Top 5 Similarities Between Christianity and Islam

By Nnenna Joseph

Nigeria is a multicultural nation, with three major religions. Development experts have proposed that Religion could be harnessed as a tool for unity. There are 3 major religions in Nigeria- Christianity, Islam, and African Traditional Religion (ATR). These three religions can be found in any part of the country in different percentages. Nigeria has 51.6% Muslim, 46.9% Christian , 9% traditionalist and 5% unspecified.

Islam and Christians are always at loggerheads, sometimes religious wars ensue among them leading to loss of lives and properties. It is important for the worshippers of these religions to know that both religions are foreign and were introduced to us by the colonial masters. They should also know that we are humans first before religious disparities drew the line.

They should also know that Islam and Christianity have a number of things in common, which includes but are not limited to the following:

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Creation story: Both believe that God created the universe and that Adam and Eve were the first humans he created and Eve sinned first by eating the apple from the forbidden tree and then Adam did (Quran 7:20). Christians believe that this is the original sin and in many cases blame women in general. This, they believe, is why women have pain in childbirth and why we suffer on this earth (Genesis chapter 1 and 2). Islam says there is no original sin. While Christians generally say that we are born with a tendency towards sin, Muslims view us as being born free of sin. We have an equal ability to be either good or evil. It is our choices in life which make us one or the other.
Believe in one God: Both believe in one God, his existence, and his supremacy. (John 3 vs 16, Quran 29:46). They however differ in their conceptualization of his being. For Islam this is a strict Monotheism where there is only one God, Qur’an (5:17-18) but whereas Christianity has differing views but many Christian views are closer to what is called monolatry in which there are multiple expressions of one supreme being (the holy trinity for example with The Father(transcendent God in heaven), the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit/Ghost(the essence that is in creation). A few Christians actually view Jesus as a divine being but not exactly God. This would be sort of a soft Polytheism.
Believe in Angels and Demons: (Daniel 8:15–26, 9:21–27, Luke 10 vs 18) Islam believes in Djinn which are like humans and has free will making some good and some evil. Christians believe that the Devil/Satan was a fallen angel and that since angels have free will Lucifer/Satan decided to rebel against God and some angels followed him.
Thus they became demons. Other Christians view Satan as a reference to a Babylonian King and others view satan as a figurative adversary, human sin, and temptation. Muslims view both Humans and Djinn as having free will (Quran, Surah Al-Kahf: 50). Satan or as Muslims refer to him Shaitan was not an angel who fell but a Djinn. Since Djinn has free will they can be good or evil. Shaitan is a title meaning cursed. His name in the Qur’an was Iblees. Iblees once resided in heaven alongside the angels but he refused to bow down to Adam when God presented him to the rest of his creations in heaven. The angels do not have free will so they do everything God tells them to do.

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The Djinn however choose for themselves. Iblees being jealous of Adam and viewing him as a lesser being refused to bow down. He thus disobeyed God and promised to lead people astray to show God how unworthy we are of him. Thus he became “cursed” and took on the title of Shaitan. As you can see the concepts of the two religions vary quite a bit here but are fundamentally similar.
Believe in Heaven: Christians and Muslims both believe in hell in which the wicked will burn forever (Romans 2 vs 6-8). Muslims also believe in a purgatory of sorts in which believers who did not repent enough or do enough good may end up in hell for a short time until their sins are purified from their souls after which they will be allowed to enter heaven (Qur’an 31:8). Some Christians believe in a similar type of existence which they call purgatory although for many that is a place where one is neither in heaven nor in hell and cannot leave to go to one place or another.

Believe in Salvation: Comes from belief in God (Ephesians 2:8-9 )and most believe one must also do good deeds. Some Christian groups say that good deeds are unnecessary because Jesus died for our sins so all we have to do is believe in him. Muslims believe that in addition to belief and good deeds that one must believe in the 5 pillars of Islam and the 6 pillars of Belief (Qur’an, sura 39). Some Christians also believe that sacraments are necessary.
Before engaging in religious debates, it is important to note that both religions have the same fundamental beliefs with varying narratives.