What If Abraham’s Children Finally Stopped Fighting Over God?

Humanity faces a sharp historical crossroads, as injustice and corruption spread, wars are ignited, and ignorance and division among the children of Abraham intensify. Even though the seed of Abraham was meant to be the salt through which God purified the earth from the corruption of the rest of mankind—the children of the chaotic and dark clay—yet, as Imam Ahmad Al-Hassan wondered,“What if the salt itself goes bad?” 

In such turbulent circumstances, it has become necessary to return to the common spiritual roots that the children of Abraham have forgotten. The figure of Abraham is not merely a religious symbol but a unifying spiritual father whose legacy is acknowledged by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. They all believe in the Abrahamic covenant, which, at its core, is a covenant with God, founded on monotheism, purity, and walking the path of truth.

The Common Roots of the Abrahamic Religions

The sacred texts affirm that Abraham was not the founder of a narrow sect, but a nation. As it is stated in the Torah: “And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 22:18). And in the Quran: “Lo! Abraham was a nation obedient to Allah, by nature upright, and he was not of the idolaters” (Al-Nahl: 120). These texts demonstrate that the origin is one and that belonging to Abraham is not a closed identity but an open covenant for all his progeny, one that opens the door for all believers to partake in the covenant. Insisting on monopolizing Abraham for one religion or sect is a distortion of the essence of his message and a principal cause of conflict and division. For the followers of these religions have often preoccupied themselves with doctrinal differences and historical interests, leading to massacres and persecutions.

The essence of the Abrahamic message was a call to monotheism, to building the earth with justice, peace, divine virtues, and all that is good. Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad reaffirmed this principle in their missions. The problem for later generations was not in the essence of the message, but in the failure of understanding, in the lack of diplomacy, and in the deviation from the skills, spirituality, and wisdom of the founding prophets. Moses was a symbol of establishing justice and manifesting truth against enslavement and oppression. Jesus was a symbol of tolerance, generosity, and peace. Muhammad was a symbol of mercy, diplomacy, and divine perfections; he understood Jews and Christians and engaged with them on the basis of their backgrounds and beliefs. Yet their followers abandoned these shining, ideal examples, clinging instead to what provoked conflict and excluded others.

Muslims, for instance, cling to narrations that speak of wars and conflicts, especially against Jews. Likewise, Christians await the coming of Christ with the sword, branding Jews and Muslims as the Antichrist. The same applies to the Jews. What is happening in the Middle East bears witness to this. All have participated—and continue to participate—in killing, manipulation, theft, lies, and labeling the other as disbelievers.

The Crisis of Understanding and Mutual Accusation

If we examine the prevailing discourse within each religion, we find that much of it is built upon suspicion, accusation, and even demonization of the other side. The Jews see Christianity as having usurped their religious heritage and distorted it. The Christians see the Jews as having betrayed the covenant and killed Christ. The Muslims see that Jews and Christians altered what God had revealed, and that the final message of Islam alone represents the complete truth.

This mutual negative perception has, at many points in history, erupted into bloodshed: the Islamic conquests, the Crusades, the Inquisition, waves of persecution, the Holocaust, sectarian wars, and current conflicts. The deeper cause of this lies in each community’s entrenchment within its own narrative, and its refusal to acknowledge the possibility that the other may possess a share of the truth.

What is more dangerous is that a tribal spirit has come to dominate faith and religion. The religions that came to exalt the word of the One God have been turned, in the hands of their followers, into banners of nationalistic, sectarian, and denominational pride, and even into political and economic weapons.

The Wound of the Jews: The Narrative of Pain and Defense of Identity

Many Jews see themselves as bearing, in their collective memory, much pain and sorrow. The matter is not limited to the Holocaust or waves of anti-Semitism alone, but extends further, to a sense that the religion they carried for centuries was usurped, distorted, its meanings altered, and even turned into a weapon raised against them.

Jews consider themselves the origin of the story, the bearers of the Torah and its guardians. In their view, had they not preserved the texts and divine laws, neither Christianity nor Islam would have arisen. Hence arises a bitter astonishment that a day should come when the “gentiles” claim to be “God’s Chosen People,” while the Jews see themselves as the people of the covenant, the divine law, and the treasury of revelation. This wound deepens when they perceive that their book—the Old Testament—was taken out of its context, and that entirely new books were added to it, narrating divine accounts that transcend the conditions of the Mosaic covenant and its laws.

Despite their errors and stumblings, they believe that God redeems them, returns them to Him, and fulfills His promise to them. This conviction serves both as a safeguard against attempts to erase their identity, and as a motive to cling to the divine promise.

As for their view of Jesus, the picture is complex. Jesus was a Jewish man, which in itself would have sufficed to grant him the opportunity to be the awaited Messiah. Yet the course of events according to Christian tradition and the Jews’ own determination to carry out the crucifixion, ended with Jesus being crucified three years after beginning his mission. Therefore, for the Jews, the possibility that Jesus was the Messiah collapsed. This led to the founding of a new religion fundamentally different from the message of the prophets, and, in the Jews’ understanding, one that slipped into polytheism and the worship of another “calf” under new names. When Christians are asked about the prophecies that were not fulfilled, they refer to the “second coming.” But the Jews say that no second coming occurred—rather, the opposite happened historically: Jerusalem was plundered, the Temple destroyed, the Jews dispersed instead of united, and they were subjected to humiliation instead of honor. From this perspective, Christianity is accused of being an “antichrist” that is founded upon an interpretation contrary to the course of the prophecies as understood in Judaism.

The astonishment intensifies when Christianity’s sweeping success and spread among billions of people is observed. Within Jewish consciousness, this success is tied to the idea that the new believers were no longer bound by God’s law as established in the covenant with the Children of Israel. This produces a defensive stance, arising from the sense that the entire world stands against the original narrative, that their faith is subject to invasion and distortion, and that other nations have fallen under the seduction of the devil. It makes the task of preserving religion, identity, and homeland a matter of existential necessity rather than a mere political choice. 

From this arises a practical drive: the people must be protected so that the book may endure. If the people vanish, the Torah vanishes, for “others” would tamper with it, strip it of its meaning, or use it, whether intentionally or out of ignorance, against its own people. Therefore, the need for a safe homeland and a solid structure for Jewish presence in the world is understood as part of safeguarding the covenant.

The Christians Between the Cross of Redemption, Jewish Hostility, and Muslim Denial

Christians believe that the story of divine salvation was not a momentary event, but rather a project extending throughout history, in which prophets were sent generation after generation to prepare humanity mentally and spiritually to receive God Himself in the world, to warn them of their sins, and to teach them lessons of obedience and covenant, so that the path would be made ready for the greatest divine coming. At the peak of this chain of divine missions, God incarnated in the form of Christ and came to earth to return humankind to the paradise it had lost.

What took place on the cross constitutes the very core of the Christian vision: if God died on the cross—according to their belief—then that death was not in vain, but rather the greatest sacrifice, an incomparable offering. Just as the Children of Israel under the old law atoned for their sins by offering animal sacrifices in the Temple, Christians believe that God Himself presented the greatest sacrifice of all: His blood shed on the cross as atonement for the sins of all humanity.

Christians support this faith with miracles that occurred, the most notable being Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead shortly before his crucifixion. If he was able to raise another, then according to their logic, it follows naturally that he could raise himself after his death. Thus, the resurrection of Jesus for them is not a coincidental event, but the decisive proof of his divinity and of his triumph over both death and sin. Hence, the cross became a symbol of both suffering and redemption.

Christians believe that through his incarnation and suffering, Jesus became the “true Israel.” For in the Bible, Israel is not necessarily a mere people or tribe, but can also be an individual representing the entire nation, just as the Quran describes Abraham as being “a nation.” In this way, Jesus becomes the individual embodiment of the chosen nation, the bearer of the covenant, and one who suffers on behalf of others. Christians draw upon the saying of Jesus, in their texts, that the Jews who rejected him “are of your father the devil” (John 8:44) as proof that true spiritual Israel is not found in biological lineage, but in accepting Christ.

Christians also believe that Jesus did not come to rule immediately, but rather to open the way for the spread of the Gospel first. It would make little sense, in their logic, for him to begin his reign before his message had reached the ends of the earth. Therefore, after his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus departed, leaving the disciples to preach to the nations, granting them the honor of founding God’s new people. Thus, every believer in Christ became part of this new chosen people, no longer limited to the Children of Israel, but expanded to embrace all humanity.

In this context, Christians view the Jews as having committed a grave sin: they arrested Christ—though he was without guilt, the perfectly righteous one—and handed him over to be killed, even though he had done nothing but heal the sick and spread goodness. Thus, in the Christian conception, the Jews betrayed their mission and lost their status as “God’s Chosen People.” For this reason, Christians consider themselves the heirs of the covenant, custodians of the true faith, who shed much blood in defense of Christ’s message and in spreading it across the centuries.

As for the Muslims, Christians believe that they came six centuries after Christ with a message that denied his divinity and crucifixion, reducing him to the rank of a prophet like the others. Therefore, Christians hold that Islam denies the very essence of the Gospel, diminishing the message of divine salvation into legislative and moral teachings, which makes the relationship between Christianity and Islam one of tension and mutual denunciation. For while the Christian sees redemption on the cross as the very axis of religion and history, the Muslim denies that the crucifixion occurred at all. Thus, the Christian believes that Muslims have been deprived of the greatest divine gift, and that in their denial of the crucified Christ they have placed themselves in the position of the “antichrist” spoken of in the Gospel. In this way, the Christian sees himself as the legitimate heir of the covenant, the bearer of the message of salvation, and the guardian of the Gospel in the face of what he considers Jewish distortion and Muslim denial.

The Muslims and the Ideal Faith in Confrontation with the Jews and Christians

In the Islamic vision, Muhammad appears as the seal through whom the chain of prophethood was completed, the messenger who carried the final message to all the worlds. Here lies the essence of the problem with the People of the Book: Christians required that the coming prophet bear witness to the divinity of Christ in order to accept him as a prophet; whereas the Jews could have acknowledged Muhammad as a prophet sent to the gentiles, but not to the Children of Israel. Thus both sides stood in denial of Islam, for Muhammad’s message overturned the foundations upon which they had built their beliefs.

Muhammad did not come to affirm the divinity of Jesus as the Christians wanted, but rather declared plainly that Jesus was a great prophet, a servant of God, a human being sent by revelation, and that the Roman doctrine of divinity attached to him was outright polytheism. At the same time, he did not come to restrict his message to a people or nation as the Jews had accepted for their prophets, but pronounced the decisive word: “And We have not sent you except comprehensively to mankind as a bringer of good tidings and a warner” (Saba: 28). Thus Islam, in its own perspective, became the comprehensive correction and complete conclusion of the course of revelation, for it did not stop at the borders of Israel nor at the narrative of the New Testament, but addressed all humanity—indeed, all the worlds.

From here arose the Islamic conviction that the followers of Muhammad were the true continuation of the Children of Israel—that is, the people whom God chose to bear the path of monotheism. Hence, in the narrations, the title “Israel” became linked to Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, an indication that the inheritance of the divine promise and the divine banner passed to the family of Muhammad and their followers, who were the “true Children of Israel” carrying the message that was neither distorted nor corrupted.

This transfer is reflected in the parable of the “workers in the vineyard” found in the Gospel. The labor in the vineyard was passed from one group of workers to another over time. Similarly, the inheritance passed from the Jews to the Christians, and from the Christians to the Muslims, where Islam found the covenant complete and the trust preserved. This position is reinforced by God’s saying: “This day I have perfected for you your religion, completed My favor upon you, and have approved for you Islam as your religion” (Al-Ma’idah: 3), which strengthens the Muslim understanding that the revelation of Muhammad came as the final one.

Accordingly, Muslims see that Judaism lost its Torah over centuries of occupations, dispersions, and exiles, rewriting its texts multiple times, thereby allowing distortion and disagreement to enter. Likewise, Christianity was seized from the hands of the earliest disciples when it was adopted by the Roman Empire and transformed into a religion founded upon polytheism, in which Jesus was elevated from the station of prophet to the station of God. For this reason, Muslims considered that both the Old and New Testaments ceased to be pure references, and that the untainted revelation was embodied in the Quran, which came carrying pure monotheism and the most complete law.

The image Islam builds of itself before the People of the Book is that it is the final message of liberation from the chaos of distortion and alteration, the religion that returned humanity to the path of monotheism after a long deviation. Thus it becomes firmly established in the consciousness of Muslims that they are the new “God’s Chosen People,” not by race or lineage, but by faith and deeds, and that the divine promise remains with them so long as they hold fast to the religion of truth.

The Complex of “God’s Chosen People”

From what has been discussed, we find that the issue of “God’s Chosen People” has become a complex one that planted the seeds of conflict and division, while entirely overlooking that they all return to a single origin: Abraham. Judaism appeared as a closed identity, then Christianity replaced Judaism and adopted the idea that it was the “new spiritual Israel” and expanded the circle. Then Islam came to declare that the final nation that believed in Muhammad and his covenant was the chosen nation, and expanded the circle to include all the worlds. Each group considered that God had abandoned the others in its favor, and this was used as a pretext to denounce, fight, and eliminate others—a pretext for wars, chaos, and killing in the name of God, religion, and everything sacred.

Yet the one who contemplates the reality of this matter in light of the course of the sacred texts will find that this development and divine selection is a responsibility and a duty more than it is a privilege that provokes arrogance, hatred, and fanaticism. God chooses peoples or individuals to entrust them with a responsibility, but this does not mean that others are outside the scope of His mercy. In reality, the sacred texts in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran are filled with warnings against arrogance over being chosen, and they affirm that a blessing collapses if it turns into oppression or pride.

Tribal Faith is a Contemporary Idolatry 

Another major problem facing humanity is not the lack of texts or the absence of prophets, but the nature of man himself. Most people are not true believers in God, nor sincere in their pursuit of truth, nor worshiping God out of love for Him. They are, for the most part, prisoners of their tribal, sectarian, and inherited affiliations, not of the truth. They cling to the religion of their fathers and forefathers, and to their own particular understanding of religion and of God, with a deep belief that their own interests are the interests of the religion and God. These personal interests are reduced to granting them identity, belonging, distinction, and a sense of comfort and psychological satisfaction. As though faith were nothing more than a social, utilitarian inheritance that requires neither examination nor sacrifice. As though religions had turned into tribal banners, each tribe clinging to its banner and fighting beneath it, not because it is the banner of truth, but simply because it is the banner of the ancestors and the banner of an understanding aligned with personal interest.

In this sense, idols never truly disappeared, but only put on new clothes. Idols are no longer silent stones erected in public squares, but rigid ideas erected in minds, built upon blind imitation and attachment to what is familiar, not to what is true. In such a mindset, it does not matter whether the God of the others is the truth—what matters is that “our God” is the one victorious in the battlefield of conflict. Thus, religious wars have become tribal wars in new attire, where the question is not “what is the truth?” but rather: “who is with us and who is against us?” and “whoever is not with us is certainly against us.” So peace be upon Aba Al-Sadiq, who reversed the equation one hundred and eighty degrees when he said: “Whoever is not against us is with us.”

Divine Diplomacy

The conflict among the Abrahamic religions can only arise from one of four possible sources:

The first: that the Jews were in possession of the truth from the very beginning, and everything that came after them in terms of messages and religions has no meaning. In the end, their belief will be proven true, their argument will be established, their rank will rise above all nations, and everyone will be compelled to acknowledge that those described in the interpretation of their rabbis for the verse: “He had no form nor majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2) were, in fact, right from the very start.

The second possibility: that the truth will be revealed to the entire world—Jews, Muslims, and all humankind—that Christianity is the true religion, that Jesus is God, exalted is He, and that people had mocked him for centuries, denied him, and persecuted him, while all he sought was the salvation of humanity. All he requires is faith that he died for their sins. Whoever believes will attain forgiveness and salvation.

The third possibility: that the Romans distorted the original doctrine, that Jesus was one of God’s prophets, and that Muhammad was sent as a guide to all people, receiving great divine support. His religion spread the fastest because it is the manifest truth. In this case, Islam is God’s final religion, the Mahdi will triumph at the end of time, and Islam will prevail across the entire earth whether people accept it or not. Whoever opposes Muhammad has opposed God, and God is the supporter of His Messenger and his family until the Day of Resurrection.

The fourth possibility: that all the above are mere illusions and myths, no different from the Greek, Roman, or ancient Egyptian narratives, and that they are all fabricated lies which have driven humanity into endless conflict and bloodshed to no avail.

Thus, we are left with only one of these four possibilities.

All goodness lies in everyone—Jews, Christians, and Muslims—rising to a higher level of dialogue, ceasing to inflame disputes, holding on to what unites them, practicing the manners of diplomacy, and following in the footsteps of Moses, in the footsteps of Jesus, and in the footsteps of Muhammad, speaking only words of goodness, or else keeping silent.

We must all try to understand the feelings of each side: to perceive why the Jews feel that their position was taken from them, why they sense that their faith was stolen. We must understand them, feel their pain, and love them. We must set aside extremist voices, listen to the voices of wisdom and love, and extend our hands in gratitude. The first step on this path is to appreciate what the Jews have offered throughout their history for the sake of God and religion, and how their prophets and forefathers contributed to shaping what we believe in today, whether as Muslims or as Christians. They are an inseparable part of our spiritual history. The matter of the “Chosen People” must be approached with understanding and reconciliation.

Likewise, Jews, Christians, and Muslims agree that the ultimate goal of man is to strive to embody all that is good, to reform and cultivate the earth. This is, at its core, the very first divine command given to Adam: he was entrusted with cultivating the earth and caring for the garden, to make the earth a suitable, flourishing, and thriving place. All of the Abrahamic faiths can therefore unite around this principle: that our mission is to become the best we can, and to preserve the earth in the best way possible.

We have been entrusted to make the earth a paradise, to preserve it so it becomes a beautiful experience, not a terrifying one, and to build our relationship with our Creator by fulfilling our duties toward Him—which are, in reality, duties toward ourselves. For God desires nothing for us but to reach the highest potential of His children: knowledge, giving, love, generosity, and happiness. Only then do we truly deserve to call ourselves the Creator’s real children, which is what every father wishes for his offspring.

We must also focus our attention on another shared point: the universal belief in the coming of a reformer, messenger, messiah, or Mahdi, who will unite the world upon common ground and establish peace and justice. The Jews await their Messiah and believe that his time has drawn near with their presence in Palestine; Christians anticipate the second coming of Jesus; Muslims too believe in his return, accompanied by the appearance of the Mahdi. There is no meaning, then, in quarreling and conflict between us when, at the core, we all long for that very same savior.

Let each of us put himself in the other’s place: if the Messiah comes and declares that the Jews were right, let us rejoice at his arrival; if he affirms the truth of Christianity or Islam, let us celebrate, for he is a messenger from God who brings nothing but goodness. True faith is to be prepared to accept what God reveals, without blind fanaticism or pride.

The Savior: The Promise, the Covenant, and the Call to Awakening

The great message of the figure of the Savior—whether he is called the Messiah, Jesus, or the Mahdi—is the gathering of torn hearts and the uniting of different nations under the slogan of “Humanity First.” He comes for the oppressed, for the weak, for the orphans and widows, for the destitute on this earth. This is a profound indication of the necessity of looking at the followers of the great religions as brothers and sisters in humanity, and of preparing for the day when we shall all come together around one creed, in a wondrous scene and a great heavenly promise that awakens people from their heedlessness, calls them to cease fighting, and to open their hearts in love toward one another. For in the end, we are all believers in God, and we are all children of God.

Among the Jews and the Israelis are good people who have nothing to do with killing or wars, who are innocent of bloodshed, who hate injustice, and who seek only to be righteous human beings, loving their brothers and sisters in humanity. Among the Christians are those who truly embody the living example of a disciple of Jesus—humble, compassionate, and loving. Likewise, among the Muslims are righteous men and women of noble character, overflowing with love for their Jewish and Christian brothers and sisters, representing the finest image of the true faithful Muslim.

From among such people God sends forth the Savior, to come and affirm that killing is corruption on the earth, and that cultivating the earth rests upon fruitfulness and abstaining from the unlawful shedding of blood. He urges us to commit ourselves and all humanity to fulfilling God’s law, for it is God’s will and command. Many of the wars tearing the world apart today are caused by rigidity: the Jews refuse to fulfill the law of Moses; the Christians believe there is no continuation after Christ; the Muslims believe there can be no alteration after Muhammad. Yet life does not stop, circumstances change, and developments continually arise. 

We have seen how the absence of an infallible divine authority has led to chaos in religious edicts: Is television forbidden or permissible? Are new inventions allowed or not? When people rely on conjectures and human interpretations, they fall into disputes, accusations of disbelief, and wars. But if they believe that God has a vicegerent in every age—a prophet, messenger, imam, or Mahdi—and that this vicegerent is the Face of God among creation and the vessel carrying His spirit, then the knots of disagreement are untied. For this man revives within us the certainty that God is always present with us, that He has not abandoned us and never will, not only in heaven but also on earth. At the same time, he affirms that every human being on the face of the earth has the right to think and to believe as he wishes, and to live his life as he deems proper, so long as he does not violate the laws of the country in which he resides, and so long as he does not harm others.

And we, in the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, believe that this man is Abdullah Hashem, Aba Al-Sadiq: a messenger to the Jews from Elijah, a messenger to the Christians from Jesus, and a messenger to the Muslims from Muhammad. His name “Abdullah” means “Israel,” to embody through this name the ideal servant of God and the perfect knower of God. He is a man of peace, not war. He sees no salvation for the earth and humanity except through peace, justice, love, divine knowledge and unity.

The Call of Aba Al-Sadiq to the Children of Abraham

The call of Aba Al-Sadiq to the children of Abraham, with full transparency, lies in this: that we are a community carrying a specific vision for the world. We have a dream—that we depart this earth having left it more beautiful and stable for our children, and that we make the experience of life on earth filled with peace, love and light, not with fear, blood, and ruin.

Let this be our new awareness: to see in everyone our partners in humanity, not our adversaries. To work hand in hand to unite humanity. Let this call be a means of transforming hardened convictions and softening hardened hearts, drawing them closer together, inclining them toward harmony. And with God’s help, let us all walk together—in love, peace, unity, and light.