Books of Allah

Muslims believe and respect all the original books of Allah, listed bellow are those mentioned in the Qur'an:

• The Torah - Given to Prophet Moses (Musa)
• The Zabur (The Psalms) - Given to Prophet David (Daud)
• The Injil (The Gospels) - Given to Prophet Jesus (Isa)
• The Qur'an - Given to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

Muslims believe that as time went by Allah sent each nation a reminder through prophets and their books. When a nation forgot or ignored the reminder of Allah, they were continuously warned until Allah's wrath was upon them, and so there was a succession of prophets sent with the warning and the reminder.

The Qur'an is the final reminder and a clarification of events contained in previous scriptures, for example the story of Adam and Eve, the Virgin Mary and her son, and the lives and stories of the major prophets.

The Qur'an

The Qur'an is considered as the eternal, unchanged and unchangeable word of God, encompassing the past, the present and the future. It is used as a guidance through the life of a Muslim. It is also the criterion to judge between right and wrong and the basis for Islamic Law (Sharia). The word Qur'an in Arabic means 'recitation' and Muslims believe that the Qur'an was dictated to Muhammed pbuh, during Muhammed's life various parts of the Qur'an were written down and a final version compiled soon after he died. The Qur'an is arranged into 114 Suras (chapters) each of which has a name. These do not come in the order they were revealed to the prophet. Scholars generally agree that it is Sura 96 (The congealed blood) that was the first revealed to the prophet. The first Sura Al-Fatihah (The Opening) is recited in each of the daily prayers. Apart from this the others are arranged roughly in the order of their length with the longer Suras coming at the beginning and the shorter ones at the end.

Muslims also believe that the Qur'an which was revealed in Arabic cannot be translated into any other language. Any translation always misses something of its meaning. So Muslims always learn the Qur'an in Arabic, though for many it is not the language that they would normally speak. Translations can be used for study. The Qur'an has a mix of prose and poetry, this makes it very powerful to read aloud. Muslims regard the Qur'an as a miracle given to them by God. Muslims believe that the power and beauty of the Qur'an is proof of its origins as the revelation of God.

Copies of the Qur'an are treated with great respect. The book will be wrapped in a cloth and placed on the highest shelf for safety and respect. When it is being read Muslims will sit quietly listening with complete attention.

"The best of you is he who has learnt the Qur'an and then taught it."

"None of you has faith unless I am dearer to him than his father, and his son and all mankind"

sayings of the Prophet Muhammad pbuh

Prophets

There have been countless prophets that have passed through the generations since Adam and Eve up to the last and final messenger, Muhammad pbuh. As a sign of respect for the prophets, Muslims add "peace be upon him" whenever they mention the name of one of them. From amongst those numerous prophets, the Qur'an mentions the following ones with a narration of their stories:

• Adam
• Noah (Nuh)
• Abraham (Ibrahim)
• Ishmael (Isma'il)
• Isaac (Ishaq)
• Lot (Lut)
• Jacob (Yaqub)
• Joseph (Yusuf)
• Jethro (Shu'aib)
• Moses (Musa)
• David (Daud)
• Solomon (Sulaiman)
• Jonah (Yunus)
• Zechariah (Zakariya)
• John (Yahya)
• Jesus (Isa)
• Muhammad

Peace be upon them all

A Muslim believes that all the messengers of Allah brought essentially the same message, so they believe in all the prophets and make no distinction between any of them, they are all equal in the sight of Allah, and yet had totally different situations to deal with during their appointed times on earth, from which Muslims are able to compare and know the situations they might encounter during their life time. The prophets were examples for Muslims to follow in order to stay on the straight path to paradise through righteous action. Whilst the stories of all the prophets are available for inspiration, only the life example of prophet Muhammad pbuh is closely emulated by Muslims, and Muslims refer to themselves as "Ummah Muhammad", the nation of Muhammad (pbuh).