Qurʾān

Arising as it did within the Near Eastern milieu of late antiquity, the Qurʾān placed religious diversity and the continuity of prophethood among its central themes, viewing all of humanity as beholden to a pretemporal covenant with God. When human beings break the covenant, messengers bring revelations that provide teachings, rites, and laws to renew and maintain it. Religions have different laws and practices, but their central creeds are the same, the oneness of God being the most central. The Qurʾān provides multiple arguments for the existence of God and critiques perceived misunderstandings of the Divine that arose within Judaism, Christianity, and pre-Islamic Arabian traditions. All aspects of the unseen to which the pre-Islamic Arabs ascribed multiple powers are related back to the one God, who is an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent creator. Angels are all pervasive; they fulfill multiple functions, always on behalf of and in service to God. Most evil stems from Satan, a fallen jinn who refused obedience to God and seeks to lead human beings astray. Death and resurrection are pervasive Qurʾānic themes and the Qurʾān provides extensive descriptions regarding the stages of resurrection and the nature of heaven and hell.