The Contribution of Prophets in History

The concept of a prophet is an old one. In the Greek religion there were prophets of Zeus, Apollo, and other gods. The Bible refers to prophets of Yahweh, Baal, and other regional deities. Christians refer to John the Baptist as a prophet of the Christian god, and Muslims refer to Muhammad as the Prophet, the last and greatest of the prophets of Allah. According to what the prophets did we can say that their main purpose was conveying religious guidance to people. But history has also shown that their role many times goes further than their religious mission. In my opinion a perfect example that shows this, is Muhammad the prophet of Islam.The reason why I have chosen

Muhammad is simple, because he was highly successful on both the religious and social level.

Now let's take a look at what Muhammad did in order to understand why he had such an influent role in world history ? Like all religions, Islam exerts an enormous influence upon the lives of its followers. Muhammad exercised and exercises a profound political and historical influence because he founded and promulgated one of the world's great religions, and became an immensely effective political leader. In comparison to Jesus for example Muhammad played a far

more important role in the development of Islam than Jesus did in the development of Christianity. Although Jesus was responsible for the main ethical and moral precepts of Christianity (insofar as these differed from Judaism), St. Paul was the main developer of Christian theology, and the author of a the main part of the New Testament. Muhammad, however, was responsible for both the theology of Islam and its main ethical and moral principles. In addition, he played the key role in reforming the faith, and in establishing the religious practices of Islam.

Moreover, he is the author of the Muslim holy scriptures, the Quran, a collection of certain of Muhammad's revelation that he believed had been directly revealed to him by Allah. Most of these speeches were copied more or less faithfully during Muhammad's lifetime and were collected together in authoritative form during the rule of the third caliph(Uthman ibn Affan 644-56).

The Quran therefore, closely represents Muhammad's ideas and teachings and to a considerable extent his exact words. No such detailed compilation of the teachings of Christ has survived. Since the Quran is at least as important to Moslems as the Bible is to Christians, the influence of Muhammad through the medium of the Quran has been very important. It is probable that the relative influence of Muhammad on Islam has been larger than the combined influence of Jesus Christ and St. Paul on Christianity. On the purely religious level, then, it seems likely that Muhammad has been as influential in world history as Jesus.

According also to the opinion of other non-muslim personalities we can see clearly the important role of Muhammad, "Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Warrior, Conqueror of ideas Restorer of rational beliefs, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he? "

Furthermore, Muhammad