Muslims identify the prophets of Islam (النبوة في الإسلام) as those humans chosen by God in Islam (Allah) and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well. Each prophet, in Muslim belief, preached the same main belief of worshiping God (which in Arabic is translated as Allah) and in the avoidance of idolatry and sin. Each came to preach Islam at different times in history and some, including Jesus, told of the coming of the final prophet and messenger of God, who would be named Muhammad. Each prophet directed a message to a different group of people, and thus would preach Islam in accordance with the times. Although many lay Muslims and many Western scholars and writers hold the view that Islam began with Muhammad in Mecca, this contradicts the Quran, which says that Muhammad simply was the last prophet who preached the same faith that Adam preached to his children.

Islamic tradition holds that God sent messengers to every nation. Muslims believe that God finally sent Muhammad to transmit the message of the Quran, the holy book which, according to Islam, is universal in its message. The reason the Muslims believe the Quran is universal and will remain uncorrupted is because they believe that previous Islamic holy books, namely the Torah given to Moses; the Psalms given to David; and the Gospel given to Jesus, were for a particular time and community and because they believe that, even if the books were corrupted, many prophets were still to come who could tell the people of what was correct in the scripture and warn them of corruptions. Muhammad therefore, being the last prophet, was vouchsafed a book which, in Muslim belief, will remain in its true form till the Last Day.