How did Prophet Muhammad’s (ﷺ) prophecy have a big impact on the world and how was the world before his prophecy?

Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) came at the time when the world had fallen into a depth of darkness. It was the end of the 6th century and beginning of the 7th century. This was the time when Christianity fell into the depth of idolatry with Trinitarian concept of god and practices that deviated far from the original teachings of Prophet Jesus عَلَيْهِ السَّلاَمُ. In other countries like Persia, people were worshipping dual gods (Ahura Mazda), “God of Light” & “God of Darkness”, “Spenta Mainyu” & “Angra Mainyu”. There were full of distortions. In India, idolatry was practiced with essentially confused concepts of who God was. Similarly, in Africa (North Africa, Sudan) & Egypt people were lost in the depths of idolatry by turning into slaves to produce the largest monuments of idolatry; the symbols for the worship of Satan. Idolatry is ultimately the worship of Satan and anything that we worship beside Allah is satanic. In Mecca, the Kabah was surrounded by over 360 idols. Idols were from various states of Arabia and were also from neighbouring countries. Mecca became the place of idolatry for Arabia where pilgrimage was made solely for the worship of idols. The world was in a state of darkness with the worship of idols leading mankind towards the hellfire. [1]

Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) came to guide mankind to the correct belief and away from the hellfire; but the mass of mankind followed ignorance towards the hellfire. Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) conveyed to us the Quran, which is the greatest and final revelation from Allah. He also taught us the wisdom to understand the application of the Quran through his lifestyle, which is called Sunnah; whereby he demonstrated to us on how the Quran should be understood and how it should be applied. His message cured us from the spiritual sicknesses of Shirk, which was destroying mankind. The message of Islam liberated mankind from the servitude of Shirk and the worship of the rulers, through the freedom to submit oneself to the One true ruler Allah, and the only one who deserves servitude.[2]

The Prophet’s (ﷺ) message further cured us from social sicknesses- like jealousy, unfair competition in business, in marriage, and many other social ailments. Hence, if we are truly honest with ourselves, we are indebted to him and we will not be able to help ourselves without Islam. The only thing which the Prophet (ﷺ) asked us to do is to worship and submit our will to Allah and, he also asked us to pray for him - Please take note that it is ‘pray for him’ but not ‘pray to him’.

References:

[1] Philips, Bilal. (2007), The Clash of Civilisations : An Islamic View. First Edition. Malaysia, Al-Hidaya

[2] Ghazali, Muhammad. (1996) Fiqh-Us-Seerah: Understanding the Life of Prophet Muhammad, Germany, IIFSO