The Lives and Teachings of Jesus and Mohammed - Essay Example

Introduction Jesus of Nazareth and Mohammed were arguably the most influential figures in the entire history of world religion. Both were considered by their followers to be the ultimate prophet whose teaching reflected the true will of God. The word of both Jesus and Mohammed became considered the Word of God upon which the two most dominant religions in the world are based. Today, billions of people around the globe consider themselves followers either Jesus or of Mohammed; and they are all equally adamant that their religion and its prophet are the ultimate truth. Unfortunately, that certitude has resulted in substantial conflict and bloodshed over the centuries; and has produced fundamental split of civilizations that is the basis for much of the world discord that is common today. The lives and deaths of these two individuals had a tremendous impact on their respective religions. On the one hand, Jesus' death was essential to the central doctrine of Christianity whereby Christ is believed to have died in order to save God's children from their sins. On the other hand, Mohammed's life was more important than his death in terms of spreading Islam, as he became the leader of an effort to spread the doctrine of the new religion based upon God's revelations that were believed to have been communicated to him through the Angel Gabriel. Jesus did not purport to espouse a new religion, but rather sought to teach a new covenant of Judaism whereby God's will would become clearer to his fellow Jews. It was Jesus' followers after his death that spread the teachings and the story of his life, death and resurrection as a distinct religion from Judaism in its own right. By contrast, Mohammed, with knowledge of the new Christian religion and its Jewish precursor, affirmatively sought to establish and aggressively spread Islam as a new religion during his own life. Thus, the lives of Jesus and Mohammed had a wholly different kind of influence on the religions each spawned. The Lives and Teachings of Jesus and Mohammed The lives of Jesus and Mohammed were marked by some very key and fundamental differences. The choices both individuals made regarding their lifestyles and their teachings evidenced dramatically different attitudes and values pertaining to violence, sin and repentance, the place of women, and their overall views regarding the will of God. Their teachings and example are so profoundly different that it may be difficult to understand how they can both purport to convey the word and will of the same God. Even their dying words illustrate a quite different attitude toward nonbelievers, with Jesus praying that they be forgiven "for they know not what they do," while Mohammed cursed and blamed the Jews and Christians upon his death for building "the places of worship at the graves of the prophets" (http://answering-islam.org.uk/Silas/founders.htm). Essentially, the attitude both men had toward those whom they perceived as misguided nonbelievers were exactly the opposite in tone. "Christ asks God to forgive His enemies, while Muhammad utters a bitter curse against those who rejected his assertion of prophethood." Their views on slavery were also fundamentally different. Jesus did not own slaves, and the New Testament specifically lists the trading of slaves as being criminal in nature. 1 Timothy 1:8-10 states, "law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers..." The so-called "Golden Rule" of the Gospel of Luke (6:31), whereby Jesus teaches to "do to others as you would have them do to you," could also be construed as a directive against enslaving people. By contrast, Mohammed owned many slaves and specifically condoned their less than dignified treatment. The Koran is replete with examples of Mohammed's practice of enslaving many different types of people, and condoning the mistreatment of them. For example: "Then the apostle divided the property, wives, and children of the Banu Qurayza among the Muslims, and he made known on that day the shares of horse and men, and took out the fifth . . . Then the apostle sent Sa'd . . . with some of the captive women of Banu Qurayza to Najd and he sold them for horses and weapons." The approaches of Jesus and Mohammed to sinners and accepting repentance were also quite different. There are very similar stories in both the Bible and the Koran in which both Jesus and Mohammed must confront adulterous women who were repentant. While Jesus refuses to condemn the sinner, and rather advises her to "go and sin no more," Mohammed does condemn the sinner and commands that she be stoned to death despite her repentance. Mohammed merely restricts the brutality of the woman's execution. While Jesus accepts the prospect of the sinner reforming her life and affords her the opportunity to do so, Mohammed insists on carrying out God's retribution for the sin. Interestingly, Jesus proclaims himself to be pure and free of sin, while Mohammed admits he himself is a sinner and begs Allah to forgive him "the sins that I did in the past or will do in the future, and also the sins that I did in secret or in public" (http://answering-islam.org.uk/Silas/founders.htm). In terms of worship, Mohammed was much more formal, teaching specific rules and guideline for prayer, which, is not observed exactly, would nullify prayer at best, and physically disfigure a worshipper at worst. By contrast, Jesus taught an informal kind of intimacy with God in which he advised worshippers to close themselves away from others and be alone in order to communicate with God honestly and in a way that is not merely a show for others. Jesus seemed to have a lesser view of public as opposed to private prayer. Arguably, some of the massive public displays of Christian worship that are prevalent suggest that this teaching of Jesus has not really carried through into the modern practice of Christian worship. The deaths of Jesus and Mohammed had different impacts on their respective religions. Jesus' death was carried out as a capital punishment for his perceived heresy in proclaiming that he is the Messiah and the Son of God. On the other hand, Mohammed's death was the result of a poisoning done by a widow in retribution for the killing of her Jewish husband. Because Mohammed demanded to be recognized as a prophet and violently spread that belief, his death was more of a conclusion of the process of forming the religion of Islam, the complete tenants of which Mohammed taught during his life. On the contrary, the death of Jesus was more of a beginning of the process for the formulation of the Christian religion. Jesus' life itself merely taught a kind of reformed Judaism. His life alone would have left believers of his teachings still categorized as Jews, albeit with a revised understanding of what it really means to conform one's life to God's will. It is the fact of Jesus' death, and belief in his subsequent resurrection, that is what really makes a Christian. Conclusion Jesus and Mohammed were the influential founders of the two largest religions in the world today. The lives of several billion people are influenced around the world have been affected for better or worse by events set in motion millennia ago by one or both of these men. While both purport to express the will of the same God, their lives and teachings are very different, and both set vivid examples for others that left clues about their attitudes toward war and peace, sin and repentance, life and death. In the end, those attitudes inform and influence the values of billions of adherents to Christianity and Islam that exist today. Reference http://answering-islam.org.uk/Silas/founders.htm Read More