Jonathan Bacon's Web Site

Comparison of Joseph Smith and Muhammad[i]

 Basic similarities include:[ii] 

• Each was born of humble birth/poor parents.
• Each displayed a predisposition to spirituality early in life.
• Each had a profound religious experience involving heavenly messengers/angels (Gabriel visited Muhammad and Moroni visited Smith).
• Initial religious experience for both Muhammad and Smith followed a period of questioning and perplexity regarding rival sects.
• Each sought to restore through revelation a primeval (original) religion/church.[iii]
• Each founded a religion without becoming the object of its worship.
• Each was a medium through which new scriptures were issued.
• Each believed that the existing scriptures of their day had been corrupted by men.
• Each, respectively, provided a solution to the dilemma of no scriptures for their native lands (Muhammad was the medium for the delivery to humankind of the Qur’an and Joseph Smith for the Book of Mormon).
• Each established new rituals/sacraments.
• Each directed a community of believers using revelation.
• Each experienced revelation in piecemeal fashion as circumstances required divine guidance.
• Each extended prophetic authority into the political realm.
• Each demanded alms/tithing from the faithful.[iv]
• Each sought to expand their religion from its territorial base to become a world religion.
• Each believed they were called to speak for God at a crucial turning point in human history.

 Detractors would add: 

• Each experienced a degeneration of their revelatory powers as time passed.
• Each justified sensuality (polygamy) in their personal lives using revelation.
• Each justified violence so as to preserve believers.