The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2087 page)

n, in which he is considered to be the figure who, under the name of
Gabriel
, taught the Qur’
n to Mu
ammad.

 
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(Pañj
b
, from Skt., ‘
loka’, ‘verse’). Short verse of two or more lines interspersing longer verses in the
di
Granth.

 
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(Lat.,
salus
, ‘sound, safe’). The act or state of being safe in ultimate terms. Although all religions have some sense of a condition which might appropriately be called by this name, the state and the way to it are very differently understood. Thus in Judaism, there is concern to achieve deliverance from sin and for a final
messianic
victory, but no word or phrase in general use that summarizes the idea of ‘salvation’. Again, in Islam, there is much concern with the day of judgement (
yaum al-Din
) and with the mercy of God, who is constantly invoked
b’ismi-Ll
hi rahm
ni warah
m
, ‘in the name of God, merciful and compassionate’. But the most common word for ‘salvation’,
najah
, is used only once in the Qur’
n Again, in Buddhism, there is strong emphasis from the Buddha that he is only a physician who can diagnose ills and suggest the path to a cure, but that each person must be his or her own saviour. It is only in Mah
y
na Buddhism that figures akin to saviours (especially
bodhisattvas
) enter in. In Hinduism, the notion is more clearly expressed through terms derived from
muc
, ‘release from pains or penalties’, such as
mukti
(mukta) and
mok
a
. Help from a ‘saviour’, especially an
avat
ra
of Vi
u, and above all from
K
a
, is acknowledged. It is in Christianity that great emphasis is laid on salvation, deriving from the centrality of Christ. The Christian doctrine has several aspects: