Peace,
I've recently done some very interesting research I'd like to share with you.
The Quran says:
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
The Avesta says:
In the name of God, the bestower, the giver, the benevolent!
The Islamic God, Allah, has 99 names.
The Zoroastrian God, Ahura Mazda, has 101 names.
[59.24] He is Allah the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner; His are the most excellent names; whatever is in the heavens and the earth declares His glory; and He is the Mighty, the Wise.
Khorda Avesta 0:5.
Then Zarathushtra said: 'Reveal unto me that name of thine, O Ahura Mazda! that is the greatest, the best, the fairest, the most effective, the most fiend-smiting, the best-healing, that destroyeth best the malice of Daevas and Men;
http://coulomb.ecn.purdue.edu/~bulsara/ ... names.html
Khorda Avesta 0:16.
'These are my names.
'And he who in this material world, O Spitama Zarathushtra! shall recite and pronounce those names of mine either by day or by night;
17.
'He who shall pronounce them, when he rises up or when he lays him down; when he lays him down or when he rises up; when he binds on the sacred girdle [[kusti]] or when he unbinds the sacred girdle; when he goes out of his dwelling-place, or when he goes out of his town, or when he goes out of his country and comes into another country:
[7.180] And Allah's are the best names, therefore call on Him thereby, and leave alone those who violate the sanctity of His names; they shall be recompensed for what they did.
[20.8] Allah -- there is no god but He; His are the very best names.
Who has the best names? Allah or Ahura? Or are they the same God?
[59.22] He is Allah besides Whom there is no god; the Knower of the unseen and the seen; He is the Beneficent, the Merciful
[59.23] He is Allah, besides Whom there is no god; the King, the Holy, the Giver of peace, the Granter of security, Guardian over all, the Mighty, the Supreme, the Possessor of every greatness Glory be to Allah from what they set up (with Him).
Compare to the Avesta:
Yasna 1. I announce and carry out this Yasna for the creator Ahura Mazda, the radiant and glorious, the greatest and the best, the most beautiful, the most firm, the wisest, and the one of all whose body is the most perfect, who attains His ends the most infallibly, because of his Asha, to him who disposes our minds aright, who sends His joy-creating grace afar; who made us, and has fashioned us, and who has nourished and protected us, who is the most bounteous Spirit!
'I, Ahura Mazda, the Maker of all good things, when I made this mansion, the beautiful, the shining, seen afar (there may I ascend, there may I arrive!)
1. In the name of Ohrmazd, the lord, the greatest and wise, [the all-ruling, all-knowing, and almighty,
[0. Rejoicing unto the Creator Ohrmazd, Who is Radiant, Glorious and All-knowing, Wise, Capable and the Greatest, -- with good-thought, good-word, and good-deed in meditation, utterance and action, -- and unto all the spiritual Yazads and earthly Yazads.
What puts this all together is this:
http://tenets.zoroastrianism.com/zsaint33b.html
Muhammed had a close friend, Salman -e-Fars, who was a Zoroastrain high priest. He was called dastur Dinyar.
Now how the Avesta describes God is strikingly similar to the Quran's description. The names and adjectives used to describe God make it clearly evident that Salman influenced Muhammed and the Quran.