4وَالَّذينَ يُؤمِنونَ بِما أُنزِلَ إِلَيكَ وَما أُنزِلَ مِن قَبلِكَ وَبِالآخِرَةِ هُم يوقِنونَMuhammad Asadand who believe in that which has been bestowed from on high upon thee, [O Prophet,] as well as in that which was bestowed before thy time:1 for it is they who in their innermost are certain of the life to come!This is a reference to one of the fundamental doctrines of the Qur'an: the doctrine of the historical continuity of divine revelation. Life - so the Qur'an teaches us - is not a series of unconnected jumps but a continuous, organic process: and this law applies also to the life of the mind, of which man's religious experience (in its cumulative sense) is a part. Thus, the religion of the Qur'an can be properly understood only against the background of the great monotheistic faiths which preceded it, and which, according to Muslim belief, culminate and achieve their final formulation in the faith of Islam.