What exactly is a Messiah? Do Muslims believe that Jesus (sws) is the Messiah?
Messiah in Christian theology refers to a person who is to come and save this world. In other words it means ‘saviour’.
As far as Muslims are concerned, it is their belief that each prophet is a saviour of his people in the sense that if they profess faith in their respective prophet and practice righteous deeds, these people would be saved in the Hereafter. However, after the termination of the institution of Prophethood with Muhammad (sws), the last Prophet, people living in his or later times will only be saved if they profess faith in him. Of course, if due to some reason Muhammad’s message reached a person in a distorted form or if someone misinterpreted it even though he was sincere in his quest for truth, then of course such people will be held accountable on the basis of the basic truths revealed in their intuition.