Abrahamic religions

[3] The term Abrahamic religions (and its variations) is a collective religious descriptor for elements shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

[18] The Bahá’í scriptures state that the religion's founder, Baháʼu'lláh, descended from Abraham through his wife Keturah's sons.

[22] Adam Dodds argues that the term "Abrahamic faiths", while helpful, can be misleading, as it conveys an unspecified historical and theological commonality that is problematic on closer examination.

[23] Alan L. Berger, professor of Judaic Studies at Florida Atlantic University, wrote that "while Judaism birthed both Christianity and Islam, the three monotheistic faiths went their separate ways" and "each tradition views the patriarchal figure differently as seen in the theological claims they make about him.

[28] While the Book of Genesis speaks of multiple gods (ʾĔlōhīm), comparable to the Enūma Eliš speaking of various gods of the Canaanite pantheon to create the earth, at the time of the Babylonian captivity, Jewish theologians attributed the six-day narrative all to Yahweh, reflecting an early conception of Yahweh as a universal deity.

[29] The monolatrist nature of Yahwism was further developed in the period following the Babylonian captivity, eventually emerging as a firm religious movement of monotheism.

[38] While Christians fashioned their religion around Jesus of Nazareth, the siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), forced Jews to reconcile their belief-system with the destruction of the Second Temple and associated rituals.

[41] The distant God asserted by Jesus according to the Christians, created a form of dualism between Creator and creation and the doctrine of Creatio ex nihilo, which later heavily influenced Jewish and Islamic theology.

[46] In the 7th century AD, Islam was founded by Muhammad in the Arabian Peninsula; it spread widely through the early Muslim conquests, shortly after his death.

Chrislam, a group of related Nigerian religious movements which seek to syncretise Christianity and Islam, is sometimes also considered a minor Abrahamic religion.

Its origins can be dated to 1004 BCE,[58] when according to Biblical tradition David established it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel, and his son Solomon built the First Temple on Mount Moriah.

[59] Since the Hebrew Bible relates that Isaac's sacrifice took place there, Mount Moriah's importance for Jews predates even these prominent events.

[64] He preached and healed in Jerusalem, unceremoniously drove the money changers in disarray from the temple there, held the Last Supper in an "upper room" (traditionally the Cenacle) there the night before he was crucified on the cross and was arrested in Gethsemane.

Another reason for its significance is its connection with the Miʿrāj,[65] where, according to traditional Muslim belief, Muhammad ascended through the Seven heavens on a horse like winged beast named Buraq, guided by the Archangel Gabriel, beginning from the Foundation Stone on the Temple Mount, in modern times under the Dome of the Rock.

[88] Proponents of Abrahamic faiths believe that God is also transcendent, but at the same time personal and involved, listening to prayer and reacting to the actions of his creatures.

Around the year 200, Tertullian formulated a version of the doctrine of the Trinity which clearly affirmed the divinity of Jesus and came close to the later definitive form produced by the Ecumenical Council of 381.

[96] The theology of the attributes and nature of God has been discussed since the earliest days of Christianity, with Irenaeus writing in the 2nd century: "His greatness lacks nothing, but contains all things.

[99][100] In Islamic theology, God (Arabic: الله Allāh) is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer and judge of everything in existence.

[112] Salvation is thus, a grace bestowed by God, not an individual's work, and passages from the Bible are used in Christian theology to underline that message: "surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid"[112](Isaiah 12:2) Christianity understands acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice as a transformation of the individual, by that the person sheds off its former sinful nature and dissolves in the will of Jesus, an idea attributed to Paul in the Bible:"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new cre-ation: the old has gone; the new has come.

[112] The importance of repentance is highlighted throughout Islamic scripture: "Indeed, Allah loves those who are constantly repentant and loves those who purify themselves" (Surah 2:22) Sometimes compared to the concept of original sin, the devils (shayāṭīn) are said to "touch" humans at the moment of birth and a devil is said to move through humans like blood in the veins, causing an urge to sin.

(Sunan Ibn Ma-jah)[112] The devils as conceptualized in the New Testament are in odds with the Islamic idea of monotheism, thus closer to the Jewish understanding of Satan; not as an accuser, but a tempter.

[119] Although there is some debate within Islam over whether it is a religious requirement or mere recommendation, circumcision (called khitan) is practiced nearly universally by Muslim males.

Today, many Christian denominations are neutral about ritual male circumcision, not requiring it for religious observance, but neither forbidding it for cultural or other reasons.

[120] Western Christianity replaced the custom of male circumcision with the ritual of baptism,[121] a ceremony which varies according to the doctrine of the denomination, but it generally includes immersion, aspersion, or anointment with water.

[130][140] Male circumcision is also widely practiced among Christians from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and North Africa.

Male circumcision is among the rites of Islam and is part of the fitrah, or the innate disposition and natural character and instinct of the human creation.

[148] Moses Maimonides, one of the major Jewish teachers, commented: "Quoting from our sages, the righteous people from other nations have a place in the world to come if they have acquired what they should learn about the Creator."

A Muslim who practices da‘wah, either as a religious worker or in a volunteer community effort, is called a dā‘ī, plural du‘āt.

In Islamic theology, the purpose of Da'wah is to invite people, both Muslims and non-Muslims, to understand the commandments of God as expressed in the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet, as well as to inform them about Muhammad.

Forced conversion to Islam has historically been a prominent strategy in the expansion of the religion, imposed extensively by Muslim conquerors on invaded populations.