Christianity: All Christian believe in God, in Jesus Christ, the Saviour and founder of the Christian religion, and in the Bible which is their Sacred Book containing the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The aim of every Christian is that he should save his soul by living according to the teaching of Jesus and applying to himself the merits obtained for mankind by Christ through His sufferings and death on t he Cross which he suffered in separation and redemption for the sins of mankind.

Though the principles of Christianity are the same for all churches, they differ among themselves mainly in

  1. their methods of administration,
  2. sources of their beliefs and doctrines,
  3. dogmas of faith, and
  4. rituals.

The Catholic, for instance, have a distinctive set of religious beliefs which differentiate the from the members of the other Christian denomination.

  1. They acknowledge the Pope, Bishop of Rome, as the Head of the Church, to whom they owe allegiance and obedience in doctrinal and moral matters.
  2. Though the Bible is for each of them the inspiration of their religion life, it is not left to each one’s individual intellect to interpret the Bible as he likes. All Catholics accept the Bible as it is interpreted by the Magistracy of the Church and Tradition. By Magistracy of the church is meant the Pope and the Bishops authoritatively and officially interpreting the Bible and stating the doctrine as it has been handed down form the early Church, generation after generation, through the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church.
  3. For Catholics the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the centre of religious worship. At the end of Holy Mass, the Catholic priest receives the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ under the species of bread and wine. Such Catholic lay-people as are present at the Holy Mass and are free from mortal sin receive Christ under the species of bread only. This is known as Holy Communion which for Catholics is not simply a memorial service, but in fact, a true reception of Christ’s own Body under the Sacramental species.
  4. Catholics believe in auricular confession : This means that the normal way for a Catholic to get remission of his sins is to go to the Catholic priest, confess his sins and feel and express contrition for them and get absolution from them from the priest, who absolves the penitent in the name of God.

Muhammedanism: Of the 70,789 Muslims in the district in 1951, on 53 were returned as Sias (khojas and Bohoras) and the rest Sunnis. In 1901, in the Muslim population of 42, 573, 40,187 were Sunnis and 1,926 Sias. Only the Cutchi, Bohara and Khoja form Gujarat are Sias and practically all other Muhammedans are Sunnis. The main difference between the Sunnis and sias is that the latter think that according to the Kuran the Caliphate or spiritual leadership or the Muhammedans had to descend in the Prophet’s family and therefore necessarily devolved on the Lady Fatimah, the only one of his children who survived him, and on her husband Ali the fourth Caliph. They therefore reject the first three Caliphs after Muhammad, that is Abu Bakar, omar and Usman. After Ali they also hold that the Caliphate descended in his family to his two sons Hassan and Hussain. The central incident of the Sia faith is the slaughter of Hussain, the sonof Ali, with his family, on the plain of Karbala in Persia, on the 10the day of the month of Muharram, in the 61st year of the Hijra or A.D. 680. This martyrdom of Hussain and his family at Karbala is celebrated annually for the first ten days of the month of Muharram by the Sias. The sias also reject the four great schools of tradition of the Sunnis, and have separate traditional authorities of their own. They count the month to begin form the fading of old moon instead of the new moon, pray three instead of five times a day, and in praying hold their hands open by their sides instead of folding them below the breast.

The five standard observances of the Muhammedan religion are :

  1. The Kalima, or creed which consists simply in the sentence, ‘There is but one God and Muhammad is his prophet’ which is frequently on the lips of devout Muslims:
  2. Sula, or the five daily prayers, the five periods for them being
  1. morning, before sunrise,
  2. midday, after the sun has begun to decline,
  3. the afternoon, about four,
  4. the evening, immediately after sunset, and
  5. the evening, after the night has closed in. These prayers are repeated in Arabic, and before saying them the face hands and feet should be washed, and, correctly speaking the teeth should also be cleaned:
  1. Rosa, or the thirty-day fast of Ramzan, the ninth month of the Muslim year. During its continuance no food or water must be taken between sunrise and sunset, and betel-leaf, tobacco and conjugal intercourse must be abjured for the whole period :
  2. Zakat the legal alms consisting of money, cattle, grain, fruit and merchandise are to be given annually to pilgrims desiring to go to Mecca but have bot the means : to poor religious and other beggars : debtors who have not the means to discharge their debts, champions of the cause of God, and proselytes to Islam;
  3. The Haj or pilgrimage to Mecca is incumbent on all Muslim men and woman who have sufficient means to meet the expenses of the journey and to maintain their families at home during their absence.

 

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