Historical Lives of Jesus and Mohammed, Essay Example

Jesus also referred to as Christ implying a messiah or a King was born to the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, Israel, two thousand years ago. For his initial 30 years, he lived a conventional Jewish life while offering carpentry services. The contemporary civilization marks the birth of Jesus Christ by dividing the time before Christ (B.C), and Anno Domini (A.D) – referring to the year of our lord. Jesus was born at a time when Cesar’s roman dictatorship had covered the whole of Israel including Bethlehem and Nazareth where he was born and raised respectively (JesusCentral.com, 2008). He began public teaching and performing recorded miracles (including restoring life) in his thirties though he didn’t extend beyond 200miles from Bethlehem, his birth place. Jesus became an itinerant preacher within a period of three years despite his personal efforts to maintain a low profile. Jesus never held any office, never wrote any book, never owned a home, never involved himself in things that go hand in hand with greatness and never preached in a large city, yet he gained a widespread reputation all over the nation.

All the leaders who led the Jewish populace (the religious counsel), the Roman rulers and governors of every province in Israel took note of him. Jesus only preached about peace, love and tranquility, and obedience to God. He only told messages concerning loving plus divine words for instance, God is with you and God loves you, telling child, man and woman to always demonstrate and practice love towards each other, to have enormous value of every individual in their lives including those persons that they come across, that god forgives each and every individual who seeks his forgiveness, plus letting people realize that they will be judged with reference to their conduct here on earth and by god alone when it comes to hell or heaven, and finally informing them to be prepared for God’s coming to the earth.

These messages as given by Jesus in those earlier times are no different today. Similar to those times, people have continued prosecuting their fellow men, not believing that the time is coming, not loving their neighbors, not valuing each and every person, and hence they will be judged based on the manner in which they conducted their lives. The message of Jesus as it stands may only be relayed to the populace, and basically it is the people’s choice to live by the content of his message. Jesus was obedient to the Jewish law, but what seemed controversial was the fact that he claimed that he was God. This was considered as blasphemy which was a direct violation/ bleach of the Jewish law. As a result, the religious leaders requested for his execution by the Roman government. Pilate authorized his execution. In each and every trial, the Romans failed to find any guilt on the side of Jesus as he had not broken any of the Jewish laws. Everybody including Jewish leaders recognized the fact that, in addition to the claim by Jesus to be God, Jesus observed the Jewish law to the letter. Despite all these clarity on the side of Jesus, the religious leadership utilized the argument of political unpopularity persuaded Pilate to give an authorization for the execution of Jesus. Pilate was a Roman governor of the Israel’s southern province.

The death of Jesus was devastating to the public but his rising was so impacting to the people (Keith, 2000). The rising of Jesus three days after his execution was marked with the dramatic increase of his followers. After few months lapsed following the rising of Jesus, Jerusalem city experienced an additional three thousands followers within a single day. The efforts by all religious leaders to stomp out the populace were in vain, as people were willing to die as opposed to denying their belief in Jesus Christ.

Within 100 years, people all through the Roman Empire (Europe, Minor, and Asia) were converted to be followers of Jesus Christ. In 325 Anno Domino, Christianity which is the following of Jesus rose to be the official religion of the whole of Roman Emperor Constantine. In five hundred years, Greece’s temples where Greek gods were worshipped were transformed to churches for the followers of Jesus. Even though a number of Jesus’ teachings and messages were miscommunicated and diluted as the religious institution expanded, the original life and words of Jesus still articulate loudly for themselves.

Mohammed was born in Mecca, which is a mountain town within the high desert plateau of the Western Arabia in 1970. His name comes from an Arabic verb Hamada which denote “to glorify, to praise.” He was only and first son to Amina bint Wahb and Abd Allah bin Al-Muttalib. Abd Allah passed away prior to Mohammad’s delivery and hence he was brought up by Amina, his mother who in turn entrusted his care to Halima, a wet nurse, as required of her in Meccan traditions (Ira, 2002). Halima was from the tribe of Banu Saad and hence Mohammad learned Pure Arabic of the Banu Saad people where he grew up. When Mohammed was about 5 or 6, Amina took him to a town called Yathribto which was an oasis town at the north of Mecca, visit the grave of his father and to stay with his relatives. Amina became sick on the return journey and died. Amina was then buried in Abwa, a village on Mecca-Medina road. Mohammad now an orphaned boy returned to Mecca und the company of Halima. Mohammed being an orphan was placed under the care of Abd Al-Muttalib, his paternal grandfather and learned several rudiments of statecraft. This was so because, Abd Al-Muttalib headed the muhammad’s clan during that time and Mecca was Mecca was the most significant pilgrimage center of Arabia and Abd Al-Muttalib was in control of the significant pilgrimage concessions and more often than not presided over the council of elders of Mecca. Abd Al-Muttalib died when Mohammad was about 8 years i.e. in 578 after which he was taken care of by Abu Talib his paternal uncle. Muhammad grew u in Abu Talib’s home and owing to him being an orphan within a tribal culture where the family unit meant everything; Muhammad remained under the protection of Abu Talib for many years.

Muhammad led a righteous life and a life of unerring honesty as he grew up and this was recognized by Meccans who nicknamed him El-Amin implying a person you can trust (Robert, 2006). His uncle being of modest means, Muhammad worked as a shipherd for his upkeep and he always accompanied his uncle to trade centers. During his teen, Muhammad oftenly travelled with his paternal uncle Abu Talib who worked as a merchant, going with caravans to various trade centers as far as Syria at the North. Mohammad in his early twenties joined the service of Khadija bint Khawalayd (both Khadija and Muhammad were distant cousins), who was a widow and a rich Meccan merchant who appreciated his honesty.  He engaged in trading and made profits. Khadija was impressed by Muhammad’s honesty and she proposed marriage to him. He married Khadija and they got 6 children i.e. two boys and four girls; unfortunately the two boys passed away during infancy. Muhammad carried on with the business affairs of his wife and they prospered superbly over the next small number of years. Mecca became a Well-off trading center and Muhammad prospered in business but this disturbed him. He started making lengthy retreats to the mountain cave remote to the town where he meditated and fasted. Following several visions, he was visited by an intense presence and instructed to recite phrases of force and beauty, which were attributed to god by him and others. This experience really shook Muhammad to the heart. Qur’an was formed after he revealed these experiences outside his family. He was ridiculed and attacked for abandoning Meccan traditions, even his tribe was subjected to almost famine conditions, forcing him and his close followers to travel to Yathrib. Towards the decade’s end, muhammad’s uncle and wife died. Meccan leaders made several attempts to assassinate Muhammad but never succeeded. The leaders at Yathrib were anguishing through a ferocious war and knowing of the wisdom that Muhammad possessed, they invited him to mediate. A number of battles were fought but finally all settled on joining Muhammad. He later returned and performed a Pilgrimage in Mecca, and then returned to Medina. After 3 years lapse, he passed away i.e. on 08 June 632 and was buried at Medina in the mosque (Mohar, 1997). Mohammad did a lot of travelling as compared to Jesus.

References

Ira, L. (2002). A history of Islamic societies. 2^nd Ed. UK: Cambridge University.

JesusCentral.com (2008). The Historical Life of Jesus. Retrieved August 8, 2008. from: http://www.jesuscentral.com/ji/historical-jesus/jesus-life.php

Keith, A. (2000). The Lost Religion of Jesus: Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity. New York: Lantern Books.

Mohar, A.M. (1997). The biography of the prophet and the orientalists. Saudi: King Fahd Complex Publishing.

Robert, S. (2006). The Truth about Muhammad. New York: Regnery Publishing.