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The doctrine of Salvation or Soteriology is our focus for this comparative study. More specifically how Muslims (followers of Islam) and Christians (followers of Christianity), view Salvation and its inherent requirements.

The word Salvation can have many different definitions to various people and religions.

The definition for salvation we will be using comes from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition ;

1.Preservation or deliverance from destruction, difficulty, or evil.
2.Deliverance from the power or penalty of sin; redemption.

In plain English, we will define salvation as what it takes to get into Heaven or Paradise.

We will investigate the following questions.

1.What do the religions of Islam and Christianity teach in regards to salvation?
2.How is salvation gained by an individual?

The Koranic quotations are taken from by Abdullah Yusufali's translation titled The Meanings Of The Holy Qu'ran unless otherwise noted.

The Biblical texts will be from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, again unless noted otherwise.

By examining what both the Qu'ran and the Bible have to say on the topic of salvation we find that both use the word Grace to describe a mechanism of God's gift of Salvation.

Qu'ran Surah 8:29

O ye who believe! if ye fear Allah, He will grant you a criterion (to judge between right and wrong), remove from you (all) evil (that may afflict) you, and forgive you: for Allah is the Lord of grace unbounded.

Bible Deuteronomy 7:9

Know that Yahweh your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commands.

Grace shall be defined as the following:

1.a special favor
2.the prerogative of mercy exercised (as by a chief executive) or granted in the form of equitable relief

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.

Grace is a therefore receiving something we did not deserve or earn through our own actions.

Islam and Christianity diverge however on our need for salvation based on their understanding of Sin.

Christianity teaches that all men and women are born in a fallen state and thus have no hope of the righteousness demanded by God. The Doctrine of Original Sin states that Adam by his conscious description to disobey God ushered death into the world.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned. Romans 5:12

[The effects of this first sin were]

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