But where does the message of Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God

[color=green]But where does the message of Muhammad, may the
mercy and blessings of God be upon him, fit in with the previous messages
revealed by God? A brief history of the prophets might clear this point.[/color]


[color=green]The first human, Adam, followed Islam, in that
he directed worship to God alone and none else and abided by His commandments.
But through the passage of time and the dispersal of humanity throughout the
earth, people strayed from this message and began directing worship to others
instead of or along with God. Some took to worshipping the pious who passed
away amongst them, while others took to worshipping spirits and forces of
nature. It was then that God started to send messengers to humanity steering
them back to the worship of God Alone, which accorded to their true nature, and
warning them of the grave consequences of directing any type of worship to
others besides Him.[/color]


[color=green]The first of these messengers was Noah, who was
sent to preach this message of Islam to his people, after they had started to
direct worship to their pious forefathers along with God. Noah called his
people to leave the worship of their idols, and ordered them to return to the
worship of God Alone. Some of them followed the teachings of Noah, while the
majority disbelieved in him. Those who followed Noah were followers of Islam,
or Muslims, while those that did not, remained in their disbelief and were
seized with a punishment for doing so.[/color]


[color=green]After Noah, God sent messengers to every nation
who had strayed from the Truth, to steer them back to it. This Truth was the
same throughout time: to reject all objects of worship and to direct all
worship without exception to God and none else, the Creator and Lord of all,
and to abide by His commandments. But as we mentioned before, because each
nation differed in regards to their way of life, language, and culture,
specific messengers were sent to specific nations for a specific time period.[/color]


[color=green]God sent
messengers to all nations, and to the Kingdom of Babylon He sent Abraham
– one of the earliest and greatest prophets – who
called his people to reject the worship of the idols to which they were
devoted. He called them to Islam, but they rejected him and even tried
to kill
him. God put Abraham through many tests, and he proved true to all of
them.
For his many sacrifices, God proclaimed that he would raise from amongst
his
progeny a great nation and choose prophets from amongst them. Whenever
people
from his progeny started to stray away from the Truth, which was to
worship
none but God alone and to obey His commandments, God sent them another
messenger steering them back to it.[/color]


[color=green]Consequently, we see that many prophets were
sent amongst the progeny of Abraham, such as his two sons Isaac and Ishmael,
along with Jacob (Israel), Joseph, David, Solomon, Moses, and of course, Jesus,
to mention a few, may the peace and blessings of God be upon them all. Each
prophet was sent to the Children of Israel (the Jews) when they went astray
from the true religion of God, and it became obligatory upon them to follow the
messenger which was sent to them and obey their commandments. All of the
messengers came with the same message, to reject worship of all other beings
except God Alone and to obey His commandments. Some disbelieved in the
prophets, while others believed. Those that believed were followers of Islam,
or Muslims.[/color]


[color=green]From amongst the messengers was Muhammad, may
the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, from the progeny of Ishmael, the
son of Abraham, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, who was sent as
a messenger in succession to Jesus. Muhammad preached the same message of
Islam as the previous prophets and messengers – to direct all worship to God
Alone and none else and to obey His commandments – in which the followers of
the previous prophets went astray.[/color]


[color=green]So as we see, the Prophet Muhammad was not the
founder of a new religion, as many people mistakenly think, but he was sent as
the Final Prophet of Islam. By revealing His final message to Muhammad, which
is an eternal and universal message for all of mankind, God finally fulfilled
the covenant that He made with Abraham.[/color]


[color=green]Just as it was incumbent upon the those who were
alive to follow the message of the last of the succession of prophets which was
sent to them, it becomes incumbent upon all of humanity to follow the message
of Muhammad. God promised that this message would remain unchanged and fit for
all times and places. Suffice is it to say that the way of Islam is the same
as the way of the prophet Abraham, because both the Bible and the Quran portray
Abraham as a towering example of someone who submitted himself completely to
God and directed worship to Him alone and none else, and without any
intermediaries. Once this is realized, it should be clear that Islam has the
most continuous and universal message of any religion, because all prophets and
messengers were “Muslims”, i.e. those who submitted to God’s will, and they
preached “Islam”, i.e. submission to the will of Almighty God by worshipping
Him Alone and obeying His commandments.[/color]


[color=green]So we see that those who call themselves Muslims
today do not follow a new religion; rather they follow the religion and message
of all prophets and messengers which were sent to humanity by God’s command,
also known as Islam. The word “Islam” is an Arabic word which literally means “submission
to God”, and Muslims are those who willfully submit to and actively obey God,
living in accordance with His message.[/color]