Shared Roots and Divergent Paths

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are collectively termed the Abrahamic religions because each traces its spiritual lineage, in different ways, to the patriarch Abraham, known in Arabic as Ibrahim, revered in Islamic tradition as a prophet and, according to the Quran, as the builder, together with his son Ishmael, of the Kaaba in Mecca. The three traditions share a wide range of figures recognized, with differing theological significance, across all of them, including Noah, known as Nuh; Moses, known as Musa; and, notably, Jesus, known as Isa, who is honored in Islam as a major prophet and as the Messiah born of the Virgin Mary, known as Maryam, though Islamic theology firmly rejects the Christian doctrine of his divinity and of the crucifixion as his actual death. This shared inheritance reflects a common origin in the religious and narrative world of the ancient Near East and, in the case of Christianity and Islam, direct engagement with earlier Israelite and Jewish scripture and tradition. Islamic tradition refers to Jews and Christians together as Ahl al-Kitab, "People of the Book," in recognition of their possession of earlier scriptures understood, within the Islamic framework, as genuine though incomplete or altered revelations preceding the Quran.