Recently someone asked why Christians believe that everyone has a corrupt nature and a bent towards sin. It’s because this is what the Bible teaches and is true to life. Have you ever met someone who did not sin? Who did not rebel against God?
The problem is that we compare are wrong-doings with the person next to us and think we are not too bad. But how good are we compared to God Almighty? We are not righteous at all.
As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one” (Rom 3:10-12).
For a muslim this is strange. I’ve been told several times that the prophet barely sinned, the prophets of old hardly sinned either, and most people are good people are just not sinners. The only problem is this does not fit into the Islamic texts.
Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) having said: By Him in Whose Hand is my life, if you were not to commit sin, Allah would sweep you out of existence and He would replace (you by) those people who would commit sin and seek forgiveness from Allah, and He would have pardoned them” (Sahih Muslim 2749).
Do you see that? Allah expects his followers to be sinners. If not, he would sweep you out of existence. He eagerly wants you to sin, so that you can come to him for forgiveness.
And then he supposedly forgives. But on what basis? Where is the justice for the wronged? Just say a few words and easily be forgiven?
The reality is that in the Bible and the hadith, all are seen as sinful. In Christianity, man is sinful because he rebelled against God and that sin spread to all mankind. In Islam, man is sinful because Allah made him sinful, and if he wasn’t sinful enough, Allah would wipe them out and replace them with sinners.
In both camps, forgiveness is needed.
In Christianity, forgiveness is not just thrown out there. Justice was served. Jesus took it on the cross.
In Islam, there is not justice for crimes against God or man. One has to just ask for forgiveness like the above verse, or try to cancel out wrongs by doing good deeds.