It seems to me that the lives of Jesus and Muhammad were and still are of such a significance that can’t be compared to the life of any other historical personality. They were not only the founders of new religions, but they also established a totally new ways of thinking and somewhat new life philosophies. And the most amazing thing about Jesus and Muhammad is that their messages are still of great importance and actuality after more than two thousands years from the time when these messages had been preached.

In this paper I tried to examine and analyze the major aspects of Jesus’ and Muhammad’s teachings and lives. Despite the fact that Jesus and Muhammad lived in different times and different places, and that they are the creators of two religions that are constantly in the state of conflict with each other, there are quite a lot of similarities in the lives of these two men and especially in their messages.  

Thesis Statement:  In their times both Muhammad and Jesus were the creators of new religions – Islam and Christianity, which today have grown to be the major religions in the entire world. There are a lot of similarities in the lives, deeds and teachings of both men. But still there is one major difference that can’t be ignored – in contrast to Jesus, Muhammad has never been considered by his followers to be of divine or godly nature.

Lives of Jesus and Muhammad (historical perspective)

Although it is a well-established fact that both Jesus and Muhammad were historical personalities, there are still a lot of unanswered questions and scholars still continue to argue over various facts of their lives. It is especially difficult to trace historically the life of Jesus Christ as the major part of information about him comes from the Gospels. And even though all four Gospels provide the same information about some major facts of Jesus’ biography, there are still a lot of differences in details.

Scholars believe that Jesus of Nazareth was born in 7-2 BC in Nazareth, Galilee (Dunn, 2003). The exact year is unknown because the Gospel of Matthew places the birth of Jesus under the reign of Herod the Great (died 4 BC), while the Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was born during the first census of the Roman province of Syria and Judaea in the 6 BC. Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph, who was a carpenter. Later in his life Jesus also became a carpenter. There are no historical notes on Jesus’ childhood and early adulthood life. As a young adult Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and shortly afterwards he began preaching and healing. In his mid-30s Jesus had a public career which didn’t last long, but did attract considerable attention. Between AD 29 and 33 Jesus went to Jerusalem to watch the Passover, where he was arrested, tried, and executed.  Jesus was crucified under the command of Pontius Pilate who was the Roman perfect of Judaea. There is not established date of Jesus’ death, it is believed that he was executed between AD 29 and 36.

On the contrast, there is much more information available about the life of Muhammad. Most historical information about his life is taken from the Qur’an and from the early biographies of Muhammad that were completed in the 3^rd and 4^th centuries of the Muslim era. Muhammad was born in 570 AD in the Arabian city of Mecca. He became an orphan at a young age and therefore was raised by his uncle Abu Talib. He was working as a merchant and shepherd and by the age of 25 was married for the first time. After a while Muhammad became so tired and discontented with the life in Mecca that he decided to retreat to the cave in the neighboring mountains for meditation and reflection. It is believed that there at the age of 40 Muhammad received the first revelation from God after which he began his preaching career. In 622 AD Muhammad and his followers were forced to migrate to Medina, because of an extremely harsh treatment that they were receiving from the Meccan tribes. Muhammad and his followers were fighting against these Meccan tribes for 8 years and eventually conquered Mecca, united various tribes of Arabia and converted them to the single religion of Islam. In 632 Muhammad conducted his Farewell pilgrimage to Mecca, and few months afterwards he fell ill and on June 8, 632 Muhammad died in Medina (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2009).