Belief in the Prophets

Belief in the Prophets

In the Islamic tradition there are six articles of faith. One of these articles is to believe in all prophets of God that came before Islam. We don’t know the exact number of prophets who came before Islam, but there is a saying of the Prophet which suggest that there have been 124 thousand prophets before Islam who came to convey the message of God to human beings. The Holy Book of Islam, the Qur’an mentions only 28 of these prophets by name. Some of these are also mentioned in the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Some of the prophets that are shared by the Hebrew Bible, the Gospel, and the Qur’an are: Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Issac, Jacob, Lot, Joseph, Jethro, Job, Jonah, Moses, Aaron, Elijah, David, Solomon, Daniel, John the Baptist, and Jesus. There are two prophets of God, other than the Prophet of Islam, mentioned in the Qur’an, but not in the earlier scriptures, these are Hud and Salih. Some scholars of Islamic thought have suggested that there were also female prophets of God. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is given as an example of a female prophet. Some of the prophets of God have a chapter named after them in the Qur’an, such as Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Mary, and Muhammad. Of all of these prophets, there are five that are considered the greatest prophets: Adam, Noah, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Even these five though cannot be worshiped, for they are just people and only God can be worshiped. This is emphasized in the first chapter of the Qur’an which is recited in the five daily prayers.

According to the Islamic tradition, the main reason for sending the messengers of God is to convey the divine message to human beings. In order to convey the divine message, they have to know the language of their people. This is why the Qur’an in 14:4 says:

“We [In the Qur’an the pronoun “We” is used for God as a royal term “the ruler of the heavens and the earth”] have sent no messengers without the tongue of their people.”

While the specific message sent by God with each prophet varied slightly according to the needs of the people, all of the prophets were in agreement with the first part of the Shahadah, the Islamic testimony of faith, which states that

“There is no deity but God.”

As such then, each prophet of God came to affirm the message that God is one. Each prophet had a specific message. This message would be based on the needs of the people and of their time. For example the Qur’an describes Jethro, Shuayb, as a prophet who emphasized the importance of not cheating in matters of commerce and his message focused on that. Also from the story of Moses, we understand that his time was very much influenced by magicians and thus God supported him with miracles that were able to overcome the magic practiced by Pharaoh’s magicians. Similarly the time of Muhammad was highly influenced by the eloquence of Arabic poetry. God strengthen Muhammad with the eloquence of the Qur’an which overcame the best of Arabic poetry. Though the specifics of messages of later prophets might supersede that of earlier prophets, for instance Jesus’ allow some things that were previously forbidden, the essence of the messages of each prophet do not contradict each other and any apparent contradictions come from mistranslating, misremembering, or otherwise misunderstanding the messages of the many prophets.

Though the prophets from Adam, the first human being who was created from soil and was entrusted by God with vice regency over the earth, through to Jesus who is a “word of God” and, even for Islam, the Messiah who will defeat the Antichrist in the end times had a message that was specific to their people, the last prophet, the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad was different. In Islam, Muhammad is the “Seal of the Prophets,” the last prophet whose message was revealed from God in such a way that it would not make any future prophets necessary.

It is important to note that the word prophet in the Islamic tradition is very significant. Not anyone who speaks about the future can be a prophet in Islam. The prophets are those who speak on behalf of God. The receive revelation from God through the angel Gabriel and in order to be a prophet, there are five necessary qualities. These are: innocence, trust, loyalty, intelligence, and exactitude. These mean they convey the message of God with great trust in God, not putting their own words or ideas into the message, instead remaining steadfast to the word of God.

There is a strong relationship between all prophets of God. We know for the Qur’an that the Prophet of Islam from time to time was frustrated by the stubbornness of his people. He was would be consoled by the Qur’an’s references to earlier prophets and sometimes the Qur’an would remind the Prophet that to give guidance is the duty of God, not his duty. The duty of the Prophet was just to convey the message. Accepting it or not was up to the people. The verse says

“Will you then melt your soul away after them out of grief that they do not believe in this message?” (18:6).

Therefore in conclusion, for Muslims, in order to be a Muslim, one has to believe in all prophets of God and not only in the final prophet, Muhammad.