Moral Codes in Islam and Christianity: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The ultimate aim of all the true religions of the world is to guide its followers towards a right way. ln order to do so, ethical teaching or moral knowledge is a vital factor, and without this, it seems impossible to lead a desirable life to all. That is why, ethical issues occupy a very important place in all the great religions of the world. In a general sense, all the religions tell us 'not to tell a lie' ' not to hit or kill others' 'you should respect your parents, elders, neighbors’ and so on. In the same way, there are thousands of ethical teachings contained in all the great religions of the world. As a noble and great religion, Christianity is also full of these sorts of ethical teachings, which can be a proper guideline for an individual to be a perfect ethical being. My aim in this chapter is to explore the ethical teachings of Christianity as a whole and in a very brief and general way. In present chapter J will not cover all the aspects of Christian ethics as it is very difficult lo touch all its aspects in a single chapter. I also try to indicate here very briefly the factors which are most influential in constructing the Christian ethical view. Christianity, a religion of almost one third of the total world population, originates in the beginning of the first century. According to the view of the New Testament, Jesus Christ the founder of this religion was born in Bethlehem 1, some 8 kilometers away from Jerusalem, which is claimed to be a holy place by the followers of all the revealed religions. He was born miraculously from a virgin mother of the Jews community at the time of Roman ruler Herod in Judea at that time2• He had started his prophetic mission in Galilee at the time of proclamation, and later arrested of John the Baptist in Judea, the another part of Palestine region3 • At the initial stage, he was preaching his new divine revelation towards the Jews community who were practicing the old divine revelation propounded by the former prophets for the Jews, though it was somehow derailed from its original form. With the passage of time, so many superstitions were mingled with the prophetic teachings, which Jesus tried to remove and make it clean and re-established it in its original form in the light of his new divine revelation. ' l have not come to abolish the law but to fulfi1'4• Therefore, the initial role of Jesus Christ was like a reformer among the Jews community. 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel '5• But as his new teachings apparently seemed something strange to the Jews community in comparison to their old teachings, which were more or less distorted; most of the Jews people, especially Jews religious leaders were not ready to accept his new teachings. As a result, he was confronted with the Jews religious leaders in preaching his message. They had tried to stop his new prophetic mission in several ways and finally gave him death sentence in the Cross, by the help of the Roman ruler Pilate 6. This happened just after one year from the starting of his prophetic mission 7• within this short span of time, he laid down the basic principles of his new religion, which later on was named Christian it/. For the Christians, Jesus Christ came to this world as a savior for the mankind. According to one important Christian theological view, Jesus' death in the Cross was pre-planned by God to save the mankind from their sins and by his crucifixion the mankind was redeemed from their sins and get salvation. Denise Lardner Carmody writes:" In fact, for both Second Isaiah and the Christians trying to understand the implications of Jesus' death and resurrection, the great wonder is that God makes the sufferings of his innocent servants a means to redeem wicked humanity from its apparently hopeless sinfulness"9•