Who was the most influential person in the whole human history?

[airuah]

i vote for Gandhi......for the simple reason that he influenced people like Nelson Mandela,Suu kyi, Martin Luther King Jr etc.......he influenced people who further influenced other people.....he brought in the cascade of peace , a way forward for peaceful co-existance .....if not for him...the world would have been an anarchy where everyone will be holding a gun just to settle scores

 

[sid426]

1-At the time of Death,Jesus had JUST 9-500 followers ,Muhammad had 1,40,000 Followers.

At the time of his death, Osama Bin Laden must have got more than 1,40,000 followers. Does this fact makes him the most influential person?

 

[Gentle Typhoon]

W.G. Grace is also another candidate, He was 10 times more famous than Sachin and Bradman combined. Cricket today is popular sport among 2 billion population.

 

[Shattered]

I would say carl sagan but offcorse i would be baised.

imo. Aristotle

 

[Respect4Respect01]

Ok..be as "neutral" ( and secular) as you can be.....Title explains it all..Who was the most influential person that ever walked on the face of the earth?

** Influence doesn't mean that he was the "greatest" or most "noble" etc...These things are subjective...

For me,it has to be either Muhammad or Jesus but I'll go with
Muhammad for sure..(note I am not writing "Prophet" Muhammad..)

My reasons for putting Muhammad above Jesus are...

Reason

Though Jesus was just like Buddah (means only a great spiritual leader/philospher) but on the other hand Muhammad (As a historical figure) was a very capable military commander,an orator,a statesman,a very influential Philosopher,a revolutionary legislator and a new law giver, ,a very wise diplomat,arguably THE MOST influential political leader ever and one of the greatest spiritual leader ever.Moreover he was the founder of one of the greatest faith of the world,Islam.

Further explanation..

1-At the time of Death,Jesus had JUST 9-500 followers ,Muhammad had 1,40,000 Followers.
2-Muhammad was ,arguably,THE MOST INFLUENTIAL political leader in the recorded history..And political achievement of Jesus???
3-Muhammad was very genius and one of the most successful military commander ever.Jesus never commanded a small expedition in life,forget about commanding forces against numerically very very superior adversary (Muhammad did it successfully many times)
3b-Muhammad was the driving force behind the "Great Arab Conquests"...Such grand and exceptional conquests had no precedent or antecedent in the history..
4-Muhammad was a very wise diplomat (Hudaibia treaty in which he apprantly gave Meccans the upper hand but later the very treaty caused the Meccans to lose ultimately to Muhammad in coming years) ..Jesus??? I don't know of any such thing
5-Muhammad was a revolutionary legislator ..he gave new laws ...Jesus wasn't a new law giver..
6-Muhammad was himself a very skillful warrior and a great philosopher ...Jesus was a great philosopher
7-Muhammad was a great orator and very, very capable statesman (Charter of Medina,establishment of "secular" state in Media) ... state Jesus governed..?
8-Muhammad was himself the AUTHOR of Qur'an (He commanded and supervised the scribes what to write and what to not write).Did Jesus EVER contributed in the development of Bible?
9-Both Jesus and Muhammad founded the two greatest religions in the world BUT Muhammad played a FAR GREATER role in the development of Islam than Jesus played in the development of Christianity. By the way,on a side note,Encyclopedia Britainica also calls Muhammad as most successful religious leader of all times..

Have your say...

dude i think u shouldn't compare them because both are our prophets.

 

[turbojet7]

I would vote for bill gates, because he conquered the world without having to wield a sword or use a gun, 95% of the world's computers run windows !!

 

[AUz]

I disagree with your analysis

1)I don't know where you get the 1.4 million followers I don't think they took a head count or census back then. Any how they weren't following him but his message.
2) I don't see how you can claim the Prophet (PBUH)was the greatest politician when before his nabowaat he had nothing to do with politics and even after his nabowaat most of his time was spent preaching about Islam not politics.
3)As far as I have read he had three major encounters. In two they were successful the third not so much and the last confrontation the conquest of Quraish there was hardly any fighting. So 3 out of 4 is good but I don't think it qualifies him as the greatest military commander.
4)Our beloved Prophet(PBUH) only gave the laws that he was commanded by Allah(SWT).
5)Although the prophet gave great inspiration the his followers on the battle field he was not known as a great warrior all during his life. Others such as Hazrat Hamza RA and Hazrat Ali RA and Hazrat Omar RA were known as warriors and feared amongst there enemies.
6) I must apologize but our beloved Prophet (PBUH)was a thoughtful man who pondered a great many things spent many days in the cave alone thinking about his creator but he wasn't a great philosopher he was never educated and never published any writings never had any students before his nabowaat and was not known for his philosophical sayings but rather was known for his incorruptibility and his truthfulness.
7)A secular state in medina would have been at odds with the principles of Islam being taught by the Prophet (PBUH)
8)So sorry the Prophet(PBUH) was not the author of the Holy Quran that would be ALLAH (SWT)
9) The Prophet Isa (PBUH) was not the founder of Christianity that would be St Paul.


Muslims are taught not to put one Prophet above the other.

I never said 1.4 MILLION...I said "1,40,000" or simply one hundred and forty thousand (at the time of his death..almost whole Mecca,Medina and many tribes were converted to Islam..weren't they?) If you still disagree with the number.. I can give you a source..

And rest of your post is filled with "beloved Prophet"...Thats why I wrote Muhammad..not Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W)..I tried to analyze Muhammad as a historical figure..and I didn't use the world 'Politician'..I said "political leader"...Wasn't he the one who united Arabs under one banner for the first time in history? After which Arabs swept away the Persians and (east) Roman Empires? Who was the driving force behind the great Arab conquests?

I must apologize but our beloved Prophet (PBUH)was a thoughtful man who pondered a great many things spent many days in the cave alone thinking about his creator but he wasn't a great philosopher he was never educated and never published any writings never had any students before his nabowaat and was not known for his philosophical sayings but rather was known for his incorruptibility and his truthfulness.

Try to see things in secular view...How are you saying that he wasn't a philosopher? How much influence does hadiths have on 1.8 billion people around the world? Just think for a moment...your life will definitely have influence of some hadiths...Hadiths are the sayings of Muhammad ! Philosophy is NOT "writing books" or "having student"

 

[AUz]

well you are asking for people's opinion about most influential and if you don't have guts to listen to their opinions then do not dare to post such threads

when you compare two people side by side then you cant call people retard when they comment on it...

i do not find Muhammad inspirational for me that is the same reason i don't consider him as most influential in human history...

point well taken

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

Wasnt gandhi racist to the black people and alot of other stuff?

My vote to Prophet Mohammad SAW.

 

[desioptimist]

Thats not factually correct - as the war of Independence of 1857 ....even Maratha resistance before that , Tipu , etc many resistances to occupational forces were already in existence much before he came .

Leader of the Arya Samaj - Dayanand Saraswati and Narendranath Dutta ( Swami Vivekananda ) were both univocal in condemning foreign rule and pointing out its drawbacks in their books and Manuscripts .

These writings influenced a host of later fighters from Lala Lajpat Rai , Azad to Netaji .

Even Dadabhai Naoroji 's Drain of wealth book had a tremendous influence on Tilak , Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bipin Chandra Pal .

Gokhale later became Gandhiji's mentor ....so its all a series of resistances and historically it would be quite inaccurate to only credit Gandhiji with our Independence movement .


On-Topic :

Since its is the whole of Human History I think it should be a tie between

ISAAC NEWTON -

and

George Washington


Newton defined the laws of our physical world . It is inspired by his efforts that for 4 centuries humankind has been able to achieve their levels of technological progress . He was the first individual to scientifically observe and explain the various physical phenomenons using which later day scientists like Einstein , Bohr , Faraday , Davy,Tesla various Astronomers etc etc ...could evolve their theories ....

which has led to the development of microchips , Nanotechnological advancements in our current day and age..


As for George Washington :

He is admired and looked up to the world over for the Ideals - of morality , equality , freedom for all ,Human dignity for all, which today make up the benchmark for our way of life -in many many countries Democratic or otherwise .He was one of the first to free himself and his followers from the clutches of a Monarchial tradition ( british) to set up a nation and society where freedom and equality were taken as basic rights -thus setting and example to millions then and billions of people of the future generation who would remember his ideals and act upon them - consiously or unconsiously.

Its indirectly inspired by him that today - any activist or torch bearer in any corner of the world -- be it an NGO or A human rights group , a Social activist or a person languishing in a tyrannical and despotic regime , at all gets the idea - that a better life and better existence is quite possible .

The wars of independence was basically by some kings(e.g. tipu, marathas) to save their own kingdom. It was they who wanted to save themselves from british. For ordinary people, british were just white kings, no different really.
1857 was a sepoy mutiny, not exactly a war of independence, to which other kings and queens jumped in because they saw they are in game again.

Some elites like Tilak etc who had western education understood meaning of independence for ordinary folks but theirs were elitist movement bit like Imran Khan(P.B.U.H) doing now.
I am not denying the influence of tilak, gokhale etc on the movement but they could not do much, as simple as that.

 

[AUz]

dude i think u shouldn't compare them because both are our prophets.

Where did I compare? I just wrote "reasons" that why "I" think that Muhammad was more "influential" than Jesus...

I never said this man is greater or that man is greater etc etc

At the time of his death, Osama Bin Laden must have got more than 1,40,000 followers. Does this fact makes him the most influential person?

If you don't have anything constructive to say then why even comment?

 

[desioptimist]

Where did I compare? I just wrote "reasons" that why "I" think that Muhammad was more "influential" than Jesus...

I never said this man is greater or that man is greater etc etc

Jesus has more followers than mohammed, so I would say more influential. Things can change though.

If you don't have anything constructive to say then why even comment?

Jesus is more influential than mohammed as he has more followers.
Things can change because christians have low birth rate and not many conversions now a days.

 

[desioptimist]

Wasnt gandhi racist to the black people and alot of other stuff?

My vote to Prophet Mohammad SAW.

And Gadhi DID.
We are not discussing individual fallibility of which mohammed had his own share.
We are discussing influence.
I would say mohammed more influential compared to gandhi as he has more followers. More people know him.

 

[AUz]

Jesus is more influential than mohammed as he has more followers.
Things can change because christians have low birth rate and not many conversions now a days.

Well,I was NOT resting my case on "followers" alone..

Anyway, Its your opinion and I respect that.

 

[nightcrawler]

For me its J.R.R Tolkien...writer of Lord of Rings

You can read more about him here: J. R. R. Tolkien - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia