A Muslim is a follower of the religion of Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the Quran. Muslims consider the Quran to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts called hadith. "Muslim" is an Arabic word meaning "one who submits (to God)". A female Muslim is sometimes called a "Muslimah".
Most Muslims accept as a Muslim anyone who has publicly pronounced the Shahadah (declaration of faith) which states:
There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God.
Islamic beliefs commonly held by Muslims include: that God (Allah) is eternal, transcendent and absolutely one (monotheism) that God is incomparable, self-sustaining and neither begets nor was begotten; that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that has been revealed before through many prophets including Abraham, Moses, Ishmael and Jesus; that these previous messages and revelations have been partially changed or corrupted over time and that the Qur'an is the final unaltered revelation from God (The Final Testament).
The religious practices of Muslims are enumerated in the Five Pillars of Islam, which, in addition to Shahadah, consist of daily prayers (salat), fasting during Ramadan (sawm), almsgiving (zakat), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime.