Introduction
Religious practitioners are people who have some believe on a certain religion such as Christian, Islam, or Hindu. The practices of religious practitioners are based on the past events, ideas or myths of famous people who practiced their religion.
For instance, Christians have a lot of issues and practices to emulate from famous persons like Jesus Christ, Abraham, or Moses. Most of the things done in Christian churches are based on myths about these people. Abraham and Moses were in the Old Testament and Jesus Christ was in the New Testament (Nye 98).
For the Islam religion they have a lot to imitate Muhammad. Some of these myths have managed to draw most of people into sacred lives. This paper will focus on two important figures, who have contributed much to the lives of most religious practitioners. Although there are other factors in religious lives that have contributed to sacred lives of many people, the influence of these two crucial figures that is Jesus Christ and Muhammad will be focused most.
Jesus Christ as a Christian figure
Beginning with the birth of Jesus Christ, which was in a shed as stated in the New Testament. This is a place where animals lived, and the new born was placed in a manger, where the feeds of animals were placed. This was according to the prophecy that had stated the idea of messiah coming from Bethlehem.
The town, in which Jesus Christ the Messiah was born, was just a small town within Judah; nobody expected that the messiah would come from such a place (Nanda and Warms 203). The first people who realized the birth of Jesus Christ were the shepherds, who were known to be very poor.
This episode of Jesus Christ being born from such a humble beginning, in a small town, with the company of poor people, makes the religious practitioners to humble themselves. Christians have opposed the arrogance ways of riches and opted to classify themselves with the poor. Christians identifying themselves with the poor and the hopeless has become a moral lesson and a practice in the contemporary society.
In John chapter 2-4, Jesus Christ was seen saving several people in different occasions. In both Jerusalem and Samaria people were healed from various sicknesses, such us the woman who had bled for 12 years and Nicodemus who was blind regained back his sight (Bible gateway).
The most touching story is about the woman who lived in Samaria, and nobody wanted to be identified with her because of her bad life. Although there was a great enmity between Samaritans and Jews, Jesus Christ who was a Jew changed the life of this Samaritan woman completely.
People could not believe the act, as they thought that Jesus would ignore this Samaritan woman. Such an example has changed the lives of many religious practitioners, who may think of discriminating others because of where they come from. The action has promoted the virtue of love a great deal among Christians. Most of the people were healed out of trust and having strong faith in Jesus Christ. Today, most of Christians have strong faith while enquiring for some favors from Jesus Christ, the savior (Bible gateway).
The history of Jesus Christ deeds, confirms to us that, people had to turn to him whenever they needed assistance, and this has facilitated most of people to join religious groups as a way of coming near to the aid of Jesus Christ. Such stories of Jesus Christ demonstrating love to all people without any form of discrimination has acted as an important lesson to all Christians, as Jesus was seen helping people from palace, helping a thief on a cross, prostitutes, both rich and poor. Jesus Christ was a savior of everybody.
Muhammad as an Islamic figure
Muhammad was believed to be a prophet in Islamic religion, and was used by Allah to proclaim important message to the people. The major theme in Muhammad message was to convert people from polytheism, especially of worshipping idols, to stop immorality, and treasuring material things.
He urged his countrymen to repent their sins and turn to the right paths of Allah, the only trusted God. Muhammad conveyed Allah’s message to the people in a clear way, by confirming to them that he was only a prophet and not an angel. He told people not to expect miracles from him, as he did not know the minds of God.
His main role was to pass the required message as he was receiving from God. As he was starting his ministry, he was seriously persecuted by idol worshippers, as they felt threatened in several ways such as morally and economically. At the beginning, it started just like a mere mockery, which later turned to be a serious and merciless violence (Cunningham and Kelsay 98).
The persecution was very merciless, as it included stoning and followers thrown into prison. Despite how the situation turned harsh, Muhammad did not give up; he continued proclaiming his gospel until he got a big number of followers and accepted to worship Allah as their only God.
Muhammad fought for the truth of worshipping one God tirelessly. He persevered all the harsh moments that were set by his opponents without giving up. In our modern society, most of the religious practitioners in the Islamic world have that strong will of worshipping and adoring only one God. They fight for their practices and respect their religion a great deal. They have a very strong faith and religious practices through what they learnt from the deeds of Muhammad.
It is clear that Muhammad had tried to resist the information he received from Angel Gabriel about to be Allah’s prophet. He tried to resist but he could not due to the power of the most high. All his excuses were not listened to, as Allah had already chosen him to be his prophet (Cunningham and Kelsay 99). This action has aided most of religious practitioners to believing the power and the existence of Allah the most high.
The non-believers could change their ways and turn to trust Allah, the most powerful and owner of everything. Up to date, there so many people who would be still worshipping the idols , but the efforts of prophet Muhammad drew them nearer to God, as he proved to them that Allah really exist and he is very powerful above everything .
In conclusion, most of the religious practices that are applied in the contemporary societies mostly are based on the efforts, practices, and above all the teachings of these crucial religious figures (Nanda and Warms 251). The bible and the Koran are full of teachings of these prophets, and act as a guidance of the right path of reaching to God almighty of heaven and earth. Most of religious practitioners have managed to shape their lives and adopting sacred realm.
Works Cited
Bible gateway. “The geneology of Jesus the Messiah.” 2006. Bible gate way. Web.
Cunningham, Lawrence and John Kelsay. The Sacred Quest An Invitation To The Study Of Religion. New York: Pearson, 2008.
Nanda, Serena and Richard Warms. Cultural Anthropology. Michigan: Cengage Learning, 2010.
Nye, Malory. Religion: the basics. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2008.