Islam and Christianity

Qu’ran -- Surah 5:51 ff: “Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another . Whoever of you seeks their friendship shall become one of their numbers” and later “Believers, do not seek the friendship of the infidels and those who were given the Book before you, who have made of your religion a jest and a pastime. Have fear of God, if you are true believers… Say: ‘People of the Book, is it not that you hate us only because we believe in God and in what has been revealed to us and to others before, and because most of you are evil-doers?’ … When they came to you they said: ‘We are believers.’ Indeed, infidels they came and infidels they departed. God knew best what they concealed… That which is revealed to you from your Lord will surely increase the wickedness and unbelief of many among them. We have stirred among them enmity and hatred, which will endure till the Day of Resurrection . Whenever they kindle the fire of war, God puts it

THE OPENING “ In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, Praise be to God, The Lord of the Worlds, The Merciful One, the Compassionate One, The Master of the Day of Doom. You alone we worship, to You alone we call for help. Guide us in the straight path, The Path of those You have blessed, Not of those with whom You are angry, Nor of those who go astray.” “The Fatiha , the opening sura of the Qur’an, the Sura of Praise, is recited every time Muslims begin their prayer and when any new thing is to be undertaken.” (from the beginning of John Alden Williams, The Word of Islam , U. of Texas Press) The Call to Prayer “At first the people gathered to him (Muhammad) for the ritual prayers without any summons. The Messenger thought of using a horn like that of the Jews who call to their prayers with it. Then he disliked the idea and ordered a wooden gong (like those of the Eastern Christians) to be beaten when the Muslims should pray.     “Meanwhile, ‘Abdallah b. Zayd b. Tha’laba of