Christopher Lennox

Hist 1500
Professor Blake
The Quran is believed to have been written in 609 CE by the Pohpet Muhammad. It is
believed, that much like the Bible, it was dictated verbally to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel.
This process took about 23 years, with the Quran being finished in 632 CE. The Quran is the
central religious book of Islam. Much like the Bible to Christians and the Torah to the Jews, the
Quran holds the teachings and moral wants of Allah (God). Given todays views on Islam, I
intend to show that Islam is basically as peaceful, and even more alike to Christianity, than most
people know.
We have to look at the time this book was written. During this time, religions were
everywhere; you had the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian Pantheons in the West and North, and you
had to the East Daoism, Buddhism, and Taoism. And there in the middle, you had the three
religions known as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These three religions did something that
most religions of the day did not do, and that was affirm a single God. Monotheism was a direct
threat to the other religions way of life, and so these three religions had to fight for their very
survival. There is evidence of this in the Bible, in Exodus 15:9 The enemy boasted, I will
pursue, I will overtake them. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my
sword and my hand will destroy them. As such, some of these documents might seem very
bloody, as evidence in Surah 3:8 As for the Infidels, their wealth, and their children, shall avail
them nothing against God. They shall be fuel for the fire. But in reality, these books are very
peaceful, but take into account that the world they knew was a very dangerous place. You can

see this in Surah 4:3 and 4:11 And give to the orphans their property; substitute not worthless
things of your own for their valuable ones, and devour not their property after adding it to your
own; for this is a great crime. Verily they who swallow the substance of the orphan
wrongfully, shall swallow down only fire into their bellies, and shall burn in the Flame!
The Quran, as the Bible and Torah, have many themes, but the biggest and the most
important, is that they are the rule books by which modern society runs on. This is evidence by
the many times all three books will tell you to do something (a Law) and the consequences of not
following the law (usually eternal damnation). Many of the Laws laid out in the Quran are the
same as in the Bible. Evidence of this can be seen in Surah 4:28 Forbidden to you also are
married women and in the Bible Exodus 20:2-17 .You shall not covet your neighbors
wife.. You will find many of the same Law themes throughout the three books. Islam, like
Christianity, has its own commandments, known as the Five Pillars of Islam. These are the basic
follow these and youll be good laws. However, there is no one place in the Koran (trust me, I
looked) that just lists them as the Bible does. To find them, and where they are located, I had to
go online, and this is what I found. The Five Pillars are not in the Quran, but in the second book,
the Hadith which is considered the way that Islam is to be practiced. Seeing as this is an analysis
of the Quran, and my thesis is that Islam and therefore the Quran is similar to Christianity and
the Bible, I felt that they were too important to my thesis too be left out. So, the Five Pillars are:
Testimony of Faith, The Prayer, The Obligatory Charity, The Pilgrimage, and The Fasting of
Ramadan.
The Quran, like the Bible, was written for anyone who choose to read and follow its
teachings (The Chosen People). This is evidenced in 2:1-4 No doubt is there about this Book: It
is a guidance to the God-fearing, Who believe in the Unseen, who observe prayer, and out of

what We have bestowed on them, expend for God; And who believe in what hath been sent
down to thee, and in what hath been sent down before thee, and full faith have they in the life to
come: These are guided by their Lord; and with these it shall be well. There are many points to
Islam, and for that matter, Christianity as well. But the main points in both are basically the
same, and that is God has created all, including an afterlife, laws that have to be followed to
attain the afterlife, and the consequences of not following these laws.
The why of this book, of any religious book, is about as impossible to answer as any
there are. But if you look at this book, and take out any philosophy, it was written to save a
persons immortal soul through the following of the laws of Islam. To use this document to find
out what is important to the people at the time is difficult. The basic theme of the stories would
be survival of the family, how to live in a basic society (referenced by the laws that were talked
about), and what type of animals you could or could not eat. If you look at the stories that
reference the family Surah 4:27, you will see that they talk about not marrying your blood
family, leading me to think that they understood that it could cause deformities that could lead to
the destruction of Islam. If you look at the next verse, it says that you should not take a married
woman. This is a basic fundamental of society, do not take another mans wife. If you do, this
could lead to a quarrel and outright violence. This is no way to live in a society.
When I was reading this book, I could not help but be surprised every time I put the book
down and saw the cover and the title was not the Bible. There are few differences between the
two books. They both lay out the same basic rules and ideas. The most difference between Islam
and Christianity are the stories, and HOW the laws are bequeathed to the people. Unlike many
Americans, I knew before reading this book that Islam is not a violent religion; no more so than
Christianity. What I didnt know, was just how similar these two religions are. They teach the

same laws, the same values, and profess one God. I feel that if you look at Islam today, you
would see that it is just being perverted by certain people to gain power; the same as with the
Christian faith when it was going through the ages. Would it not be a very interesting time, if
Islam was going through the same growing pains as Christianity did, only to come out of this
turmoil as peaceful as Christianity?

Citations:
"Quran." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Oct. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
"Exodus 15:9." Exodus 15:9. Web. 27 Oct. 2014
Rodwell, J. M. The Koran. New York, New York: Bantam Dell, 2004. Print.
"Catechism of the Catholic Church - The Ten Commandments." Catechism of the Catholic
Church - The Ten Commandments. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
"Five Pillars of Islam." A Study of the Quran. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.astudyofquran.org/web/index.php?id=60,0,0,1,0,0>.