Questioner: I know nothing about Islam in truth, but I just wonder, is there a main difference between Christianity and Islam?
Huzoor (rh): Yes, please. This is a question at the very roots of the understanding of religion. I can only, because the time is also getting very fast to a close, I would like to tell you that fundamentally, all religions must be the same. If not, then there is no God. And forget about religions. If they are at variance with each other in fundamentals, then what sort of God that would be who would teach one something else and the other something else? So, wherever there are differences, you will be surprised to learn that they are at the doctrinal levels. And those differences should not be over much emphasized. They should not be verified with the help of scriptures. Because the scriptures themselves have become unreliable through human interpolation. And unreliable because for centuries you have been listening to the interpretations of certain verses, which have been differently interpreted by others, and you have inherited that interpretation with which your forefathers lived, and they passed it on to generations, or your church lived, and they passed it on to other generations. This is a dilemma which you face, but you still can find a universality of character in all religious teachings. They are the points of commonality. Now, any belief, any doctrine in any religion which is at clash with this universality concept has to be wrong. It has to be misunderstood. In this context, I remind you that the only area of clash is about the person of God. We believe he is one and indivisibly one. We believe that that is how he is reflected in the laws of nature he has made. And there cannot be conceived any split in the person of God. Otherwise, Jesus was a prophet of God. The moment you believe that there is no split in the person of God, the fundamentals of Christianity and Islam become exactly the same. One God, one messenger from God who offered his sacrifices for the sake of truth and did not budge against the most powerful despotic forces working against him. Now, this is Jesus. You give this the name of Jesus or Mohammed (sa) or any other prophet, fundamentally, the prophets retain the same characteristics. Some higher, some lesser, I mean, in strength. But features do not change. So all that of Islam, which is universal in character, agrees 100% with that of Christianity, which is universal in character. And as such, there is very little difference separating the two. Now, only those concepts of Christianity are disagreed with in Islam which are limited to regions or races, or time. All the universal teachings of Christianity are exactly at one with Islam, with few differences of minor details which pertain to the requirement of the age. Barring that, the basic teaching is exactly the same. Now, when you say in Christianity, for instance, that God sent his son to Christianity, which had never happened before, and it is essential to believe in the son for the whole of mankind to be absolved of sin and to be cleansed of all the follies and human failures. When you turn your gaze away from the house of Israel to other peoples and other ages, how did God treat them? Did they exist in the sight of Allah or no? Were they his creatures or not? So, in that teaching which is limited to a house or a race or an area and where everything depends on one single man, if you believe in that, then the concept of the universality of God goes overboard, and no God is left. Contrary to this, what Islam says and there it includes Jesus Christ among the list of the true representatives of God, it says that God sent his messengers and warners to all parts of the world, to every people in every age. Now there, depending on one person, it is completely ruled out, and Jesus is presented as one of the committee of such representatives of God who were sent at different times with different messages, but only different in detail, fundamentally with the same message. So in this way, you can analyze Islam and Christianity, and you will be, I am quite certain, you can be fully satisfied as to the outcome of your analysis if you follow this principle of universality. Everything which contradicts universality of God should be left alone. Everything which confirms and supports the concept of a universal God that should be adopted without the slightest fear. So that should be the first leg of your journey. Little other things will come from that. Right. So they tell me the time is over.
