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I've never heard the term "comforter," but Islam is not a homogenous faith, so there may be many different variations. There is no pope, no Nicene Council to vote on what is proper belief. There are many divisions. The big Sunni/Shi'a division, for instance. But within those, there are many different schools, and each school has its own standards for interpreting the Qur'an and tradition. I'm not too familiar with internal functionings of the various schools, but often the sheiks we keep hearing about are teachers/judges within these schools, and their job is to interpret the Qur'an and traditions, to advise those who ask for help. That's why some of these sheiks who are arrested for encouraging terrorism claim they are being persecuted. If a terrorist Muslim comes to them and says "What is your opinion on me blowing up that restaurant," the shiek offers his learned opinion. If the sheik's school believes that it is acceptable because of whatever reason, the sheik is supposed to say that. They don't consider this encouragement, it is their sacred duty, much like a priest's role in confession, where priests often here illegal activities confessed to.
The key point of Islam, their John 3:16 style verse, is "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet." Muhammad's immediate successor, Abu Bakr, on Muhammad's death announced to the crowd of Muslims awaiting word of the Prophet's fate, said "If you followed Muhammad, he is dead. If you followed God, he lives." Or something like that.
In other words, Islam is very clear that Muhammad is a prophet, not a God, or the Holy Spirit, or any such thing. He was a man to whom an angel delivered the Qur'an, which means simply Recitation. Muhammad was the perfect example of how a Muslim is supposed to live, but so was Jesus. So while in practice Muhammad is more revered than Jesus, they both hold equal status in theology, except, as I said, that Jesus' message was corrupted, so Muhammad's is the only one they trust. (Though as I said, there may be variations to this, my knowledge is very generalized, and I would gladly yield to any Muslim who corrected me.)
On prophets. Islam recognizes something like 27 or 31 (I forget) prophets, meaning men whom God inspired to preach his message. Some of them are also Christian figures-- Adam, Abraham, and I think Noah. After the Isaac/Ishmael split, Islam follows a different set of prophets. But, there are five prophets who are special. I think the word is Rasul, could be wrong. These five were given God's word directly. In the early stages of Islam it was said they spoke directly to God, but theologians later agreed no one could speak to God, except through angels, so these five received the word of God through angels. I don't know all of them (I think Adam and Abraham were such), but Jesus and Muhammad were of this category. Jesus was the Word of God, the living message of God, created in a virgin womb without a father, but his message was corrupted by those who followed him. Muhammad was given the Recitation, orally (Muhammad was illiterate, he had to memorize it), and the exact wording had to be memorized, so that the message could not be corrupted. There is a very tricky theological question involved-- some theologians believe the Qur'an is eternal, but since only God can be eternal, some believe the Qur'an is God, or at least that was argued in the middle ages. That is why the Qur'an can only truly be real if it is in the original Arabic. All translations are considered interpretations.
More than you ever wanted to know, probably. It is a beautiful religion in practice and theology.
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