He bequeathed to posterity, a religion of pure monotheism; he created a well-disciplined State out of the existent chaos and gave peace in place of the war of everybody against everybody else; he established a harmonious equilibrium between the spiritual and the temporal, between the mosque and the citadel; he left a new system of law, which dispensed impartial justice, in which even the head of the State was as much a subject to it as any commoner, and in which religious tolerance was so great that non-Muslim inhabitants of Muslim countries equally enjoyed complete juridical, judicial and cultural autonomy. In the matter of the revenues of the State, the Qur’an fixed the principles of budgeting, and paid more thought to the poor than to anybody else. The revenues were declared to be in no wise the private property of the head of the State. Above all, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ set a noble example and fully practiced all that he taught to others.
Muslims believe that Muhammad ﷺ differs from other previous messengers primarily in three respects:
- God sent all previous messengers to a specific nation in specific region of Earth. Their teachings were confined to specific people and for a specific time, which were to be replaced later by the teachings given to another prophet. However, Muhammad ﷺ was sent to entire mankind and his guidance is for all mankind until the end of times, as no prophet is going to come in the future.
- The teachings of previous messengers confined themselves to specific nations and times, thus their laws relating to ethics and moral code, justice, trade, financial deals, and civil law remained incomplete. God through His final Messenger Muhammad completed the Religion and perfected it. It includes all the teachings from previous messengers, and abrogated what was specific to those people and time.
- The teachings of all previous messengers except Muhammad have all but disappeared, and whatever remained of them has become so much altered and mixed with falsely made-up stories that it is very difficult to differentiate the original teachings. Whilst the teaching of Muhammad ﷺ and the Qur’an is preserved in its originality, and God has promised to protect it until end of times.
Most Muslims thus believe that the teaching of Muhammad ﷺ remains the only trustworthy source to reach the guidance of God today, and that the Qur’an contains the true essence of the teachings of Moses and Jesus. Therefore, the belief in Muhammad ﷺ includes four points:
- That he is the Messenger of God who brought us the Book of Guidance – the Qur’an.
- That he brought us the Deen (Way of Life) – Complete and Perfected, which remains applicable to all mankind until the end of times.
- That he received his guidance from God and that his knowledge and guidance is perfect from any defects.
- That he is the Last and Final Messenger of God who has perfected the Deen (Way of Life) of God, and that no further Messenger will come after him, as the world needs none after the Deen is completed and perfected. And the teachings of Muhammad ﷺ are for the remainder of mankind.
