The Quran

            In my life, I have had little experience with the Quran or Islam in general. Having grown up as a Christian, not much thought was really ever given to their beliefs. The only other time that I have learned about it was in a high school history class, and the teacher had us all read a passage and guess what it was from. It was some story that is also in the Bible, but I can’t remember which. Everyone in the class thought that it was from the Bible, but the teacher revealed to us that it was, in fact, from the Quran. Even as I read the passage, I thought that it was some strange translation of the Bible or something, as it sounded very much like it and contained a shared story. Until now, that was really one of my only experiences with the Quran, and all I remember is that it seemed very similar in at least the part that we read.

            In this reading, one thing that stuck out to me throughout was how God is referred to and described. In the fifty seventh Surah, it says that “He is the dominion over the heavens and the earth…has the power to will anything…and has full knowledge of everything”. This is very similar to the way that we view God as Christians: all-knowing and powerful. We believe that there is one God above all else, which is also how the Quran describes God. Also, as Christians, we believe and depend on God’s grace and compassion, which is also a trait given to God in the Quran. God is called “the dispenser of grace” and compassionate in the fifty seventh Surah. This quality is one that I would consider central to Christianity, and it is interesting to see that it is also a defining characteristic of God in Islam as well. It’s surprising how similar the core beliefs about God are between Christianity and Islam, and I think that most people would not expect how comparable these things are.

            Another similarity that I found was that of how the concepts of heaven and hell are described. In the Quran, the separation of grace and mercy from suffering defines eternity. Those who did not pursue God will spend eternity separated from his mercy. This is similar to the belief that we hold as Christians as well, as those that do not follow God will be eternally divided from him. I thought that this was very unanticipated as well, and that Islam and Christianity both define eternity in a very similar way. The separation from God is what lies before those do not follow him in both religions.

            While I do not have very much experience with the Quran in general, it is always astounding how similar it is to the Bible. The way that it defines God’s characteristics continues to remind me of it. Also, this time reading it I got to see how similarly it refers to eternity, and I found that equally surprising. While there are very clear differences, I am always intrigued by how similar some of the values are.