RELIGIOUS BOOKS

All major world religions like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism provide religious books which advocate the message of God's love and the various moral codes, practices and rituals one should adhere to. The following are the religious books of the main religions of the world-

Christian Religious Books - The Holy Bible comprising of the New Testament and the Old Testament is the main religious book of the Christians.

The New Testament is the translation of the Hebrew Bible of Judaism and contains the entire Jewish Tanakh. Altogether the New Testament consists of the four religious texts such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Other parts of the New Testament include the Acts of the Apostles, Luke's Gospel, the Epistles of St.Paul, the apocalyptic Book the Latter-day Saints consider other three books - the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants to be the divine words of God while the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church also maintains the Broad Canon and the Narrow Canon.

Religious Books of Islam -The Islam religion has two sacred books or texts- Qur'an (the eternal words of Allah) and the Hadith, the principal source for Islamic law. The Qur'an(Koran) consisting of 114 chapters contains a large number of codes or rules that is believed to have sent by God. Hadith is the key source from where one can derive Islamic authority. The sound books- Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are the most important sources of Islamic laws such as marriage laws, criminal laws, purity laws and so on.

Buddhist Religious Books- The main religious or sacred book of Buddhism is Tripitaka (three baskets or works). Tripitaka consists of the the Sutra Pitaka, the Vinaya Pitaka and the Abhidharma Pitaka. Apart from this, the Jatakas are also considered important as the past incarnations of Buddha are depicted there.

Hindu Religious Books - Hinduism has a large number of scriptures and religious books and among them the primary texts are the Vedas. There are four Vedas- the Rig Veda (the oldest of all) , the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Atharva Veda. Apart from these there are Upanishads, Puranas, the great Epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana, Vedanta and the Holy Book of the Hindus- Bhagavad Gita.