Prophethood is not unknown to heavenly revealed religions, such as Judaism and Christianity. In Islam, however, it has a special status and significance.
According to Islam, Allah created man for a noble purpose: to worship Him and lead a virtuous life based on His teachings and guidance. How would man know his role and the purpose of his existence unless he received clear and practical instructions of what The God (Allah) wants him to do? Here comes the need for prophethood. Thus, Allah has chosen from every nation at least one prophet to convey His Message to people.
One might ask, how were the prophets chosen and who were entitled to this great honor?
Prophethood is Allah’s blessing and favor that He may bestow on whom He wills. However, from surveying the various messengers throughout history, three features of a prophet may be recognized:
- He is the best in his community morally and intellectually. This is necessary because a prophet’s life serves as a role model for his followers. His personality should attract people to accept his message rather than drive them away by his imperfect character. After receiving the message, he is infallible. That is, he would not commit any sin. He might make some minor mistakes, which are usually corrected by revelation.
- He is supported by miracles to prove that he is not an impostor. Those miracles are granted by the power and permission of The God and are usually in the field in which his people excel and are recognized as superiors. We might illustrate this by quoting the major miracles of the three prophets of the major world religions, Judaism, Christianity and
Moses’ contemporaries were excellent in magic, so his major miracle was to defeat the best magicians of Egypt of his days. Jesus’ contemporaries were recognized as skilled physicians; therefore, his miracles were to raise the dead and cure incurable diseases. The Arabs, the contemporaries of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, were known for their eloquence and magnificent poetry. So, Prophet Muhammad’s major miracle was the Qur’an, the equivalent of which the whole legion of Arab poets and orators could not produce, despite the repeated challenge from the Qur’an itself. Again, Muhammad’s miracle has something special about it. All previous miracles were limited by time and place; that is, they were shown to specific people at a specific time. Not so with the miracle of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ the Qur’an. It is a universal and everlasting miracle. Previous generations witnessed it and future generations will witness its miraculous nature in terms of its style, content and spiritual uplifting. These can still be tested and will thereby prove the divine origin of the Qur’an.
Every prophet, states clearly that what he receives is not of his own, but from The God for the well-being of mankind. He also confirms what was revealed before him and what may be revealed after him. A prophet does this to show that he is simply conveying the message that is entrusted to him by The One True God of all people in all ages. So, the message is one in essence and for the same purpose. Therefore, it should not deviate from what was revealed before him or what might come after him.
Prophets are necessary for conveying The God’s instructions and guidance to mankind. We have no way of knowing why we were created. What will happen to us after death? Is there any life after death? Are we accountable for our actions? These and so many other questions about God, angels, paradise, hell, and more, cannot be answered without direct revelation from The Creator and Knower of the unseen. Those answers must be authentic and must be brought by individuals whom we trust and respect. That is why messengers are the elite of their societies in terms of moral conduct and intellectual ability.
Hence, the slanderous Biblical stories about some of the great prophets are not accepted by Muslims. For example, Lot is reported to have committed incestuous fornication while drunk. David is alleged to have sent one of his leaders to his death in order to marry his wife. Prophets, to Muslims, are greater than what these stories indicate. These stories cannot be true from the Islamic point of view.
The prophets are also miraculously supported by The God and instructed by Him to affirm the continuity of the message. The content of the prophets’ message to mankind can be summarized as follows:
- Clear concept of The God: His attributes, His creation, what should and should not be ascribed to Him.
- Clear idea about the unseen world, the angels, jinn (spirits), Paradise and Hell.
- Why The God has created us, what He wants from us and what rewards and punishments are for obedience and disobedience.
- How to run our societies according to The God’s That is, clear instructions and laws that, when applied correctly and honestly, will result in a smoothly functioning, harmonious society.
It is clear from the above discussion that there is no substitute for prophets. Even today with the advancement of science, the only authentic source of information about the supernatural world is revelation. Guidance can be obtained neither from science nor from mystic experience. The first is too materialistic and limited; the second is too subjective and frequently misleading.
Now! One might ask!
How many prophets has The God sent to humanity? We do not know for sure. Some Muslim scholars have suggested 124,000 (or 240,000) prophets. We are only sure of what is clearly mentioned in the Qur’an, that The God has sent a messenger to every nation. That is because it is one of The God’s principles that He will never call a people to account unless He has made clear to them what to do and what not to do. The Qur’an mentions the names of 25 prophets and indicates that there have been others who were not mentioned to Prophet Muhammad (peace by upon him). These 25 include Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (Peace be upon them all). These five are the greatest among The God’s messengers. They are called “Ulul ‘Azm” the resolute’ prophets.
An outstanding aspect of the Islamic belief in prophethood is that Muslims believe in and respect all of the messengers of The God with no exceptions. All the prophets were from the same One God, for the same purpose: to lead mankind to The God. Hence, belief in them all is essential and logical; accepting some and rejecting others has to be based on misconceptions of the prophet’s role or on a racial bias. The Muslims are the only people in the world who consider the belief in all the prophets an article of faith. Thus, the Jews reject Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them), and the Christians reject Muhammad (عليه السلام). The Muslims accept them all as messengers of God who brought guidance to mankind. However, the revelations which those prophets before Muhammad ﷺ brought from The God has been tampered with in one way or another.
The belief in all the prophets of The God is enjoined upon the Muslims in the Qur’an:
Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed to us and that which was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac and Jacob, and their children, and that which Moses and Jesus received and that the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them and unto Him we have surrendered. [Qur’an: 02:136]
The Qur’an continues in the following verses to instruct the Muslims that this is the true and impartial belief. If other nations believe in the same, they are following in the right track. If they do not, they must be following their own whims and biases and The God will take care of them. Thus, we read:
And if they believe in what you believe, then they are rightly guided. But if they turn away, then they are in disunity, and Allah will suffice you against them. He is the Hearer, the Knower. This is God’s religion and who is better than God in religion? [Qur’an: 02:137-138]
There are, at least, two important points related to prophethood that need to be clarified. These points concern the roles of Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them) as prophets who are usually misunderstood.
The Qur’anic account of Jesus emphatically rejects the concept of his ‘divinity’ and ‘divine sonship’ and presents him as one of the great prophets of The God. The Qur’an makes it clear that the miraculous birth of Jesus without a father does not make him the son of The God and mentions, in this respect, the case of Adam, who was born without even a father or a mother, purely by the miraculous intervention of The God.
Truly, the likeness of Jesus, in God’s sight, is as Adam’s likeness; He created him of dust, them said He unto him “Be”, and he was. [Qur’an: 03:59]
Like other prophets, Jesus also performed miracles. For example, he raised the dead and cured the blind and lepers, but while showing these miracles, he always made it clear that it was all from The God. Actually, the misconceptions about the personality and mission of Jesus (عليه السلام) found a way among his followers because the Divine message he preached was not recorded during his presence in the world. Rather, it was recorded after a lapse of about one hundred years. According to the Qur’an, he was sent to the children of Israel; he confirmed the validity of the Torah, which was revealed to Moses (عليه السلام), and he also brought the glad tidings of the coming of the final messenger after him.
And when Jesus son of Mary said, “Children of Israel. I am indeed the messenger to you, confirming the Torah that is before me, and giving good tidings of a Messenger who shall come after me, whose name shall be the praised one (Ahmed – which was the name of Prophet Muhammad). [Qur’an: 61:06]
However, the majority of the Jews rejected his ministry. They plotted against his life and in their opinion, crucified him. But the Qur’an refutes this opinion and says that they neither killed him nor crucified him; rather, he was raised up to The God. There is a verse in the Qur’an which implies that Jesus will come back and all the humanity will believe in him before he dies. This is also supported by authentic sayings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
The last prophet of The God, Muhammad ﷺ was born in Arabia in the sixth century C.E. Up to the age of forty, people of Makkah knew him only as a man of excellent character and cultured manners and called him Al-Ameen (the trustworthy). He also did not know that he was soon to be made a prophet and receiver of revelation from The God. He called the idolaters of Makkah to worship The One and Only God and accept him (Muhammad ﷺ) as His prophet. The revelation that he received was preserved in his lifetime in the memory of his companions and was also recorded on pieces of palm leave, leather, etc. Thus, the Qur’an that is found today is the same that was revealed to him, not a syllable of it has been altered, as The God Himself has guaranteed its preservation. This Qur’an claims to be the book of guidance for all of humanity for all times, and mentions Muhammad ﷺ as the last Prophet of The God.
All non-divine humans chosen by Allah as prophets are considered as The Prophets of Islam by all Muslims. Each prophet brought the same basic ideas of Islam, including belief in one The God and avoidance of idolatry and sin. Each came to preach Islam and told of the coming of the final law-bearing prophet and messenger of The God: Muhammad. Each prophet directed a message to a different group and each prophet taught minor variations in Shariah (or the practice of religion) to a different target-audience. These variations constitute applications of Islam: mainstream Muslims do not consider them discrete versions of Islam. Muslims also believe that it was Prophet Ibrahim ﷺ who selected the name Muslim (i.e. the one who submits and obeys), and The God endorsed it for him and his nation.
Unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam distinguishes between a direct messenger of The God (rasool) and a prophet (nabi). Both functions as divinely inspired recipients of The God’s revelation. However, in addition, rasool receive a divine message or revelation for a community in book form. While every rasool is a nabi, not every nabi is a rasool.
Muslims regard Adam as the first prophet and Muhammad as the last prophet; hence Muhammad’s title Seal of the Prophets. Islam regards Jesus as a rasool (and sometimes as a nabi) because he received Wahee (revelation) from The God, through which The God revealed the Injeel (Gospel) to him. Muslims believe that The God has sent over 124,000 messengers all over the world as mentioned in the Sahih Hadith. Five (known as Ulul ‘Azm Rusul) are accorded the highest reverence for their perseverance and unusually strong commitment to The God in the face of great suffering. These five are Nuh (Noah), Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), Isa (Jesus), and Muhammad (عليه السلام).
