The Protestant Reformation and Islam Community

Religion has been a big topic thought out history. The Protestant Reformation took place when a young monk named Martin Luther was questioning the beliefs of the Catholic Church, and stated a new church. This resulted to argument from both sides. After Muhammad’s death, different sects in religion were made, different caliphs, and the Islamic community had a hard time deciding a successor. Islamic and Christianity are different but they have some of the same characteristics. Both the Protestant Reformation and the community after Muhammad’s death ended up separating from the religion they once believed in and the disputes between the leaders. In the Protestant Reformation, people left the Catholic Church and converted to Lutheranism.

In the Islamic community, the development of the first caliphate, the Muslims divided from Islam into sects of the Shi’ite and Sunni. Similar when the Umayyad caliphate was formed. They fled the original Islamic religion that was established by Muhammad. Both began because of religious and not agreeing with the original. The Protestant Reformation, the monk, Martin Luther protested the church’s willingness to take money for their own satisfaction. He also disagreed with the church’s beliefs, that salvation be achieved through faith alone and that it’s not through confessing sins.

After the 16th century, the Protestant religion split even further. In 1520, pope publicly disapproved his teachings. In the Islamic community, the umma disagreed on the succession of the caliphate between Shi’ite and Sunni. The Sunnis believe that the Imam should be Muslim, supported the first three caliphs, and believed to create the best leader as possible for the Muslim world, leaders should be elected. The Shi’ite believed that Ali was the right person for Muhammad’s successor and Imam will always be Ali’s descendants. In 750, a rebellion in Khurasan led to the Umayyad’s overthrown and created the Abbasid Caliphate.

Also, they both caused arguments and disputes between religious leaders. In the Reformation, Martin Luther argued with the pope for a few years. The pope assured that nothing was wrong with the church. In Islam, the two groups fought for religious reasons and later separated. In the Protestant Reformation, John Calvin created Calvinism. He was influenced by Lutheranism and went against the Catholic Church. In Islam different caliphates fought over Islam. The Abbasid Caliph fought with the Umayyad Caliph, the Abbasid won the battle, and the Umayyad established a different caliph.

The difference between the Protestant Reformation and the Islamic community is that they were about different religions and different reasons. Islam was the rising of the first caliph and Catholic representing the Protestant Reformation. In the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther didn’t like the idea for the church taking money from people. He thinks people can’t get into heaven by paying money for fixing your sins.

Martin didn’t intended to split the Christian religions and making his own church. He didn’t want to break up the church; he just wanted to fix it, to purify it. Muhammad’s successor Abu Bakr had no intension to split the Islam religion, all he wanted to do was the succeed Muhammad as a leader. They also happened in two different time periods. The death of Muhammad to first caliph was around 600-800 BCE. The Protestant Reformation was around the fourteenth century.

Although the Islamic community after Muhammad’s death and the Protestant Reformation were totally different events that occurred in different time periods, different religions and reasons. But in some ways they were similar by the splitting of the religion.