I’m late in the game to this thread and will admit that I have not gone through its entirety. I am surprised that there are indeed Muslims who come to this forum.
I have lived around Islam most of my life and am pretty close to the subject. I will say it is interesting that the best answer I saw here was from an Ahmadi, who are not viewed as Muslim at all by the majority of Islam (very much like Mormons are not viewed as Christians by most of Christianity…and for the same reasons).
I can say this: Muhammad is considered to be “the Greatest” of all prophets among Musilms for 2 main reasons: 1. he carried the last, ultimate and greatest revelation 2. He brought the revelation of the Qur’an, which is the enerrant word-for-word dictation from god/Allah which has lasted for over 1000 without ever being changed or corrupted.
The problem here is this; both statements are full of built-in circular logic which no Muslim can escape. Meaning, if someone asks, “Prove that Mohammad was the greatest and last prophet”, they will say, “It was revealed in the Qur’an, the inerrant word of god.” And if you then ask, “Prove that the Quran is the inerrant word of God” they will say, “the greatest prophet, Mohammad, said it was.”
I generally point out that Mohammed a) never performed any miracles, whereas Jesus did. b) Mohammed owned slaves, Jesus didn’t. c) Mohammed married many women and kept concubines whereas Jesus did not d) Mohammed killed and ordered the death of many people whereas Jesus killed no one e) at the last judgement, Muslims believe Jesus will judge mankind as do Christians, and both believe Mohammed did not get such an invitation. So, even if Jesus were merely a prophet as Muslims claim, it is glaringly evident that He was greater than Mohammed.
Muslims have a very high respect for Jesus, so they usually just shrug this one off. But then if you ask them to think through the next logical point: if Jesus were a greater prophet, why would God choose a lesser one to follow Him? Then they go ballistic.