Muslims believe that God revealed his final message to humanity through the Islamic prophet Muhammad via the angel Gabriel. They consider Muhammad to have been God's final prophet, the "Seal of the Prophets", and the Qur'an to be the revelations he received in his 23 years of preaching. Muslims hold that all of God's messengers since Adam preached the message of Islam — submission to the will of the one God. To Muslims, Islam is the eternal religion, described in the Qur'an as "the primordial nature upon which God created mankind". Furthermore, the Qur'an states that the proper name Muslim was given by Abraham.
As a historical phenomenon, however, Islam was originated in Arabia in early 7th century. Islamic texts depict Judaism and Christianity as prophetic successor traditions to the teachings of Abraham. The Qur'an calls Jews and Christians "People of the Book", and distinguishes them from polytheists. However, Muslims believe that parts of the previously revealed scriptures, the Tawrat (Torah) and the Injil (Gospels), had become distorted as indicated in the Qur'an — either in interpretation, in text, or both.
Islamic belief has six main components — belief in God; his revelations; his angels; his messengers; the "Day of Judgement"; and the divine decree |
Beliefs