What Prophet Muhammad ﷺ changed in society (socio-political reforms):

What Prophet Muhammad ﷺ changed in society (socio-political reforms):

1.Equality. Made rulers & common man, rich & poor, slaves & masters stand as equals.

2.Made it lawful for slave masters to marry slaves. Something that USA only achieved in 1967.

3.Banned interest based exploitation. India banned bonded labour in 1976.

4.Successful ban on female infanticide. Something that India is still not able to achieve.

5.Inheritance, ownership & business rights for women. 

6.Marriage based on consent & mutually agreed socio-legal contract, with dowry compulsorily given by the man to the woman.

7.Divorce. A step by step way of dealing with failed marriages including provision for divorce, which is not present in any other religion.

8.Removed priests from power. Before the Islamic revolution in Arabia the idols of the Kaaba held the power. The priests who held the keys to Kaaba controlled the population. Islam connected the People with God directly without any need for intermediaries.

9.Made charity compulsory on all Muslims except the poor.

10.Made justice equal for all races, castes, classes & tribes. This is a relatively new concept as there were always different scales of justice for nobles and slaves, Brahmans and non Brahmans.
Made judiciary independent of the rulers and even the legislative power is in the hands of independent jurists and legal experts who have the power to interpret the Shariat laws. Even the parliament or supreme court cannot take away the rights given to the people in the Shariat laws. This is unique from even the modern democratic systems where any party with brute majority in parliament can amend the constitution and take away the guaranteed rights as they please even against the will of the affected people.

11.No dictatorship. Rulers to be chosen by free selection process based on pure merit.

12.Autonomy to religious minorities. Non-muslims are free to manage their Cultural, Social and Religious affairs according to their own beliefs and to choose their own representatives. This concept was unique in history, till recently.

13.Promoted universal education for all men and women, including the poor and the slaves.

14.End to all superstitions, which freed people from getting exploited by priests, fake clergy, babas & gurus.

15.Promoted a simple and natural way of life and strongly discouraged lavish and luxurious living and prohibited wastage of resources.

16.Taught responsible usage of natural resources and prohibited polluting them.

17.Prohibition of alcohol. Many countries have tried and failed, including USA.

18.Humanised the battlefield by prohibiting killing of non-combatants, forbade destruction of trees and crops and other strict code of conduct. In all the battles fought by the prophet ﷺ in his entire life when he conquered the entire Arabia, only a few hundreds were killed in wars from both sides!

If anyone in today's world can achieve even one of the above reforms that person will be seen as a great reformer worthy of all the praise and awards in this world. 

Lamartine, the renowned historian speaking on the essentials of human greatness wonders:

"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad?"
"Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images, the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is MUHAMMAD. As regards all the standards by which Human Greatness may be measured, we may well ask, IS THERE ANY MAN GREATER THAN HE?" (Lamartine, HISTOIRE DE LA TURQUIE, Paris, 1854, Vol. II, pp 276-277)

MICHAEL H. HART in his recently published book on ratings of men who contributed towards the benefit and upliftment of mankind writes:
"My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels." (M.H. Hart, THE 100: A RANKING OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS IN HISTORY, New York, 1978, p. 33)