One
Who Muslims believe God is
Islam holds that there is one God — Allah in Arabic, a word Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians also use for God. He is not a being within the world, not one of several gods, and not reachable through an image. The Qur'an describes Him by attributes: the Merciful, the Sustaining, the Knowing, the Just. Surah al-Ikhlas, four lines long, is the Qur'anic statement of this: "Say, He is Allah, the One. Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born. Nor is there any to whom He is equal." (112:1-4)
Two
What the Qur'an claims about itself
The Qur'an presents itself as the literal word of God, revealed to Muhammad ﷺ through the angel Jibril over twenty-three years, in Arabic, memorised and written down in his lifetime and transmitted continuously since. It is 114 chapters and 6,236 verses. It appeals repeatedly to the reader's reason — "Do they not reflect?" — and it names its own purpose: guidance, judgement, and a criterion by which to weigh claims.
Three
Who Muhammad ﷺ is
A man born in Makkah around 570 CE, orphaned young, known in his community as al-Amin, the trustworthy, well before he received revelation at forty. He received the first verses in the cave of Hira and spent the next twenty-three years teaching, under persecution and then as a ruler in Madinah. Muslims hold him as the final prophet, in a line that includes Adam, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa and Isa, and they do not worship him.
Four
What a Muslim does each day
Five prayers at set times between dawn and night; the Qur'an recited daily; food and finance regulated by what is permitted and prohibited; charity annually on wealth above a threshold; one month of fasting each year; and a pilgrimage once in a lifetime for those able. Around that: honesty in trade, kindness to parents, care for neighbours, restraint in speech, and moderation in every appetite.
Five
What happens after death
Islam teaches that death is a transition, not an ending. Every person is raised, judged on what they knew and what they did with it, and held accountable individually. The Qur'an speaks of paradise and of punishment, and it insists that God's justice is exact and His mercy is vast. It also insists that no person carries another's burden, and that no one can know the final destination of another human being.
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