And they say: ‘Be Jews’, or ‘Be Christians’. ‘Then you will be rightly guided.’ Say to them: ‘No, follow exclusively the way of Abraham who was not one of those who associate others with Allah in His divinity.’ Say: ‘We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us and to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the descendants (of Jacob) and in what was given to Moses and Jesus and in what the other Prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are those who submit to Allah.’
(Al-Qur’ān – 2:135-36)
In comparison to Islam, Judaism and Christianity are later products. Judaism emerged during the third or fourth century B.C. As for Christianity, it came into existence long after Prophet Isa or Jesus. The question is: if man’s guidance depends on following Judaism or Christianity, how can Abraham and other Prophets and righteous people who are accepted as having been rightly-guided even by the Jews and Christians be considered so when they were born several centuries before the birth of Judaism and Christianity? If they were rightly-guided, from whom did they receive their guidance? Obviously their source of guidance and inspiration was neither Judaism nor Christianity since, in their times, these did not exist. So man’s ultimate success does not depend on the characteristics which led to the rise of Jewish or Christian particularisms; it rather depends on adopting that universal way to Truth which has guided and inspired men throughout the ages.