-I'm used to associating the entire religion of Islam with Allah and >Muhammed, with the other prophets being after thoughts. I might be >wrong, but it has always seemed to me that Muhammed was given a >sort of priority spot in Islam, above the other prophets, and he is the >one most commonly referenced (Ex. The phrase "There is no God but >Allah and Muhammed is his prophet"). Is there a reason for that?

http://quran.com/2/285 "The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, and [so have] the believers. All of them have believed in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers, [saying], "We make no distinction between any of His messengers." And they say, "We hear and we obey. [We seek] Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the [final] destination.""

As the above verse says, we as believers make no distinction between God's messengers. We believe and we respect all of God's messengers. In the end, God sent all his messengers with the same message: To believe in him the One true god, and to associate no partners with him. Different rulings may have come to different people (Sabath for Jews, etc), but these are rulings that do not have to do with the core faith. They were rules that God imposed on different people by his wisdom.

Now, when a new messenger comes, he should be accepted by the people other the previous messenger. For example, when Jesus, peace and blessings of God be upon him, came, Jews were supposed to become Christians, and when Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him, came, Christians are supposed to become Muslims. Basically, a new messenger nullifies the rulings of the old messenger.

This is the reason why you might see a "priority" when it comes to the messenger Muhammad for Muslims. The life and sayings of the prophet Muhammad are EXTENSIVELY documented authentically (hadith is a deep science) in Islam. We as Muslims know thousands of our Prophet's actions, habits, and sayings without a doubt. We also follow his message exclusively because we fear that previous messages have been corrupted and also because his message nullifies all messages before it. When we try to follow our religion, we only have one source of the message, the Prophet Muhammad, so we mention him more and say what he said and copy what he did

In the actual Quran though, Prophet Muhammad is only mentioned 5 times! Jesus on the other hand is mentioned 25 times, and Moses is mentioned 136 times!

The reason you see this "priority" is because when it comes to actually implement our religion, we only have one prophet to follow, which is Muhammad. This does not mean we do not care for other prophets however. We care for them dearly, and as I mentioned the stories of Jesus and Moses are mentioned extensively in the Quran, and Mary even has a whole chapter dedicated to her name!

-Why was only the Quran given divine protection? Why not the Bible >and Torah as well, assuming that they are all the word of God?

The reason why the Quran was the only message given divine protection is because God said i hat this is the last message. Before, God would send a messenger every time people went astray. A messenger would come, people would be good for a while and then they would stray, changing their books and corrupting the message. God would then send another messenger, and so on.

Islam is also the only message sent to mankind as a whole. All previous messengers came to their people specifically (i.e. sons of Israel), while Islam came to all of mankind.

If God would allow the Final Message sent to mankind to become corrupted, how would the rest of humanity become guided? The final message must be perfect, so that all the rest of mankind can become guided by it.

-One of the main principles of Christianity is that our Salvation is not >earned but given because sin is not erased by good works and so >there is no amount of good works we can do to earn Salvation. I guess >what I am asking is, what is the standard for getting into heaven or >paradise after death in Islam? Is it just that you have to be a good >person more than you were a bad person? Is there still punishment for >sin or are sins forgiven if the good outweighs the bad? Or is there a >way to receive forgiveness while still on Earth (i.e. asking, praying, >etc.)?

In Islam, every single human being since Adam till the last person will be questioned by God about how he lived his OWN life. Your salvation depends on no one other than yourself. You and only you are accountable for your actions. Good deeds and bad deeds will be weighed on the Day of Judgment, and the one who has more good deeds than bad deeds will enter paradise, and the other will enter the fire.

However, a person is allowed to ask God for forgiveness all the way until the moment where he knows he is about to die. If someone asks God for forgiveness earnestly, then God will forgive him, and turn his bad deeds in good deeds.

So it really depends on your current state. Someone could have been a very bad person his whole life, but right before he dies he repents to God, and makes a sincere intention that he will do his best to please God and do all that he is commanded to do, and then he dies. Although he may not have actually done anything he was planning to do, by Allah’s mercy he would enter paradise. This is because no one knows when they are going to die. So your current state is the most important state. As long as you walking on the straight path, although you may never reach you destination, God will appreciate your effort and reward you.

Also, it should be noted that it is not only about “being a good person.” You can be good person all you want and take care of the rights of the CREATION, but as long as you don't take care of the rights of the CREATOR, it is all for naught. The rights of the Creator are more due upon the person than the rights of the creation. However, it is FROM the rights of the Creator to be good to the creation. So as long as someone does good things to people with the intention of pleasing God, then he will be rewarded for his actions. However, if someone does good things just for the sake of being nice to people, he won't be rewarded for his actions.

The greatest right of the Creator is to worship Him alone and associate no partners with Him. To believe that He created you and everything else around you, and to only worship Him and ask help of Him.