Explain How Sacred Texts Provide Understanding of Peace Is Expressed in Christianity and Islam

The bible, Quran and Hadith are respected texts and are regarded as the books of truth. Believers take these sacred texts as the revealed message from God – the truth. As such, they are used as a guide to life in the pursuit of peace between people and also between people and God. Jesus and Muhammad had a role in spreading the teaching of peace. To understand how the Muslims and Christians view peace it is imperative to first understand what peace means. Most people would refer to peace as freedom of war, disagreements, conflict and calmness of mind. To understand the roles of Christianity and Islam in the teaching of peace the concepts of inner peace, world and society peace has to be addressed, for both Christians and Muslims, inner peace refers to the state of calmness and tranquility experienced by the individual. It is often understood to be associated with the spiritual peace with God/Jesus for Christians and spiritual peace with Allah who desires peace for Muslims. Muslims believe that it is through complete submission to Allah also called the Greater Jihad that an individual may achieve inner peace. The Quran states clearly that in order to achieve world peace, all people must submit to Allah as they believe all people of the Muslim community around the world are one community. They believe that there can be no world/universal peace or the lesser Jihad without the greater Jihad which is misunderstood by many Islamic and non-Islamic people.

The NT of the Christian bible’s idea of peace is derived from the two major Jewish understandings; one being the fifth commandment and the other is the Jewish translation of the word ‘peace’. The fifth commandment; “thou shall not kill”, found in Exodus 20:13 is mentioned in Matthew 5:21-26 in which Jesus refers to it not as a literal act of ending a person’s life but the murderous act of anger towards a person’s brother in their heart. Just as a person who has killed another will be subject to judgment, Jesus also...