Three Faiths, One God – Prophets, Scripture, & Difference
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are often portrayed as sharply divided, yet at their core they share a powerful foundation: belief in one God who speaks to humanity and calls people to live ethically. As Dr. John Borelli puts it, “They believe in one God… and that God’s Word has been made known through prophets.”
Those prophets form a shared spiritual lineage. Dr. Akbar Ahmed highlights Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad as central figures who are deeply connected rather than opposed. Islam, in particular, consciously honors the prophets who came before, a point echoed by Rabbi David Rosen, who notes that Judaism has long recognized that universal truths can be brought to different peoples in different ways.
Many of the traditions’ most familiar stories point toward unity rather than division. Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina reminds us that the story of Adam and Eve begins with a simple truth: humanity shares a common origin. Even when sacred texts diverge—such as differing accounts of Abraham’s son—the deeper message remains consistent. As Rabbi Rosen explains, what ultimately matters is not rivalry, but “Abraham’s faith and Abraham’s love of God.”
Of course, real differences remain. Questions about Jesus, the Trinity, and the crucifixion continue to mark clear boundaries between Christianity and Islam. These are not small disagreements, and they cannot be ignored. Yet shared moral teachings—summed up powerfully in the Ten Commandments, as Dr. Ahmed notes—offer common ground that has shaped all three traditions.
Seen this way, interfaith understanding is not about erasing differences, but about recognizing a shared spiritual inheritance. Bishop John Chane suggests that the story of Abraham’s family leaves the ending open—“the beginning of a journey” rather than its conclusion. It’s an invitation to move beyond competition and toward dialogue, respect, and a deeper appreciation of the faiths that continue to shape our world.
Based on an excerpt from the documentary, “Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam”
Watch the video below followed by the transcript:
TRANSCRIPT:
Dr. John Borelli:
Catholics and Muslims have many similarities in terms of their faiths and their understanding of their face. They first of all believe in one God, and they believe that this God has intervened in human history and has spoken, and that God’s Word has been made known through spokespeople, through prophets.
Dr. Akbar Ahmed:
God speaks through a series of extraordinary messengers. But in this extraordinary list, there are some extraordinary towering figures. And of these towering figures, we can identify Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Peace be upon all of them. And the prophet of Islam. Now these figures have a very interesting relationship, one to the other, because Jesus comes after Moses and Muhammad comes after Jesus. The previous ones don’t know their successors, but what Muhammad does is he very consciously absorbs reverse respects both Jesus and Moses.
Rabbi David Rosen:
Judaism has in fact, implicitly and sometimes explicitly acknowledged that there are prophets to the Gentiles. There are prophets who bring the essential universal truths that are to be found within Judaism to different nations, according to their cultures, according to their context, different peoples according to different forms. So I, as a rabbi, view Muhammad as one of the greatest prophets to the Gentiles, a man who brought essential universal truths to a large segment of humankind.
Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina:
The story of Genesis is very symbolic. It begins with reminding humanity of the common parentage that we share. Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman on this earth are also our parents.
We descend from them, and therefore there is a sense of unity as much as diversity, that the same parents who gave us existence. They’re also requiring us to learn to live with one another.
Imam Yahya Hendi:
However, the story of Adam and Eve that you read in the Tanakh, you don’t read in the Koran the story in both Jewish and Christian traditions say that Eve convinced Adam to sin and eat from the tree from which they were both forbidden. Schlamme says Adam ate from the tree on his own. Eve ate from the tree on her own. And therefore, women should not be blamed for what men do throughout history. And by the way, this influenced the theology and the teachings of thousands of years.
Rabbi David Rosen:
So from an Islamic point of view, the text that Jews and Christians Revere, that Jews call the Hebrew Bible the Tanakh, the Christian is called the Old Testament, is in fact a misrepresentation on the part of the Judeo Christian tradition of God’s exact revelation that exact revelation is to be found in the text of the Koran.
Now this means that from an Islamic perspective, the historical development from Abraham is not identical to that that is portrayed in the Bible. According to the Koran, the most obvious difference is that the child to Abraham was willing to offer up to God as an expression of his total devotion and love and commitment to God’s way was not Isaac, but was Ishmael.
Dr. Marc Gopin:
It’s controversial as to what the Koran says, whether the Koran is referring to Ishmael or Isaac as the son that almost sacrificed. The point is that when you look at all of this together, and you look later on and how Christianity develops and how important again, a son is in the story, and that Jesus is considered the Son of God.
You look at all these three traditions, and in the end, they’re competing over who is the favorite son. Is it Isaac? Is it Ishmael? Is it Jesus? And which one will carry the destiny of the most authentic tradition and the most beloved of God?
Bishop John Chane:
That’s a very interesting point that I’ve heard some Christians use as a way of demeaning Islam. Ishmael is the illegitimate son, is not the real heir to Abraham. Hagar the slave woman for Ishmael. And so automatically that puts Ishmael outside of the family and the greatness of of this tragedy, which gets interpreted, I think, by some Christians. The greatness of it is the two brothers literally come together to bury their father. And it’s it’s the first time, really, at least in the story, that the two brothers come back together again to do something that is very much part of the culture, of each other’s culture.
And so the story of what happens next is left up to us. Is this the end of the story, an ancient story, or is it a beginning? Is it a beginning of two brothers coming together that allows us to begin to dialog, or is it really the end of the story? And I would be very, very hopeful and say that it’s the beginning of a story, and we’re just at the very, very beginning of a very important journey with one another.
Dr. Marc Gopin:
In the later generations, you see among Abraham’s grandchildren and great grandchildren, the same tragic drama of the competition for the most love that leads to the most unhappiness. Okay, so on one level, this story is you can see 2000 years ago the basis of what will be a 2000 year tragedy of people competing, instead of being exulting in the fact that they’re all beloved, competing and killing and oppressing in order to prove who is the favored one? Who is the cursed one?
Rabbi David Rosen:
What does it matter exactly who the individual was whom Abraham actually took to that particular point in time and place. What matters is what the texts are trying to say to us about Abraham’s faith and Abraham’s love of God. And beyond that, that God does not want us to make human sacrifices, but wants us to show the devotion of the heart that leads us to behave the right way in all our dealings with our fellow human beings. That’s a common message. And therefore, what is in common here is much more significant than that which divides the different textual traditions.
Dr. Akbar Ahmed:
I find that the Ten Commandments are at the base of the three Abrahamic faiths. They drive the vision in these faiths because in a sense, they sum up the relationship between the individual and God and what God wants us to be doing on earth.
Imam Yaya Hendi:
I cannot believe we are Muslim if I don’t believe that God revealed a Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai, and it’s in the teachings of the Torah that are really important in Islam as well. And the Koran is filled with many references to the Torah.
Rabbi David Rosen:
But obviously from a muslim perspective, Moses was a muslim. He wasn’t a Jew. He is. Genealogy is not part of something that’s of significance for the Almighty. He is simply a prophetic agency for conveying God’s Word as he is viewed within Jewish tradition, obviously, and part and parcel of a particular people, which has religious significance for Judaism. There is an inextricable bond between peoplehood and faith.
Dr. Jane Smith:
For 1400 years. They the whole issue of the Trinity has been an enormous stumbling block for understanding between Christians and Muslims. I actually suspect that many Muslims understand better than they may say. They understand that Christians really don’t believe in three gods, but they simply cannot get past this concept that Christians have, that God has manifested. And they would say himself, we might want to say him or herself. In different ways and in different forms. It feels to Muslims that somehow that is impinging on their primary, inviolable doctrine that God is one and only one.
Dr. Clark Lobenstine:
The two most profound differences between Christians and Muslims are is Jesus the Son of God or not? And did Jesus Christ die on the cross or not? The Koran says that one who looked like Jesus died on the cross. And that is so important for Muslims because Jesus is a prophet. Jesus was a sinless man. Jesus was a holy of holy man and one of the very few.
And God could not allow, according to Muslims, such a person to die an ignominious death like a common criminal on a cross. And someone who looked like Jesus died on the cross. Now for Christians. Jesus died on the cross, and Jesus did not count. He is being the Son of God as a way to keep himself from that death.
Next to two criminals. That was the ultimate sacrifice, his ultimate way of sharing in our lives and of giving his life as a ransom for all of us. So those are profound differences that we cannot paper over.
Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina:
Christians, for example, for a long time argued that the Jewish scriptures were all superseded by the coming of Christ. Muslims picked up that idea from Christians who had converted to Islam.
So in the debates in Damascus in eighth century between John of Damascus and Muslim theologians, this issue came up. How about the idea of superstition? Christ came and he superseded the previous scripture, the previous law. He became the law. The Muslims retorted, saying that Muhammad came and he superseded the previous law. Mosaic law and the Christian canon were all gone.
And now all people should believe only in one law, which is the Muslim law. How far is this supported in the Koran? Is a very interesting question. My one argument is that the Koran does not even treat the question, does not even read it that way. In fact, it says that it is simply a continuation of the spiritual and moral message of the previous scriptures.
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