Similarities Between World Religions

World religions are identifiable from each other. However, all religions share similarities just as they have differences between them. Religious leaders as Buddha, Jesus, or Muhammad are one in their resolve to ascertain the paths they take and in their beliefs in the betterment of man, but differ in how they profess said beliefs.
Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad ala aimed to make man’s life better. The three founders of the three major religions may differ in their perspectives about life, however, they are bound by the common ideal that man’s life should be better though some form of spiritual achievement. In addition, the three founders of the major religions displayed traits of understanding and dedication from an early age; they lived lives

of predestination by being directly linked to bloodlines of peculiar significance. Moreover, the founders of faiths share the common characteristic of being guided by the divine.
Similarities may be observed of the three, however, they do differ significantly from each other. Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim is Muhammad, “the Glorified One,” founder of the religion of Islam and to the Muslims last of the prophets of God. Muhammad’s lineage can be traced to Ismāʿīl (Ishmael) and the prophet Abraham (“Muhammad”). Muhammad was born to the ruling tribe of Mecca, the family of the Banū Hāshim of the powerful Quraysh (“Muhammad”). His father, ʿAbd Allāh, died before his birth so Muhammad grew up in the protection of Āminah, his mother, and ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, his grandfather, and a leader in the Meccan community (“Muhammad”). Custom required Āminah to send Muhammad, as a baby, into the desert to master Arabic, and be acquainted with Arab traditions by learning the qualities of self-discipline, nobility, and freedom (“Muhammad”). In the desert, Muhammad became witness to the appearance of two angels who “opened his breast, and purified his heart with snow” (“Muhammad”) to signify God purifying his prophet and protecting him from sin (“Muhammad”). With his mother’s passing when he was six years old and his grandfather’s death two years later (“Muhammad”), Muhammad came to be in the care of his uncle Abū Ṭālib. Muhammad grew to be of generous of character, with a sense of fairness and justice that people went to him for arbitration and knew him as al-Amīn, “the Trusted One” (“Muhammad”). At 25 years old, Muhammad married the15-years-older Khadījah bint Khuwaylid with whom he had two sons, who died young, and four daughters. Muhammad continued to be respected for his ability to arbitrate, and for his deep religiosity and attention to prayer. Muhammad would often retire to the desert for prayer and meditation, where he experienced the presence of the archangel Gabriel, initiating the process of the Qurʾānic revelation (“Muhammad”). After the second revelation from the archangel, Muhammad started preaching the faith, and that eventually led to the completion of the Hijrah and the establishment of Islam as a religious and social order.
Just as Muhammad came from a well-known lineage, so did Buddha Shakyamuni, the founder of the Buddhist religion.

In 624 BC in what is now Nepal, Buddha Shakyamuni was born as a royal prince to Queen Mayadevi and to King Shuddhodana (“About Buddha”). Queen Mayadevi knew the individual that Buddha Shakyamuni would become as she dreamed that a white elephant descended from heaven and entered her womb (“About Buddha”). A Brahmin predicted that the child would become a Buddha, and” that his beneficial influence will pervade the thousand million worlds like the rays of the sun” (“About Buddha”). He studied not because he needed to but to please his father and to benefit others, mastering traditional arts and sciences, learning sixty-four different languages, and becoming skilled at mathematics and sports (“About Buddha”) even as he always conveyed spiritual meanings in his actions and encouraged the following of spiritual paths (“About Buddha”). The need for the principle on spirituality he cultivated early in life was underlined further when he encountered the sufferings of birth, sickness, ageing and death in his visits to the capital city. To fulfill his father’s wishes and to benefit the Shakya people, Prince Siddhartha married Yasodhara, the daughter of a respected Shakya family, even when he had no attachment to worldly pleasures (“About Buddha”). However, at 29, Prince Siddhartha escaped the life in the palace as he had a vision of all the Buddhas inspiring him to become a

Conqueror Buddha to help all living beings trapped in the cycle of suffering (“About Buddha”) that he resolved to retire to the solitude of the forest to engage in profound meditation until he attained enlightenment as he saw it to be the only way to attain the wisdom and the power to help all living beings (“About Buddha”). With his hair cut off and in the saffron robes of a religious mendicant, Siddhartha ordained himself as a monk and mediated for six years in a place near Bodh Gaya in India (“About Buddha”). He then moved to Bodh Gaya, seated himself beneath the Bodhi Tree, and assumed the meditation posture until he attained perfect enlightenment (“About Buddha”). Distractions during his meditation only sent Siddhartha to even deeper concentration, enabling him to become a fully enlightened being.
In contrast, Jesus had humble beginnings despite his ancestry linking back to the house of David.

Born in circa 6 B.C., Jesus was born to Mary and her betrothed Joseph who was a carpenter. Jesus’ birth differs from that of Muhammad and Buddha in that not only was he born to a family of less affluence but more importantly because he was conceived through Immaculate Conception (“Jesus Christ Biography”). When angels figured in Muhammad’s life when he was six years old and when divine intervention inspired Buddha when he as already 29, angels figured in Jesus’ life early when the angel Gabriel announced on to Mary that she would be God’s mother. In addition, unlike Muhammad and Buddha, Jesus did not receive formal educational training, and yet when he was 12 years old, Jesus became separated from his parents during a pilgrimage and was found several days later discussing affairs with some of the elders of Jerusalem (“Jesus Christ Biography”). Jesus was baptized by his cousin John when he was 30, (“Jesus Christ Biography”). Jesus then went into the Judean desert to fast and mediate to for 40 days and nights, in a manner similar to what Muhammad and Buddha did. More akin to Buddha than Muhammad, Jesus’ time in isolation was also plagued with temptations. Much like Buddha, Jesus emerged from his isolation stronger in his convections as well. However, much less like Buddha and more similar to Muhammad, Jesus actively taught the principles of his faith, gathering enough followers

to cause concern among the established religious group of the time.
The major religions are very distinct from each other. The practices and traditions passed on through generations are as different as the beginnings of Buddha, Jesus, or Muhammad. However, despite the dissimilarities in their faith, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad were bound in the same ideal of aspiring for the common betterment of man.