Jesus and Mohammed: comparative religious figures

Jesus and Mohammed

Since the beginning of time man has tried to find a divine character to worship and look up to. This search has proved to be similar all around the world with people from all cultures aspiring to a supernatural world. A great number of religions were born and in time some lived on and some perished.

Until today, two great religions in the world have experienced a remarkable development. One of them is the Islam with Mohamed as its prophet and the other is Christianity with Jesus as its savior.

As similar as the two religions might seem, they differ greatly when taking a closer analysis of their concepts and principles. The main reason for the differences between the two revolves around the significance of the messenger of God's Word as each of them has brought their teachings through their own means and methods.

Jesus Christ was allegedly born in the year 0 a.D. On the 25th of December as the son of the Virgin Mary, a woman chosen by the holy spirit to hold the burden of God's only offspring. Jesus was believed to be a direct descendent of David and his birth had been foretold by the Angel Gabriel that a divine being would be born coming to save mankind. There were several reports of angels appearing as a consequences to Jesus' birth, his life on earth, his death and his resurrection.

There is no solid information concerning Jesus' childhood and little is known about his life until He reached the age of thirty.

Before starting his three-year mission as a preacher, Jesus went to live a solitary life in prayer for forty days as a purification of his soul. During his mission He performed many miracles and preached to a very large number of people. Jesus chose twelve men as his disciples to follow him and to later continue their teacher's work. Betrayed by one of his disciples, Jesus was sentenced to death on the cross for disturbing the public peace. It is said that the sun darkened and the earth shook as Jesus gave his last breath. After his death, Jesus fulfilled his prophecy by resurrecting on Sunday and repeatedly appearing to his disciples to encourage them to move on and spread his words to the world. Angels were reported to have later appeared to the disciples, telling them that Jesus would one day return.

Jesus' lectures and the miracles he performed encouraged more and more people to convert to Christianity which up to this day counts around two billion followers. The majority of occurrences that took place during Jesus' life were written in a holly book that represents the word of God to the world. The book of God took many forms with time and has been slightly altered to fit our society.

Christianity as a religion has evolved greatly and now has a large variety of forms which all have their basis in Jesus Christ.

Mohamed came into the world in the year 570 a.D. In the Arab city of Mecca in a poor family which was soon to be dismembered due to the death of both of Mohamed's parents. By contrast to the life of Jesus, there are accounts on Mohamed's life prior to the start of his mission. As an adolescent, Mohamed managed to make use of his businessman nature and his remarkable communicational skills. At the age of twenty five he was entrusted with taking care of the caravans of a rich widow which he later married. Being very fond of religion, Mohamed paid a great interest to Judaism and Christianity, but was quick to dispose of both of them as he didn't share the principles of the two. He often visited a temple in Mecca where people were worshiping three hundred and sixty Gods. Mohamed felt attracted by Allah, the moon God, and began to claim that the moon God had been the one true God people should worship. As a very religious man that he had been, Mohamed was known to dedicate several weeks to the divinity by praying in a cave near Mecca where he allegedly had numerous visions of God and of heaven. As he returned from the cave he started to preach to the people speaking about his encounter with the angel Gabriel. Following his revelations, Mohammed had the Qu'ran written as a book meant to bring the word of God to the people. He later started to have visions during his speeches. His mission soon proved to encounter some reluctance especially from the people of Mecca. Mohamed decided to flee from Mecca in the year of 622 a.D. after the death of his closest relatives. The year of his departure is very important in Mohammedan history as it is called "the Hejira" which is synonym to the word "flight" and it refers to the arrival of the prophet to Medina. In the Mohammedan religion the Hejira marks the beginning of time and the calendar starts from the Hejira instead of from the birth of Jesus. Again, in comparison to Jesus' teachings, Mohamed was accustomed to using brute force when encountering resistance especially from political reasons.