water symbol- islam and christianity

Water is an integral part of Islam and has been embedded in Islamic beliefs and scriptures. As Muslims, it is important to acknowledge water as one of the immense mercies Allah (swt) has bestowed upon us. Using the blessing of water as a source of growth, sustenance and purification, Muslims are required to perform wudhu and ghusl (ablution rituals) using water before prayer throughout the day.
With descriptions of paradise mentioning adorned gardens wherein rivers flow, we know that water will also benefit us in the afterlife, thus reinforcing its importance to mankind. Allah (swt) says in the Qur’an: “Say: shall I give you glad tidings of things far better than those? For the righteous are Gardens in nearness to their Lord with rivers flowing beneath; erein is their eternal home; with spouses purified and the good pleasure of Allah, for in Allah's sight are (all) His servants”. [Qur’an 3:15] e mention of rain, fountains and rivers pour through the pages of the Qur’an as a symbol of Allah’s (swt) benevolence to mankind. In Surah Al- Furqan, Allah (swt) describes His Mercy: “And it is He who sends the winds as good tidings before His mercy, and We send down from the sky pure water” [Quran 25:48] In the Qur’an, Muslims are encouraged to constantly contemplate and reflect upon nature and their surroundings so that they may cultivate thankfulness for the blessings they receive. Allah (swt) calls upon the believers to consider the sweet taste that water is made up of and warns mankind that they are no more than guardians on Earth

http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/Hajjar%20Story.pdf

Water in christianity

For thousands of years water has been among the main religious symbols. This is indeed the case for the Orthodox Christian tradition where it is involved in liturgical mysteries from baptism and the Eucharist to the rites of the Blessing of the waters. Why is water so central to Christian religious life? Let us attempt to answer this question by turning to Biblical history and Christian tradition with particular reference to the office of Epiphany.

Water as a symbol of life as well as a means of cleansing, or purification, is of particular importance in Old Testament. It was created on the first day (Genesis 1:2, 6-8). The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2). The earth was founded upon the waters (Genesis 1:6-7, 9-10). God commanded the water to bring out an abundance of living souls (Genesis 1:20-21). In some sense the element is close to God (Psalms 17; 28:3; 76:17, 20; 103:3; 148:4). God is compared with the rain (Hosea 6:3). Water brings life (cf. Exodus 15:23-35; 17:2-7; Psalms 1:3; 22:2; 41:2; 64:10; 77:20; Isaiah 35:6-7; 58:11) and joy (Psalm 45:5). It is a powerful purifying element and can destroy evil and enemies as in the stories of the Flood and the flight of Israel from Egypt (Genesis 3:1-15; Exodus 14:1-15:21). According to Old Testament Law, it cleanses defilement (Leviticus 11:32; 13:58; 14:8, 9; 15-17; 22:6; cf. Isaiah 1:16) and is used in sacrifices (Leviticus 1:9, 13; 6:28; 1 Kings 18:30-39), in which context the Bible mentions the living water (Leviticus 14; Numbers 5; 19). Water heals, as can be seen from the stories of Naaman the Syrian cured from his leprosy in the waters of Jordan (2 Kings 5:1-14) and the annual miracles at Bethesda in Jerusalem (John 5:1-4). John the Baptist used the waters of the Jordan to cleanse people's sins which reminded typical Jewish custom (Matthew 3:1-6; Mark 1:4-5; Luke 3:2-16; John 1:26-33) - even Christ came to be baptized (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10). On the other hand, water is also the habitat of serpents whose heads God crushed (Psalm 73:13-14) and of the dragon (Job 41:25; Psalm 103:26).

We can see from this the belief common in the Old Testament that water is a mystically powerful element which, being connected with God in some way, can cleanse sins, inner and outer defilement, and regenerate the human body. It is even possible to assert that water has taken on the religious symbol of life.

In New Testament the role of water seems to be more significant yet more symbolic. Christ turns water into wine at Cana (John 2:1-11), saying it is a means to a new spiritual birth into the kingdom of heaven (John 3:5). Christ gives living water which is the source of eternal life (John 4:10-14; 7:38) as foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah (2:13). He came in water, blood and the Spirit, witnessing to one God (1 John 5:6-8). He commands watery baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; Acts 8:38). When speaking about baptism, St Paul states that in water we are buried with our sins in the likeness of Christ's death:

We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead (Colossians 2:12).

Moreover, the watery mystery is connected with the Holy Spirit, the Divine Person that accomplishes rebirth (John 3:5-6; Acts 8:39; cf. Acts 1-2).

From this we can see how the New Testament integrates Old Testament belief. Unlike the Old Testament, the role of water appears to be Christocentric and explicitly connected with the presence of the Holy Spirit. The element has taken on the symbol of spiritual grace. Moreover, the Old Testament concept of water prefigures the baptismal mystery. This meaning of water has been elaborately interpreted in Christian tradition. Let us now look at certain aspects of it.

The story of the Flood is a very popular prototype of baptism. Its origins are clearly shown in 1 Peter 3:20-21 according to which we are to understand the Flood as baptism and those few who were saved in the ark prefigured the Church of baptized Christians saved by the resurrection of Christ. In his dispute with Trypho, Justin Martyr expounds the image more profoundly:

The mystery of saved men appeared in the deluge. For righteous Noah, along with the other mortals at the deluge, being eight in number, were a symbol of the eighth day, wherein Christ appeared when he rose from the dead. For Christ, being the first-born of every creature, became again the chief of another race regenerated by himself through water, and faith, and wood, containing the mystery of the cross; even as Noah was saved by wood when he rode over the waters with his household. By water, faith, and wood, those who are afore-prepared, and who repent of the sins which they have committed, shall escape from the impending judgment of God (Dialogue with Trypho 138:1-2).

The image of Christ as the new Noah gradually became very popular in the context of the Epiphany. Likewise the interpretation of the dove announcing the end of the Flood (Exodus 8:8-12) as the prototype of the Holy Spirit, unfolding Trinitarian teaching. Nonetheless, traditional exegesis used in the liturgy focuses mainly on the contrast between these two baptisms: for although the Flood cleansed sins, it destroyed the living world whereas Christian baptism cleanses sins, imparts new life, and raises the world to heaven. John of Damascus clearly recognises the Flood as the very first baptism which destroyed sins (Expositio Fidei 82:67). Troparion 3 of ode 7 of his Epiphany canon is built on this imagery. He applies the image of the Flood both to baptism in general and to the baptism of Christ in particular. In the latter case we encounter the idea that positive changes of fallen creation first took place in the human nature of Christ. For the salvation of mortals he washed away sin in water as well as the Flood. John uses this language not to deepen the mystery but to emphasise the fullness of the human nature of Christ.

Another baptismal prototype appears in Exodus. St Paul was the first to refer to the story of the flight of Israel in the terms of baptism:

All our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Now these things became our examples (1 Corinthians 10:1-2, 6).

The Cappadocians extensively explored this image as well. Enumerating the five kinds of baptism with that of Moses being the first among them, Gregory Nazianzen clarifies that "this was typical as Paul says: the sea of the water, and the cloud of the Spirit" (Oration 39, PG 36, 353). According to the comparison made by Basil, echoed by Gregory of Nyssa, the fount of baptism releases Christians from the tyranny of the devil in the same way that Israel was delivered from the Pharaoh by the sea, the Egyptians who perished thus prefiguring both the devil and sins (Basil the Great, De Spiritu sancto 14:1-9. Cf. Gregory of Nyssa, In diem luminum). This image is also popular in the Nativity and Epiphany Hymns of Ephraem the Syrian (NH 7, 9, 13; EH 1, 7, 5; NPNF 2, 13:223-262; 265-289) where we find similar interpretations. John of Damascus quotes Gregory Nazianzen when explaining the mystery of Christian baptism (Expositio Fidei 82:67-69). In this light, irmos 1 of his Epiphany canon is not merely an allusion to the first biblical canticle but an integral part of the theological structure of the poem. The image in irmos 1 unfolds in irmos 3 illustrating that the deliverance of Israel prefigures Christian baptism and universal salvation, which is in keeping with the tradition. Nonetheless, John seems to develop it to an extent that the image applies to the baptism of Christ himself, because primary changes, as we have said above, were accomplished in his human nature as follows from the troparia between these irmoi.

In the act of divine kenosis Christ cleansed his own body from sin in water not because he was sinful but since he was "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29, 36) and thus he acknowledged the importance of Old Testament which he came to fulfill. However, the meaning of water in the Old Testament seems to change with the baptism of Christ. Water had been infected by the sins and defilements washed in it and therefore in the Psalter, and in some Christian authors, was called the habitat of the devil (Psalms 73:13-14; 103:26. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 39, PG 36, 353:30: "the devil is king living in the waters." Ephraem, NH 2). By entering the waters of the Jordan, Christ purified and blessed this element for our baptismal purification (Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 38, PG 36, 329:23-27; Oration 39, PG 36, 352:25-29. Ephraem, EH 2; the refrain of 9; 10).

The healing power of water as indicated in the story of the prophet Elisha and Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5:1-14) and also in Old Testament Law, is of paramount importance in reference to baptism (Gregory of Nyssa, In diem luminum. Ephraem, NH 12; EH 1, 6, 11). However, Christian tradition emphasizes that the water receives grace and power only through the presence of the Holy Spirit (Basil the Great, De Spiritu sancto 15). The perfect illustration of this is to be found in St Paul, where baptism in which water symbolizes death, receives the body like a tomb (and sometimes we come across the thought that thrice-repeated baptism reminds of the three days of Christ's burial in the tomb) - but the Spirit gives life which is initially birth from above (Basil the Great, De Spiritu sancto 15. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 38, PG 36, 328:24; Oration 39, PG 36, 352:25-30. Ephraem, EH 3). Consequently, water prepares a person for the Spirit, which is conditioned by the idea that a human being consists of two natures, spiritual (soul) and corporeal (body). According to this concept, baptismal water purifies the body and the Holy Spirit, present in it, cleanses the soul, thus accomplishing the rebirth about which Christ spoke to Nicodemus (John 1:21. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 40, PG 36, 368:12-17). Baptism is performed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). From this it is clear that purification by water serves as the introduction to the mystery of Trinity (Justin Martyr, Apology 1, 61:3-5, ANF 1. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 39, PG 36:348, Oration 40, PG 36:380. Ephraem, EH 9, 12).

However, water in Christian tradition has an even wider application. In the Eucharistic rite it is mingled with wine at the liturgy of preparation after the priest has pronounced verses 34-35 from John 19, thus clearly indicating the origin of this detail:

One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. He who saw it bore witness, and his witness is true.

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http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles4/PokhiltoWater.php

Depiction of Fleuve de Vie, the "River of Life", from the Book of Revelation, Urgell Beatus, (f°198v-199), c. 10th century