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Comparing Jesus and Mohammed

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Compare and contrast the lives of Jesus and Mohammed in relation to each respective religion. The paper should be formatted following APA guidelines. Be sure to complete the following steps in your paper:

1. Trace the lives of Jesus and Mohammed historically
2. Compare what impact the death of each person had on his respective religion
3. Describe the ways each individual was/is worshiped
4. Explain how their messages are being carried out in the world today

Any guidance will be much appreciated. Thank you.

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Solution Summary

This solution provides assistance in comparing and contrasting the lives of Jesus and Mohammad in relation to each respective religion on several dimensions e.g. tracing the lives of Jesus and Mohammad historically, comparing what impact the death of each person had on his respective religion, describing the ways each individual was/is worshiped and explaining how their messages are being carried out in the world today.

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RESPONSE ALSO ATTACHED

1. Submit a 1250-1500-word paper in which you compare and contrast the lives of Jesus and Mohammed in relation to each respective religion. Be sure to complete the following steps in your paper.

You are asking for guidance on this interesting assignment. The length requirements are from 5-7 pages in length, so you should consider allowing a proportionate amount for each section. The four questions can act as an outline for your paper, so let's look closer at each section, which you can then draw on for your final copy.

Briefly, your tentative outline will be something to the effect....

· Introduction (e.g. about ¼ - ½ page, introduce the topic and a purpose statement e.g., the purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the lives of Jesus and Mohammed...);
· Body (the questions in the order presented) (e.g. about 4-5 pages, 1 page for each section although some sections might demand more space than others)
· Conclusion (e.g. tying the main points together)

You will need to use APA format as the assignment instructs, which I will attach an excellent resource to use for your final copy. It is important to consider from what perspective the author is coming, Islam or Christian or academic. The descriptions differ as we discuss throughout this response.

Now, let's look at each section and information to consider, which you can then draw on for your final copy.

1. Submit a 1250-1500-word paper in which you compare and contrast the lives of Jesus and Mohammed in relation to each respective religion. Be sure to complete the following steps in your paper.

(a) Trace the lives of Jesus and Mohammad historically

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, from the line of David Jesus' Davidic Descent: the Davidic Descent is seen as a Qualification for Being the Messiah. Jesus was Born of a Virgin e.g. Matthew and Luke (Luke 1:35; Matt 1:20), Jesus was pre-existence as the Messiah (Jesus lived in Heaven before He came to earth) The Son of God (Jesus says he is God e.g., Trinity). Jesus is the one Who Will Save His People From Their Sins.

· Jesus' Baptism by John (30?)
· Jesus' Temptations, but yet never sinned
· Began his ministry at 30 years old; (versus 12); considered a great teacher for 2 ½ years but also the Savior
· Crucified as preordained by God (at 33 years old); then God raised Jesus from the dead

For more information about Jesus' life, seehttp://www.abu.nb.ca/Courses/NTIntro/LifeJ/IndexLife.htm or, for a Roman
Catholic perspective, seehttp://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08377a.htm.

From a Christian perspective, it is somewhat artificial to deal with Jesus as teacher, since Jesus teaches in the contexts of his activities as healer, exorcist, miracle worker, and of his eating with sinners. In addition, Jesus' views on the Law are in relation to those of the Pharisees outward worship, which Jesus calls hypocrites. Inward worshipping is better, according to Jesus.

Muhammed (c.570-632)

Muhammad (c. 570-632) is a major figure in Islam who was born over 500 years after Jesus.
Muslims believe Muhammed was God's final prophet, to whom the Qur'an was revealed. Non-Muslims consider him to be the founder of Islam. Christians believe him to be just another person.

According to traditional Muslim biographers, Muhammad was born (c. 570 in Mecca) and died (June 8, 632 in Medina) in the Hejaz region of present day Saudi Arabia. The name Muhammad means "the praised one" in Arabic, being a passive participle from the root "to praise". Within Islam, Muhammad is known as "The Prophet" and "The Messenger". He is also referred to as the "Seal of the Prophets" in the Qur'an (33:40). In comparison to Jesus, Mohammed lived almost twice as long as Jesus did.

Before his death in 632, Muhammad had established Islam as a social and political force and had unified most of Arabia. After his death, a few decades late, his successors had united all of Arabia under Islamic empire, and conquered Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Armenia, and much of North Africa. By 750, Islam had emerged as the spiritual counterpart to the two great monotheistic belief systems of Judaism and Christianity, and as the geopolitical successor to the Sassanid empire.
At that ime period, in fact, the rest of North Africa had also come under Muslim rule, as well as most of the Iberian Peninsula, much of Central Asia, and parts of South Asia (including Sind, in the Indus Valley). Under the Ghaznavids, in the tenth century, for example, Islam was spread to the mainly Hindu principalities east of the Indus by conquering armies in what is now northern India. Even later, Islam expanded into much of Africa and Southeast Asia. Islam is now the faith of well over a billion people all over the globe, and is the second largest religion of the present day.

Jesus was more of a quiet teacher who spoke of love and reconciliation between the Jews and Gentiles (all the non-Jews) with God, while Mohammed took a more violent approach e.g. had people killed, spread his religion through war, married a very young girl and had relations with her at nine, and taught hatred of both Jews and Christians.

See more at http://www.carm.org/islam/muhammad.htm.

Also see the chart below (see attached response), which also has some value information to consider. It is an excellent chart for you to consider in making these comparisons, which illustrates some very strong differences between Jesus and Mohammad. The Muslims revere Mohammad as the greatest of prophets yet, but from a Christian perspective, Jesus clearly demonstrated greater authority, teaching, and miracles and Mohammad ever did. However, Muslims think of Jesus as a prophet like Mohammad, but Mohammad is the Last Prophet" so has more reason fro reverence. Although from a Christian perspective, they wonder why would anyone want to follow Mohammad over Jesus when Jesus claimed to be divine, performed many miracles, said he alone was the truth, raised people from the dead, and rose from the dead himself, while Mohammad did none of these things, it is two different perspectives, and Islam is still waiting for the "Savior" to appear, similar to Judaism.

Let's take a closer look at the differences, considering that this is from a Christian perspective.

Comparison of Jesus and Muhammad

Death - Jesus died and rose from the dead Muhammad died and stayed dead.

Fighting - Jesus never fought Muhammad fought many many times

Hearing from God - When Jesus heard from God he went to the desert to be tempted and began his ministry with boldness, (Mark 1:14-15). When Muhammad heard from God (through an angel) he cowered, was uncertain, and wanted to commit suicide (Quran 74:1-5)

Identity - Jesus claimed to be God (John 8:24; 8:58) as well as a ...

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