Originally Posted by human_pet
Just to clarify something.Muslims do not think the religion God decreed for humans started with Prophet Muhammad.It started right after Adam was created.As such,he became the first prophet of Islam.And there were other prophets after him,like Nuh(or Noah) ,Jacob Isa(Jesus) Musa(Moses),and Muhammad.So we Muslims believe that all of these prophets were sent by God with basically the same message and that is: To worship the only one God without ascribing any partners to Him.
Prophet Muhammad was the last line of prophets that God had decreed to be sent.After the death of Prophet Muhammad,God wouldn't send any other prophets, unlike previously where God never mentioned in any of the previous Holy Books that He would stop sending anymore prophets.(In the Holy Koran,God has mentioned that Prophet Muhammad is the seal of the prophets,i.e the last line).And this is also why,in the Holy Koran, God has promised to protect the Koran from corruption and adulteration of any kind.
And,unlike Judaism or Christianity,the name 'Islam' was not taken from a person nor from the name of a place. (Our religion isn't called Muhammadism !).In Arabic,Islam actaully means submission,in the sense that those who follow Islam,i.e Muslims,are people who submit to the one God and believe in what He says and that means to believe in all of the prophets that we were told of(not all of God's prophets are mentioned in the Holy Koran).