Jesus and Muhammad Paper

Jesus & Mohammad

Paper

Travis Davis

Course HUM 130

Professor Ferris

01/20/2008

There are hundreds of thousands of religions all over the world. Some of them we know about and some of them we don’t. Usually, one thing that most religions have in common is a founder or the head figure of the religion that any particular religion revolves around. This one person is the teacher and everyone else is the follower. Two major religions that are still extremely active in today’s world are Christianity and Islam. These two religions are very similar in many ways, yet unique in their own right. One similarity is their belief in God, and one difference is who the messenger is. Christian’s believe it is Jesus, who is the son of God, and Islam’s believe it is Mohammad, who is the messenger of God. Throughout the course of this paper I will trace the lives of Jesus and Mohammad historically; compare the impact of the death of each person on his perspective religion; describe the ways each individual was and is worshiped; and explain how their messages are being carried out in the world today.

There are many different views on exactly when and where Jesus was born. Many believe that he was born in Bethlehem. The most common story and the one that I grew up hearing was that Jesus was the son of God, born to the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit. He was born in a small stable among the animals on what is now Christmas Day. It was said the Jesus was brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. This is now reenacted in churches everywhere at Christmastime. There really is not a lot of information about Jesus’ childhood. Jesus then reappears in the texts when he is thirty. It was said that Jesus when to be baptized by John. “He felt it improper to perform this ceremony for Jesus, whom Christians consider sinless, but Jesus insisted. How can this be interpreted? One explanation is that for Jesus, this became a ceremony of his consecration to God as the Messiah.” (Mary Pat Fisher, pp. 285-361 (78 pgs.)) Jesus then began to teach his beliefs. Jesus, however, taught for less then three years before he was executed by the Romans. Jesus’ death by crucifixion seemed to be the end of it all. Many of his followers were so sad and went into hiding so they did not receive the same fate. But then days later, when some followers went to prepare Jesus’ body for a proper burial, they discovered his body gone. “Angels then appeared and told them Jesus had risen from death.” (Mary Pat Fisher, pp. 285-361 (78 pgs.)) There were several more sightings of Jesus following his resurrection which secured the truth about his rise from death. This is what eventually made his followers believe so strong, and has carried the religion of Christianity into the twenty-first century. Jesus continues to be worshiped in many different ways. His followers attend church every Sunday, say daily prayers and give financial support to churches. Another ritual is the sacrament. This is where they drink the blood of Christ (often red wine) and eat the flesh of Christ (bread). Jesus’ message is passed along in many forms these days. The Bible has been translated in to over 2,300 languages and is the number one best selling book in the world. There are Christian churches everywhere you look, and it has been said that there are over one billion Christians, making it the largest organized religion in the world. With those kinds of numbers, I think word of mouth has a lot to do with how their messages are being carried out in the world today.

Unlike Christianity, there are no confusions about how the Prophet Muhammad came to be. Muhammad was born in 570 CE. He was born to in a poor clan of a powerful tribe. Muhammad became the ward of his uncle after the deaths of his father, mother, and grandfather. Muhammad’s uncle put him to work as a shepherd. It is said that when Muhammad was a teenager his uncle took him on a trip to Syria. There, a Christian monk identified marks on his body which indicated he was a prophet. Muhammad later married, and with the understanding of his wife, began to spend a lot of time in solitude contemplating his spirituality. As the story goes, when Muhammad was forty a spirit named Gabriel came to him in and made him recite what is now the first words of the Qur’an. Muhammad