While they now diverge enough to have become separate faiths, the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) still share common belief in an afterlife of Heaven or Hell. Those deemed righteous at the end of their brief time on Earth are rewarded with eternal happiness in Heaven, while those deemed unrighteous are punished with eternal suffering in Hell. A fourth and comparatively minor Abrahamic religion (Baha’i) teaches that Heaven and Hell are not literal places of eternal reward or punishment. Rather, they are each a figurative state of being indicative of one’s nearness to, or remoteness from God.
For the three dominant Abrahamic religions that ascribe to a literal interpretation of Heaven and Hell, it might seem a strange twist of fate that the pursuit of happiness on Earth can lead to eternal suffering in Hell, while an acceptance of suffering on Earth can be rewarded with eternal happiness in Heaven. Earthly life is consequently short and perilous; how is one to navigate past the sirens of Hades and find safe harbor in Paradise? Luckily for humankind, there is no dearth of spiritual guidance in the matter. The Abrahamic prophets of God provide several lists of sanctioned and unsanctioned earthly pursuits that will likely lead one to fulltime residential status in either Heaven or Hell.
Moses was first in acquiring a list of prerequisites for entering the kingdom of Heaven. Around 1500 BC, he was summoned to a long and private interview with God on top of Mount Sinai. As a rather intense and severe host, God convened with Moses for forty days and nights without providing a morsel of food or even a drink of water. With Moses patiently looking on, the finger of God carefully engraved some essential dos and don’ts on two tablets of stone that detailed the requirements for Heavenly admittance. Upon dismissal, a surely famished Moses labored back down the mountain, faithfully bearing the heavy stone tablets engraved with God’s instructions that today are called “The Ten Commandments.” One can imagine the shock and horror he must have felt upon reaching bottom, only to find the children of Israel singing and dancing around a golden calf. They were engaged in the very same act that God’s first two commandments forbade! In a fit of blind rage, Moses dashed the stone tablets (forty days’ worth of divine effort) against a rock, splintering them into many pieces. Perhaps a better fed Moses would have realized that the children had not yet had a chance to read any of the commandments that he had just smashed to smithereens. How were they to have already known that graven images were forbidden? And how would they now know any of the Ten Commandments at all? Seeing the dilemma posed by the angry outburst of Moses, God mercifully instructed him to fashion two more stone tablets upon which God digitally replicated his previous effort and thereby preserved the Ten Commandments for all of posterity (assuming Moses would keep his temper in check long enough to allow transposition to a less fragile medium).
The Ten Commandments did survive, and sufficed for 1500 years, but then Jesus Christ came along and another major requirement was proposed for entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven: belief that Jesus was the divine son of God. Some of the children of Israel were skeptical of Christ’s proclaimed deity and refused acceptance of this new and disruptive supplemental commandment. They would stick to the original Ten Commandments and forgo the addition of a controversial “eleventh.” The originalists resolutely continued to call themselves “Jews,” while the revisionists who were willing to add the new commandment reidentified and began calling themselves, “Christians.” So, rather than just one Abrahamic religion, there were now two: Judaism and Christianity.
Upon watching the antics of Jews and Christians for another 600 years, God must have concluded that ten or even eleven commandments were no longer sufficient. Rather than making a personal visit to address the issue (he may have been busy trying to establish a new franchise in the yet to be developed, but potentially very fertile American market), God sent his chief assistant Gabriel to a cave near Mecca to confer with a devout man named Muhammad who was solemnly meditating inside. The two immediately struck up a lifelong friendship and met often thereafter. In one or more of their get-togethers, Gabriel informed Muhammad that while God considered the original Ten Commandments to be still operable, the eleventh was certainly not: God held Jesus Christ to have been a fine young man, but Jesus was not really his biological son and should not be thought of in that way. Furthermore, the Ten Commandments, while still good, were in dire need of expansion; there simply weren’t enough “don’ts” therein to compel proper behavior. So, through his angel Gabriel, to his prophet Muhammad, God laid out a greatly expanded list of “thou shalt not” offenses that ought to be avoided by anyone seriously seeking admittance to Heaven. The weighty list is often referred to as “The 70 Major Sins in Islam” (it’s unclear as to whether a list of minor sins is forthcoming). Thus, through the prophet Muhammad, Islam was born, further dividing the original Abrahamic religion into three distinct groups: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Oy Vey! First it was Jesus and his eleventh commandment, and then it was Muhammad with 70 major sins. What’s a devout Jew to do? Clearly Moses and a mere ten commandments were on their way to being overwhelmed and outdated. If they couldn’t keep up with the competition, Judaism would soon be nothing more than yesterday’s child. Well, better late than never; it took another 500 years, but around 1175 AD, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides) compiled the Mishneh Torah which easily vaulted Judaism ahead of Christianity and Islam with its whopping list of over 600 commandments (luckily for Maimonides, stone tablets were no longer God’s state-of-the-art communication medium). The 613 Mitzvot, as the list came to be called, dwarfed the dos and don’ts of both Christianity and Islam. Clearly, Judaism was back in first place, and with no new Islamic prophets on the horizon, would likely remain there for quite some time.
Maybe it was the eager zeal with which Jews, Christians, and Muslims seemed to castigate themselves (and each other) over adherence with the 10, the 11, the 60, or the 613 commandments. They were actually killing and mutilating one another upon the perception of transgressions, even before God himself had his own opportunity to punish them in Hell. In a rare act of reconsideration, God back-pedaled from assurances made to Muhammad (perhaps Gabriel had over-stepped his authority) and drafted yet another prophet to rectify the situation. In 1863 AD, God reached out to Baha’u’llah with new instructions for humankind. Rather than violently obsessing over the “don’t” commandments, the children of God should focus more on some of the “do’s,” and thereby live in peace and harmony with one another. The new message (and its bearer) was ill-received. “I don’t think so!” or, “Hell no!” were pretty much the common refrains by established Jews, Christians, and Muslims. All three were opposed to diluting their governing hierarchies with acceptance of still another prophet. Muslims in particular were taken aback by suggestions of acceptance. Hadn’t Gabriel previously assured them that their Muhammad would always be God’s favorite and final prophet? To now expect them to embrace a new prophet was tantamount to telling Christians that Jesus was merely God’s adopted son and that the two shared no divine DNA (or telling Jews that Jesus did share God’s DNA). Unsurprisingly, resistance to the new prophet was extreme and often violent. Many converts were systematically murdered, but Baha’u’llah did have some unwavering followers with the fortitude to resist the deadly resistance. A few survived to spread Baha’u’llah’s message, and the Abrahamic base was thus divided into four distinct religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Baha’i.
In spite of, or perhaps because of Baha’u’llah’s message of, “Can’t we all just get along?” Baha’i retains just a minor presence in the Abrahamic family, and is considered by the other siblings to be a bastard child. The pejorative is not as discriminatory as it might appear; the three dominant family members feel the same about each other! Each considers himself to be God’s only true child on the correct pathway to Heaven, while his misguided pseudo-siblings are all going to Hell in a handcart. Although the mutual bastardization of Baha’i is not a consequence of family unity, the three “siblings” do sound almost harmonious in portraying Baha’i as uniquely irrelevant. What of the Ten (or Eleven) Commandments, the 70 Major Sins, or the 613 Mitzvot? With so little to rail against, with no real Satan or Hell to fear, with no real Heaven to long for, how can good Jews, Christians, and Muslims regard Baha’i as relevant? It can’t be seen as just another bastard child of their common Abrahamic father; it must be seen as a bastard child of a different father altogether.
So, the three half-brothers (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) consider Baha’i to be a non-brother of another father, and each considers himself to be the one and only true legitimate offspring of their common father. It’s a distinction deemed worth killing and dying for, which is done with reluctant enthusiasm when opportunity demands or presents itself. Surely this endless strife was not God’s intent when first sending us Moses, then Jesus, then Muhammad, and then Baha’u’llah (if he was even sent at all). Surely, God won’t let it go on this way forever. Might there be another intervention in the works? As was done in the past, perhaps in another 500 years or so, God will look down upon the brotherly conflagration and compassionately intercede one more time. Will it be through an angel? Will it be via another prophet? Mercifully, it will be through neither. With great insight and wisdom, perhaps God will forego the sending of an emissary and/or a secretive mountaintop kind of meeting and manifestly address all the world’s multitudes in a simultaneously direct and miraculous sort of way that clearly sets the record straight.
As we patiently wait for God’s clarifying intervention, would it be sacrilegious to consider the bastard child’s message: “Can’t we all just get along?” Do the 10, the 11, the 60, or the 613 commandments of the more legitimate children expressly forbid such amity?