This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0006084076 Reproduction Date:
Muslims identify the prophets of Islam (Arabic: النبوة في الإسلام) as those humans who were assigned a special mission by God to guide humans. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well.[1] Each prophet, in Muslim belief, preached the same main belief, The Oneness of the Divine Creator, worshiping of that One God, avoidance of idolatry and sin, and the belief in the Day of Resurrection. Each came to preach Islam at different times in history and some told of the coming of the final prophet and messenger of God, who would be named "Ahmad" commonly known as Muhammad. Each prophet directed a message to a different group of people, and thus would preach Islam in accordance with the times.
Messengers are prophets whom have been ordered to convey and propagate what God revealed to them. To believe in the Messengers means to believe that God has sent them to creation to guide them, and perfect their life, and their hereafter, and He has aided them with miracles which demonstrate their truthfulness; and that they have conveyed the message of God; and have revealed what they were ordered to reveal to the responsible and accountable individuals; and it is obligatory to respect all of them, and not to discriminate or differentiate between any of them, and they are infallible from minor sins and enormities.[2]
Islamic tradition holds that God sent messengers to every nation.[3] Muslims believe that God finally sent Muhammad to transmit the message of the Quran, the holy book which, according to Islam, is universal in its message. The reason the Muslims believe the Quran is universal and will remain uncorrupted is because they believe that previous Islamic holy books, namely the Torah given to Moses, the Psalms given to David, and the Gospel given to Jesus, were for a particular time and community and because they believe that, even if the books were corrupted, many prophets were still to come who could tell the people of what was correct in the scripture and warn them of corruptions. Muhammad therefore, being the last prophet, was vouchsafed a book which, in Muslim belief, will remain in its true form till the Last Day.
In both Arabic and Hebrew,[4] the term nabī (plural forms: nabiyyūn and anbiyāʾ) means "prophet". Forms of this noun occur 75 times in the Quran. The term nubuwwah (meaning "prophethood") occurs five times in the Quran. The terms rasūl (plural: rusul) and mursal (plural: mursalūn) denote "messenger" or "apostle" and occur more than 300 times. The term for a prophetic "message", risāla (plural: risālāt), appears in the Quran in ten instances.[5]
The Syriac form of rasūl Allāh (literally: "messenger of God"), s̲h̲eliḥeh d-allāhā, occurs frequently in the apocryphal Acts of St. Thomas. The corresponding verb for s̲h̲eliḥeh—s̲h̲alaḥ, occurs in connection with the prophets in the Hebrew Bible.[6][7][8][9]
The words "prophet" (Arabic: نبي nabī) and "messenger" (Arabic: رسول rasūl, ) appear several times in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The following table shows these words in different languages:[10]
In the Hebrew Bible the word "prophet" (Hebrew: navi) occurs more commonly, and the word "messenger" (Hebrew: mal'akh) refers to angels (Arabic: ملائكة, Malāīkah), But the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi, speaks of a messenger that Christian commentators interpret as a reference to the future prophet John the Baptist.[11]
In the New Testament, however, the word "messenger" becomes more frequent, sometimes in association with the concept of a prophet.[12]
"Messenger" can refer to Jesus, to his Apostles and to John the Baptist.
It seems that in the New Testament a messenger can have a higher rank than prophets: Jesus Christ said about John the Baptist:
But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.For this is he, of whom it is written, "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee."—Matthew, Gospel of Matthew[13]
To believe in His (God’s) messengers (Rusul) means to be convinced that God sent them to men and jinn (khalq) to guide them to the path of the Truth, and that they have told the truth about everything they have conveyed from God. It is obligatory to know twenty-five particular messengers.[14]
In Islamic jurisprudence, when it is mentioned that one must believe in all the prophets, what is necessary is to believe in them as a whole, but if a name of a prophet becomes established to one specifically and by name, like Yahya for example, it becomes obligatory to believe in him specifically, and this is the same for revealed Books and Angels.[15]
The table below charts the twenty-five named Quran prophets, and references key elements of their role in Islam. Muslims believe that many prophets existed, including many not mentioned in the Quran. The Quran itself refers to at least four other prophets but does not name them.[16][17] All prophets mentioned in the Qur'an are also Messengers.[18]
Musa (Moses)
A prophet (nabi) in Islam is a free, male, human, from the sons of Adam; who received revelation from God in the form of Divine instructions; if he is commanded specifically to convey and propagate these Divine instructions to specific people, then he is also called a Messenger (rasul), whether or not a book was revealed to him to convey, or if it abrogated previous revelation, or if it was to call people to a previously revealed book, or to also convey what was revealed to him without a book. If he is not commanded to convey any specific message, then he remains a prophet (nabi) only. Thus, according to the strongest view, every Messenger is a Prophet, but not every Prophet is a Messenger. [Sharh Jawhara al-Tawhid, al-Sawi][80][81]
The differing meanings for Prophet and Messenger stem from the difference in connotation of the two words in Arabic, and how they are used in the Qur’an. There are also opinions that both words have the same meaning, or that a Messenger is more general than a Prophet because angels have also been called messengers; however, these are not the strongest views. [Sharh `ala al-Jawhara, al-Bayjuri][80]
All messengers are commonly considered to be prophets. However not all prophets are considered as messengers.[82] The Quran, like the quoted passage from the New Testament, may rank a messenger higher than a prophet. For example, whenever both titles appear together, "messenger" comes first. The best of the Prophets are the Ulul 'Azm (Possessors of strong will and perseverance), in patience and enduring difficulties, who are five, Muhammad, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Noah.[2] Mention is made of them in Surah 46:35 [83] in the Qur'an and are believed to be the Prophets mentioned in the following verse: “And remember We took from the prophets their covenant: As (We did) from thee: from Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus the son of Mary: We took from them a solemn covenant.”[84]
Crucially, a messenger delivers a new religious law (Sharia) revealed by God, whereas a prophet continues an old one. God sends both prophets and messengers as givers of good news and as admonishers of their people. A messenger will become the witness that God will take from that community on the Day of Judgment (see the following sura; Yunus;[85] An-Nahl;[86] Al-Mu’minoon;[87] Ghafir;[88] An-Nisa;[89] Al-Qasas[90]).
Scholars like Javed Ahmad Ghamidi and Amin Ahsan Islahi maintain that the key difference between prophets and messengers is that denial of a messenger invites punishment from God – this is termed as sunnat Allah (one of the ways of God in the Quran). Thus, for example, denial of Noah's invitation by his people, caused the flood to come upon them. This is an extension of the view above that messengers become witnesses to the delivery of the Divine message to their respective nations, and their nations are judged accordingly by God.[91]
Muslims distinguish between celestial and human messengers. In the Quranic world, God calls the angels 'messengers' but not prophets. The human messengers, however, also function as prophets – though not every prophet serves as a messenger. Angels always carry "orders" to the human prophets or messengers on what to say, what to do, and so forth. For example, Gabriel – the angel – delivered the Quran to Muhammad, the prophet and the messenger.
Sura Al-A'nam (6:84-86) gives a comprehensive list of Israelite prophets: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Zechariah, John, Jesus, Elias, Ishmael, Elisha, Jonah and Lot (Samuel is called 'A Prophet' elsewhere, but is unnamed). It follows with "And among their fathers and their descendants and their brothers... Those are the ones to whom We gave the Scripture and Authority and Prophethood." Notice that their messenger-ship is not emphasized in these verses. It should also be noted that many Islamic attributions to Biblical figures, such as: Shu'ayb (Jethro), Idris (Enoch) and Dhul-Qarnayn (Cyrus the Great), are not mentioned.
Unlike other Muslims, the Ahmadiyya Community does not believe that messengers and prophets are different individuals. They interpret the Quranic terms of – "warner" (nazir), "prophet", and "messenger" - as referring to different roles that the same divinely appointed individuals perform. Ahmadiyya Muslims distinguish only between law-bearing prophets and non-lawbearing ones. They are the only Muslim group who believe that although law bearing prophethood has ended with Muhammad, non law bearing prophethood continues. In this capacity, the Ahmadiyya Community recognizes Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908) as a prophet of God, and also believes him to be the promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi of the latter days.[92]
also may read Criteria of True Prophet
The Quran speaks of the prophets as being the greatest human beings of all time.[93] A prophet, in the Muslim sense of the term, is a person whom God specially chose to teach the faith of Islam.[93] Before man was created, God had specifically selected those men whom He would use as prophets. This does not, however, mean that every prophet began to prophesy from his birth. Some were called to prophesy late in life, in Muhammad's case at the age of 40 and in Noah's case at 480.[94] Others, such as John the Baptist, were called to prophesy while still in young age and Jesus prophesied while still in his cradle.[95]
The Quran verse 4:69 lists various virtuous groups of human beings, among whom prophets (including messengers) occupy the highest rank. Verse 4:69 reads:[5]
All who obey Allah and the messenger are in the company of those on whom is the Grace of Allah - of the prophets (who teach), the sincere (lovers of Truth), the witnesses (who testify), and the Righteous (who do good): Ah! what a beautiful fellowship!—Quran, sura 4 (An-Nisa), ayah 69[96]
In Muslim belief, every prophet preached Islam. The beliefs of charity, prayer, pilgrimage, worship of God and fasting are believed to have been taught by every prophet who has ever lived.[93] The Quran itself calls Islam the "religion of Abraham"[97] and refers to Jacob and the Twelve Tribes of Israel as being Muslim.[98] Isaac, Ishmael, Jesus, Noah, Moses and the disciples of Jesus are just some of the other figures referred to as Muslims in the Quran.[99] The Quran says:
The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah - the which We have sent by inspiration to thee - and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: Namely, that ye should remain steadfast in religion, and make no divisions therein:...—Quran, sura 42 (Ash-Shura), ayah 13[100]
The Revealed Books are the records which Muslims believe were dictated by God to various Islamic prophets throughout the history of mankind. All these books promulgated the code and laws of Islam. The belief in all the revealed books is an article of faith in Islam and Muslim's must believe in all the scriptures to be a Muslim. Muslims believe the Quran, the final holy scripture, was sent because all the previous holy books had been either corrupted or lost.[101] Nonetheless, Islam speaks of respecting all the previous scriptures, even in their current forms.[102] The Quran mentions some Islamic scriptures by name, which came before the Quran:
The Quran mentions various divinely-bestowed gifts given to various prophets. These may be interpreted as books or forms of celestial knowledge. Although all prophets are believed by Muslims to have been immensely gifted, special mention of "wisdom" or "knowledge" for a particular prophet is understood to mean that some secret knowledge was revealed to him.
The following table lists the prophets mentioned in the Quran. Biblical versions of names also appear where applicable:
Elisha took over the task of leading the Israelites after the death of Elijah. He attempted to show the king and queen of Israel the power of God, but they dismissed him as a magician.
The Quran mentions only 25 prophets by name but also tells that God sent many other prophets and messengers, to all the different nations that have existed on Earth. Many verses in the Quran discuss this:
Numerous other prophets have been mentioned by scholars in the Hadith, exegesis, commentary as well as in the famous collections of Qisas Al-Anbiya (Stories of the Prophets). These prophets include:
A few scholars (such as Ibn Hazm)[138] see Maryam (Mary) as a nabi and a prophetess, since God sent her a message via an angel. The Quran, however, does not explicitly identify her as a prophet. Islamic belief regards her as the holiest of women, but not generally as a prophet.