Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 14
14 islam’s response to contemporary issues comparing Moses as with Buddha as , Krishna as , Jesus as , or Muhammad sa , because they deny the claims of all other great Founders of the religions mentioned above to be genuine and worthy of acceptance. So, in the Jewish list of Prophets, no Prophets are included other than those specifically mentioned in the Old Testament; even the possibility of there being Prophets elsewhere is ruled out. In the light of this attitude, their claim regarding the supremacy of any Judaic Prophet does not belong to the same category as that of Islam, as according to Judaism, Prophets outside the Holy Bible simply do not exist. Exactly the same is the nature of similar claims of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, etc. There is yet another difference to be kept in mind. When we talk of their Prophets, we are aware that they do not always refer to their holy religious figures as Prophet. The concept of Prophets and Messengers as understood in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is not exactly shared by most other religions. Instead, they treat the Founders of their religion and holy men as holy personages, or reincarnations of God, or God Himself, or, something approaching that. Perhaps in this respect, Jesus Christ as also should be understood as an exception from the vantage point of Christianity. But according to Islam, all these so-called gods or reincarnations of God, or the so-called sons or children of God are merely Prophets and Messengers who were deified by their followers at a much later point. In fact, to be more specific, according to Islam, the deification of holy personages in various religions is a very gradual process and not that of the generation contemporary to the Prophet as. But of that, we shall speak later. When Islam, however, claims that its Holy Founder is supreme amongst the Prophets, it takes into account the holy personages of all