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1. Background:
   1. Why should we say "Allah" and not "God"?
   2. First verse of the first chapter which Muslims read every day:   "Praise is to Allah, Lord of the Worlds".
   3. "Worlds" is plural.
      1. The angels
      2. The Jinn (and from them Iblis)
      3. Humans (from the "lowest of the low" to the "best in form".   The test of accountability.
2. Messengers
   1. Receive communication from Allah
   2. No one else receives communication from Allah
   3. Have been sent to every nation on earth at one time
   4. Process ended with Muhammad
   5. Categories:
      1. Prophets - bring a teaching but do not establish a new law/nation
      2. Messengers - establish a new law/nation with their teaching
      3. Five major messengers:
         1. Ibrahim
         2. Musa
         3. Nuh
         4. Isa
         5. Muhammad
3. The Message
   1. Tauhid:  the oneness and uniqueness of Allah Most High.  This part of the message remained unchanged since the first message until the last.
      1. The oneness of Allah as Creator and Supreme Being (His actions)
      2. The oneness of Allah as deity and sovereign (our actions)
   2. Shari'a:  the laws and regulations which govern life.  Not just in "religious" issues, these laws cover individual, family, criminal, business, economic, international and all other types of law.
      1. Change due to evolution.  The final message was the one which forbid every harmful thing and directed us toward every beneficial thing.
      2. Change due to history.  Peoples who were rebellious against the order of Allah received more difficult laws as an additional test.
      3. Change in audience.  Every message came to an individual people exclusively.  There is still a quote attributed to Isa in the Bible to this effect.   The final message - that given to Muhammad (sas) is for all mankind.  This is explicitly stated in the Qur'an and in the words of the Prophet (sas).
4. The Problem.
   1. Disobedience. 
      1. Caused by desires and made easy by rationalizations.  Sometimes leads to destruction or distortion of the message.
      2. Al-Hassan Al-Basri said less than 90 years after the death of the Prophet (sas):  "The early generations were as concerned about their good deeds being accepted as the people of today are complacent about their negligence being forgiven."
   2. Deviation
      1. Caused by ignorance, arrogance, shortness of understanding and the spiritual equivalent of "desires".
      2. The need for a "tangible" object of worship:  worship of the prophet who brought the message, of other individuals, worship of idols and cults of personalities.
   3. Rejection of subsequent messages
      1. Each new message superceded the previous