citation needed]}

Like the Rabbinic Oral Law to the Hebrew Bible, the Qur'an is complemented by the Hadith, a set of books by later authors recording the sayings of the prophet Muhammad. The Hadith interpret and elaborate Qur'anic precepts. There is no consensus within Islam on the authority of the Hadith collections, but Islamic scholars have categorized each Hadith at one of the following levels of authenticity or isnad: genuine (sahih), fair (hasan) or weak (da'if). Amongst Shia Muslims, no hadith is regarded as Sahih, and hadith in general are only accepted if there is no disagreement with the Qur'an.^{[citation needed]}

By the ninth century, six collections of Hadiths were accepted as reliable to Sunni Muslims. Shia Muslims, however, refer to an alternative tradition of authenticated Hadiths.^{[citation needed]}

The Sunni Collections:

Al-Bukhari (d. 870)
Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 875)
Ibn Maja (d. 886)
Abu Da'ud (d. 888)
Al-Tirmidhi (d. 892)
Al-Nasa'i (d. 915)

The Hadith and the life story of Muhammad (sira) form the Sunnah, a scriptural supplement to the Qur'an. The legal opinions of Islamic jurists (fiqh) provide another source for the daily practice and interpretation of Islamic tradition.^{[citation needed]}

The Qur'an contains repeated references to the "religion of Abraham" (see Suras 2:130,135; 3:95; 6:123,161; 12:38; 16:123; 22:78). In the Qur'an, this expression refers specifically to Islam; sometimes in contrast to Christianity and Judaism, as in Sura 2:135, for example: They say: 'Become Jews or Christians if any woud be guided (to salvation).' Say you: 'No! (I would rather) the Religion of Abraham the True, and he joined not Allah with Allah. In the Qur'an, Abraham is declared to have been a Muslim (a hanif), not a Jew nor a Christian (Sura 3:67).

End times and afterlife

In the major Abrahamic religions, there exists the expectation of an individual who will herald the time of the end and/or bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth; in other words, the Messianic prophecy. Judaism awaits the coming of the Jewish Messiah; the Jewish concept of Messiah differs from the Christian concept in several significant ways, despite the same term being applied to both. The Jewish Messiah is not seen as a "god", but as a mortal man who by his holiness is worthy of that description. He appearance may not end history.^{[citation needed]}

Christianity awaits the Second Coming of Christ, though Full Preterists believe this has already happened. Islam awaits both the second coming of Jesus (to complete his life and die, since he arose from the dead) and the coming of Mahdi (Sunnis in his first incarnation, Shi'a as the return of Muhammad al-Mahdi). The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes that both Mahdi and the Second Coming of Christ were fulfilled in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.^{[citation needed]}

Most Abrahamic religions agree that a human being comprises the body, which dies, and the soul, which is capable of remaining alive beyond human death and carries the person's essence, and that God will judge each person's life accordingly after death. The importance of this and the focus on it, as well as the precise criteria and end result, differs between religions.^{[citation needed]}