Religion means the ideology of truth. The major religions of the world can be divided into two broad categories - the Aryan's and the Semitic, with Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism falling in the former and Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the latter.

As far as their theological aspects are concerned, there is a marked difference between these two kinds of religions. While the Aryan religions are basically philosophy-based, the Semitic religions are Revelation based. The former represents the culmination of the philosophical pursuit of truth by the great minds of the world. In the quest for reality, meditation and contemplation brought these saintly souls to the conclusions that gave rise to the organized religions of the eastern hemisphere.

The creeds of the Semitic religions on the other hand, are based on divine revelation. That is, God chose a series of Semites to be His apostles and then imparted to them His commandments. These messengers were the bearers of divine scriptures and these divine scriptures provided the fundamentals of the Semitic religions, as they exist today.

The basic difference in respect to beliefs of the Aryan and Semitic religions can be briefly described in terms of monism and monotheism respectively.

Although both traditions - monism and monotheism - have the idea of God in common but there are fundamental differences in their conceptualization of God.

In the Aryan tradition, God is an all-pervasive force rather than an independent reality. Monism posits the totality of a single reality, with all the diverse phenomena of the natural world seen as different manifestations of the same reality. According to this concept, therefore, there is no real difference between the creator and the creature. Thus as per the monism concept of an individual, a personalized God does not exist.

The Monotheistic concept of God is based on the principle of dualism instead of monism or the duality of reality — that the Creator and the creature are completely separate from one another. God, according to this concept, has a real and eternal existence based on tawheed or monotheism. According to monotheism, God is One and has no partner. He created all things and has complete control over the universe. As the Creator of all things, He is distinct from all He has created. His creatures, in their seemingly independent existence, totally depend upon the will of God. The sole possessor of all power, God, has created man to live for a specific period of time, during which he is sent into the world to be tested.

God, according to the Monotheistic concept is a real and independent personality.  Man should serve Him and submit to Him alone. Though He cannot be seen, He is so close to man that He hears and answers him when he calls upon Him. He is alive and self-sustaining, self-perpetuating. He has knowledge and takes decisions, rewards and punishes.

According to the Monotheistic concept, the target of man's quest is that the creature – man – has to discover and realize God – his Creator, to whom he is accountable, and make contact with Him through the process of contemplation or tafakkur or tadabbur or tawassum as mentioned in the Quran. That is to say that God is the treasure house of all virtues. And when man’s contact with God is established through contemplation, in the world of his feelings, at the psychological level, an unseen, inner revolution is brought about which inspires man to live a God-Oriented life. In this matter the relationship between God and man can be likened to an electric wire and the powerhouse. When the wire is connected to the powerhouse, electricity is produced, and the place is lit up. In this way, light is the result of the wire’s connection to the powerhouse of God.

It is this concept of the Creator as totally distinct from the creature, which sets the Semitic religions, based as they are on monotheism – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – apart from the Aryan religions, which are based on monism – Hindusim, Buddhism, Jainism – in which God is a symbol, not a reality.

This is the basis of the difference of the religions of the world.