Islam "the submission to God" is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, the world's second-largest religion, and said by some to be the fastest growing religion in the world. Followers of Islam, known as Muslims, believe that God (or, in Arabic, Allah) revealed his direct word for mankind to Muhammad (c. 570-632) and other prophets, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims assert that the main written record of revelation to humankind is the Qur'an, which is flawless, immutable, and the final revelation of God to humanity. Muslims believe that parts of the Gospels, Torah and Jewish prophetic books have been forgotten and distorted by their followers and thus, their original message has been corrupted over time. With that perspective, Muslims view the Qur'an as a corrective of Jewish and Christian scriptures, and a final revelation.

     There are six basic beliefs shared by all Muslims:

1.      Belief in God, the one and only one worthy of all worship.

2.      Belief in all the Prophets and Messengers sent by God.

3.      Belief in the Books sent by God (including the Qur'an).

4.      Belief in the Angels.

5.      Belief in the Day of Judgement and in the Resurrection (life after death).

6.      Belief in Destiny (Fate).

     The Qur'an

     The Qur'an is the sacred book of Islam. Qur'an is the currently preferred English transliteration of the Arabic original; it means "recitation". Although it is referred to as a "book", when a Muslim refers to the Qur'an, they are referring to the actual text, the words, rather than the printed work itself. Muslims believe that the Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel on numerous occasions between the years 610 and Muhammad's death in 632. In addition to memorizing his revelations, his followers are said to have written them down on parchments, stones, and other media, so that the entire Qur'an was written down during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad.

     Muslims hold that the Qur'an available today is the same as that revealed to Prophet Muhammad and by him to his followers, who memorized his words. Scholars accept that the version of the Qur'an used today was first compiled in writing by the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, sometime between 650 and 656.

     The form of the Qur'an most used today is the Al-Azhar text of 1923, prepared by a committee at the prestigious Cairo university of Al-Azhar. From the beginning of the faith, most Muslims believed that the Qur'an was perfect only as revealed in Arabic. Translations were the result of human effort and human fallibility, as well as lacking the inspired poetry believers find in the Qur'an.