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Muslims and Christians both have teachings about salvation. What are the differences between the two teachings of each faith?
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Muslims believes that salvation through work and obedience according to the five pillar of Islam while Christians believes that salvation is through faith by believing who Jesus is and what He has done for us.
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Islam – salvation through good works.
Christianity – salvation only through Jesus (His finished work on the Cross, His Resurrection, Defeating Hell and Sin and Through Grace that comes from Faith). -
Unlike Christians, Muslims are taught to believe in the essential goodness of Man at birth and the freedom to choose to do right and wrong that decides an individual’s potential participation in the Muslim Paradise. They are also taught that God is not a Savior, though He may show mercy to those who have done wrong and entered into the practice of Islam. So, Islamic teaching cancels belief in Original Sin, the bondage of the human will, and the need for a Savior.
As all human religions, so-called “salvation” is a matter of accumulating enough good works and right religious actions to counter-balance sins that have been committed. For Muslims, the required behaviors focus on the Five Pillars of Islam:
1. Profession of Faith in Allah and Mohammad (shahada)
2. Prayer (salat) five times a day–individually or in a mosque with an imam, the latter required of men on Friday (or some other day of the week)–with prayers offered, usually from a mat, in the direction of (qibla) the Ka’ba [Allah’s cubical “house of Ibrahim” (Arabic for Abraham) at the center of the Haram Mosque in Mecca
3. Alms (zakat) donated from a fixed portion of personal income to help community members in need, along with–charity–that includes building mosques, drinking fountains, hospitals, schools, and other institutions by wealthy Muslims
4. Fasting (sawm) during daylight hours of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar
5. Pilgrimage (hajj), at least once in a lifetime, by every Muslim whose health and finances permit to gather around the Ka’ba in Mecca on either the eighth or twelfth days of the final month of the Islamic calendar (Dhul Hijjah)Muslims are taught not to believe that Jesus died and not believe that the death of anyone for the sins of another could have any effect on the salvation of the individual . This cancels out the role of Jesus as deliverer from both sin and death and the effectiveness of Jesus’ death and resurrection in bringing about salvation.
