The Historical Relationship Between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity

Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are all monotheistic religions whose followers worship the same God.  Muhammad founded Islam,  Moses founded Judaism, and Jesus founded Christianity.  Judaism was the first monotheistic religion, then Christianity followed after.  Jesus was a Jew and the people who believed that Jesus was the son of God became the Christians.  Muhammad was the last prophet and created Islam.  Muhammad taught his followers that all people who worshiped one God are equal.  Abraham was the person who started the practice of monotheism.  All three of these religions developed from his idea.

The Importance of the Qur'an

The Qur'an is the holy book of the Muslims.  The poetic beauty of this book helped attract new believers to convert to Islam. The Qur'an tell the stories of Muhammad.

The Life and teachings of Muhammad

Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. in the city of Mekkah.  He was born into a humble family in the Hashim clan.  Before he was born, his father died, and when he was young his mother and grandfather died.  He then lived with his uncle and traveled around on merchant trips with him.  When he was old enough, he became a merchant of his own.  When he was 25 he married Khadijah, a widow.  In 610 C.E., Muhammad started to go to pray in a cave in the mountains.  This is where the angel Gabriel told Muhammad he was the messenger of God.  Muhammad then founded the Islamic religion.  Muhammad's wife was the first to convert to Islam. Islam is a monotheistic religion.  For 22 years, Muhammad received messages from God through the angel Gabriel.  Muhammad soon had a small group of followers called Muslims.  Muhammad began to preach Islam to the other Makkans.  People in his clan and other clans began to become followers.  The leaders of Mekkah did not agree with Muhammad and thought he was gaining too much power, so they started a boycott against Muhammad.  Because of the boycott many of the Muslims began to starve, and his wife died because of this.  After these hard times, Muhammad went on a journey known as The Night Journey to Jerusalem.  There he prayed with other prophets such as Jesus and moses, and then God took him up to Heaven.

Life in Arabia Before Muhammad

A group of families ruled the city of Makkah, a trading and religious center.  These families did not share any of their wealth with the poorer and weaker clans of the city.  The people of Makkah were polytheistic.  That means they worshiped more than one god.  They would worship a box that was created by Abraham for God. Instead of worshiping the one God, the Arabs stored many statues of gods in the box to worship them.  Many people who lived in the desert and farther away came to worship gods at Makkah.  Since there was no central government in Arabia, the Arabs would pledge their loyalty to a local tribe.