Why do the Muslim worship the same God as Christians, but not Hindus

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This stemmed my interest from the thread in Eastern Catholicism asking if Allah is the same God as YHWH (which the Ecumenical Council already answered). What is it unique about Islam that made the Council declare that we worship the same God, but the same was not done for other religions?
 
Btw, this thread is operating from the assumption that Vatican II is correct. The thread shouldn’t be about whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God. It’s about the relationship between the Christian God and other religions that still may be fundamentally monotheistic.
 
It’s my understanding that Muhammad, during his pre-Islamic life, was unique in that he worshipped the Abrahamic god rather than the pagan gods of his tribe. The basis for the Judeo-Christian-Islamic god was part of the foundations of his religious thought. And it was the same god that he believed handed down Islamic revelation.
 
If a Muslim worships Allah, a Jew worships Yahweh, and a Hindu worships Vishnu, can we be sure that the third is worshipping a different god from the first two?

Here’s one theory: Originally, all humans knew and worshipped the one true God, and that knowledge was passed down over the generations. Over time, however, distortions in the idea of God crept in; this process was not uniform, in some areas far greater distortions occurred than in others - in part, we may say this was due to a certain portion of humanity (the chosen people) being granted a certain protection against such distortion by the special intervention of God. If this theory is true, it would follow that Vishnu is actually a distortion of the one true God; which would imply that a person who worships Vishnu is actually worshipping Yahweh, but out of ignorance they do not realise that Vishnu is a distored account of Yahweh.

I don’t think the fact that someone is a polytheist excludes the possibility they are ignorantly worshipping the one true God; their many polytheistic gods may all be different distortions of the one true God. A person suffering from ignorance may mistakenly believe the one entity to be two different entities. A person ignorant of astronomy might believe that the Morning Star and the Evening Star are two different objects; to give a fictional example, a person not in the know would believe that Clark Kent and Superman are two different people. In the same way, a Hindu might believe that Vishnu and Shiva are two different gods, even if they are really just two different distortions of Yahweh.

We should also remember that many Hindus are not strictly polytheists: they believe all their many gods somehow constitute one single ultimate God. The same belief was common among pagan philosophers in ancient Greece and Rome.

So, on the basis of the above, I’m inclined to say that the Hindu worships the one true God, but that the Hindu’s knowledge of that God is somewhat more distorted than the Muslim’s is.

Simon
 
The simple answer is that Hinduism is polytheistic, but Islam is monotheistic, and borrows much from Judaism and Christianity.
 
PaulfromIowa said:
The simple answer is that Hinduism is polytheistic, but Islam is monotheistic, and borrows much from Judaism and Christianity.
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but Islam does not see Christianity as monotheistic.

I thought that Ishmael was the connection to the Abrahamic faith for other people of the Middle East. I had never heard that Muhammed worshipped as a Hebrew, but I did read he had a close relative that was Christian who taught him about Christianity.
 
Muslims dont see christianity as monotheist because they dont agree with the belief of the trinity that Jesus or anyone can be equal to God, they believe Jesus was just a great human prophet whereas the majority of christiandom believes Jesus was half man and half God.
 
TK421 said:
This stemmed my interest from the thread in Eastern Catholicism asking if Allah is the same God as YHWH (which the Ecumenical Council already answered). What is it unique about Islam that made the Council declare that we worship the same God, but the same was not done for other religions?
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Simple, because they believe the One true God is the God of Abraham. So they pray to the one true God. Many Christians have such a problem with this.

But what the Pope teaches and people need to understand, and don’t seem to grasp, just because they indeed worship and pray to the God of Abraham, Our God, does not mean that they follow the teachings of the One True God.

People hear the Pope say that their God is the True God, because he is, and they seem to stop reading there. What they do not realize is the RCC teaches that the True God that we have in common, is it.

What the Pope also teaches that aside the God they pray to, they do NOT follow his teachings. They follow the teachings of Muhammad. Which are in direct conflict with the one true God they worship. To make it simple they pray to the right God, but follow the teachings of a false prophet.

The other religions never claim to worship the God of Abraham.
 
Analytical said:
Muslims dont see christianity as monotheist because they dont agree with the belief of the trinity that Jesus or anyone can be equal to God, they believe Jesus was just a great human prophet whereas the majority of christiandom believes Jesus was half man and half God.
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I thought Jesus was 100% human and 100% divine according to the Catholic church.
 
Analytical said:
the majority of christiandom believes Jesus was half man and half God.
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CCC 464 The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.
 
Analytical said:
Muslims dont see christianity as monotheist because they dont agree with the belief of the trinity that Jesus or anyone can be equal to God, they believe Jesus was just a great human prophet whereas the majority of christiandom believes Jesus was half man and half God.
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Goodness no. Christianity believes Jesus is 100% man and 100% God, not 50-50.
 
I’ve considered this as well. The nature of Abrahamic monotheism seems different than the Hindu monotheism. What more, I think their idea of god, his relationship with the world, and involvement in creation is much different than the Abrahamic faiths.

I think there are some truths they have reasoned out, in common with the Abrahamic faiths, but it is certainly much different in others.
 
Hello Everyone.

For a Muslim this is what we believe in:
Chapter 29 Verse 46:
And do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in a way that is best, except for those who commit injustice among them, and say, “We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you. And our God and your God is one; and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him.”

Personally I can see why some Christians think how can anybody who does not have a Judeo-Christian background is worshiping the same God.

But for Hindus I do not think they worship our Creator, please correct me if I am wrong.
 
TK421 said:
This stemmed my interest from the thread in Eastern Catholicism asking if Allah is the same God as YHWH (which the Ecumenical Council already answered). What is it unique about Islam that made the Council declare that we worship the same God, but the same was not done for other religions?
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Because the properties attributed to God are the same, as are the philosophies that justify these properties in Islam, even if the definition (“pure-monotheism” vs triune) is different, and because it follows the same tradition that the Hebrew Bible does. Muhammad believed his religion to be a righteous criticism of Catholicism, and a return to more fundamental orthodoxy.

Hinduism is much more pantheistic, and hasn’t been influenced by the Jewish narrative in any way, it evolved in the Indus valley entirely separated from the Abrahamic faiths.
 
rinnie said:
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What the Pope also teaches that aside the God they pray to, they do NOT follow his teachings. They follow the teachings of Muhammad. Which are in direct conflict with the one true God they worship. To make it simple they pray to the right God, but follow the teachings of a false prophet.

The other religions never claim to worship the God of Abraham.
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Before Abraham God had sent many prophets names of whom are not known. There had been about 124000 prophets according a count. All societies in the past had used to know a creator in anyway becasue God in Qur’an says that He will never judge any society to whom a prophet was not sent.

Hindus may had knowledges of religion from a prophet but by the time they might distort from fact. Anyway they believe one greatest creator(Vishnu) and others gods are servants or figurative for great God. Hinduism seem as polytheism with many gods but indeed it can be assumed to be monotheist via Vishnu.

Muhammad was a false prophet but He taught the true God!

There are thousand evidences which show that Muhammad was a prophet. But the trinity doctrine is very problematic in many ways. Firstly it is doctrine of Church but not Bible! And it is not claim of Jesus himself.

People of Book worship same God and also Hindus worship same unique God, Creator too but we have not obvious connections between ours. The bases of Hinduism was established before Christianity for about 1500 years ago.
 
opusAquinas said:
youtube.com/watch?v=jiKKeKmQf9g

Catholics and Christians generally view the muhammad as a heretics. hindus are polytheists breaking the 1st commandment.
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Calling Hindus polytheistic isn’t entirely accurate. I think pantheist may be closer to their thought. There is one being, but this being extends through all creation. He is the only true being, all others are parts of his being. Their many gods are all also parts of the one divinity. This is different than the Abrahamic faiths, which don’t consider God to have parts, and that while our existence may be sustained by the one God, we are distinct and real beings in our own right.

That’s my understanding of Hinduism.
 
Wesrock said:
Calling Hindus polytheistic isn’t entirely accurate. I think pantheist may be closer to their thought. There is one being, but this being extends through all creation. He is the only true being, all others are parts of his being. Their many gods are all also parts of the one divinity. This is different than the Abrahamic faiths, which don’t consider God to have parts, and that while our existence may be sustained by the one God, we are distinct and real beings in our own right.

That’s my understanding of Hinduism.
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I know that’s why they say “namaste etc.”
 
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